Naruto part 1 has had many memorable arcs. From its jaw-dropping Land of Waves arc starting of the series in a major way by having such an awesome enemy to face off against, to its competitive Chunin Exams Arc, and even the Sasuke Retrieval Arc closing out Part 1 with a bang. Its all so memorable to me with its consistent epic battles and waves of emotions. However there is one arc in particular that gave Naruto its popularity to a mass international audience. Today we are going to be discussing the arc that mad Naruto popular as told by Kishimoto.
To begin with, this information is taken from the source interview with Kobayashi. Kobayashi interviewed Masashi Kishimoto and in that interview he was asked a series of questions pertaining to Naruto throughout the entirety of its serialization. However one of the questions caught my attention, and that was the one about what mad Naruto popular.
From Kishimoto, apparently the series was doing really good from the moment he introduced Zabuza and the Land of Waves Arc had ended. The reviews for Naruto were going up and something big was needed next as the series was growing massively quick. The arc that made Naruto the most popular is the Chunin Exams Arc.
Masashi Kishimoto himself even said that the Chunin Exams is what picked up popularity in the Naruto series because of the curiosity of who would win. That open factor is what led fans to engage very week for more episodes and want to watch again to see who would come out on top and become a Chunin. Turns out that winner was Shikamaru, even though the exams was interrupted by Orochimaru.
