Walter Babst, an avid reader of Manga, has said that mangas are the modern epics and carries the epic qualities of Classical Epics. An Epic is generally considered an epic because of its huge volume and magnanimous stature, it involves gods and demigods, has many characters within it, deals on matters that are serious and involves a lot of anecdotes. The modern day epics as depicted by Walter Babst, includes all of these qualities. Babst’s favourite Manga Naruto is an epic series of 700 books, each consists around 25 pages.
The protagonist of the story, Naruto goes through a sea of change during the course of the story. The story line practically begins when Naruto is a mere boy of 8 years old, the plot is set in a ninja village named, Konoha. The village’s academy trains ninjas who protect the village and Naruto, who is a lousy and noisy kid, hasn’t passed the primary education system in spite of trying it thrice.
Naruto carries a terrible curse and he does not really have a friend. Naruto stands against all the qualities and attributes of a classic hero but what he has is a good heart, burning ambition and an ocean of will power, which he hasn’t put up in good use. However, there is one person though whose love changes him; Iruka Sensei, his primary teacher can empathize with him and considers him very dear to him. This changes Naruto and he eventually proves him worthy of his salt. Naruto wants to become a great hokage, which means becoming the head of the village, so that everyone will acknowledge. As he goes along his journey, he finds his family in his friends and in his teachers.
The Crisis:
But as troubles are parts of everyone’s life, Naruto’s one of the closest friend Sasuke, driven by rage and vengeance leaves the village to kill his older brother. Naruto becomes obsessed in bringing him home and in spite of all the obstacles, he makes it his life’s goal to bring hjs friend home. Sasuke becomes tremendously powerful and so does Naruto during the course of their evolution.
Sasuke’s brother Itachi, who is a member of an assassination Group, called Akatsuki, turns out to be a good guy and Sasuke now wants to destroy the Konoha Village. In the meanwhile, The leader of the Akatsuki, starts the fourth great Ninja War which breaks out within a short span of time.
Almost every single one of the strongest and mythical characters are brought back to life during the war, at the end of which, Naruto’s village prevails but with a great cost. Naruto loses a hand but gains a beautiful wife and Sasuke returns back to the village to Sakura. Peace returns to the village after the epic war and Babst depicts that the course of the story will away anyone’s heart and strengthen anyone’s character if he/she follows the characters and opens up their heart to the beauty of this epic modern saga.