Naruto Volume 1, First Printing

Presented is a Japanese first printing copy of Naruto#1, published by Shueisha with a cover date of Mar. 2000, featuring art, a cover, and a story by Masashi Kishimoto. Few manga have achieved total global domination like Naruto; it is one of the best-selling manga ever with over 250 million copies in circulation worldwide, it has appeared on USA Today and the New York Times‘s best-sellers list several times, and the viral “Naruto Run” meme has inspired real-life events around the world in which people mimic the protagonist’s iconically impractical running stance. Beginning in 1999 and concluding in 2014, Naruto was serialised in Weekly Shōnen Jump and collected over time into 72 tankōbon volumes. The two-part story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young, socially isolated ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the leader of his village both tugged on readers’ heartstrings and reduced them to fits of laughter. Critics also praised the series for its interwoven themes of Japanese mythology, Confucian values, and alienation, as well as a classic coming-of-age story. This offered volume reprints the first seven chapters of the Naruto manga, giving Japanese audiences the first chance to collect the manga in tankōbon format.