Naruto is an anime series based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga series of the same name. The series centers on the adventures of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja of Konohagakure, searching for recognitions and wishing to become Hokage, the ninja that is acknowledged by the rest of the village to be the leader and the strongest of all. The series was directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Pierrot and TV Tokyo. The episodes are based on the first twenty-seven volumes in Part I of the manga, while some episodes feature original, self-contained storylines. The 220 episodes that constitute the series were aired between October 3, 2002 and February 8, 2007 on TV Tokyo in Japan. The English version of the series was released in North America by Viz Media, and began airing on September 10, 2005 on Cartoon Network's Toonamiprogramming block in the United States. On September 20, 2008, Cartoon Network ended its Toonami block, but the channel continued sporadically airing episodes of Naruto in the time slots originally occupied by Toonami's programming until January 31, 2009 when episode 209, the last episode to air in the US was shown, due to the closure of Toonami Jetstream. On March 23, 2009, Viz stated that they were still dubbing new episodes and intended to see them aired on television. Ultimately, the final eleven episodes of the series never aired in the United States, but they were collected on DVD by Viz, which was released on September 22, 2009. The remaining eleven episodes of the English version aired on YTV's Bionix programming block in Canada from October 25, 2009 to December 6, 2009. Adult Swim's relaunched Toonami block reran the first 52 episodes in a completely uncut format from December 1, 2012 to November 30, 2013. After the 52nd episode, the series was removed from the schedule rotation to make room for its successor series, . Episodes from the series have been published in DVD. The first DVD series of Naruto Collectibles has been the only one to be released on VHS in Japan. There are a total of five seasons, with each of the including four episodes per volume. First 135 episodes from the series has also been collected in three DVD boxes during 2009. Beginning on March 28, 2006, Viz released the series on DVD. The uncut English editions are compiled in 16 DVD box sets, each containing 12–15 episodes, with some variation based on story arcs.
