The first season of the Naruto anime television series is directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Pierrot and TV Tokyo. Based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga series of the same name, it follows Naruto Uzumaki living in the Hidden Leaf Village, determined to become the next Hokage and gain the respect of the people. The season ran from October 3, 2002, to May 28, 2003, on TV Tokyo and its affiliates, consisting of 35 episodes.
The English dub ran from September 10, 2005, to May 27, 2006, on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block in the United States and YTV's Bionix programming block in Canada. The season's episodes ran on Adult Swim's relaunched Toonami block in a completely uncut format from December 1, 2012, to November 30, 2013. After the 52nd episode, it was removed from the schedule rotation to make room for its successor series, Naruto: Shippuden. The series returned to Adult Swim on May 31, 2024, as part of its short-lived Toonami Rewind weekday afternoon block, which ran until it dissolved on December 27 of the same year. The episodes would later re-air on the traditional Toonami block beginning on January 12, 2025.
In Japan, the season released in both VHS and DVD format. A total of twelve volumes were released by Sony Pictures Entertainment between January 1 and December 3, 2003. Episodes from this season were later released on nine DVD compilations by Viz Media between March 28, 2006, and February 20, 2007, with two compilations of thirteen and twelve episodes released for the first season. The first of these compilations was nominated at the American Anime Awards for best package design. In 2009, Viz released another two DVD boxes containing episodes 1–25 and 26–52, respectively.
Four pieces of theme music are used for the episodes; two opening themes and two closing themes in the Japanese episodes and a single theme for the openings and endings in the English-dubbed version. The two Japanese opening themes are "Rocks" (stylized as R★O★C★K★S) by Hound Dog (used for episodes 1 to 26) and by Asian Kung-Fu Generation, used for episodes 27 to 35). The two closing themes are "Wind" by Akeboshi (used for episodes 1 to 26) and "Harmonia" by Rythem (used for episodes 27 to 35). The opening and ending theme for the English airing is "Rise" by Jeremy Sweet and Ian Nickus, with an instrumental version played as the closing theme. __TOC__
Episodes
Home media release English DVD + Naruto Uncut (USA) Volume Date Discs Episodes Reference 1 July 4, 2006 3 1–13 2 December 5, 2006 3 14–25 3 May 29, 2007 3 26–38
+ Naruto Season Box Set (USA) Box Set Date Discs Episodes Reference Season 1, Vol. 1 October 6, 2009 6 1–25 Season 1, Vol. 2 November 24, 2009 6 26–52
+ Naruto Unleashed (UK) Volume Date Box Set Release Disc Episodes Reference Series 1 Part 1 August 21, 2006 September 3, 2007 3 1–13 Series 1 Part 2 December 26, 2006 3 14–26 Series 2 Part 1 May 21, 2007 December 24, 2007 3 27–39
+ Naruto Uncut (AUS / NZ) Collection Episodes DVD release date Reference 1 1–13 May 14, 2008 2 14–25 June 11, 2008 3 26–38 July 23, 2008
+ Naruto Origins (AUS / NZ) Collection Episodes DVD release date Reference 1 1–52 May 24, 2017
Blu-ray + Viz Media (Region 1/A) Set Date Discs Episodes References 1 November 3, 2020 4 1–27 2 February 16, 2021 4 28–55
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References