First Impressions: Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth Naruto SD

One of my favorite Manga books is Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth. This anime is basically the animated version of the manga. It goes by several names including Naruto SD. So it has to be good right? Well, yes and no.

This joke happens over and over, and is only vaguely funny the first time.

My First Impression

I was really excited for this show. Unfortunately, the first episode was absolutely terrible. Repetitive jokes were all over the place. One especially bad joke was based on dodging a dog poop. Partially this is because they were trying to make this show more for kids than even the original manga was. And it wasn’t exactly filled with hardcore maturity. It just felt like it was trying too hard.

My second impression

I did watch the second episode hoping that it would get better. It did in fact get better. The side characters played a larger role in the jokes and Naruto was actually pretty funny. Wildly out of character, but funny nonetheless.

The art of Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth

The art is what you would expect from a show of this type. While not beautiful by any means, it does the job. However they do something seen in other comedy shows very often. The characters will sometimes morph into their fully detailed selves. This is used to very good effect in episode two. It was in fact quite a good effect.

A note on “lite” versions of anime

The problem with many shows like this is that they do not have a lot of money. They will not have great music. The art will be rather basic. This seems like kind of a shame that we should move away from. Why should something be underfunded because it is for kids?

Final verdict: Still watching

This show is far from the best of the season. However, it looks like the humor is in fact improving. We are going to continue watching this one just in case it gets better.