Naruto cast member is finally watching the series for the first time
One of Naruto’s voice actors has never watched the series before, despite playing one of the most prominent characters.
Naruto is one of the most popular anime franchises in the world. There's the original Naruto anime, the follow up series Naruto Shippuden, and all the various films and spin-offs too. With hundreds of episodes spanning 20 years, there is a lot of meat to the Naruto saga.
So, it seems like it’s a pretty good time to start watching it.
If you haven’t gotten around to starting Naruto yet, you’re not alone. It turns out one of the main voice actors is just getting around to binging the anime. (That’s right, even the actors from the series haven’t watched it yet.) Now the actor is watching the series for the first time, alongside his best friend.
Popverse recently had a conversation with Yuri Lowenthal, the actor who voices Sasuke Uchiha in Naruto’s English dub. If you’re familiar with Sasuke, then you know he is one of the most important characters in the franchise, acting as Naruto’s rival, and later an anti-hero.
“My seven-year-old son is into Naruto, so it's all coming back around. I'm finally watching through the series for the first time from start to finish with him. And it's great. Skipping the filler of course,” Lowenthal told Popverse.
In fairness to Lowenthal, the way animated shows are produced often means that voice actors don’t see the finished product. Depending on the production, some prolific voice actors will record multiple episodes for multiple shows in a week. In some cases, it could be years before their work even airs, and by then, they’ve forgotten the sessions. This isn’t always the case, but it sheds some light on why a busy actor like Lowenthal might have missed one of his most popular shows.
“I had seen isolated episodes here and there, but I had never started watching from the beginning and watched all the way through to the end. We're just a few episodes into Shippuden. We're about six episodes in,” Lowenthal added.
According to Popverse’s Naruto watch order guide, this means he has over 400 episodes left to go. It looks like Lowenthal and his son are in for a long (but fun) ride.
Naruto anime: How to watch every episode and movie in order
