Naruto

Masashi Kishimoto's ninja epic is one of the defining manga-and-anime phenomena of its generation, and this sprawling collection shows a single coming-of-age story metastasizing across every format at once. At its center is the long-running anime, split between the original Naruto and the darker, war-bound Naruto: Shippuden, followed by the next-generation series Boruto.

Around that spine sits a steady stream of theatrical films and OVAs, plus one of the most prolific fighting-game lines in anime history, the Ultimate Ninja and Ultimate Ninja Storm series, which turned the show's flashy jutsu into spectacle brawls. The story's themes of perseverance, loneliness, and earned recognition are sincere to the point of melodrama, and that sincerity is exactly why it connected. Start with the anime; the games are for fans who already know the moves.

The Naruto franchise spans 4 series, 1 books, 17 games, 20 films in the CrossBinge catalog.