Naruto Spin-Off: Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals

ナルトSD ロック・リーの青春フルパワー忍伝

7.18(53K votes)

Ranked #3827Popularity #2268

episodes

Type

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Apr 3, 2012 to Mar 26, 2013

Studios:Studio Pierrot

ActionComedy

Synopsis

The competitive shinobi world has proven to be challenging for Rock Lee, who lacks the typically required abilities. To compensate for this handicap, the young ninja tenaciously endures severe training to hone his hand-to-hand combat skills. Whenever necessary, he also resorts to creative fighting techniques. With the constant support of his teammates Neji Hyuuga and Tenten, Lee readily embraces daring adventures as opportunities to advance on his path toward excellence. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

107,125 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

8.0/10

Average Review Score

78%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

pp813

Recommended

This show was what I looked forward to every Tuesday. Do you like Naruto? Do you like Naruto Shippuden? (pretty much the same thing, but whatever) Because I like both, and this show was the highlight to my Tuesday whenever I got home from school. The show just finished yesterday, and honestly, I was gonna cry myself a river because I was so sad it was ending. Lucky for you, as long as you know the characters in Naruto, you can pick up the show in any episode you want and you would still be able to follow what was going on. It has no definite plot line,just a show centered around Team Guy and a bunch of short stories. The first 5/6 of the show is the best thing ever. Neji cross dresses all the time, which is amazing to watch if you're a Neji fan and I laughed so hard every time he did because come on, it's Neji for crying out loud! He used to be so serious about his fate and now where is he? Cross dressing. Yes. Tenten has her fan and delivering punchlines all the time to everything stupid Lee does. I was laughing so hard in the first episode when Lee was doing the stupidest training ever, body weaving around this wooden post and sneaking around in a bridge position. It wasn't even that funny, but it just made me laugh so hard. You see Naruto and Lee fighting very often over Sakura, and they make the stupidest jokes, meet Akatsuki, Sasuke, Jiraiya, Ichiraku ramen guy, Gaara, the Raikage and, lots of Orochimaru. Orochimaru appears a lot in the show, with some other stupid plan to destroy Konoha or just Lee and his friends. Of course, they never go as planned as he always fails and Kabuto wondering why Orochimaru had such a stupid idea in the first place. It's like the bad antagonist that always loses in such an easy manner because the plan wasn't even going to work in the first place. Orochimaru DOES kind of win a battle once, though. Like I said earlier, only 5/6 of the show was okay, because the producers began having difficulty and just putting in more and more Orochimaru episodes, as you could tell they were running out of ideas. The last few episodes were okay, though. This show is really good for learning about characters. Characters that pass away or don't really appear in the main story are still here and I love that they came back to do an episode or two. You really get to know everyone's personalities, their daily routines, how they react towards each other on a daily basis and relations between each other. This isn't easily portrayed in the main story because it needs to go along with the plot line and fights and whatnot, so this show was awesome. I particularly love how easy-going Neji is, I learned Lee is crazy although he trains like a madman, Tenten is really well shown as we never hear anything about her in the main story, other than how she fights (Chuunin exams). Naruto is slightly as crazy as Lee, Sai is being emotionless, clueless and funny as always, Sakura being chased by Naruto and Lee (every still has no idea why and why everyone likes her). If you wanna hear about Hinata, you learn that Hinata is actually super crazy and she follows Naruto around so much like a creep and a stalker, but you'll find it hilarious because it's Hinata! Neji is super infatuated in a father-like situation where he's always worried about Hinata and how she likes Naruto, and when Neji calls "Hinata-sama!", you will die by the tone in his voice. Way too funny. Quite a few episodes are centered around Hinata's love for Naruto and you see their interactions in many episodes, to which Hinata turns bright red and on rare occasions, gets a nosebleed. Girls, if you like Sasuke, like me, (Sasuke-kun! ^.^) the few episodes near the end have Sasuke in it, posing, as a girl, sexy jutsu, with Neji and Lee. Too funny, laughed so hard, Sasuke being adorable as usual. He appears in the first half of the last episode and really, I just loved the Sasuke screentime. Lee's team encounters Sasuke's team Taka in one episode. So again, if you love Naruto or Naruto Shippuden, this show is a must-watch if you have free time or just wanna watch for a good laugh. I highly recommend it!

Episodes (51)

Filler Recap

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Community Discussion

Bissen

Recommended

Seeing many not-so-praising reviews of this show, I felt compelled to write a review, although it's something I rarely do. You may call me biased, but I.LOVE.THIS.SHOW. It has, without a doubt, become of my favorite shows. This may be due to the fact that I'm a pretty hardcore Naruto-fan, but none the less, I really do believe this show deserves major credits. Story There's no real plot (although Orochimaru continuously tries to crush Konoha), but other than that, it's just Rock Lee (as the main character), hanging out with everyone else in the village. It's a collection of smaller stories, and each one is absolutely hilarious. If Ifind this due to the "small brains - small pleasures"-principal, I'll let remain unsaid, but the humour gets me every time. I see many people complain about how it ruins the characters from the main show (Naruto), but I find it easy to separate the two. (Okay, I admit - on Naruto message boards, I like to consider Naruto SD canon, lol). Art: 6/10 It's all chibi form, which makes it easy to distance the characters from the main show. Though admittedly, I do sometimes chuckle a little when I hear Neji, as I recall some scenes... Sound: 10/10 Soundtrack is awesome. I actually love listening to it by itself. Really hoping there'll be a release of the latter half of the used tracks! Character: 10/10 Characters are comical caricatures... with a twist. Lee constantly making Neji cross-dressing, Tenten as pierrot, Gai being super-ultra Gai, Tsunade being even more focused on gambling and luck. Really, I love them! Neji may be a favourite, being over-protective of Hinata. Meet Team Taka, Akatsuki, Orochimaru and Kabuto ever so slightly different... Enjoyment: 10/10 I enjoy this show immensely. I don't even know how many times I've watched/listened to the episodes. It's equally funny every time! I know many people in the more hardcore Naruto communities share my view upon it, even wishing its continuation more than that of the main show. Overall: 10/10 (1010 = Tenten *PUN! badum-tisch*) Saying "I LOVE THIS SHOW!" would really just be repeating myself... but I'll do it anyways. I LOVE THIS SHOW. I listen to it all day long (but that is also part of my Japanese practice). Do yourself the favor, especially if you're a Naruto-fan and like simple humor, and watch this show. I remember watching part of the very first episode and thinking "... nah", and half a year later randomly watching episode 40, thinking: "Oh my Gawd, what have I missed out on?! This show is awesome!". I literally laugh out loud - every time! You may call me simple-minded... biased is okay, too. Hope you found my review helpful.

14 found helpfulOct 13, 2013