The story follows a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. The first anime series aired on TV Tokyo and ran for 220 episodes from October 2002 to February 2007. The second series, Shippuden, also aired in Japan, ran for 500 episodes from February 2007 to March 2017. Both anime series were animated by Pierrot and licensed in North America by Viz Media.