On September 10th, 2005, the successful anime-series "Naruto" went on the air for the first time on Cartoon Network during their "Toonami"-programme. However, to receive a lower rating for the series they had to alter several scenes of each episode.
However, the changes are rather moderate. Even though several cuts and edits seem rather strange (especially for non-Americans who probably won't see the problem with scenes where one of the characters smokes) the American TV version is still quite watchable. The blood retouchings are also not that noticeable - most of the time they just reduced the amount of blood and if you don't know the original version you probably won't notice it. Other "problematic" things (such as "mean" slurs or mentioning death) didn't have to be altered.
However, they produced a separate opening as well as separate credits for the US version (which is quite the standard for anime-releases in the USA). They are quite different and in terms of music one could describe it as a mixture of Rock and Rap.

Altered Characters: After the first run in Japan several changes were made in order to make the characters look more like in the comics. This will be mentioned, however, not always that detailed. E.g. in Episode 41 Sakura and Ino were completely re-drawn for a flashback scene where you see them as kids. As you can imagine it would simply be too much footage to show if you were to illustrate all of these scenes. Therefore, edits like this will only be listed once (especially when the following edits are similar/identical to this one). Other edits/alterations - of course - will be mentioned.

The images will be shown as follows:
On left side: Japanese Version
On the right side: US Version


About this episode: It is no big surprise that the censorship in this episode mainly effects Orochimaru's genjutsu, which he uses against Sasuke and Sakura. However, changes only include the removal of blood and the change of the background color. Due to these only slight changes the episode is still very watchable and enjoyable. In this version (ignoring opening and credits) there is no difference in time.

0:02:09
The background was redrawn and now can be seen in better detail and less blurry.

No difference in time

0:05:20
Removed blood.

No difference in time

0:05:25
Removed blood.

No difference in time

0:05:44
Removed blood.

No difference in time

0:12:02
The illusion, with which Orochimara knocks Sasuke and Sakura out, was censored. All of the blood was removed as well as the two Kunai he throws into their foreheads at the end. Partially the background color was changed as well.

No difference in time

0:12:32
Removed blood.
(Note: this could as well be a mistake correction. Sasuke's leg is not injured until later in the episode, this applies for all of the removed blood up to 0:15.31)

No difference in time

0:14:18
Removed blood.

No difference in time

0:15:31
Removed blood

No difference in time

0:16:18
The “kissing” scene was replaced by an earlier shot.

No difference in time

0:17:05
There is not quite as much blood on the ground.

No difference in time

0:17:44
Again, less blood is visible.

No difference in time

0:18:04
Instead of showing the shot of Sasuke pushing the Kunai into his leg, the previous shot was played more slowly.

No difference in time

0:17:48
The blood splattering when Sasuke pulls the Kunai out of his leg was removed as well as the blood on the Kunai.

No difference in time

0:19:53
The blood streaming out of the dead snake cannot be seen in the US Version, the first frame (without blood) was used for the length of the whole shot.

No difference in time

0:20:15
The blood of the snake was removed again.

No difference in time