Naruto's setting

Is this supposed to be AU Japan or something completely different. I understand why they used the Japanese names so they won't alienate their audience, but the fact that they use yen, eat ramen, and use japanese symbols on clothing and whatnot (Sasuke's fan) makes me think that this is some sort of AU Japan.

Thoughts?

The map of the Naruto world doesnt look anything like Japan. Plus add in the really weird tech level and it gets even more seperate. As for the food and money, well, you use what is familiar to people. You can see the same thing in fantasy movies and book and such. The food they eat are like lamb chops and things.

Good point. The map was the only thing, though. I fit weren't for the geography, it could easily be set in Japan. But a very very AU one.

I just go with AU Japan just because it's easier to accept. As for the tech level, Kishimoto actually said that he'd go so far as to use vehicles and 16-bit compys in the series, but of course wouldn't use guns just because "nobody can outrun a bullet."

In my opinion, the only thing that really bothers me is that they don't mention any calendars. You don't know what year it is, or how they recall years (if it's by how many years a daimyo has ruled, from a catastrophic event, or some other way). You only know the cahracters ages, and that it's been 12 (14 after the timeskip) years since the nine-tailed fox ravaged Konoha.

Yeah, I know what you mean. There's no real sense of time other than the characters ages.

And vehicles would sort of kill certain parts of the series. It'd be like, why would they run places when there's something urgent going on when they could just have driven?

*shrug* the vehicles part was just what Kishimoto said in an interview, he never said if he was actually going to have cars and other forms of transportation included in the series, plus the article I read it in was about a year old anyway. If he hasn't put any of that in by now, I doubt he would later on.