Rereading part 1, it blows my mind how much flair the anime added to the series.
Everything from expanding on 1-chapter long fights, to the banging OST, to the cool ass atmosphere.
I vastly prefer manga as a medium, and I am nostalgic for the original anime, but holy fuck does the chunin exam hit so much harder in the anime.

The cyberconnect games are great, but I wish we had naruto games that could capture the more ruthless vibe of the pre-shippuden era.