Reception
Lee has ranked highly in the Shōnen Jump popularity polls for the series, initially continuously placing in top ten and reaching fifth place once. In later polls, Lee lost his top ten status. In an interview, Brian Donovan, the voice actor for Rock Lee in the English adaptation of the anime, commented that he likes Lee because he felt he was attempting to be a "knight in shining armor but bumbling and stumbling at the same time". Several pieces of merchandise based on Lee have also been released, including action figures of his Part I and Part II appearances, plush dolls, and keychains.
Several publications for manga, anime, video games, and other media have provided commentary on Lee's character. IGN called Lee one of their favorite characters in the series and compared his personality to that of Bruce Lee and Noel Gallagher. However, IGN also commented that Rock Lee is "kind of stiff" because of his very polite demeanor. Active Anime celebrated Lee's introduction in the series as a comedic relief to the growing tension of the story at that point. Anime Insider listed him in their top five list for "pure-hearted heroes" from anime and manga publications, ranking at number five. Insider praised him for "never up, even in the face of people with actual ninja powers."
Anime News Network referred to Lee as the "star of ", and claimed that he "almost single-handedly rescues this arc from being tossed into the 'entertaining but disposable' bin". His fight against Gaara in the exams was listed as second best one in anime by AnimeCentral. Anime News Network also called Lee the "goofiest looking character" in the series and praised Kishimoto's "ninja-punk visual sensibilities" that allowed him to make Lee "damn cool when the action starts". In the NEO Awards 2007 from Neo, Rock Lee won in the category "Best Anime Character". He was also listed as one of the three "Honorable Mentions" from Naruto by Wizard Entertainment's Danica Davidson with comments from the article being focused on Lee's determination.
Read more about this topic: Rock Lee
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