Why The Chunin Exams Are So Awful & Don't Work
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- The Chunin Exams is one of the most iconic Naruto Arcs. It's split into the Written Test, Forest of Death, and the 1v1 fights in the Finals of the Chunin Exams and prelims. We see amazing moments like Orochimaru's introduction and Gaara vs Rock Lee. But the Chunin Exams are also awful. The Naruto Anime and Naruto Manga depict a world where Ninjas are used as tools and children are discarted as if they for good of the great ninja nations.
We see this especially with the Forest of Death, where a great number of the Chunin Exams candidates die trying to get a promotion in the Shinobi World, and it doesn't even advance the agenda of the Chunin Exams. So let's take a closer at look as to why Ninja nations are willing to waste their Shinobi in a seemingly futile exercise that is the Chunin Exams.
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What's the best part of the Chunin Exams?
Orochimaru vs hiruzen
What if the 2nd part was a way for the large nations to eliminate ninja from the smaller villages?
The written test but the Konoha crush arc is better (out of the official 3 trials written test is best)
@@DygoKnight back then? the end. It was a good work don't get me wrong. But I could not be happier to get started on the retrieval Arc by the time it rolled around. I wanted more shino and more hyuga screen time.
Now? Neji vs Hinata. Byakugan, soresu from star wars, ECT. I like martial displays of perfect defense. Especially when brought to bear upon each other by basically 100% accurate enemies.
Nothing can top Forest of death Orochimaru for me
Tobirama: "I made the chunin exams so kids won't have to die in war"
*kids die in chunin exam instead*
Tobirama:
"I made the chunin exams so LESS kids die in war". 💀 Just adding to your comment bro.👍
In all fairness they can at least leave in the middle of the chunin exams.But not in a war.
He knows the uchiha will likely score high so they can fight and die faster
Tobiraman created the hunger games. Panam just ripped him off.
I mean had they never trained in the chunin exams they’d be completely confused when they see someone actually trying to hurt them
Hundreds of cadidates, spread over several weeks, from several countries, to help build each country's ranks of ninja and they only made 1 chuunin. That never made sense to me.
tbf shikamaru was the only chunin promoted by the leaf. the other villages are free to promote their own students at their discretion
That’s not always the case tho. During the timeskip literally everyone got promoted. You have to rmm the finales were all rookies so hiruzen prob thought even tho they made it this far they still weren’t chunin level on all aspects. Also since they weren’t in war, he likely didn’t feel the need to promote child soldiers if it wasn’t necessary unless they were truly exceptional.
The exams we got in the series was a special case; We learn during Shikamaru's promotion that the were planning on promoting no one because of the Konoha Crush, and that Shikamaru was only promoted because Hiruzen's notes were so glowing. During a normal exam, most of the finalists probably end up promoted (still a small amount compared to those participating, but better than 1)
The winner is one , the villages are supposed to promote one of theirs as their own Chunin regardless of the outcome and based on their performance. Shikamaru didn't win but got promoted by Tsunade because he would've been a useful tactician who would get the jobs done .
Why did so many people like this when that’s not how it worked
Lmao
The leaf left two genin (strongest bijuu, sharingan user) in a forest with spies, terrorists and other foreign agents. It’s a miracle that the leaf didn’t get kaboomed pre time skip.
Naruto has never really had a good representation of political consequences.
@@seekeroftruth45it’s a show for teenagers lol find a different medium if you’re looking for themes this complex. It’s a fucking cartoon.
that's a weird way to say poor worldbuilding @@seekeroftruth45
meh, they could handle it
I actually think this is one of Dygo's weaker points. It's like yea, you could argue that was logistically unwise, but then you could make that same argument every time that Naruto and Sasuke are allowed to go on missions outside of the village. Sure, most times they're supervised in the latter case, but that doesn't mean there's necessarily less risk in losing both assets. I would think that if we take this argument (or the implications thereof) to its logical conclusion, then Danzo and the other elders would at least be most justified in keeping Naruto and Sasuke confined to the village at all times. Idk what Dygo's position is on that, but the series seems to largely disagree with Danzo's and the elders' approach on that matter.
Pain should have made the chunnin exams a talking point for his cause. I bet a lot of ninja like might dai or survivors of the Forrest would probably have went to his side like the smaller villages in how these exams are structured or even against the leaf alone just by how they sent over their top potential future soldiers and got washed in a foreign land
I am surprised that the Akatsuki didn't create some sort of secret alliance between the small nations even if only to have a web of agents and spies.
I wonder if pain practiced his speeches (or at least the bullet points) before hand, or if he was just winging it.
Naruto didn t do politics. Which is a shame
I get what you mean but not dai. The will of fire is a powerful thing in naruto. The guy who was willing to die to save his friends wouldn’t also be the guy to betray the village over a rank
@@tolkienblackDAI is just an example of a genin adult that never managed to pass. I'm sure there are many that felt they should have been promoted.
I mean Naruto for example was a genin until going hokage or if you want to use filler signing some papers to be jonin. He honestly should have been chuunin to make Sasuke even more enraged as he's falling behind and coming back everyone is on the equal playing field.
Kakuzu or pain should have promoted him to jonin showing he's that strong and his rank should reflect it. Heck he probably could have become hokage by popular vote after pain since danzo did nothing and would be his only running opponent
The funniest part is that there are no repercussions for killing anyone in the exams. Some ninja from the Hidden Clouds is killed trying to kidnap Hinata. Prepare for war! A whole bunch of our children are slaughtered during the Chunin Exams. It is a minor inconvenience.
They were after the secrets of her clan's eyerection
Wym there were no repercussions? Nejis father was killed because they tried to kidnap Hinata
@@yahboysim1231yeah that's what they meant, there were serious repercussions for the whole "trying to kidnap Hinata" thing, but there are 0 repercussions for killing another village's genin in the exams
@@nomesobrenome9027 I just saw I misread 😴
@@nomesobrenome9027It is because Hinata is not "another genin", she was royalty. Kidnapping her from Hyuuga is an attack on the clans efficient/honor, and was with the intention of steal her exclusive doujutsu, the Byakugan. If a random kid dies, no one cares. It is not the same thing for us to compare. If Hinata died during the exams AND someone stole her eyes, you can for sure expect the Hyuuga to react if they could.
Also, it wasn't Konoha wanting war for the kidnapping, but Kumo for the death of their ambassador.
Btw, Naruto being in the Forest of Death would have been the perfect chance for Obito to capture him. He could use Kamui to appear, capture him, and leave in less than a minute.
And no one would ever know.
wait, that's a fantastic point. wtf didn't he do that?! o.0
@@floodinmon14 because Obito's character wasn't created at that point. He was just Kakashi's one of the two dead friends.
@@floodinmon14 because it's a fictional show, if it was real life then obito would have captured Naruto long ago, considering how much negligence the leaf village showed towards Naruto.😅
Would have been funny af
Agreed, but to be fair tho, he basically could do that at any point. Naruto’s spending weeks training alone in the woods? Taken. Naruto’s sleeping alone in his room every night? Taken. Naruto got clapped in the final valley? TAKEN. So yeah, other naruto fans hate the idea of a plot hole, but tbh that might be one.
Land of waves is the best arc. It sets up everything about what it means being a ninja and what theyll be doing. Then the entire premise of the show gets derailed and never has the same vibe as zabuza
I’ve never understood why they didn’t just have a bunch of Anbu patrolling the forest
Imo, the real problem with the exams is that the villages send their gennin to another village to get promoted in an exam that can, and probably will, kill them, which is stupid in the point of view of the other villages.
Realistically if you were to be a ninja participating in an exam to allow you to go on more dangerous missions, I’d assume you’d want to have a little real experience before you step out onto the fucking war torn battlefield where people die 50x as often as in the chunin exams…like be fr it’s nothing like the mist village’s procedures they make them kill their classmates. Where as during the exams there’s just a chance of you dying if you’re not a good enough ninja. So yeah let’s baby the fucking ninjas that are being trained to literally kill…what is the Naruto community anymore everyone is just an idiot
@@Glept5542 its stupid not because it can kill them, but because you are sending the future force of your village to another village to evaluate, said village not only can kill your ninjas on purpose and cover it up, but they also have the full saying if they passed or not, not to mention that they will also have a grasp on what your future military is capable of.
@@neonoah3353The last thing is the point of the exams.
If every village performs well then it deters them from attacking each other. Even if a village gives out low scores on purpose they will still see actual results during the exams.
@sunwukong5518 ok but at the very least every kage should be there
@@Glept5542 Even brutal dictatorships throughout history are not killing their men in such large numbers during training sure death is a possibility but it's no one and the vast majority of its individuals are going to survive
It's just not smart to be losing a percentage of your force from a mere exam your weakening yourself rather nation
Vietnam era military train was pretty brutal But you didn't see the US having cadets Fight to the death To graduate because why would you that would lead to basic application portion of the US military that it needs to be sending into Vietnam i'm just dying outside a battle Unnecessarily
and that is The problem is that the soldiers are dying outside of battles they're not being sent on some mission that they failed they're just failing in exam And this is a point in their careers where they're going to be at their weakest
look at the missions that the lowest ranking ninja are supposed to be doing it's finding lost puppies so going from that to a death matching the forest is a pretty unnecessary jump
most of the participants are also underage still developing still growing they're not at their full power So you could lose a itachi or a minato when there's Still rescuing puppies and are still relatively weak i'm sure they were extremely talented for their age group but considering there's nothing stopping a village from sending in in a super elite Ninja Who's still technically a genin heck kabuto was apparently extremely powerful he was able to keep going to that exam because he just always quit right at the end before being promoted
By the way calm down with the insults and honestly you're kind of the one who came off as an idiot with the idea of wasting military force Because you don't want a baby That's not how military force works you want to preserve and build up as much of it as possible
Having a promotion exam where your young ninja can die is a dumb way to promote ninja to higher ranks anyway. After a certain amount of high risk missions you should get a hard but non-lethal test to promote. That’s what real special forces do.
I dunno what country you're talking about but that's not at all how US special forces earn promotions.
@@Saintjackoftrades The non lethal test part is what real special forces do to promote regular soldiers into the ranks of special forces. Higher ranking ninja are the equivalent of special forces since they go on specialized missions like assassinations.
@@SunlightGwyn special forces is not a rank.. it's a job. You don't get promoted to it.
@@Saintjackoftrades Now you are playing with semantics. You still get in to special forces that way and the higher ninja ranks are like special forces.
@@SunlightGwyn no I'm not. I was in a jsoc unit for 8 years. It's not semantics. What you said was inaccurate past the point of semantic difference. Anbu are special forces.
In my opinion, they should have been genin while going through the academy. They do their d ranks with a set team or random teams, then they become chunin after they graduate and get their jonin teachers. Then the chunin exams could be the jonin exams. And that would make more sense, in my opinion, than having children show what a village is capable of
Yea its really kinda dumb when you think about it.
Not a true defense of the system as a whole. But having them compete as adults would make the battle impossible to follow for the average prospective client.
This would also put a lot of hidden jutsu, secret skills, and even tools directly in the eyes of ONLY your enemies, as again the average person wouldn't be able to keep up.
In his late teens for example Sasuke is on the regular using sharingan just to see (not react to) some jutsu/attacks in time.
Making kids fight is pretty shit. But having all these elite civilians show up or burn time on battles they can't even see is actually pointless.
To further this. It's a display of the potential of the NEXT generation of people they will hire. From there they will be picked for employment based on their combat type without having all their tricks exposed.
Most adult battles also have one of two results.
1no body gets hit then someone takes a lethal shot out of no where (which you can't stop)
2 death by 100000000000 cuts. Which is both extremely brutal for an average onlooker and cool. But also means that much more time for enemies (yes I mean enemies) to study form and skills.
@anierikidemona I see where you're coming from, but overall, it makes more sense to show off your current strength than your potential strength. Like if we're being real early naruto kinda broke their power scaling with zabuza and Haku. Cause either zabuza was, in fact, a nobody or Kakashis team as dysfunctional as it was was just built different. And to your point about showing off techniques to your enemies. They would know about their techniques regardless they just wouldn't have a fundamental understanding.
@@loganangell9905 like I said. It's not a defense of the system. It's purely why they don't use full fledge jonin to show off. Everything else makes almost 0 sense.
I'd also rather a sharingan copy a teenagers skills than my best warriors
The characters should have been much older as well. 16 in part one and 19 in part two at least.
Not Zaku, Dosu and Kin getting so much development in this arc and then getting killed off straight after. 💀😞😞
What developments? They had one fight with the Konoha shinobi in the Forest of Death, 2 of them were easily defeated in the tournament proper, and Dosu got killed by Gaara. Besides Dosu giving up on Orochimaru there's really not much to them.
@@kyuubinaruto17we got Zaku lore too during his fight with shino. It’s just weird they got so much screen time just to die
@@violetsparkles5453 Zaku lore was anime filler. In the original manga, Zaku was a flat character, Kin was a non-character, and only Dosu had any semblance of an interesting character.
Who, who and whom? Lol (kidding btw)
Wasted potential in my opinion.
During the forest of death, they could have had proctors on standby, while a couple of Aburame members watch the forest with a big swarm of bugs across the whole place.
I always wondered about somthing similar to this. What would have happened If kakashi failed Naruto during the bell test. Would the village have just not trained the strongest fucking jinjurichi
Bro all that village is a weird mess
He probably would've just been sent back to the academy. He barely passed on a technicality anyways, so either he'd have to train the basics some more, or just forever live trapped in the village so the other nations wouldn't kidnap him and steal his power
While yes, you are right, you also have to remember that Biju and jinchuriki were a retcon that happened in/for Shippuden, the nine tails was just another strong entity in the world in og Naruto
When it becomes obvious that tailed beasts and Jinchuriki were not a thing in part 1.
They wouldve likely just hid bro away, like they tried to do during the War. If 16 yr old Naruto with a fucking Bijuu cloak after beating the Leader of the Akatsuki is being told to stay out of the war then they absolutely woulfdve preferred him to be "Safe" under lock n key
One problem is probably, because the arc wasnt planed.
Kishimoto wanted to show the other genins ftom Mission to mission.
The editor lead him to make the exam, so, that all can be showed in one instant.
So, Kishimoto was "forced" to come with something. And created that problem.
Funny part is, that the same editor sayed than, that he should blow up the exam later. And create the konoha crash.
Why do mangaka even have editors anymore shouldent they just have someone just making sure thats its alright to show to audiences and not mess with tha manga
@@dudesayshi2191 Because, the Editor has important stuff to do.
His main job is, to make sure, that the mangaka has succes (manga are cutted very fast, if they not perform well).
And, because the story doesnt own the mangaka alone anymore, if he is working together with a puplisher.
There exist a Clip, who Talks about Kishimotos time with the first editor (who created naruto? Kishimoto or .. ).
Some short facts:
The editor rejected on idea after the other, that Kishimoto send him. It happens so many times, that i would had quit allready.
But, the editor engourage Kishi, to try more and learn more stuff.
He was it, who lead Kishimoto to create Sasuke.
He was it, who came up with the chunin exam.
He was it, who created Lee, Guy and some other charas, if i heared it correctly (Kishimoto needed help with Chara design for the exam and the editor was a artist himself).
He stated, that Kishimoto should watch old Jacky Chan movies, for his Taijutsu stuff.
Until the Tsunade arc, had the editor very strong influence on the work. With Tsunade became it weaker and i think around Shippuuden withdraw the editor. Because Kishimoto was ready to work alone now. And to make place for a new editor.
The editor was practicly Kishimotos mentor and helper.
@@hasseo195 it was ikemoto the current artist for the boruto manga who drew haku, zabuza and Garra.
Kishimoto written everything by himself but naruto having a rival was the editors idea. And kishimoto didn't plan on adding sakura to story because he couldn't write women so kishimoto was not only planning on adding her but he knew he couldn't write her well. And he took all of these ideas because the editor had 3 years of expirecnce while kishimoto was still a noob..but people meatride the editor just because he was the reason Sasuke exist and everyone are human and not animals. Kishimoto even said he wanted to kill off everyone(except for shikamaru and Naruto) in the Sasuke retrieval arc but obvs his editor said otherwise.
His editor did more harm to the Naruto story than good, because of him the characters seem wasted and people use that as a reason to say naruto is bad or kishimoto is a bad writer.
The editor left during the pain arc, if I remember it was before Itachi's death
@@hasseo195Good points, but please take some English classes.
This one of those things that feels good in the moment, but becomes bad as time goes by. I won't fault kishimoto for this too
I haven't dug into the video yet, so here's my initial thoughts.
Hiruzen actually admits that the Chunin Exams are something of a war game. Each Hidden Village sends participants to represent them and show off their strength, especially during the final phase where they're having exhibition matches in a tournament in full view of civilians and visiting dignitaries, who will ultimately become the Hidden Vilages' clients in one way or another. Ultimate victory is not required to become a Chunin, but Genin are evaluated based on their performance in the exams, again typically during the exhibition matches, so clearly 'passing' the exams is encouraged but not strictly
required, and the actual promotions are apparently done after the exams with no input from the other villages, so the Chunin Exams are just a show. Moreover, promotion to Chunin is optional, entirely voluntary, and Genin can already earn a living wage doing D-rank missions, in addition to the riskier C-rank, the occasional B-rank, or even the rare A-rank missions a Genin might stumble into like Team 7 did.
In an ideal circumstance, that's all there is to the Chunin Exam; a political dick-measuring contest designed to make people want to hire ninjas as mercenaries. However, we know it's not that simple.
The Chunin Exams are a bloody affair, and all participants must sign waivers absolving the hosting village of any responsibility for their deaths in order to be allowed to participate. In exchange, the Chunin Exams are an excuse for ninjas from other villages to legally enter the hosting village and kill, injure, or otherwise hinder the careers of the next crop of child soldiers from a given village, all the while being given free reign to spy and perform reconnaissance under the guise of tourism.
In that regard, hosting the Chunin Exams is a village's way of asserting dominance over the others, because they're essentially throwing the doors to the village wide open and saying 'Come try something. We know you won't. And if you don't show up and participate after we publically invited you and everyone else, you're a scaredy little bitch. We, on the other hand, have huge swinging dicks, and we are so much better than you we can get away with taunting you like this to your face.'
This is why rookies generally don't participate in the Chunin Exams, why the exam itself is optional and unnecessary for most career ninjas who'd just want to earn a living wage as soldiers and militia instead of in the civilian workforce, and why every facet of the exam is designed to weed out those who don't have the nerve or the ability to actually survive it; it's a free-for-all deathmatch masquerading as a friendly competition between rival nations.
I’m not reading allat
I wholeheartedly agree, and just as you...didn't watch vid before coming to comment section. Someone shares my sentiment going into this so I can just enjoy the hot takes.
@@professorhawk777 Less about hot takes and more just outlining all of the in-universe reasons, both explicit and implicit, that I can think of off the top of my head to explain why it exists and why it's actually logically sound.
And DK seems to share most of the same rationale, even if it is still ultimately a monstrous waste of human life and generally not the safest bet. Then again, this is a series about child-soldier mercenaries being taught magic and the art of assassination like some kind of black-ops variation of Hogwarts.
True
TLDR: In short deadly dick measuring contest disguised as a friendly competition to the civilians.
The last para ... makes Kakashi look absolutely horrible because he pushed three rookies especially Sakura who had zero skills in that hell hole , without giving them a good caution in a realistic way , and he also told Iruka off for mentioning the obvious.
For me, the Forest part of the exam can make sense if you twist a little the intentions of the exams.
As a ninja nation/village your main objective is to make your ninja get jobs from people, therefore the less "enemy" or "rival" ninjas the better right? Well, since you cannot kill them directly, you can maken them go to a forest filled with flora and fauna that can kill you in minutes if not seconds, like the giant worms that can drain your chakra or even snakes, spiders or any insect that can inject venom (like when your sleeping for example) or even something that may look tasty or safe to eat can kill you after lets say 3 days withouth any symptom. By this premise, ninjas from other nations WOULD NOT KNOW anything about the flora and fauna of the fire nation, while ninjas from the leaf village may have gone through lessons in the academy or in school (maybe in biology or natural sciences), so you could easily take out many ninjas from other nations/villages so that you dont have much oponents looking for ninja jobs.
The sand village would be one of the main targets, because their eviroments is the total opposit from the hidden leaf village.
The mist village wouldn know how to properly act in a forest since they are acostume to lands with a lot of water and would be a much easier target for other ninjas. Remember when Kakashi spot the 2 assassins in the first mission in the Zabuza arc, something like that could happend in the forest with eveyone on high alert at all time.
And your ninjas would be (relatively) safe since they know what to eat from the flora, how to travel the scenario since they are used to forests and trees, how to keep the local fauna away from them, etc.
I dont know, maybe Im just overthinking.
If you read all of this, thanks :)
Kishimotos a great writer, but why does he hate building off of the story he wrote
I love the Naruto Trading Cards Kabuto introduces...then are never seen again. It's such a dumb meta way of introducing characters. Maybe Kaburo made the Boruto Ninja Cards and that's how he's able to keep the orphanage open
That’s my head cannon now.
With my... secret Ninja cards...
Successful Half Snek dude who everyone magically forgave post Nearly Ending the World Starts Orphanage Funded by highly successful Trading Card company sounds like the stupidest thing ever...but it's true.
It’s also kind of funny how the procters at the end are surprised that gaara finished the forest part very quickly going “I’ve never seen anything like that “ while you have some leaf ninjas doing it at the age of 7
What amuses me is that the Chunin exams are completely pointless as they don’t test for the biggest distinction between a Genin and a Chunin - the ability to lead a squad of other ninja. 🤔
I think they do but I don’t think most of Naruto’s group was ready
The craziest thing to me are the grown ass spectators cheering for 12 year olds to battle to the death
I'd be doing the same lmao
It's like real life lol
They arent fighting to the death they are fighting to a K.O like Boxing rules
@xvoidxhunter2129 those battles were NOT like boxing rules!
@@lordlittletoeq8537 Not 100% exactly the same obviously but otherwise similar though
Chunin exams were for the hokage and village officials. They couldn’t be there to observe every mission so the chunin exams were like a showcase for the genin.
I 100% agree with you bro
My headcanon is that IS a reality show, that pays the entire exam with spare to change. The difference is, the nations pay observers/ ninja teachers to watch the exam and learn about the tactics and jutsus used.
This really conflicts with the appearing of Orochimaru. If the best Anbu sensory types were broadcasting trough a similar jutsu as Hiruzen's scrying orb Orochimaru would likely have been "captured".
@@JohnSmith-ox3gy"captured"? You put it in quotes like he's into it 🤨
@@lordlittletoeq8537 Because I am avoiding saying "unalived". If a comme t is too negative it won't get trough.
@JohnSmith-ox3gy orochimaru far more likely to be willingly captured than for the leaf to zero his health bar. But yeah, comment rules are wild.
@JohnSmith-ox3gy it's just, that was back when he had hands lol
i do think that it kind of *is* "bad writing": it's a symptom of the writer coming with things up on the fly and not thinking enought about the world-building and logical consistency. i understand why it happened, and i certainly don't think it was an intentional way of showing us how rotten the shinobi system is. like you yourself said: even if you look at it completely coldly, it still doesn't make sense.
let's just acknowledge it for what it is: a consequence of a lack of fore-planning
The chunin exam wasn't kishimoto idea he wanted to have more arc like visiting each other village introduce each team but the editor forced him to cut down and kishimoto didn't know that Naruto well be this popular so shonan forced him to continue it's shonan problem even if you planned the story it depends if shonan didn't cancel it because they want hesitate to cancel any manga that didn't get good or popular enough
The problem of training gennins survival skills in missions is that you need clients that are willing to hire inexperienced gennins for high risk missions.But yeah, they need some jonnin patrolling the forest to avoid infiltration from other nations.
When you think about it, the Jonin should have these type of harsh exams. Most of the things you learn about being a Chunin should be learned in the academy. And then you just get on the job experience under a Jonin until he promotes you.
I gotta agree with you in some points
Glad Boruto made it a lot safer,I guess Naruto didn't want the kids to suffer the same way they did in them
In other words Naruto must have remembered the exams when Pain talked to him about the curse of being a Ninja and took his words to heart
While not as entertaining for us watching the show, it does make sense in-universe that Naruto would make the exams less dangerous
@@littenfire3563 See,now somebody gets me,glad I didn't upset you by my comment
Facts and also since borutos era was a time of peace (before the otsutsuki showed up) Naruto prob thought it wouldn’t make sense to put kids under grueling exams like how he and his generation went through.
@@jaybronx98 Thanks
I really hoped in Boruto, even tho the exam wouldn’t be as deadly as the one before it, the story more focused on missions that actually involved life and death missions against real expert ninjas or organizations instead of aliens, especially on earlier arcs. I feel like the earlier arcs of Boruto is to “cartoonish” and incompetent than the ones in Naruto.
The justification for the finals works really well when you think about in terms of name recognition, like having the famous clans of Konoha show off their strength. "Yeah, we still have one last Uchiha, don't fuck with us. Oh, and I hope you did not forget that Konoha has Kyuubi."
Its basically College Football/Basketball, "Say this Lebron kid is really something, we should keep an eye out for him"
Also why wasn't Sasuke ever promoted before he went rogue? He was constantly praised as a prodigy that could've helped to keep him from going with the sound ninja too
Honestly the lethalness of this exam would make more sense if it was how someone became a jonin
I think forest of death should be kept just being watched all around making sure people dont die
If they see someone abaut to die they stop them and tells the other to get out and give the scr9lls
I have a question about the shinobi system in general. So kids join the academy around the age of 6 right? Atleast that's what I've heard.
And they graduate, normaly, at age 11-12.
What parent in their right mind would send their child to the equivalent of military school before normal school? And you might say shinobi parents but that still raises the question of why the hell is Sakura in the academy. Her parents/family have always been civilians so why the hell is Sakura in the academy and not a normal school?
sakura's parents are actually retired ninja in canon google it. kizashi Haruno her dad retired after Mebuki his wife got pregnant
@@dylanbarrett508 Oh ok that makes sense. Kinda. Still would a non clan shinobi enroll their child? Unless her dad is more patriotic than I know I feel Like he would have reservations against making his only child a soldier/mercenary. Especially since he was probably a ninja during the war And would know how bad it could get.
Maybe during wartime but still.
@@matijasostojic4288 i don't really disagree with you i just felt compelled to point out one inaccuracy.
Because in the Shinobi world you are a solider and only a solider, the only things you need to learn is techniques and chakra control, and how to be more efficient as a ninja. They dont have to learn about things like Taxes and the Pythagorean theorem because its nonsense info for what you will be doing 99% of your life
@@xvoidxhunter2129 I am pretty sure the ninja villages (Or atleast Konoha) want their ninja to not be ONLY soldiers.
Maybe their parents could have taught them some stuff but that a big maybe. So if not then the first like 2-3 years of the shinobi academy would (or I guess should, in a realistic setting) be spent on just teaching the children the same things they would just learn in normal school but also some other stuff either removed or throw in.
Like I know this is fiction but people forget that these are 6-7 year olds that MIGHT have at most been taught basic math and reading/writing by their parents.
This isn't war time. Konoha isn't going to ruin an entire generation just so they could pump out soldiers.
Maybe during a war but in the era of "Peace" (So part 1 of Naruto) the age of when the kids could join should have definetly been the age of 10 and then another 4 years for basics of being a ninja at the academy. Then at that point most ninja teams wouldn't be doing high level missions or becoming chunnin until a year or two of service so the standard new but experianced shinobi preped for battle would be about 15-16 which atleast makes more sense that 12 year olds.
The chunin exams would be a great excuse to bump off the other nations shinobi while they're still young. Like imagine if the leaf had someone like say, danzo use a transformation jutsu or something to disguise himself as a random teenager and basically execute gaara before "accidently" "dying" in a way that leaves no body or evidence?
Can you explain the Feudal Lords in Naruto! How can these people have so much power when the villages can clearly eclipse them in military might. Why did Madara never attack these Lords to secure Konoha?
Honestly I think Kishimoto forgot his own world building. Ninja villages are supposed to be only a small part of the world but half way through it is the whole world.
In reality most of the Ninja United Army should have been regular soliders
I think that is because The Hidden Leaf Village is the only place which contains actual military power of Land of Fire since it is the only place for Shinobis to live. So,Madara(who wants to completely wipe out hidden leaf village) wouldn't waste his time capturing those lands which only gives him tactical edge not personall power.
The Chunin Exams is just like Tri Wizard Tournament and the Hunger Games seeing how they’re both sending children into meat grinders.
There are cameras in the forest of death. In Obito's flashback, we see Minato watching on a TV with Sarutobi. I don't know if it's only in the anime.

As a kid i remember watching naruto part 1 in elementary so the chunin exams has a very special place in my heart. Im curious to what you have to say.
Love your content! Thanks For this ❤❤❤
The forest of death was inspired by the forest in the Hunter exams from HxH. Only reason it's in there.
Good points. But seems it could still be worked out with some aditional explanations and lore. If establishing things agreed between the villages, like a chakra barrie that would prevent strangers from entering. Plus some shared survailance by either cameras or ninjutso (like the crystal ball Hiruzen used in the first chapters), plus some special teams, specially medics, positioned in some places ready to be deployed according to need.
Bro made a video just like this a year ago exact same thumbnail
Naruto didn't get promoted because he wasn't mature enough to be ready for such a position.
Ninja villages: To prevent more wars, let's set up cross-village exams so our young children can grow up with the spirit of collaboration and comradery.
Also ninja villages: Our adolescent rite of passage frequently results in battles where one or both parties ends up dead or seriously maimed. Also there are no restrictions or security on candidates so everyone from professionally trained assassins to those who can casually summon eldritch horrors regularly participate compete against a kid with a sharp knife.
My theory is that the Ninja clans really hate each other even after Konoha's creation, the forest arc is just so they can kill each other legally.
My second favorite part of the test after the prelims is the first exam. The psychological strain that Ibiki puts these Genin through is outstanding. A whole test that wants them to cheat, followed by the 10th question is legit so good.
15:12 “They have to sign a waiver”
The idea that there could be ninja lawyers going to ninja court is the funniest thing to me 😂
Lol there's some soft background music around 20:35. That's from Juperos (Ragnarok Online) isn't it?
To be fair, if I was attending the exam to see which village ninja I would hire for missions, i would most definitely like to know which teams were successful in completing the second exam. Being the fact that they had to complete a goal by obtaining a scroll, combat and or escape stronger shinobi, and make it to their destination. Essentially this test held the most information gained on the genin.
This exam is theoretically where the genin defined who the they wanted to be as shinobi.
Buuuut I may be biased.
Less goo new upload
Haven't you made this video before? (or one that goes over the same points?)
I think they should change forest of death assessment to something done by the jounins assigned to genin. They would be assessed by their jounin on missions and given score on things such as reconnaissance, survival skills, tactics, prowess, etc. They would also be assigned to different jonins from time to time to prevent favouritism, such as Ebisu faking Konahamaru marks to get him ahead. This would prevent unqualified genin or the ones that are only good at fighting (e.g. Naruto) from being assigned to more delicate missions when they get promoted to chunnin. Also swapping out Jounins, or putting genin in different teams ( e.g. Naruto in like team 10) for a mission or two would teach the genin to be more flexible when assigned to people they haven't worked with before. Then only after passing certain number of missions with decent enough score from like 3 different Jounins, can the Genin be allowed to take Chunnin exam, which would only be a written exam and arena like said in the video.
sounds lame af, they should be sent to the woods without supervision to fight for their lives
The more you deconstruct the Chunin Exams,the more you realize that it was poorly planned yet is the most popular arc alongside with Pain's one.
You forgot that the finals also have a betting pool in it too.
They have cameras but it’s limited.
You don’t send your best to another village, you wait until your village holds it since it’s held like every 6 months.
In the Genin exam held by Suna in that one filler with Fu her teammates where not genin but where either Jonin or Anbu that where there to guard her.
Kabuto wouldn't be able to try kill Gaara because he has absolute defense.
If im not mistaken, i believe that there is more of a motivation to the finals of the Chunin Exam, specifically why its held in front of a crowd. it isn't just meant to gauge skills of prospective new chunin, but its to show off the next generation to the various nobles, merchants and other wealthy attendees so they can see the skills of the village so they would possibly hire these villages for jobs as this is the life blood of ninja villages.
A possible reason for things like the forrest of death, is a potential deterrent to make sure a village just doesn't send all of their genin. If the possibility of something like the forrest of death exists villages will be more calculating about who they send. The chance that there could be a forrest of death like test probably weeded out more genin than the first test did, and that was before the test even started.
They definitely had cameras though Anko was watching Garra take a blood shower 😂
I always thought it odd that they promote the skills openly of their yo young and up and coming ninjas. Isn’t the art of ninja to be deceptive, and covert?
It made sense in the first arc that Naruto would choose to announce himself rather then take out the enemy because he is a showboat ninja, and shows that he doesn’t do things the way the typical ninja does. But a whole system where the ninjas show their skills in front of a huge crowd of people just leaves me confused??
When I was younger, I, too, thought that the chunin exams made sense due to being a high school student at the time (a failing student at that lol). Now that I'm older, your video really made sense. The Chunin Exams were truly ridiculous and a waste of time. It would've made more sense to have the Genin Shinobi Teams to go on more dangerous missions and once completed said mission the Kage would determine if said individual(s) were worthy of becoming Chunin.
BTW the forest test is doomed from the start from a "human nature" standpoint. Let me elaborate, It is obvious which is the most effective strategy: Just camp close to the Tower and wait until some idiot with the scroll you need comes, end him/them, enter quickly to Tower if some other team that has pretty mich the same idea doesn't delete you first, profit. 😂🗿🚬
only the fastest and most sensory teams would pull this strategy off, the rest would have to focus on intercepting each other and staying hidden as they travel
I think there's one thing that this critique overlooks. The forest of death, is a naturally occurring, dangerous area, that is not exactly commonplace but implies the existence of other areas like it. The forest isn't maintained as a death trap. It's naturally deadly. Mt. Myoboku, is inherently deadly. There are cannonical fields of fire that are also deadly. The forest of death is arguably a necessity where in a semi controlled environment and quick access to civilization, there is an area of pervasive and inherent danger.
I always wondered why Hiruzen and the elders didn't get the yin part of kurama out also freeing minatos soul from the shinigami stomach.
Is there a reason why they didn't do it
People keep saying that the chunin exams were about simulated war and "flexing" on other countries but there was nothing in the rules that said you will attack only ninjas from other villages, it was free for all and over half of the participants were just from Konoha. That means you could have Konoha ninjas killing other Konoha ninjas, literarily making the village weaker just for the sake of a promotion with no repercussion for the killer.
Like imagine if Neji found Hinata in the forest, he could've killed her then and there and then steal her eyes to have them as backup 😅
I always thought it weird that they held the chunin exams maybe once a year? That would mean between the 5 great villages only 1 shinobi would get promoted a year, with each village only having a 1/5 chance of it being one of their own
I think it was twice a year but your point still stands. In the war arc there's supposedly 80000 ninjas that are chunin level at least, where did they come from if you promote only 1 or 2 at a time 😅
also the forest of death was a warzone, imagine if someone triggered an old bomb that was like one of deidara's blast. every genin would die
Kishimoto wanting to do his own Hunter exams is understandable but it doesn't really work for ninja as conceived in the Naruto universe.
For one, there's the Harry Potter problem of how do these numbers make sense, as you'd have so few Chunin while having far more dead children. With Togashi's Hunters that's kind of the point as the exam is supposed to identify those capable of Nen and reign them in, all the dead applicants are merely adding to the Hunter license's prestige and allure in the market.
Second, why are ninja willing to display their abilities to enemy villages? In the Edo period Samurai would participate in duels to show off their skills in order to seek employment from prospective lords, but these are ninja. They have techniques which can be analyzed and in the case of when the Uchiha were still a force directly stolen. Even just revealing their elemental affinities would be a huge loss in this universe of rock-paper-scissors mechanics. In the time of Boruto that wouldn't matter all that much, though Boruto has its own many worldbuilding problems. With Hunter x Hunter the exams happen before the majority of the participants learnt Nen and those without it can't perceive anyways, so it's not really going to breach the personal secrecy most Nen-Users have surrounding their abilities.
Lastly - and this is a minor world-building issue - but why would feudal lords allow you to hire outside of their countries' Hidden Village anyways? If ninja were universally just organized mercenary groups that might make sense, but we see later that they pledge fealty to their local Daimyo and will fight wars on their behalf, Hiring ninja unaffiliated with your state would be building the coffers of your geopolitical antagonists.
The exams should really be intra-village and pretty tightly controlled like the Hunter exams are, but made far less potentially deadly as you're conducting it on children of your own village. Obviously that would undermine the whole arc, but still.
Good points , I was a bit disappointed that Dygo focused just on the second round when the chunin exams concept in general is a problem.
Is this video a reupload? I know you’ve made this before
Daam all these arguments made me rewatch the chuning exams
Also the chunin exam isn't a training exercise, its to show where you need to train, the first test isn't about intelligence they state its to hard for most people to pass you can do it the old fashion way but its about intelligence gathering, survival stage is about mission focus and stealth you can do it other ways but its main focus is to bide your time and select your moments to complete your mission in hostile environment, the tournament is more about pure strength and combat prowess it isn't worth more than any other part but i think the winner of the tournament is granted an automatic chunin rank so thats its only real benefit over the other parts
Order of the test is actually an ode to what ninja value more it's why you if you fail out in the first parts even if you're stronger in the other two, 1 intelligence gather/stealth, 2 patience/stealth/strategy 3 raw Power/strategy
It's Why The Hyuga Clan are considered elite Ninja, because they're Byakugan is extremely good at intelligence gathering and finding opportunity to strike an opponent even though they're training doesn't have much room for combat until they reach an older age (mid twenties in the Naruto universe I'd say) the Fact that the Hyuga Exist you could say is Why training ninja like jaraiya and kakashi where possible because they could focus more on combat prowess since the hyuga are such a sturdy backbone of konoha even though kakashi got a sharingan and isn't technically dependant on the hyuga, I'm referring to the fact he was a combat focused jonin before Obito passed away
You know being a student of Minato he really was trained more as a strike force focused on killing an opponent
9:01 “The first texam” lmao
Forest of death is for getting rid of the physically weak ninja who would embarrass the village at the final exam
Who would have thought that some of them would become war criminals, crazy kids
But I thought kumo try to kidnap kushina because she has a special chakra to suppress tailed beasts.
When look at the exam after the pain arc I find it not necessary to hold them. I understand we need a way to test the young ninja bit at some point there should be other way to move up the ranks.
Who do you think should be promoted to chuunin for their performance in the saga (considering everything even the anime filler)
I've been telling that for years. There was no need to resurrect many of these characters. Past that, Naruto lost his beef with Obito and Zetsu because, well, nobody died.
It's a military training exercise and they took recommendations for who could compete from the team leaders, it's not like they chose them at random, only the strongest got thrown in there because they would be more likely to survive. And kakashi is the one who recommended team 7,but you keep blaming the hokage instead.
"Good point, but I think the three different stages test each major aspect of a ninja. It's too perfect to be a coincidence in the universe. The written exam assesses intelligence gathering, the Forest of Death tests stealth, and the one-on-one battle evaluates combat skills."
I haven’t finished the video yet so idk if he’s gonna say this, but Tobirama made the chunin exams to be a safe(ish) way to replicate war to make sure genin are ready for war. Because tobirama saw too many child soldiers die during a war they weren’t ready for.
It can basically be summed up with Tournament Arcs don't make a school curriculum. Why is it a "Tournament" of all things? If this is what it's like for Chunin's then the Anbu must have a harder entry right?
"Itachi and Kakashi are the youngest Anbu in the history of the village"
How does that make sense? Especially if the Chunin exam is sizing up your strength. Anbu and Joinin seem way easier to become by comparison. Hell Hokage seems easier than the Chunin exam. Honestly? The worst arc in the series as time goes on. It has the best fights but it's story writing is straight up bad. No hyperbole. It just doesn't make sense any way you twist it.
The forest of death would not exist without risk of full war breaking out.
The chunnin exams are meant to bring the 5 great nations together but they all hate each other. The best young ninjas compete to earn their chunnin licenses. With the hidden leaf facilitating the event this could be seen as a way for the leaf to kill off their enemies. There’s no way they’d risk an event like that occurring
Realistically you would need some way to evaluate a genin's abilities, power, and experience though. Since the genin teams are lead by a jonin, the jonin would be too large of a factor in the team's missions and no one except the team lead jonin would be spending enough time with the team to be able to accurately gauge the genins. For example, just because Team 7 was able to complete the mission against Zabuza, a potential A-rank threat, were the genin ready to be instantly promoted to chunins? No, they were carried by Kakashi, and they were lucky that Naruto just so happened to be the jinchuriki. Did they grow a lot from the mission? Yes, but the fact that they couldn't confidently defeat their fellow genins later shows that they were still genin, not chunin, level, and that they ultimately owed the mission success to Kakashi's prowess and Naruto's 'demon' instead of their own expertise.
I think the problem could lie in the requirement, also in Hiruzen and the constant stream of ridiculous missions. I mean babysitting the Daimyo's children. You mean to tell me such an Ifluential man doesn't have babysitters, missions like this take time, time that the Genin could use to get stronger. In short, Hiruzen is at fault.
the chunin exams is like a football tournament the village gets money from it from the tickets so they do it and they also try to test there genins and see if they r strong enough to get the chunin rules
The ninja system isn’t about raw power, it’s about skill and leadership.
I have never heard someone say Forest of death was their fav part of Part One Naruto lol
To be fair, the Chunin Exams exist because Kishimoto is a huge Yu Yu Hakusho fanboy and he wanted a tournament arc lol
Chunin Exams was based on Hunter Exams.
Reanimation vs dead soul jutsu or explained or they the same thing?
Dead Soul technique requires surgery or the chakra manipulation of a dead person's heart to control while Reanimation requires Blood, DNA or a full corpse to bring the person back to life using a living person as a sacrifice.
I have a theory about the forest of death being unrecorded
It's literally to get rid of the weaklings so the villages can look better with their new soldiers
Deadass rewatching the Chunin exams it just feels kinda goofy now
Man, I remember being genuinely afraid of Orochimaru as a kid
Tbh, the forest of death is actually the most field experience test of the bunch. At this point of the story, ninja were not supose to fight one-vs-one, they were still presented as assasin and collector of information. By having succed in getting to the final, the survivors show that they have already the basic quality to succed in mission. The part final are the one about showing off power to other nation and attracting clients (good for tourism at the same time too). You are not going to show to future client a living weapons that is only good at test-taking and punching a guy real hard. Plus normal genin mission is finding cat and walking dogs, this is the first time that they are expose to a harsher work enviroment. Better get ride of the useless tool now than keep maintaining to to throw it away later. As a buisness, having a 10 person that can do the job well but have a higher paycheck is better than 100 of less useful person with a worst paycheck, especially when high mission cannot be taken by lower level individual, like asking a 10 nurse specialised in taking care of babies to do an open-heart surgery. The final is actually the part of the exam that make less sense since you are show to other the military force that you will have, their skills and their face (for ninja?!?). Forest of death is what ninja are about, Final is what Naruto end up being.
The chunin exams has a finals that gives fuedals and others opportunities to scout for hired ninjas. Also, the chunin exams is meant to be diplomatic as a geopoltical flex
I feel like it should be more team oriented. Like the forest of death is a team oriented thing but the fighting each other 1v1 doesn’t feel very “team”. I feel like the test should involve all three of them fighting together not a one V one.
Kishimoto didn't really know how to write 2vs 1 fights in Part One other than the sannin fight, it isn't until Shipudden that tag team battles became more common.
I feel like they had tested their teamwork enough by then right? They had their trust and resolve tested in the first stage, then their team survival skills in the second. The third was making sure each one could stand on their own two feet and not rely on their companions (so like Sakura's biggest issue). So they had to test how well they worked as a team and alone
I think one mistake was made i remeber in anime gaara was first in the tower and beat some kind of record and every jonin was watching the tower inside from some tv room
Also the exams was a way to promote the strength of each villages by showcasing their shinobis so they can get more missions
Well Well Well, You guys are the clueless about the entire point of chunk exams - The Chunin Exam and the Land of the Waves Arc are only 2 arcs THAT MAKES SENSE, everything after it is just stupid BS. You assume that every chunin exam looks exactly like the one Naruto took part in, that is simply incorrect, its pretty rare that people like Gaara takes part in Chunin exams so its pretty damn rare that Ninja's kill other Ninjas, the most dangerous part of the exam are mainly monsters that lives inside the forrest. Most of genins and even chunins in naruto word are fodder so losing them to snake or risking them getting killed by another fodder's shuriken is not important at all for the village. You say that you want to "Train" Ninjas on real missions? What missions? Who will hire team of Chunin and 3 Genins (Keep in mind that most of the Teams are 1 Chunin and 3 Genins) when you don't show what Genins are capable of on exams like Chunin exam? Paying money for 11 years olds are stupid unless you prove to the people that they are Smart, Strong and will survive on their own vs Wild Life of Naruto's world. Genin's need real missions to improve as a Ninja, They need to be hired by other village's to get experience, they need to show somehow their skills before getting hired so Chunin exams are amazing option to do so.
Not only that but all the Jonin were like "Why is Gaara even here?" because he was practically Jonin/Kage level already in the Sand village, this was because the Sand Kage was literally Orochimaru in disguise and plotting an Invasion anyhow
Hmm I don’t disagree with absolutely everything you said, but I have two thoughts:
1. I don’t necessarily think it’s important for anyone to “see” the second part of the exam in order to be impressed by it. The fact that everybody they’re watching in the final portion of the exam survived and completed the second portion is proof enough that everyone still around is a big deal. As long as they understand that the second portion was “deadly,” which I would imagine would at the very least be rumoured, then there you go. Colour me impressed.
2. I don’t necessarily disagree that it’s silly to throw Naruto and sauske in there (although they would need to and definitely want to take it eventually) but I wouldn’t say they have the “least experience” - at least as far as the leaf village genin are concerned. Team 7 went on a way higher ranked mission than they were meant to go on, and they were still able to complete it without anyone dying. We don’t really know what kind of missions the other villages have going on for their genin, but I think it’s safe to say that the leaf doesn’t make a habit of asking their worst ninja’s to fight a bunch of random infamous Jonin all the time…
I thought the canon explaination and one that a good amount of villains went into.
Is that the Chunin Exams were basically a way to project power aka flex how strong you are. As well as a way to keep other nations in check.
Its somewhat meant to be a deathmatch/suicide mission with the payoff being political power.
Everyone was wary that the other villages would get too strong and this was a way for them to keep an eye on eachother and prevent an arms race so to speak.
Thats why the mission rankings are the way they are as well. Above the desk villages can only be as successful as they are understood by eachother to be.
If a village is struggling with its exams constantly getting washed yet pulls tons of revenue and completes tons of high rank missions thats a red flag to the other villages.
Which is the point. So they can see what theyre dealing with in theory and be more at ease or wary respectively