The Real Problem With Female Characters In Naruto
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 4 апр 2023
- Poeple complain a lot about the female characters in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden saying that Kishimoto cannot write female characters and that female characters are all useless in the series. In this video we will be exploring the real problem with the female characters in Naruto.
We will analyze several of them including Sakura, Tsunade, Ino, Tenten, Temari, Mei, Karin, Hinata, Chiyo, Konan, Kushina, Rin. We'll also take a look at how Kishimoto made his decisions and structured the character arcs of his female characters.
Become a member to get cool perks:
/ @dygoknight
Like the video!
Subscribe:
/ @dygoknight 
Кино
Who's your favorite female character in Naruto?
Hinata
Sakura, Tsunade and Konan
@@buddylee5712mid
Tsunade is the only female character who actually gets any kind of development or attention in the story lmao
Tsunade has the best development but I like Hinata better just wish they did her better she had loads of potential
I think the issue I have with the "they're just a normal girl" thing is that they aren't, they're ninja. Raised from birth to be integrated into the Shinobi world. Having crushes is fine and all, but making that the center of the character is what makes Sakura lackluster. Ino and Hinata are supporting characters so its less egregious, but Sakura is front and center for almost the entire time. Compared to Tsunade, Chiyo, and Kushina, she just seems horribly one-dimensional which is sad because she had so much potential.
Exactly, once you become a ninja. Then you shouldn't be talking about "normal" anymore.
To be fair she could just be a normal girl and that could be even integrated as part of her story and character arc. She isn’t an uzumaki nor she is a senju. Expecting her to be raised like Tsunade or Kushina is crazy.
Than again Kishimoto failed profoundly cause there wasn’t any character arc nor any in world explanation of why she was that way. She didn’t get any better and in the rare moments she shined she was absolutely dropped a few chapters later
@@blahblahblah6898 I never said that I expected her to be raised like Kushina or Tsunade. I said that compared to them given her prevalence in the story she is horribly one-dimensional.
You are absolutely right that a narrative surrounding her mundane upbringing compared to her peers would have given her some much needed depth. That also would have given Team 7 as a whole some better development.
Very true. Her parents werent even ninjas, so that leads me to believe that she took that path on her own. Perhaps it was to get closer to Sasuke, but wouldnt most young girls with a crush want to do the same things that he is doing? I think that much is fine.
However, once she understands what being a ninja truly means, she should have begun her character development. To become a successful (not necessarily the most powerful) ninja that will defend her team and village. It wouldnt be an overnight process ofc. A perfect time for this to happen would be in the Forest of Death when she cut her hair as a testimony to her leaving her old self behind
@@John3_16-17 both Sakuras parents r ninja idk where u got thar from
😂
Karin : i'm the last survivor of my clan, the same clan as the main character and one major villain
Kishimoto : sasuke fangirl no.54
Like, right?!?!
There's so much interesting shit with these female characters, that Kishimoto does NOTHING with.
Karin is from the same clan as Naruto, the Uzumaki clan, a clan he knows NOTHING about. Once that bombshell drops, it's never brought up AGAIN.
Hinata is, I think, the only shinobi in the WORLD, that is able wield the chakra of Hamura fucking Otsutsuki. But thenTHAT never gets brought up again.
And you're telling me after being sent to alternate dimensions to talk to people, you couldn't have Naruto talk to Konan ONE last time??
It's so frustrating...
@@MiketheNerdRangerit was too late to do something with that
I think the biggest issue with Sakura in this series is that she is written as a regular girl while in universe she is a CHILD SOLDIER. Being constantly protected and saved by other team members makes her look like a damsel in distress while in reality she's supposed to be an active combatant. Somehow Naruto is the "bad ninja" but nobody mentions that Sakura is the WORST ninja around there. Kakashi is like "oh they can go to the exam" while having an almost non combatant in their team. It breaks the immersion heavily.
Damn I never considered that at all actually, like at least naruto can shadow clone and beat people up
Yeah, the fact the knows less abilities than everyone else and *none* of them take advantage of the talent we're *told* she has really cements that. Literally the only thing she learned how to do outside of the academy before getting trained by Tsunade is walk on walls/trees. While, Sasuke has a fire jutsu and Naruto has shadow clones beyond that, she has *nothing*
Even ignoring Sakura's dead weight, the experience and abilities of the other 2 is also way lower than it should be for the exam, too. It's genuinely baffling the writer would pull that exam when they're barely out of the academy and *clearly* not ready
@@InfernosReaperI read somewhere that they were supposed to have more missions at first but kishimoto's editor suggested that it would take too long :(
I really wish we had more of team 7 before that
@@timara721 What I don't get with these editors is "why don't they just write their own stories?"
Sometimes, they contribute well, but a lot of times we get really bad messes as a result of them butting into things
@@timara721That's depressing, I always thought more time with team 7 was NECESSARY to even establish the friendship between them. Cutting that out is criminal.
It’s the fact that he never lets Sakura shine on her own. She always has to be bailed out and saved. In her fights against, the Sound ninja, Sasori and Shin, she’s impressive yes but is always saved and never allowed to take down an opponent on her own merit.
Also. There's only like 3 female archetypes in the show.
Her punch was OP so the writer nerfed her speed, which hurt her fights.
@@Tethloach1she is supposed to be among the fastest characters now, according to the novels lol
She was supposed to be skilled in genjutsu but that was never shown.
@@Tethloach1 Bro Kishimoto makes the rules. He could just make her faster
Sakura had that cool moment in the war arc where she surprised Madara… just to be immediately undercut when she gushes about Sasuke watching her, like she’s still 12 and nothing changed at all. Like they weren’t at war with the dead bodies of their comrades all around them. That was the moment Sakura’s character became impossible to save for me.
Kishimoto's the writer AND HE WROTE SAKURA AND OTHER FEMALES LIKE THIS GO FOR HIS NECK🥺
Let's also not forget that Sasuke tried to kill her once... That's some battered wife syndrome right there.
@@TakumiJoyconBoyz and their shippers excuse it with “ but he blushed 3 times in the manga “ like yea that’s an excuse to marry your attempted murderer
@@Fatima-gz8tktrue tho Sasuke did confess his big feelings in the anime of boruto and his own manga
@@TakumiJoyconBoyzHe tried to kill her one time after she tried to kill him. He tried to kill Naruto unprovoked plenty of times yet people never say this shit about Naruto. They say what a good friend he is for still seeing the good in Sasuke.
I never liked how Sakura wasn't allowed to have conflicted emotions for Sasuke. Granted, a lot of those emotions were based on a crush, she still was on Sasuke's team just like Naruto. She grew with him, bonded with him, and shared a lot of traumatic experiences.
Kishimoto only wanted Naruto to half way understand Sasuke which was bad writing to me
She was conflicted when she decided to kill him and then couldn't do it.
I mean she did though. She loved him, begged Naruto to save him, eventually wanted to kill him after she became disillusioned by what he was doing, then later on accepted him despite what he did, and then married him and had a child. She absolutely had conflicting emotions towards Sasuke.
@@DaShikuXI When I said "wasn't allowed" I mean by the fans. She 100% did but the way a lot of "fans" portray it, they made it just seem like it was always some weird 1-sided crush she never got over. While yes she had feelings for him, it's as if people only saw her as just that "A girl who has feelings" rather than trying to understand where those feelings came from and how it affected her, a 16 year old girl.
@@marthashepherd935 he tried so hard making the duality that he completely disregards that this is a three man team, Sakura is a third wheel in kishi's eyes, which is just lazy writing, he could've made Sakura someone who sees both sides and instead of a third wheel she became the bridge between the sun and the moon
Not only can he not write female characters. He doesn’t even try and develop characters that are not Naruto or uchiha. In part 1 every team was so interesting and given screen time. But In shippuden every team is given a couple episodes and then tossed to the side I get there side characters but i think the konoha 9 deserved better. Neji was killed off for a ship. Lee was forgotten. Tonton got more screen time then tenten. It just sucks because it could’ve been so cool to see all teams developed to full potential.
I think that okay if Neji dies. The problem is that before dying he should have had MORE DEVELOPMENT
@@josephsavio1972 agreed. He had no development so no one had a reason to care for him. On top of the fact the way he died was so lame he was supposed to be the strongest hyuga but died in such a lame way
The SWING gets more screen time than TenTen
died when u said tonton 😅
even naruto, who gets plenty of development, gets tossed aside for uchiha development, imagine the girls
Another issue I had with Sakura (and with power scaling in general) is that she was the healer of the trio until Naruto gets an insta-revive basically so she is outmatched even in her own field.
Same thing for sensory types that are outmatched because Naruto can suddenly feel everything in the universe
He also got the ability to hit as hard as her with KCM. And having Kurama made him all but immune to Genjutsu. Sakura auto regenerates with the Byakugo seal, but Naruto just does this all the time. He was made better than her at everything she does.
I guess that points to my main issue with the series, I get that there’s strategy even in the last fights, but it felt like the ninjas filled many different roles similar to an rpg with Naruto and Sasuke being dps but by the end they are better than everyone in everything
Also, the Healer and Sensory Ninja categories felt like such afterthoughts. If Tsunade revolutionized the survival rate by having a medic on ninja squads, why didn't we see healing in Part 1 before Tsunade? And Sensory types in Naruto basically just exist to add exposition.
Remember the beginning of Naruto, when people thought she has a split personality and special abilities revolving around that, and we were hoping it will get into play later? When she was supposed to be this genjutsu specialist, and that she had the best chakra control in the world. They made her to be very smart too, but nothing was made for a good use. Honestly, the way she was introduced, I think a lot of people were kinda hyped about her, just something completely different from any other anime-girl, or, most anime characters for that matter. I honestly saw so much potential in her, it's like a blank canvas you can draw anything on.. And then you give it to a toddler who'll make a few lines, get bored with it and toss it away. I always gonna be salty about these wasted female characters in Naruto. They had so much potential to be something special on their own, without any special abilities. It is possible to write a good story and something that's driving them, giving them a reason for being a certain way, without wiping their entire clan down, or just parents for that matter. It's much more challenging for sure, but it's not impossible, and honestly, I think that's exactly why I hate these characters... Or rather, what was they made into, that I hate.
It was kind of already ruined when Hashirama was given the exact same Jutsu Tsunade had, but even better as she mentioned it. So Tsunade didn't have any screen time on top of being outclassed by her teammates
A friend of mine, a girl, grew up to be a surgeon, and she said its common for loved ones of surgeons needing surgery, THEY ALWAYS call a friend, or a trusted partner, doing surgery in a loved one is a big no no, because in every surgery things can get messy and its impossible to be objective and the gulty of losing a patient sometimes even drive surgeons to clinical practice
and she said the trauma of surgery tsunade caught from doing emergency surgery in the two people she loved the most and losing them is realistic
Yeah but things like this always portrayed with female characters, never the male ones.
@@happilyevernever4289 Sure, buddy, male characters never faced trauma or weakness. As if the entirety of the main male cast of Naruto isn't built on trauma.
Gaara couldn't even fucking sleep for years, but yeah, he has no trauma.
@@happilyevernever4289naruto fans trying not to have the worst take Imaginable (literally impossible
Kishimoto aproached female characters differently than male characters. The males are heavely based in a goal as their core (become hokage, vengeance, protect someone, etc.) While women are based on his emotions (Kiss sasuke, ride sasuke, 69 with sasuke, etc.)
69 with sasuke 🤣🤣
No he didnt
@@Lizardgreininja47449lmao yes he did bumble fuck. KISHImoto is a sexist. Him being from Japan one of the most sexist countries of all time only makes it more convincing
From what I understand, that's very true to life.
@@a1rg3ar31 then you have a bit to learn about life other then what RUclips videos and your father taught you lil friend
Sakura: she could never overcome that obsession with Sasuke, she was very limited in her story despite being her main heroine and she ended up being a character both hated and controversial.
Ino: She had interesting abilities that could turn her into the Charles Xavier from Naruto but they never took advantage of her potential, she didn have much character development unlike Shikamaru, since they always showed her as the typical superficial girl who only looks at pretty boys and in appearance.
Hinata: She is presented as a kind and humble girl who is a member of a powerful clan ... but she never took advantage of the use of her abilities in combat and she had no objective, goal or inspiration other than being in love.
Tenten: she did not do anything relevant in the whole series ... why did you create this character?
Karin: she never developed her abilities despite being an Uzumaki, she had no character development or nor did they try to develop a connection with Naruto despite being from the same clan.
Other women like Tsunade, Temari, Konan, and the Mizukage appear to him as good fighters but leave them too limited.
Hinata had the goal of becoming stronger and all her attacks she used in the few scenes she had where usings her abilities, including the twin lion fists, wich she created. And not only was she in love with Naruto, she helped him to keep his cool and mind in the right place after Neji died.
@@ericlyra4268 yeah..... that's exactly why they killed neji lmao. Kishimoto doesn't intend to develop his character anymore why not just kill him just to make naruto and hinata closer shall we? Honestly that's fuckin dumb. It's funny that you argue that.
And think carefully about you saying that her goal is to be stronger? For what exactly? Yeah to be worthy to stand beside naruto. Shocking right? That's her whole character, it's sad but that what we got. 😔
What I am "arguing" is that she takes advantage of her abilities in combat and that it is not only love for Naruto that drives her. She was always feeling bad with and not believing in herself before the fight with Neji. There is no reason to believe she changed with Naruto's help only to "be worthy" of him, even though that might be a plus. If we were to assume that, we should also assume that the only reason she felt bad with herself was for not being worthy of him, but it is clealy more than that, as is related to not meeting her father's expectations, failing in missions and the bad relation with the other branch of the hyuugas. So, all of that are also reason for her to become stronger and adopt Naruto's ninja way as well, just as she stated. And just as Ino just lives her life after Sasuke is not "available" anymore, there is no reason Hinata wouldnt' do the same.
Hinata had a lot of potential but that was ruined very quickly.
I'm convinced TenTen is the token female member in Team Guy.
To be honest, the well written girls you mentioned (Tsunade, Kushina) also have a problem: their development revolve around men and their attachment to them. Kushina especially had the dream to become hokage and just got demoted to a stereotypical angry housewife (Same fate of Hinata, which abandoned the ninja way to be a stay at home mom).
i disgree that tsunade's persnolity revolved around men
and the thing is that, the need to have agency in the story and just as important in driving the plot forward as the boys. They need to have strongly written motivations for doing the things they do and making decisions that are compelling and that have a lasting impact on the other characters.
Completely agree on Kushina, never understood why people mention her on the well written female character list. I wouldn't say that Tsunade revolved around men, sure Dan was a love interest but Nawaki was her brother, if their sibling relationship was good i would expect his death to affect her. Konan is another character that people mention in the list while for the most part she was just Nagato's friend.
@@meraj5393 She said development, not personality.
There's nothing wrong with a character's development being heavily reliant on other characters ffs
Nobody was like "Jesse Pinkman is such a bad character, his trauma largely revolved around a woman"
I'm so upset how Sakura was handled as a character and how Hinata's confession was completely ignored. Sakura is a chakra control prodigy and capable but she does NOTHING after the Sasori arc, it's maddening. I was also so confused by Naruto never interacting with Hinata again after confessing and then almost dying in front of him??? He didn't even check on her afterwards like y'all get married later???
Because hinata was never supposed to end with Naruto to begin with
Hinata was never supposed to end with Naruto to being with
I actually really liked when Sakura cut her hair. It was obviously a big deal to her, and a way to show her character growth. That to save sasuke she would have to give up on her childish attempts to get his attention. I also liked her fight with the blonde girl for similar reasons. I think these were worthy moments for her character, and if she has gotten a few more moments like then in the series, she would have been a decent character. I think the initial bad reception to those scenes made the writer kinda give up on her, which is a shame because I think she had great potential, and a lot more growth in her story that was never explored properly.
was my fav
People forget that a story like this is shaped not just by the author, but readers as well. People didn't like Sakura from the start, so why should Kishimoto develop her? This then led to a negative loop where Sakura just ended up getting shoved to the side for most of the story.
@Loredana Godorogea that is a ridiculous take. That man created her,it's not like she came out of thin air. If he didn't like he could've just revamped her or replaced her. It's his creation and we have every right to criticize him because sakura is not a real person.
@@priya8855 tell that to sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who couldn’t get rid of one of his creations no matter how hard he tried.
The author tried a couple times to revamp her character, but in the end he was either influenced by bad reception, a chapter focused on Sakura wasn’t a selling proposition, and could endanger the whole story, or for other reasons kinda gave up on her.
Temari and Konan are the closest to being well written characters.
But konan barely had any personality she just did and followed whatever nagato did
Konan had no personality and lives in Nagato's shadow. She had no shine of her own and had no goals. That's just your bias speaking. Your comment should be Tsunade and Temari instead
Tamari and konan are hardly in the show and their personality, opinions, and motivations are very brief
Temari got shelved and Konan’s entire personality was Nagato’s sidekick who got killed after Nagato was removed.
Temari is legitimately well written. She is a girl, acts like a girl, and is still competent and self motivated whilst having a romance story that isn't pathetic or demeaning. Also cool design and realistically powerful, she stands out.
For me the biggest problem with the female characters is the fact that their existence and purpose in the story is entirely defined by their relationships and ability to support the male characters.
Sakura wants to get with Sasuke and be helpful for Naruto.
Ino also wants to be with Sasuke
Hinata wants Naruto to love her.
Tsunade gave up because she failed to save her brother and boyfriend and returned because she wanted to help save Naruto's dream.
Anko wanted to kill Orochimaru and is completely forgotten till she gets beat by Kabuto.
Konan just does whatever Nagato and Yahiko tell her to do and wants to make their dream come true.
Granny Chiyo wants to avenge the death of her son and later save her grandson.
Kushina wanted to become Hokage but abandons her dream to be with Minato; same thing basically happens to Kurenai.
Rin dies so that way Obito can go down the dark side and Kakashi can have emotional baggage.
One of the very few things we know about Mei is that she wants to have a husband.
Even Kaguya, the most powerful person in the story, wants to steal her charka from her sons and mostly does what Black Zetsu tells her to do.
Now let me make it clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with having female characters care about or support male characters. However, when every single female character has the exact same, or variation of the same, motive; that's a major problem. The female characters do not have dreams or aspiriations of their own that don't involve the male characters. As such the female characters lack the agency and ability they need to have stories of their own that can exist independently of the male characters.
In contrast, the male characters don't have any of these issues. They're free to have goals, complex motives, characterizations, powers, and significance stories that aren't dependent upon the presence of the female characters. If you somehow removed the female cast from the naruto universe, the story of Naruto could still exist; it'd be weird and full of holes but it could exist. If you removed the male characters, then there wouldn't be any story at all.
Because in Naruto, Female characters only exist to support their male counterparts and don't have any stories of their own to tell.
Also saying Naruto is a shonen series that appeals to boys is a crap excuse for not having good female characters. Shoujo stories are meant for girls but that doesn't stop them from having good male characters.
❤❤❤ thank you, you wrote the main problem with female characters in Naruto so perfectly!! And yes to the "excuse" of shonen for poorly written female characters, we do find great male characters pretty much everywhere!
It is based on what reality is and should be in an orderly society. The women are always going to be defined by their actions in supporting a man whether we like it or not. Unlike the guys, the girls mainly enter the Academy to impress dudes and are shown to be out of their depth numerous times in the world of Naruto with a few exceptions.
Even though the man have their goals and everything else that seems attractive, their main job is to make society better and start a family, most of the Konoha 11 are married by 25, our main character married at 20/21. This may not be what we are taught in our education system, which teaches are to get all we can and enjoy but anyone who lives that lifestyle knows that they are throwing their life away.
Naruto is about the next generation after all, in order for there to be a next generation the women need to be women and the men need to be men.
@@sskmanentsa5326 I thought you were a troll at first, but you really seem to believe what you're saying. *Sigh*...
@@ninj-as7710 what is wrong with what I said?
Any even when Kishimoto does originally give us characters that seems more like her own character, like Temari and Tenten, he still makes Temari yet another housewife and Tenten was the most background-ish character between all the background characters. Her teammates and teacher gets to shine, while she is just there to fill up the nessasary space in the 3 members team structure he created. Also there's the fact that (from what I've seen at least), unless they get forced into the plot like Sakura did through getting kidnapped (😑🎉), none! of the original female characters gets to participate and play important roles during the important battles in Boruto (heck, in the Boruto movie Hinata sends her 12 year old genin son to fight aliens strong enough to threaten everybody and kidnap Naruto instead of going herself!). They all just either live normal lives and/or takes care of the home and kid(s). Now there's nothing wrong with wanting that role, but for all 5/5? (6 if you count Kurenai).
I believe the problem is double. There is no doubt about Kishimoto struggled to write female characters, yet he did had plans for them. I think he used to believe that only females can identify (and therefore like) a female character. So he wrote them what he imagined the female audience wanted: around love, girl rivalry, being falsely weak, being bossy... Yet didn't fall for overly stereotype anyway: he did get some advice in some way.
Most of his numerous female arc lead to nowhere sadly. Sakura is the prime exemple: Genjutsu, high Intelligence, chakra mastery, equal to Sasuke/Naruto, even a hint of hidden ancestry... and nothing. Some speculated she used to be a descendant of the first Hokage and would master Mokuton at some point. She ends up as a healer, like many other female characters (Ino, Karin why?). She is not alone, Hinata and the whole Hyuuga clan was throw away, also Anko, or Kurenai. As you said, after the Chiyo/Sakura vs Sasori battle, we have no female arc or character development anymore.
As I said, the problem is double. And the second part is the editor. I believe it was the main thing that conduct the story in such a way around Sasuke/Naruto duality. It looked at the character popularity polls, found Sakura wasn't as popular as Naruto / Sasuke, and even behind Hinata, so they push Kishimoto to remove some Sakura arc, push for more Sasuke arc. I believe many of Sakura's arc were recycled into Tsunade backstory.
In the end, the problem is multiple. Shonen is more popular with male, which like male character better. Kishimito struggled to write female characters as good as the male one, but did have ideas. The editor pushed Kishimoto to focus his attention around the popular characters (Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi...), which lead female character to even less development. Repeat to step 1, and we have a sad circle dooming female character in the franchise (or the addition to any new characters, both male and female).
He can clearly right female characters as Tsunade and Hinata are good, but Sakura is the biggest issue when it comes to it because she is the main female character and she doesn't shine, or when she does it isn't long lived. Naruto and Sasuke each had two Akatsuki fights, one with side one and their main one, Sakura's only Akatsuki fight was more so our introduction to what she can do in Part 2 and we never get see more of her until the war which even then is short lived.
I don't think the editors nor the shonen jump industry should be a problem in this discussion. One piece have the same influence with naruto around the world but being in the shonen jump, popular character polls, nor the shonen genre itself stops eiichiro oda from writing good female characters. Not to mention newer manga such as black clover did it better than naruto did i would argue.
@@collinleivas9605 even Tsunade is the most boring of the sannin, Neji was clearly the better of Hinata, and the list goes on. The females are always outshined in one way shape or form, never really as cool or well thought out.
@@collinleivas9605 Hinata is terribly written what are you talking about? Everything interesting about her clan drops her off the face of the earth, and that's when she isn't fainting in front of Naruto. Her one "interesting" moment of confessing her feelings in the Pain fight is cringe and awkward and then she's immediately ignored by her so called love interest post fight. And then we lost the better Hyuga clan member to help set the ship up which still had to have an awkward movie to "prove" to the audience the two of them had enough chemistry to get together, of which she spent most of it as an off screen damsel.
@@afanzatara5139 The editors and the shonen jump industry will push the mangakas into doing what is worth money, therefore what it is working. They do not really value *creativity* (which is try and error): too risky. They push them to copy what is working elsewhere. If not, they push to develop characters that are popular. Pre-Shipuden is full of characters, some worked, some don't. Post-Shipuden didn't really add new important characters, except Taka (which is Sasuke and utilities) and the 5 Kage and bodyguards... if we call them important characters. So we clearly see the editor pushed toward development of the current characters, and not adding new one. The poor reception of Sai (a male character) conforted both Kishimoto and the editors that way.
If the mangakas are able to write female characters that work, the editors will push them toward developing those characters more.
At the beginning, Kishimoto struggled to write female characters as good as male ones. The editors pushed Kishimoto into focusing on established characters that were working... which were mostly male.
Even if Kishimoto was now able to write good female characters, adding new characters (either male or female) was out of the picture: it was too late. I think Kishimoto already lost control over his creation by Shippuden. For example, Mei instantly got me interested into knowing more about her, way more than the others. Kishimoto demonstrated he could write new interesting characters, and even good female characters. Mei was way more than the old maid trope: she was hinted to be smart and manipulative, wanting to put Gaara on her side while traditions was to put down weak neighbor on a whim. The only reason Mei showed up was because at least one of the Kage has to be female.
In a way, Kaguya as a character is "good". Her existence was nonsensical, just a vulgar trope to add new chapters on the final arcs. Beside that, the character design, abilities and personality wasn't bad. She just appeared from nowhere, therefore wasn't very legitimate to appear. No wonder everybody disliked that supererogatory arc she was in. But I believe people disliked the superfluous arcs, nonsensical twists, the powercreep, the "in fact there is a prophecy" and mostly the "Black Zetsu was pulling the string all along!!§!" trope more than Kaguya character herself. It was too much in one go. I just hoped she was included differently, as she had potential.
Real problem is how they get dropped in battle. Funny enough Sakura and granny chiyo did this well by winning against sasori who was definitely a powerful for and kishi set it up perfectly with Sakura's medical skills coming into play. After that she gets dropped by everyone she meets as she has no power ups until the end.
Tsunade vs Kabuto people think he beat her when she had a blood phobia which she got over and kept growing and punched him too.
Tenten was just useless and more to show temari was powerful who is an actual well done female but she hardly gets into fights being from the sand village.
Hinata vs neji. No way she would have won but it was her determination that was the highlight. But that goes out the window in Shippuden being shy around Naruto and not doing much aside the slap scene
Ino her powers are hax so kishi nerfs them to keep things intense. If she could just take an akasuki mind over the battle ends immediately
Konan didn't get enough fights so people think the Obito thing was not a big feat. She was so well prepared if he didn't use a literally plot device in his eye he would have died. The main bad guy almost lost to konan and she deserves respect but kishi didn't give her enough fights.
I think the real problem is that Kishimoto flat out can’t write believable characters well with very few exceptions. This already stifles the male cast into having a backstory, a personality they don’t deviate from, and one or two jokes. It really shows in the female cast because though the male cast is by and large weak, the female cast makes them look like Guts.
Kishimoto flat out can’t write people for the most part, much less the sex he doesn’t relate to.
@@thecod2345 I'd say he wrote too many people too early on and they all fell off immediately as Sasuke and Naruto were growing at a fast rate leaving them behind
Shino Especially who was definitely stronger than most of the cast beating a sound ninja and konjuro compared to tenten who lost to temari almost immediately and choji in a one shot.
I hope people see it's not the females that's rhe problem it's just how shounen writers do stories is the true problem
@@ivanbluecool I think they’re both correct. He did introduce way too many people and then hyper focused on Naruto and Sasuke, but even when the female cast had focus, their focus stinks of just a lack of personality outside of the guy they want to fuck and usually a temper.
I mean (not to be that guy) compare the writing of the the female characters to bleach, while the female characters are a victim of power creep too, they have distinct personalities with actual screen presence. The only really comparable character in Naruto would be Temari, who is irrelevant for the most part outside of 2 fights in early Naruto.
@@thecod2345 bleach I'd say rukia was pretty well done in the as nodt fight but the cast all have shinigani outfits making them bland to see as the antagonist being a unit works better. Strange how the females survive in bleach constantly with Nel hallibel rukia the female stern Ritter and do nothing afterwards. Youichiri was pretty good herself same as misaki but Kubo had a lot of issues with how rushed he was
@@ivanbluecool In terms of their utility, they definitely needed more, Kubo definitely struggled in that department. In terms of the outfits, I think that’s more of a preference as I think the gi gai is pretty cool.
But in terms of raw personality, Bleach has Naruto completely beat in the cast. The fact you can imagine female characters interacting without bringing up guys at all is really telling, not that that’s bad it just shouldn’t be restricted to that.
A funny or infuriating fact: I don’t know if it’s filler or not but in one anime flashback kushina said she wanted to become the hokage and guess what… she became the house wife of the hokage
Tbh I dont think the Leaf village would let a 9 tails host be the Kage tbh. Naruto had to SAVE THE WORLD to get that right💀
But Kishina said that she said she wants me be a hokage just to earn people's interest and respect, she actually didn't want to be a hokage.
@Rich Max McHalliwchester But wasn't that the same with Naruto but he still became hokage. I don't think that is really a good reason. I do feel like Minato saying her like her red hair that she gets bullied for but she could have still done something instead of being at home.
Edit: typo
What frustrates me the most in Naruto is that most if not all girls, even if they're talented shinobi, are just allowed to be in supportive roles and the girls that do not have supportive abilities (Hinata Temari and TenTen) they just vanish
Yes it is a giant offense that literally all girls in the series exist to either develop a male character or are developed and motivated by othen men, but that doesn't mean it can't be well written... It's unfortunate since Kishimoto laid a very good foundation with his girls, but he dropped the ball, realistically the *only* women that actually have relevant battles are Sakura and Tsunade and even then, they're not given the same flashy and cool abilities like their teammates which in a battle manga is kind of a shame, especially since they're the two most important women in the series
I do sort of agree. They needed moments and fights that utilized their abilities to the fullest. Konan is more powerful than anyone gives her credit for. Hinata's Lion Fist drains a person's chakra network. Temari is among the best wind users. Ino's Mind had a showcase only to not matter. The major issue is the Konoha 12 had a good foundation, but like every shonen, only 1-4 characters get to progress. Not one talks about Neji and Rock Lee completely be sidelined in part 2.
You're watching a shounen so don't be surprised when the show mainly focuses on the male characters.
You don't see people complaining about how shoujo male characters are only there to act as a love interest for the FMC now do you?
@@LowResLeafa I'm not complaining about male characters being focused on, Sakura is part of the main 3 characters, she IS a protagonist and she deserved more than she got and so does her master lmao and nowadays being a shounen is not an excuse anymore, it never really was tbh, older shounen like hxh have very few females but they're well written and modern shounen like JJK Chainsaw Man and One Punch Man all have very well written girls, Naruto is not the biggest offender in treating women like shit but it's definetely on the lowest bar for how to write women
And even then, men in shoujo are meant to be love interests and not much else but they are written with care and are developed most of the time
In a shounen battle manga where the girl characters are shinobi before they are women I fail to see how your point is relevant to this discussion? Since you know... Kishimoto did the opposite, he wrote female characters (badly at that) before he wrote interesting shinobi, which is the biggest problem here, he wasn't equipped to write about the struggles of feminity + being a ninja (even though I think he started on the right foot on Part 1 of Naruto)
Shonen = boy..... kkkkkkkkk you are cringe
I really feel that Sakura would have benefitted as a character if Kishimoto ever showed her falling out of love with Sasuke, considering all the times he looked down on her. I really don't know how he justified in his head to have Sakura keep loving Sasuke, even after Sasuke tried to axe her off multiple times with 0 regret/care. Just imagine a version of Naruto where Sakura realices how toxic Sasuke is, and how down right dangerous he has become after the timeskip, and then focus on having her improve herself/her other skills, instead of just having her be the cliche "person in love" trope whom, because of said cliche/trope, ignores all the massive, red flags thrown her way! Sakura could have been such a good opponent to Sasuke, using her own battle analytics skills against Sasuke's, using her earth and water elemental jutsus to counter his Chidori and fire based jutsus, along with her genjutsu skills to counter his Sharingan, and keeping herself and Naruto healed as Sasuke tracks their punches/kicks. Kishimoto gave her all these advantages, and then throws it all to the side so that he can have her go "Oooo Sasuke, have my babies" whenever she's around Sasuke instead!
I wish there had been a Sakura focused arc between the 1st periode and shippuden where she 1) stops having feelings for Sasuke and becomes her own person whoms whole identity/existence doesn't revolve around him, and 2) realices she's going to have to rely/focus on herself as her teacher is busy only focusing on her team mates, and said team mates are always off getting stronger on their own. It would have been so satisfying to see Sakura roll up her sleeves, say "f you all" to her team mates and teacher, and grow strong on her own and become a respectable, independent ninja in her own way using her IQ, observation skills, quick thinking/reaction, battle analytics skills, genjutsu talent, water and earth based jutsus and chakra control. An arc such as that could also have served to show how characters in this world who doesn't come from any spesific clan, and also doesn't have anything unique about them that makes them stand out as an individual, have to struggle more and isn't as recogniced, but instead ignored/put to the side as they don't have anything flashy about them that promises them a great future.
Kishimoto focused on the Naruto chasing Sasuke relationship that the two have a better basis for romance than anything else.
Sasuke loved her but he never assumed it until the end of shippudden (because he was very focused of the revenge and the hatred, also sakura can affect him emotionaly (the chunin arc in the forest and more) and THATS WHY the second thime and 3rd time he said that she is annoying (kishimoto himself said this that the meanin of annoying is different)), and when he tried to kill sakura it was like self defense and just wants to hurt not kill but he MAINLY doesn't wants to kill her (the genjutsu at the end of shippudden because he know that sakura will interfere in the battle against naruto and die)
Plus sasuke is being very crazy mentally in shippuden but he always loved sakura and naruto who are HIS TRUE FRIENDS (between sasuke tried many times to kill naruto but NARUTO NEVER TRIED TO KILL SASUKE UNLIKE SAKURA AND HE WAS VERY OBSESED WITH BRING BACK SASUKE )
@@Jpam23 1) It's never really shown though that Sasuke has any romantic feelings for Sakura, or that she's on his mind. 2) One could argue that the chunin exam incident was as a result of the curse mark making him battle hungry and blood lusted. 3) He still tried to axe her off though, and with 0 hints of hesitation in his actions and struggle in his mind. 4) There were other ways he could have stoped her from getting involved than making her believe she just got stabbed by him.
Also the "he only tried to hurt her to defend himself" is in no! way, shape or form a acceptable/valid reason. He's still very much the bad guy for trying to harm her just so he could feel better about himself. The fact that he, supposedly, didn't aim to axe her off on top of it is not! a saving grace, nor does it magically make him a good guy. It also makes it so that the "he meant it differently" statement holds no water, cause why the heck would these scenes happen if he apperently had actually started to get real/actual feelings for Sakura? If you want to convince me that the tone was different, then show it to me by actually having Sasuke be soley on the defense and running away instead of aiming a chidori streight at her and treating her like an annoying obstacle in the way, and by showing a facial expression other than the cold/annoying looks he always gives her whenever she's talking to him/trying to convince him. You can't tell me "Oh he cares for and likes her", when the scenes in between consistently shows him treating her as disposable low life and/or a silly good-for-nothing girl that he literally wants to shake off and have nothing to do with.
@@Jpam23 Which only shows he was dangerous and unstable.
You forgot Anko, but so did Kishimoto 😄 🤣
Anko, Shizune, Yugao, you get the point.
He just got Anko to come back in Shippuden after putting on a lot of weight. That was it - her entire character development was eating more without ever getting therapy to help her recover from the PTSD Orochimaru gave her. And she had so much potential in part 1, the consequences of that PTSD could have been explored further
Sakura still loves sasuke after ALL THE ABUSE he given to her
(Tried to kill her twice,constantly calls her names,got her pregnant then left for 12 years,never shows any affection,brags about how she’s useless)
And she still “loves” him when in reality it’s just a crush at most mistaken for love as you can’t fall in love with a pretty face. Sakura promotes the message of keep letting him hurt you until he loves you and put up with the toxic abuse
Moving on to hinata stalks Naruto and like sakura dosnt actually know who Naruto is she knows OF him and his mentality she promotes just sit and wait until the guy who has zero reason to like you likes you
Tenten has zero screen time.
Ino is the exact same as sakura and dates sai from 1 complement probably because so used to sasuke saying”your annoying” all the time.
Temari is the only good canon female in the rookie 12 she’s well rounded and actually acts like a kunoichi and not a love sick child’s
Prove me wrong.
I can but agree
Ino, choji, shikamaru
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura
Neji, Lee, tenten
Hinata, Shino, Kiba
These are the Konoha 12, notice who is missing? Temari.
Temari is not a member of the Konoha 12 so she can't be its only good anything.
@@TheToby121 forgive me you did prove me wrong.
That the konoha 12 actually had a redeemable woman in it 🤣 fucking shit tier main woman
"Love" isn't tangible it is completely subjective
I think i speak for many when I say that Tayuya deserved so much more love and attention than what kishimoto was willing to give her especially for a character who "isn't terribly relevant in the grand scheme of things" It's impressive that she has a sizable fanbase.
Tayuya is cute, that's about it
@@Lugg187 she's legitimately well written. I was confused when they said she had an annoying personality it's genuinely something ppl enjoyed.
@@mike10031 Not really. She's just an edgy, foul-mouthed character
@@BubblesChika My 14 year old self would've simped for an edgy, foul mouthed tomboy like her so hard that it could've ruined my life.
You bet she's popular with so many idiots like me around.
@@BubblesChika People like those.
Rare Dygo L. The whole argument about Sakura being a "normal girl" is pretty stupid. Take Rock lee for example. In this universe he wasn't even normal, he was basically handicapped. Yet Kishimoto writes him as someone that works hard and overcomes his limitations.
The whole thing about Sakura only chasing Sasuke is also stupid. She can chase him, but she has basically no other aspirations. It would be okay if she was a background character, but she is part of the main trio. Besides Tsunade, there is not a single female character that doesn't live for another man
Being a shonen doesn't excuse shitty writing.
Sakura's aspiration was to improve herself, so she may help others and to stand beside her comrades as equals.
@@azureascendant994 "stand beside her comrades as equal" yup, and she fails miserably. Shit character
And then Lee got discarded as well . He didn't get a single decent fight in Shippuden . . God knows what he was doing in Kazekage rescue mission, he was absent during Asuma's death arc , Team Gai was conveniently out of the village during Pain arc , and in the Ninja War arc , he just randomly kicks everything around him and that's it .
Sakura got ONE decent fight in Shippuden and that's it . She was more than capable of tearing the backside of white zetsus , even then she had to be saved by a CLONE of Naruto .. how ridiculous
The problem with Sakura's character is that we never learn what her back story is, her motivation for being a Shinobi. We never even learn who her parents are or what they look like. And even though she's one of the main 3 she never developes to even half the level of Sasuke or Naruto. She seems to of just been written as a romance character with very little character at that.
Yeah..
It would have being nice to know what her Parent's did for a living. Their too much mysterious for a Main Chracter. We know the other main characters families.
Well technically we learn about Naruto's since his an orphan.
Using the argument that it's a shounen is bad, there are plenty of Shounen anime with great female characters. It's purely a flaw from the mangaka themselves. Heck, Shounen Jump's arguably most popular series One Piece have very well written female cast especially in the Straw Hats.
Haven't even seen that much Bleach, gimme Rukia over every Naruto female except Tsunade and Chiyo.
I get you but hes saying its not a necessity for success in the shounen genre. There are definitely successful shounen with bad female writing
@@fracturedfuture370 rukia having her first real fight and screen time even as a secondary character in chapter 202, literally 3 arcs in the main story, proves otherwise. They lasted long enough without her contributing to nothing lol
fight = good character? Ok
Not every shounen has to be the same
I think the problem it's not that the characters by themselves are bad at least not all of them but the problem is that no women in the story has a goal they usually just are part of a goal another character has
Konan wants to fullfil Yahiko or Nagato dream
Sakura wants Naruto dream to bring Sasuke back
Karin the same but for Sasuke
Hinata what does she want to do?
Hinata's goal was vague due to the fact she was already given a goal by others and was expected to fulfil it as opposed to the others that had free will, which lead to her not wanting to be clan leader but not wanting anything else as this was all she was told to be what is best for her well-being
The case for Hinata can personally be synonymous to that a rich person who has everything they could want which leaves them without an ambition for something
"The more you have, the less you want" - a seinen weeb
As for Karin:She's just as messed up as Sasuke, therefore in her mind she found something that reflected her suppressed emotions and could help her get passed her past problems.
The reason for her accepting the mistreatment from Sasuke was because unlike the others who did, he was suffering internally just like Karin,not solely because she loved him but that was also why she did
Hinata’s goal is to be with Naruto 🤢
@@narutosbelievin🤣🤣😂😂😅😭😭😭😭
1. woahh😨 Konan wants world-wide peace, a man also wants world-wide peace, she’s such a men obsesses, bad written woman🙄
2. She bealived in Naruto, and that was only in classic, no? Becouse he was the one who went on the mission to bring Sasuke back. And in Shippuden, she even said “me and you, together.“
3. Who does Karin want Sasuke to bring back..? Sasuke saved her life, It was stated multiple times that Karin just wants to see him smile, i’m pretty sure she doesen’t even have romantic feelings for him in Shippuden anymore.
4. Hinata’s dream was NEVER to be with Naruto. Her dream was to bring her family close. She has other motivations aswell, Naruto was just her catalyst, somehow like Gaara for example, Naruto is his catalyst motivation, but NOT the main part of his character.
When will people get this?
(Karin) Boruto***
Kishimoto's problem isn't that he's not able to write female characters. It's that he can't write ANYONE! He can't write children, he can't write adults, he can't write politics, he can't write romantic relationships, he can's write platonic friendships, he can't write morally-nuanced characters, he can't write trauma, he can't write redemption arcs, and yeah, he can't write male characters. And yet he put all these things into a story which got repeatedly bogged down with overlong fight scenes that themselves often degraded into pages of lame technobabble for a magic system that could never stay consistent and might as well have been summed up as "chakra does everything!"
This is actually a really good point. None of his characters are realistic. Naruto and Sasuke do not act like real rational human beings. Their characterization is just as problematic as Sakura's.
That's just a massive exaggeration.
Yeah bro he sucks for writing Kakashi, Guy, Orochimaru, Itachi, Shikamaru, Jiraiya, Sasuke, Neji, Gaara, Pain, Danzo and who else?
@@eksen7221 to be fair itachi and shikamaru are two characters he kinda messed up in writing in my opinion. For geniuses they do dumb stuff for the sake of adding suspense or extending the story but the story continues to call them geniuses so they continue to be treated as such
@@Jippohippo Actually, Sasuke was the most human in the series. Ever wonder why the series never covers genocide and child soldiers? It was only called out on by the "villains" of the series. The entire shinobi world is routinely characterized as terrible and those who actually called it out and wished for it to change: Obito, when he realized that Konoha and all the villages used child soldiers like rin and Kakashi for them to die, Madara, when the entire shinobi world continued to declare war and learn absolutely nothing. Nagato, when he wanted revenge on Konoha and the other villages because it destroyed his home and killed his parents and pillaged and exploited it during wartime. Even fucking Sasuke, who was a direct victim of a state sponsored genocide, wanted revenge because the village justified their actions and swept the truth under the rug. Every antagonist in the series had valid criticisms and points of the terrible system. And none of it was ever focused on. All aspects of the system, even fucking genocide, was normalized? Sasuke wanted revenge? Hurr durr, he's under the curse of hatred! He's the villain for killing one of the people responsible for orchestrating it! (danzo).
Hell, even the villages were called out for using the Akatsuki, a group they considered criminals, by the Raikage, to hire them to do their dirty work. This was directly stated in the series. Kishimoto failed in the series message entirely. Every terrible thing the village had done was normalized and accepted. Only Sasuke ever called out this system until the bitter end with his revolution by killing all of the corrupt kages and removing the tailed beasts.
I never actually hated Sakura, I do wish she got to do more in the story, and I wish more female characters got more screentime. I do also agree with Kishimoto not being the best at portraying women, however, I also fully understand that as a Shounen series, the target demograpic is teenage boys so it's understandable that there are gonna be more male characters in the story. I just wish the female characters got to do more.
However, show me any teenage boy who isn't at some level interested in girls?
Sakura vs Ino was particularly terrible for Sakura because Ino was actually a really good friend to Sakura but just because they both liked Sasuke, Sakura decided to become an absolute bitch to Ino from then on.
Ino wasn’t even the one who started the beef with Sakura! She was the one who befriended Sakura when she was being made fun of for her large forehead lmao
That’s what I’m saying, I know the video is overall about the issues with the women in general but he said that if Sakura had bigger boobs she would be more liked than Hinata which is bs because while that gives her points Sakura’s personality was potentially one of the worst traits she had, that without counting how her feelings for Sasuke made her take poor choices such as the fake confession.
I always took their rivarly the same way as Naruto and Sasuke's rivarly. Sakura doesn't want to stay under Ino's shadow and Ino doesn't want to be beaten by "someone like" Sakura. Liking Sasuke was an excuse and another reason to compete
But my introduction to them was that scene of them trying to race to the classroom and I thought it was hilarious
Omg this. Kishimoto easily really had the chance to make Ino that typical class bully and a mean girl foil/trope but instead we got a beautiful flashback on how it was Ino who protected Sakura from the bully, even a 9 year old Ino knew to never judge a flower until it blooms.
The target audience is a poor excuse as well since many boys in puberty want anime girls
Also guess you never heard of Claymore or Sailormoon
We can use the same argument that the male cast is lacking for them
Also many boys tend to play female characters the most in rpg games.
Thing is, seeing girls getting pumelled is pretty different than seeing dudes getting rekt, so it makes sense why the writers tend to not include the female characters much.
@@orbboom6119 I blame the west for their nonsense activism that never helps anyone but their pockets and their bureaucratic buddies.
Or how just, look at One Piece and how many great female characters there are in it
Robin is obviously well ..... a masterclass, I can't even begin to explain her character, if you know OP you know how excellent she is; Vivi is also really good, she might be a princess but her motives, her personality ..... well everything, she is far from an helpless princess in distress and is a character that lives a powerful impact on the reader (20 years later and people are still clapping whenever she appears on screen like happened in a recent chapter and many still want her to join the crew) ; or you could even bring Pudding, yes she might be a princess whose main plot revolves around her wedding and love story but ..... the entire point is that she has been her mother's pawn her entire life and has been gaslighted into thinking she is disgusting and nobody can like her and will invariably turn on her for who she is and what she looks like and so even if she despises her mother she still carries out her will .... until she is given actual genuine love and affection from Sanji and this is where her entire worldview breaks down and she just goes through a meltdown and has a massive character arc over the remaining half of the arc. Like, this is actually deep psychological stuff that is extremely real and relatable, and not just "she is a love interest"
And those were literally just three examples amongst many other, but needless to say that One Piece is packed full of good and interesting female characters, many of which are fan favorites (yes there is a massive bloat of princesses but they are all actual characters with stories and personalities, you definitely cannot replace Reiju for Rebecca or Shiraoshi), so the argument truly does not hold as other series in the same genre have good female characters, it's entirely that Kishimoto simply does not know how to write them
Honestly the problem is always how shounen stories go. The main two get power ups constantly so the side cast not just females fall to the wayside as a result of not being able to keep up.
Neji is one example of Shippuden he does do much at all same as shino who is strong in part 1 but not used much making his usefulness useless.
Bleach same thing. Orihime should be busted bringing back people who died but her power is affected by plot nerfing her. If she was usiher power normally many op characters wouldn't die or most of the problems would be solved as Kubo didn't think far enough
One piece probably does female characters best with boa being so powerful she was able to take on a yonko and stone Blackbeards crew as a one shot snd I can definitely say For certain when Luffy and co fight Blackbeard they won't have it that easy. Nami and robin get good fights and their powers are unique
This is why shonen with smaller casts of characters tend to do better
@@billyboleson2830 honestly a strong side cast can make the difference. Fmab for example a worse writer would make the chimera be fodder for the homunculus but because the mangaka knew to make a cast they are actually more useful than some of the other cast members
had to disagree hard on Bleach, Orihime wasn't a fighter in the first place and everytime she uses her power, it shows the extent of her power perfectly. The only time she failed to save people was if they are truly dead. Please point out when plot nerf her power?
Character development isn't about fight.
Deadass character in One Piece are uni dimensional ash.
+ They don't get enough screen time anyway and when they do, they are objectified as hell (females).
Just my opinion tho but One Piece isn't the great exemple and prolly has the worst character among the big three, females AND males.
@@white7509 when one of the female arrancar got literally wiped off the face of the world and orihime brings her back. You should really read bleach before talking about bleach.
Honestly this video has a lot of meandering. Ultimately based on your own points there are only three good written female characters in Tsunade, Chiyo, and Konan. Noticed how you totally glossed over the Sakura's "plan" on stopping Sasuke by lying to Naruto with a false confession and nearly getting herself killed by Sasuke later. An action that he never apologies for or admits as wrong,and yet she still married him!? Girl has no self respect, just accepts abuse, and poor judge of character. Oh if you hound your love interest enough you will eventually win only to to have to be left pregnant & alone for years later. Til it's convenient for the guy that abandoned her to come back. How is any of that well written?
Cause he likes the couple that’s why he skipped every moment Sakura efed up due to her feelings for Sasuke 😂😂
Deciding character's role in the story is to be "Oh they're the normal one without interesting aspects" isn't really a defence for the characters being badly written, since you're the one who decided they'll have no interesting aspects.
I would agree with some of the criticisms of Kishimoto's female characters found in the comment section, but something I haven't seen discussed but is vital here is inter-character chemistry. I don't mean romantic chemistry specifically, though that's also an issue. A lot of what makes characters entertaining isn't necessarily depth, agency, or motivation - though those are important for any appreciably significant character - but rather the rapport they have with the other characters. Nobara Kugisaki isn't necessarily more complex than Sakura Haruno and her introduction was as an abrasive and arrogant person, but she gets invaluable moments of interaction with the other main characters and supporting cast - both comedic and genuine - to build her relationship to the audience as she does it.
I genuinely can't recall any moment in Naruto where Sakura being on the page interacting with anyone was something I was interested in seeing for its own sake rather than as something relating to the current plot. Sakura had no real chemistry with anyone else aside from a largely stereotypical rivalry with Ino, and I'd say the same for pretty much every other female character Kishimoto writes. Some have potentially interesting backstories of varying degrees of depth, abilities that range from pretty cool to generic gendered support powers, and certainly some strong character designs... but they don't really mesh into anything like a cohesive cast. Naruto as a series just plain struggled to work as an ensemble, and Kishimoto's preference against writing female characters pushed his girls and women to the background to give them the shortest end of an already pretty small stick.
In the manga, there were lots of small moments that showed Sakura helping Naruto with basic stuff, like filling in the application for the chuunin exam. Even if part 1, their sibling relationship was fleshed out
@@seg1912she actually was supposed to end with Naruto but because hinata was popular character because of fillers they probably forced him to change it and the anime cute a lot of her dielog and moments in the manga they love hinata so much
@@ayhamahmad2277 pretty sure Kishimoto maintained from the start that Sasuke X Sakura was end game. They have a lot of scenes with parallels and reciprocity in part 1, whereas all of Naruto's advanced are drawn as one-sided. Hinata and Naruto interacted quite a bit more in the manga as well, even if he didn't seem to get that she was already in love with him as a 12-year old. Sakura always behaved like a big sister to him, giving him advice and supporting him, but both Naruto and Hinata gave each other encouragement in part 1.
@@seg1912 hinata barely exists in the manga she doesn't do anything and guess what after the pain arc Naruto never mentioned her again the studio love hinata so much that they give her a movie and they hate sakura for some reason
@@ayhamahmad2277 she is more present in part 1. Nowhere near as much as studio Pierrot makes her out to be and she only interacts with Naruto and Benji, but every interaction she has with Naruto serves a purpose. Either, my point was that Kishimoto never planned for Sakura to end with Naruto.
Honestly Sakura should have learned puppet jutsu because she looks up to Lady Chiyo. After they rescued Gaara they should have been ask to stay in the Sand VIllage to mourn for Lady Chiyo and celebrate Gaara's return. Sakura then be approuch by Lady Chiyo's brother Ebizo and gave her the Chikamatsu Puppets that he fix during the mourning and tells Sakura that Lady Chiyo would want her to have them.
I don't think that would resolve anything. I mean even puppet jutsu fell short really fast with the power creep of Naruto Shippuden. And her chakra punch really had potential if kishimoto was more creative in her usage. And it also doesn't resolve the problem of her screen time.
@@josephsavio1972 She could have upgraded them herself or extend her healing jutsu on to them like her scalpel blades, add her medical drugs on them that causes sleep/nausea or the punches that scrambles the nervous system of a foe. As well those power punches that creates a crater.
@@josephsavio1972 and they take years of dedication to learn, so severe that most puppet users are very lacklustre at taijutsu
@@banditkeith6479 Could have been interesting in Naruto part 1. But with opponents of part 2 nah not that much interesting. There is already kankuro for poisonous puppets and he's not that passionating to watch
About Sakura, maybe she could have showed interest in medic ninjutsu while taking care of Lee, since she could have felt responsible for him saving her in the Forest of Death. She searches a way to improve and reach Naruto/Sasuke and after assisting Tsunade in the information search to cure Lee she finds her talent and asks Tsunade to be her apprentice. Just an idea for the rewrite, I know you already went through that part of the manga
VERY COOL IDEA I ALSO IMAGINE IT
Counterpoint about Sakura and Hinata's popularity being reversed if their chest size were too : Rukia and Orihime in Bleach.
I mean, it's not a perfect 1-1 situation, but still.
True but would argue Sakura have a nice ass and Hinata have a nice chest.
Rukia: Flatter than a billboard, is a well written and popular character.
Orihime: Boobs rivaling Rangiku's, is well-written, just not as popular.
But female characters in Bleach actually have their own agency. Plus Rukia is hilarious and determined whereas Orihime is a wallflower by her own admission.
And why do 90% of the kunoichi have to become healers? Like Ino she had her clan's powerful mind control jutsus, but she is also a healer. Hinata is the heiress of the Hyuuga clan with unique and cool taijutsu, but she is also a healer. Rin was a healer. Sakura was supposed to be a genjutsu genius and has excellent chakra control since she was a kid, she could have developed amazing jutsu, but all of that is overshadowed by her healing technique. I think Kishimoto should have given her a signature jutsu in the first part, just like Naruto's Rasengan/Shadow Clones or Sasuke's Chidori and fire techniques. And the list of female healers goes on: Tsunade, Shizune, Karin, Chiyo...
Hinata isn't a healer. All the times we saw her being one are fillers
Rin and Sakura are supposed to be parallels to each other in their respective teams, just like Sasuke/Kakashi and Obito/Naruto. That's why they have a point of similarity. Ino and Sakura are rivals since the start, so them both being healers and competing with each other makes sense.
Having a lot of female healers also makes sense when you consider how many women work in healthcare in the real world. General caretakers have historically always been women, and most medical ninjas would fall under that category.
Also Sakura DID have a unique gimmick, which was her inner monologue/spirit/version thing that actually gave her a "second mind" of sorts which let her resist Ino's techniques. Unfortunately that was just never developed any further.
@@DaShikuXI "General caretakers have historically always been women"
Yeah, in real life. Due to millenia of societal gender roles being dictated by the people in charge (who were almost always men).
This is a fictional world which should have a developed a wildly different (and much more equal) power dynamic between the two genders due to Chakra pretty much giving anyone the potential to be just as strong as anyone else.
There is literally zero reason why the majority of healers should be women in the naruto universe.
@@JSKWilson Or maybe women are just natural caretakers. You know the thing they are biologically engineered to do. Not everything is the evil patriarchy.
There is already a shift in power dynamic though. In the real world most general caretakers were women, but the specialists were mostly men. Yet in Naruto the pinnacle of medical ninjutsu is Tsunade, a woman.
In fact it was Tsunade, a woman, who basically set up the whole concept of ninja battle medics who would actually go to the frontlines for healing. She made such a massive contribution to ninja warfare as a whole that she has legendary status within the world.
Not to mention that she would therefore be a great role model to female ninjas, who would aspire to be like her and become medical ninjas themselves.
Having chakra does not mean natural gender roles would suddenly cease to exist.
@@DaShikuXI *“biologically engineered to be caretakers”*
And who said that? Men? 😂
The idea of “maternal instinct” is a myth that men created, and is actually a pretty modern idealogy that was pushed throughout the late 1800’s and 1900’s - especially after the revolutionary war when men and government were trying to push women back into homes after being given the chance to work (since many jobs didn’t allow women to work).
Culturally, in the US at least, women are definitely conditioned to be giving, docile, and supportive. We’re told what we should be, whether it be those who raise us, the media, and even laws (lack of maternal leave for example forcing women out of jobs).
And the same is totally true for men, they are culturally raised to believe they need to be the “breadwinners” for their family, and men are portrayed and raised to be more emotionally distant.
You are absolutely right, Kishimoto manages to set up cool female characters but then either forgets about them or sidelines them on purpose. But even then, the stories of said female characters usually revolve around male characters: They either adopt a male character's dreams and aspirations or act as a male character's love interest (which would probably be fine if the story was a shojo, but it is not). Ultimately, they are stripped of their agency, which is a guarantee for ruining their characters.
"Naruto" being a shounen is also no excuse for having poorly written female characters. While shounen mangakas might believe to be targeting an exclusively male demographic, their works are speaking to both genders (the best of which often ending up in a 50/50 mix). Executives and mangakas still refusing to develop good female characters (and therefore giving them the spotlight from time to time) are trapping themselves in a self-fulfilling prophecy in which lackluster writing leads to negative stereotypes.
I think the problem with sakura is that she never really grows up from being a girly character and when she does in Shippuden its kinda late and forgotten, i think sakura shoud be more useful during the first part instead of Shippuden that would be a massive improvement, also i think marry her to sasuke at the end was terrible, maybe is a good ending for the character but is a terrible and unhealthy mensaje like sasuke litteraly tried to kill her that is no easy to forgive and she just does it like nothing
Addressing your first point. I agree, but it's worse in my opinion than what you said. What you say is correct imo, she doesn't grow out of the childish "girly" stereotypical personality until Shippuden. But it's worse for me because once Shippuden did hit and she did actually get her "maturity boost", for lack of a better term, she never grew out of the one worst part of her personality, her obsession. And yeah, that's why I also agree with you that marrying her to Sasuke was a bit yikes imo, because her "love" was obsessive. Her as Sasuke's wife means little to nothing to me, and my personal headcanon is that she was only placed there to serve as having a recognizable main character to serve as the Uchiha's baby oven. I just am not a fan of their relationship. Which is weird because I actually like Sasuke's character individually. Obviously it's not perfect(tries to burn what his brother died to save, reasoning understandable but still disrespects his memory) but I don't hate the guy.
I mean that's arguably promoting a positive message about how people can change lmfao.
It's not even close to as bad as Jellal and Erza from fairy Tail, where my dude actively spied on, harassed, stalked, manipulated, gaslit, tortured, and abused Erza for basically her entire life, and she absorbed it all because she was in love with him. He literally enslaves countless people. He was a mass murderer. He attempted to kill Erza in cold blood, multiple times, he literally created and then threw a black hole at her lmfao. Eventually Erza just decides to murder suicide with him because she realizes he needs to die but she can't live without him. And during their fight Jellal STILL continues to manipulate and abuse her, even playing into her fantasies of redeeming him and then brutally tricking her and breaking her heart again. Before eventually confessing that he loves her, just as she was about to die, to rub it in that much more.
Basically, THE most toxic possible abusive relationship in fiction lol. And yet Erza never gave up on him and always wanted to marry him. He eventually lost his memories, and then over the course of like 10 years of guilt and regret, after she convinced him to keep living and use his powers for good. He managed to accept the things he had done to her and love her regardless. And finally returned her feelings in a healthy and positive relationship lol.
Granted Naruto had absolutely zero of any of this. But it at least proves the concept is possible in theory, you can't just rule out the possibility of people to change (whether in fiction or IRL)
@@fracturedfuture370 It was either her or Karin at that point, and you know what they say about putting it in crazy....
@@ExtraVictory Did you forget that Jellal was controlled by Ultear during most of what you said
This reminds me of what Kishimoto said about Sarada's character in Naruto Gaiden. He simply thought of her as a female Sasuke, basically developing her like he would a male character instead. I guess he just can't understand a woman's heart at all!
In terms of strength, his women and girls are allowed to be "strong" but are never allowed to show that strength on screen in a way that actually demonstrates them to be equal to their nearest male counterparts. We are told Tsunade is as powerful as the other sannin, but the only on-screen indicator is the fact that she can heal an army singlehandedly. She is never really shown to be equal to Jiraiya and Orochimaru. She and Kabuto are both medical ninja, but she never uses that skill for attacking. Her motivation is also more implied to be driven by individual emotional ties compared with Jiraiya.
Women's motives in Naruto are rarely, if ever, allowed to be self-driven or large-scale the way men's are.
And Tsunade gets more depth than Hinata, who has zero relationship development with Naruto in the manga (your rewrite does it better), and whose motives are 100% driven by her crush on Naruto.
Sakura's motives are also always driven by Naruto and Sasuke. And for power, while she gets a sannin's tutelage, the other two get to make the styles their own and develop unique abilities, but Sakura gets few specific things to show off, and only demonstrates things she learned from others, with no unique versions of her own. And again, it's never implied in Kishimoto's work that she could ever be considered the equal of Naruto or Sasuke. Even her healing skills get cheapened, because Naruto just regrows Kakashi an eye.
Being strong in Naruto is not one singular definition. Some are strong in combat, like Naruto and Sasuke. Other's are strong in gathering intelligence like say Sai or Jiraiya. Other's are strong in strategy, like Shikamaru. Similarly some are strong as healers, like Tsunade who is at the pinnacle of medical ninjutsu. Tsunade is very strong, her strength is just in a different category than Jiraya and Orochimaru.
Imagine risking your life to save your crush, confessing at that moment, and then he conveniently forgets it and never mentioned it ever again. Then you conveniently get kidnapped and keep knitting a scarf for him and wait for him to rescue you and fall in love with you: that's all about NaruHina
And Naruto suddenly regenerating body parts was the biggest Deus-ex-machina ever..
If your female cast mostly think/talk about their love interest, then yes, you've failed at writing your female characters.
Fortunately Tsunade and Temari are exempt from this, but even better yet, they have a proactive and important role in the story.
Yes he can't, he said it himself. Maybe he should've gotten someone to help write the girls. But this might not just be a Kishimoto thing, I really think it's a big problem in anime as a whole. Most female characters are just as bad if not worse.
Indeed it's a problem for most anime but not all them. We need to remember that he works along side of amazing mangaka who pulled it off dispite writing shonen manga and must adding fan service and stuff. It shouldn't be a problem at all for him to have asked someone like oda even just for some tips, couuld've been better than what we got in the end.
If you know you can't write something then don't bother putting them into the story
It's similar to the case of including black or LGBT characters for the sake of "diversity"
It’s the culture itself that’s like that. Japanese views on women are on par with the rest of eastern/southeastern Asia, especially China and Korea, but especially Korea.
@Dave102693 the only Shonen I have seen pulling off well rounded female characters are aot and fmab
@@dark-winged-angel136 it was required of him, it wasn't his original plan.
Ask yourself this, what jutsu’s did Sakura have pre-shippuden? She ended up being a Tsunade clone with the same summoning and healing jutsu. This is the lead female role in Naruto.
Can't really blame Sakura cause Tsunade main powers are brute strength and regeneration.
Tsunade herself lack the versatility in jutsu unlike Jiraiya and Orochimaru, but I don't dislike her because she is a medical ninja who's main job is to heal people. She's the first female character from Naruto that I admire due to her being able to handle both Kabuto and Orochimaru.
As for Sakura, she needs other mentor that could teach her more ninjutsu so she not always relies on brute strength like Tsunade.
@@itsmebeyonder there should’ve been way more jutsu development with them both. In a way it’s refreshing not having someone who has a special bloodline or clan be strong, it’s just a shame we never got to see any different jutsu.
As for Tsunade didn’t kabuto body her in pt1?
@@sinbadddx
I'll answer the Kabuto getting upper hand first. According to the data book, Tsunade and Kabuto are on par when it comes to speed, both are 3.5. But Tsunade skills are a rusty cause all she does were drinking and gambling, also Kabuto gets the upper hand because he used Tsunade's weakness that is fear of blood.
@@sinbadddx
Yes Tsunade and Sakura should've had a lot more development.
Let's talk about Tsunade first, in part 1, I'd say she's a rather well established character. You just know that she's leagues away from any medical ninjas we've been introduced. She definitely piqued our interest on medical ninjas stuffs which usually stays in the background.
In part 2, Pain Arc, I enjoyed the fact that she can do remote healing via Katsuyu. Another interesting medical ninjas stuffs.
When it comes to 5 Kage versus Madara Uchiha, I would write her a little different. I would have her reveal that the Reserve Seal is not only to seal her own chakra but also other people's chakra as well. That means she could easily absorbs Susanoo which is pure chakra. I would also reveal that she can transfer a copy of the Reserve Seal to other people and that Reserve Seal would continue to heal and restore other Kage's chakra without physically touching them all the time. This would definitely help to level the playing field.
@@sinbadddx
Let's talk about Sakura in part 1, I think Sakura did good, great chakra control, able to sense and break genjutsu and able to use medical jutsu. She just lack destructive powers, what I meant by destructive powers are access to Jutsu that can kill multiple targets or decimate an area easily. Jutsu that can do that are Fang Over Fang, Human Boulder, Wind Scythe or Shino Hidden Bug Techniques. But that's ok considering she comes from normal ninja family, even someone born in established bloodline like Ino and Shikamaru doesn't have that kind of destructive powers. I should note that most of their techniques are short in range and has time limits. Bear in mind that I'm talking about part 1.
Let's move on to part 2, I personally don't like that she became Tsunade version 2.0. Now that she has access to destructive powers, she needs to have versatility in combat, because in the end not all things can be solve by brute force. And at first I thought that versatility comes in form of Water Release, because we definitely saw her using water to remove poison from Kankuro's organs. But when Chiyo and her fight, it's just Taijutsu, brute strength. I kinda feel cheated there.
Thing is unlike Naruto, HxH is character driven. The 4 main characters are established.
Every female introduced mattered in HxH unlike Naruto.
That's also not to mention the fact that author of HxH's previous work YYH had Genkai, who is still one of the best teachers in Shonen imo.
It's better to not introduce female characters than to introduce poorly written ones.
Comparing HxH to Naruto is like comparing the Sistine Chapel to a drawing on DeviantArt
Are there female charas in HxH?
@@diegoaristizabal6594 Many.
But even the background ones had purpose and weren’t treated poorly.
Togashi, unlike Kishi, isnt fazed by female characters. He treats them like a male one…just the opposite gender.
Shonen arent about romance anyway so the whole “poor at writing female characters” is a shitty excuse.
It isnt a romance story or another non shonen like a slice of life series, than one needs to know how to write a female character.
But in shonen or similar?
Togashi is a perfect example in HXH, the females are still there and those that do interact with the main cast shine on their own.
Biscuit is one such example.
Even genkai from Yu Yu Hakusho
The Troupe have two prominent females, each powerful nen users
If you want to consider Pitou a female, she is one of the strongest beings shown so far.
Ponzu even played her part even though she was killed alongside another male side character but that was to show the brutality of the world and it works
Kishi and/or his editors didnt have the balls to kill off anyone that mattered in the long run or show that anyone can go
Im not talking about Hiruzen but fuck his editors when Kishi had the good idea to let Neji, Lee and Chouji die
They didnt even end up doing much anyway, especially Neji, who disappeared outside of filler.
The editor damage the story more than you think by not allowing him to aid more arc like he wanted to that the main problem there is not enough arc in Naruto to focus on all these characters and female characters as well they need screen time and the moment they did that the side characters and female characters fate was selled Naruto has 700 chapter is not enough to focus on them just look at how long one piece is and bleach and didn't help that kishimoto was being rushed look what happens to hidan arc that arc was supposed to be longer but the editor forced him to cut down because of time and kishimoto was in the hospital as well kishimoto can write a female character he give sakura her best arc and he plan to give sakura and tusnade a fight in the pain arc but that's was cut down as well because of time and it won't work in the war arc because shonan was rushing him to end at chapter 700 and they ruined guy moment by keeping him alive the only reason he is alive because he is pupuler character so its shonan for not giving the creator freedom and time
I think another issue with Sakura is that her love for Sasuke didn’t really make sense anymore when Shippuden started. It would’ve been better by that point if she grew out of her crush for him but still wanted to bring him back cause he’s her teammate. Instead her continuous nonsensical love for him has only served to be detrimental to her character growth.
This video really made me appreciate what Kishimoto did with Temari even more than I already did. For a female character that was around from the chunin exam, I’m amazed she never waivered from being a competent, reliable, and self-assured soldier. She never became a liability for her team or an excuse for another character to get stronger. On paper her dialogue often didn’t read different from her male counterparts.
She didn’t really grow much as a character but I’m happy she got as much screen time as she did while flying under the radar of being focused on and then ruined by having the same drivers as other female characters in the series😅
let's be very honest with ourselves there is a massive sexism problem in manga
To each their own on that one. When women write characters they can suck. When men write characters they suck. Both do fan service. (There's literally a whole genre thats juat gay handsome guys for women to read)
That's honestly good writing advice, don't let gender be the focus of a character. Focus on other traits like personality and motivations then add on gender-specific traits after.
Poor anko :(
💀💀
I have an issue with how Tsunade is written and it's simply because of his Kishimoto 's views on women obviously shine through in his writing. Tsunade being a medical ninja afraid of blood is utter genius. It's nuanced and pretty unique. HOWEVER this is just a means of him driving home his "women can't handle trauma" mindset when writing. No male character behaved that way when they faced trauma. They hunkered down and went on the road of self-destruction and became more active in various ways rather than become a recluse. It's hard not to see Kishimoto still treating female characters as the total opposite to male characters in everything and it just corrupts the food writing that underlies Tsunade. Like it's not an irony to him, it's simply a woman backing away when the going gets tough to him
For me, the way of writting a female character would be to begin writting a character withouth thingking if its going to be male or female (back-story, skills, objectives, etc) and THEN add things that are unique to women, like being a mother and the protective instic that mothers have (like Bell-mere from One Piece), the ability to seduce and control men with their sex-appeal (like Black Widow or Mystic) or the fact that many people take women as inferior in many areas and use that to suprise those people.
It really depends. There are characters whose gender doesn't really matter in the story. It just depends on what kind of character you want to have.
That's what the dude literally said in the video
@@user-nd3ks4mi7b you said the same thing the OP said
@@giosbizarreart9048 They’re literally not the same. Like almost complete opposites.
In combat women are far inferior, but hey! Don't let reality get into the way.
It's not just female characters. Many of male characters as well are not that well-written
One of the reason I recommend Bleach to people over naruto is the vast difference between the female characters between both mangas. Bleach has some of the best written female characters. Tite Kubo actually gives them something to do and a backstory, a motivation like any other character.
People out here really pretending as if characters like Harribel are somehow top tier characters lmao
@@billyboleson2830 but she’s not even a main character?? She got to live and become the ruler of Hueco Mundo. So I mean that’s better development then a lot of the female characters in Naruto.
@@44dav44 Bro you wanna talk about orihime ? I don't think so lmao
Sexism detected
@@idk4435 Orihime was fine? Not the best but She had agency. She really was definitely mainly a love interest. It is still an shonen anime and sometimes that’s expected especially from an anime from the early 2000s. But the amount of female characters that get treated better than the female characters in Naruto is definitely outweighed.
This video reminded me there is no reason the Hokage's should be bogged down with paperwork. They can delegate most all paper work to assistants. It's a funny gag, but real world leaders know how to do this to best use their time. For example, there is no reason Naruto should be missing time with his kids when he could have a team of 10 adult shinobi tackle the "boring" paperwork.
The implications of Sasuke and Naruto being "bad" fathers was written in for the plot,and does not make inherent sense
Sasuke is absent for 12 years, never bothers to visit and worst of all couldn't find enough info on the Otsusuki until the recently,
why is it utter hemorrhoids?
Answer:The plot
I don't think the female characters are necessarily bad, I just think that he gave them potential and never explored them. Yes even Sakura, at the beginning of Shippuden she showed actual growth but then she just stagnated.
OK, I'm not the best at analysis, I'll admit. But what potential did people like Karui or even Ino have? Karin and Sakura, yes I can see the potential but to me, Ino really only served as a foil to Sakura. And only pre-Shippuden from what I remember.
@@fracturedfuture370 Ino may have one of the most busted powers in the series outside of godlike abilities. Telepaths are OP in like every other piece of fiction
You basically just described the traits of a bad character
they are bad. Let it go man
@@yeetydab1672 how?
Do you think Sasuke and Sakura had a nice conclusion for their romance? Sasuke distanced himself from Sakura the same way Itachi used to distance himself from Sasuke, the same gesture, the same lie. Itachi changed after being reanimated, finally abandoned the old way and hugged Sasuke while looking into his eyes. That! was nice.
To me not really it obviously that romance isn’t sasuke strong suit and really he wasn’t much interested going into one due his vengeance and issues. Honestly Sakura should had gotten over it and move on funny enough we never really gotten to know Sakura goal in life we know what Naruto and Sasuke goals but never her own.
Sasuke loved her but he never assumed it until the end of shippudden (because he was very focused of the revenge and the hatred, also sakura can affect him emotionaly (the chunin arc in the forest and more) and THATS WHY the second thime and 3rd time he said that she is annoying (kishimoto himself said this that the meanin of annoying changed by the time )
But if Sasuke distanced is because he is protecting the village (he is like the shadow hokage) by traveling other dimensions (he is the one who would be capable) and he always have the fair of lose sakura and sarada like he lose his family, but he always think about his familly and also feel guilty for not being with them
@@Jpam23 that would be one twisted love .
Imo the only good female characters in naruto are tsunade, konan and tsunade
Konan has like two lines
Also Lady Chiyo and Tamari.
and chiyo
@@donovan4222 right and her powers are literally one of the most interesting and we don't even know how she got them
Tsunade is a mary Sue that somehow is bestest in fighting and medicine without effort and everyone loves her. And she shows affection by being abusive. And the only bad trai she has gets later blamed on the 1st hokage (gamling). Konan is just there.
The reason why Sakura is so bad is because she never grew up. Every girl who has a crush on Sasuke grew out of it, except Ino, but she was still able to function as a ninja and not obsessive over him like Sakura and Naruto. Sakura treated everyone except for Sasuke badly, the whole reason her and Ino became rivals in the first place is because she saw her as competition against getting Sasuke. Sakura is still this way in shippuden, treating Naruto, Sai and Ino like shit. Even in Boruto when Sarada questions Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship she gets upset which causes Sakura to cry. Sakura never loses her rude personality, and still constantly obsesses over Sasuke, to the point that she can’t function when she sees him. Sakura could have been a genuinely good character if she got over her shallow obsession with Sasuke and have an actual motivation to become a strong ninja. Even Naruto who spent the entirety of shippuden yearning for Sasuke, and a had a whole arc where he got depressed over him, was still able to accomplish things while at his lowest.
0:52" you're never going to find a shonen manga with more females than males""
Claymore: I am a joke to you?
Let's make something clear: when it comes to writing, quality matters more than quantity. I much prefer Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter Hunter over Naruto and many other shonen, because every female character acts like a real woman and there are also some pretty strong women.
To me I think kishimoto shouldn’t have made Sakura a love interest because all the hate that she gets it’s usually derived from how she treats him and Also if you take away the abusive nature she has for Naruto and the consistent perving on sasuke she’s a really good character you see the relationship between Luffy and Nami is totally plutonic they respect and care for each other but they don’t consider themselves lovers and Nami has a bigger fan base than Sakura and I think the fact that she cared too much about sasuke was a problem as well because of the countless scenes we see her in with him she acts like she can’t do anything. When I came into this show I was really hoping that out of the 3 that Sakura would be the voice of reason asides kakashi
yup 100% agree with this like Sakura could have been way better if she just dropped the whole "Sasuke have my babies" even after he tried to kill her multiple times the whole trio Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura's relationship is really toxic and unrealistic to the point where I can't take it seriously like the whole "he is our friend" crap that they keep preaching over and over when he has done horrible stuff to not just them but to other people is just a terrible message.
really good example I agree as well Nami not only has a nice relationship with Luffy that is super plutonic like you mentioned she has her own goals and motivations it makes her feel more realistic and she is her own person not motivated by strictly someone else not to mention how loyal she is to Luffy but at the same time able to criticize when he does something foolish it is the same with Robin as well she is her own person with goals and dreams.
@@yohanenightingale7615 I really wanted Sakura and rock lee to happen just think about it their kid would have rock lees eight inner gates and sakura’s infinite healing
@@yohanenightingale7615I would actually not MIND their determination to get Sasuke back IF we'd actually had some real shown development in their camaraderie. Even in part 1 it's so minimal - they have their MOMENTS, yeah, but I'd be hard pressed to say they have better team chemistry than literally any other of the konoha 13 squads. I just... I can't find it believable that they'd care THAT much about Sasuke. Even Jiraiya and Tsunade gave up on Orochi and they had WAY more history as a group. (OK and Orochi did way worse than Sasuke but STILL.)
Agree and disagree. First things first: to reduce Hinata's and Sakura popularity to their boobsize is one of the most insane idiotic things I've ever seen in a Naruto opinion and possibly the worst of all the opinions in your channel (wich overall I think is good).
However, indeed I think you really are right in bringing and considering all the shounen context and other shounen stories and it's standard consumers. Just like we should consider japanese mentality. Indeed I think Tsunade and Chiyo where well written. And you have such good points,.....wich kinda of makes more disappointing when you say some simplistic things or leave behind very important things. Hinata is also really remarkable in her moment just previous to the chunnin exams finals when she encourages and lifts Naruto up again when he was nervous and doubting himself, just like he did to her. And in the War Arc the same thing happens after Neji's death. Naruto was in a bad place twice and she lifted him up twice. How many characters in the series you can say the same? That's something important about her in the story and you disregard it completly by just stating that "Naruto completly ignores her after the love confession". Still, Hinata is very poorly developed indeed.
Now, Sakura, the female protagonist. Perhaps her bad writting for viewers like myself is related to being western, not sure. But, just like you mentioned in Kushina, Sakura (and Karin) are also part of the "being mad and always beating up people" trope (perhaps Tsunade too, in a smaller degree). She hits Naruto all the time for stupid things like praising Rock Lee's knowledge of chakra circulatory system because "Of course, he is a year older!". She gives a offensive nickname to Naruto as a example to Sai and laughs. Sai does the same to her and she goes bersek and goes again when Ino is praised. It is patheticly annoying, and not compensated by her positive traits. No wonder It was a such great moment when, in the manga, Konohamaru exposes her hipocrisy for talking down on ero. But that's not all. Her usefullness in Gaara's arc was a one time thing. The arc of trying to save Sasuke by lying to everybody, failling, and needing to be saved twice in 5 minutes ruined her even further, and it was something that Kishimoto did intending to give Sakura more popularity. It is bizarre. And after all that, to say that if Sakura's and Hinata's boob size were switched so would their popularitty is even more bizarre and stupid.
I always think Sakura has the same issue as Misa Amane from Death Note. Both of their characters revolve around love, which isn't the main focus (or even the side focus) of the story. Furthermore, the crush doesn't even love them back.
This issue is the reason the fans consider them as annoying. You should have another objective that corresponds with the main/side focus of the story.
Death Note has its own problem with female characters tbh.
@@dumpsterDeity death note has problems with every character tbh. Only Light and L were well written
I understand why people don't like Misa, but even if they have the same bad trait, doesn't mean they had the same issue as a character with a function to the story.
Sakura was supossed to be a main character, the author made many attempts of developing her, she needed to be a sane girl and another character that would make the story flow, but she wasn't used as she should have been.
Misa fulfilled her role. All she gotta do is make things harder for the protagonist and hurry the plot when it seemed like it was getting too slow, nothing more, and sure she wasn't a _good_ character in the sense of development or complexity, but she wasn't supossed to be _sane_ like Sakura. She was deeply traumatized, and her issues just showed that way, in her emotional dependance on Kira. The author doesn't try to lie to us about her. Sakura ends up with Sasuke and we're supossed to be happy about it and see it as a good relationship even after everything he did to her. Misa ends up with Light and he treats her like shit when they're in private. She is not really happy, just dependent on him because of her trauma.
Also I did find her kinda funny xD specially when she was with L
@@priya8855almost like death note is about those 2 using everyone like puppets lol
Misa had love as her goal and while she wasn't the sharpest tool in the box (especially in a series with people like Raito and L) but she was resourcefull and worked to get what she wanted. She also had a role in the series and affected events.
Sakura on the other hand cries for someone else to fix her problems and even though she has her moments to shine and take agency, she (like everyone else) gets pushed to the side in the Naruto and Sasuke Show.
I think the worst about female characters Is that all their goals are focused in their romantic relationships
Her fight against the Sound ninja was the moment I knew Sakura had so much potential. She was the definition of brains vs. brawn. She only knew one technique and it was the most basic technique that everybody knew. And hell she hardly even won the fight, but she actually stood up and made a team of trained assassins double-take their decisions. That's something not even Lee could've done, and he's the greatest Taijutsu expert of their age bracket.
She felt human in the way that I would probably be just like her if I was just slapped into the Naruto universe. A regular schmegular who doesn't have any special techniques, solely relying on my smarts and hard work to hopefully get by amongst a whole class of gifted people from gifted lineages.
I agree that was cool but Its pretty sad Sakura's few useful moments were against minor antagonists who don't matter.
I don't think most Naruto characters are good. I see Naruto as a plot driven story rather than a character driven one
There's a lot of characters with a lot if depth to them, try remembering correctly
@@lungelonqola7081 I'm gonna have to disagree. Most characters became irrelevant after 1 arc or only a few moments to shine
@@lungelonqola7081 Shit take. Kishimoto will introduce a fire character in one chapter and completely forget them for the rest of the series.
@@yeetydab1672 thats what toriyama does as well which is why i think they re both mid writers
The plot IS the characters, you can't separate the two
16:59 Yes you can. Treat a girl as an EQUAL, not Girl vs boy, and you'll see girls and guys can have a lot in common. But I do agree just treating a girl character as a person 1st and THEN slapping feminine traits works best. Or just...make a girl who already relates to guys more than other girls
1:06 it’s funny because in shojo mangas things are different, obviously there a many female characters, a majority of female characters in some series but also you can find shojo series in which you have as many male characters and many shojo series that have 1) a male protagonist 2) in majority male characters
Please don't disrespect the rock that crushed obito like that ever again
Alot of girls in Japan like to read more shounen than shojo surprisingly
Yeah, because japan downplays Shoujo and doesn't invest in it nearly as much as Shonen. There's a drought for girls and women readers who want variety, but Japan's sexism thinks media targeted at females isn't worth cultivating.
@@opaluni but majority of shojo and shounen authors are women
@@paxonite-7bd5 that maybe so, but it doesn't mean shoujo is being marketed or handled the same way as Shonen. Majority of the editors are still men who box in shoujo writers and undermine the product.
@@paxonite-7bd5 I can't say for certain if mor Shonen authors are women, but their is a difference when it comes to how characters and sometimes even stories are presented. What's seen as marketable vs what's sidelined and ignored.
I hate how having a series targeted to males means that the women are just expected to be nonexistent or just background characters. What is going on with young men that makes them so averse to literally half the population that they're ok with them basically not existing in fictional works
You're literally reaching. 😂 I'm pretty sure chainsaw man was out at this time. The cast is 90 percent women. There are a ton of stories with women in it. And they're actually useful and fleshed out.
Attractive women sell. Just like attractive men sell in media. So if your audience is mostly boys or women it's smart to add those. Naruto isn't a be all for anime. Expand your horizon.
Second time in the last two weeks ive typed in a seemingly random naruto related phrase and gotten recommended a less than 1hr old video made by you covering that very topic. Please continue to do this, very convenient.
Make sure you subscribe
@@DygoKnightive got the bell on now🫡
Hinata's ONLY character trait, and only narrative role, was to get dicked down by Naruto
Kaguya isn’t a bad character, just one that never needed to exist in the first place
The issue doesn’t stem from not being able to , the issues stem from not wanting to, lady chio and tsunade are good examples of well written female characters that he took the time to characterise but he simply doesn’t care enough to do the same effort with sakura & co , even anko who had potential from her relationship with orochimaru but he never expanded on it because he didn’t care
To this day, it still hurts a lot with how much they squandered Anko. Sure she was a childhood crush of mine so I have a good chunk of bias, but she was so cool to me, and they just.. ruined her
This was one of your best videos. Keep up your good work. Although I do believe Tsunade had a good ending (although her dying and meeting Dan, Nawaki, Hiruzen and Jirayia, and possibly even Orochimaru if something more decent was made with him… her loved ones respectively) would be as good in my opinion.
If y’all think think ino vs Sakura was the first bad fight lol y’all forget how temari destroyed ten ten in like 5 mins lol
Manga it wasn't even a fight...
@@judgementwings that’s how bad it was lol
@@judgementwings Yep was literally just a panel if memory serves
"That's just how things go" is a poor excuse for having 80% of the cast of a show be male purely for demographic reasons. especially when it's well known that all genders enjoy anime.
“You’re not gonna find shonen with more female characters than male characters”
Except for the thousands of battle harems like Rosario to Vampire.
And, as you yourself mentioned, Chainsaw has more female characters than male characters, even if it’s not a harem!
“No shonen has a female protagonist”
Undead Unluck exists, you know?
Inner Sakura would have known best that chasing after Sasuke is a waste of effort ( after his second if not the first attempt of trying to kill her )
So Kishimoto got rid of her entirely in Shippuden :(
There's a big flaw with what you described as "character then adding female quirks," and that is the trap that a lot fall into, where they'll write a male character and then gender swap them. The main issue with this is that the extent of their femininity (whether that be that they ARE feminine, explicitly not so, or anything in between) is small to non-existent, which is losing a lot of potential character exploration, especially if it's a male dominated world.. which tends to be most of them.
Now for something like Shonen that can be serviceable, but I think that can become a distinguishable difference between what's a good character and a good *female* character. I would say Konan is a good character but maybe not necessarily a good female character. Her only feminine traits are occasional flower themeing, but that's very superficial. Where a character like Ino *can* be a good female character, if perhaps a little sidelined, though Ino's mileage may vary per person, it's just the main example of a character who's femininity is a crucial part of her character that I thought of, that isn't Sakura.
Clearly the solution is to write a femenine male character and then gender swap them for the final product.
(Joking)
@@Magnet_Chaos lmao
Konan is definitely *NOT* a good character. I would argue she isn't a character. All she does is follow Nagato and hang on his every word, as though she's a mindless drone without an opinion of her own. Even after Naruto brainwashed Nagato, she mindlessly chose to believe in him, too, just because Nagato was brainwashed
@@BubblesChika I could certainly see that in the Pain arc, I would give her more credit past that when she has the determination to take down Tobi on her own, she didn't stoop to following him instead, as would've been safer to do
@@BertoPlease I would understand that, but she was just following Nagato's will. She wasn't really fighting for herself but rather, what the brainwashed Nagato believed in. And that's so disappointing and boring.
It's like she had no free will of her own, that her character existed in a vaccum to support Nagato's and Yahiko's ideals. She was never allowed to explore her own goals and desires and actually be her own character. That's why I just can't afford her any credit.
Her character wasn't her own. It was Nagato's and belonged to Nagato purely as an extension of himself.
Sakura mocked Naruto in front of another orphan for being an orphan. Meaning she was always surface level with her "love"
I'm not among the "she was mean to Naruto" guys, she had to be he didn't really help.
But then she says she'll leave everything behind; parents, friends (if she has any) village, life, job as a ninja and become a nukenin... Everything just to follow Sasuke in order for him to love her... And when she doesn't succeed in convincing him she goes straight to her simp to do that for her and cries knowing how he feels about her kind of forcing him to do that (was gonna do it anyways)
My problem is that the author didn't really know what to do with her except give her strength and skills. Remember that phase where she was supposed to have fallen for Naruto? Then to just throw that away the moment she saw Sasuke?? Man that wasn't necessary. I was like let her loge Sasuke, just because Naruto's the mc doesn't mean he should get everything he wants
I could talk about this for hours but I guess these aren't voice notes or videos
I mean, she was a stupid 12 years old back then… everyone says shit when they’re 12
For me, Naruto reached all its potential in terms of popularity, but never in terms of storytelling and depth.
Watching this video only reinforced to me how bad the writing of female characters is.
You just reminded me that even the characters I like, and even the best-written female character in the franchise is still not that good.
You managed to retroactively make me realize how bad the Tsunade retrieval arc was.
Shonen being targeted for boys is such a bad excuse because JJK has amazing female characters and it’s still very male focused. You can do both
Jujutsu doesnt count. Writing in shounen today is OBJECTIVELY BETTER than it used to be. The writers utilize the ENTIRE cast. And Maki's character developed lowkey SUCKED tbh, I thought she would've been a Might Guy like character where she makes it on her own merit... but turns out her Sister is just a plot device limiter...
@@no.1spidey-fan182 Not really because toji is basically the same character and he was cool asf. She and her sister were very well written and it was a known fact that twins have a spiritual limit. The story laid out very early that this was the reason maki was halted in progression to god like power. Maki was never written to be seen weak unlike her sister who had a reason for being weak. It was a perfect story between the sisters
It is targets for young boys that’s why anime has genre like how for shonen is for boys seeing animated wwe, so with female characters there writing depends on the writer if they care to do someone that doesn’t matter
What I’m saying is The main focus is for boys not that it’s obligated tho
@@anime_world6684 it’s okay to be focused to boys, but that doesn’t mean there has to be badly written female characters. Hunter hunter is a great example, there’s barely any females but the few that are there are pretty well written
I disagree. Only Maki has any real substance, especially in the JJK manga. All the others are not really that fleshed out. Shonen writing, in general, has a huge problem with trying to treat an entire ensemble cast like there are main characters deserving of character developement. In reality, manga deadlines aren't flexible enough for a feat like that to be done effectively.
Karin’s utility in her group literally being a human iPhone charger that you bite to charge up really ain’t helping Kishi beat the Women Problem allegations
Rin does do something
She gives Kakashi PTSD
Good work! 👍
My Favorit what if: let Sakura go with Sasuke in part 1 to Orochimaru.
She can still learn medical ninjutsu from Kabuto.
It could be more drama when she saw that Sasuke changed more and more.
Naruto could fight her to bring her to her sense.
Etc. many possibilities
It's kinda funny to realize chiyo is the best written female character in this series
Love your takes, and the content, especially your hate for Kaguya and the ending of naruto LOL, i clicked the bell. can't wait for that Kaguya Roast video lol
I, along with everyone, wish that Konan got more screentime.
Not one mention of Anko? She had arguably the most compelling set up of any female in part 1 only to be completely forgotten then turned into a complete joke in boruto. She deserved better.
Mizukage Mei is one of the few characters with not one, but TWO kekkei genkai. I would have thought she'd be a bit more of a powerhouse in a fight. But she mostly just spits lava and acid fog. Give the woman a volcano jutsu against the Madara clones or something.