| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% MODERATOR NOTICE |
| 3 | %% Don't put up any Sue tropes. They just invite flaming. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ---- |
| 7 | !!The following have their own pages: |
| 8 | [[index]] |
| 9 | * [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/{{Naruto}} Alternative Character Interpretation]] |
| 10 | * [[Monster/{{Naruto}} Complete Monster]] |
| 11 | * [[DracoInLeatherPants/{{Naruto}} Draco In Leather Pants]] |
| 12 | * [[EnsembleDarkhorse/{{Naruto}} Ensemble Darkhorse]] |
| 13 | * [[FanNickname/{{Naruto}} Fan Nickname]] |
| 14 | * [[Fanon/{{Naruto}} Fanon]] |
| 15 | * [[MagnificentBastard/{{Naruto}} Magnificent Bastard]] |
| 16 | * [[Memes/{{Naruto}} Memetic Mutation]] |
| 17 | * [[Narm/{{Naruto}} Narm]] |
| 18 | * [[NeverLiveItDown/{{Naruto}} Never Live It Down]] |
| 19 | * [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter/{{Naruto}} They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character]] |
| 20 | * [[Woobie/{{Naruto}} The Woobie]] |
| 21 | |
| 22 | [[/index]] |
| 23 | !!Other examples: |
| 24 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[folder:A]] |
| 27 | * AccidentalAesop: As one rereads or rewatches the whole series, many of the problems are caused by easily manipulated adolescents with a serious lack of emotional restraint. This can be taken as one giant TakeThat against places and traditions with low age limits along with people who don't follow established age limits if it was high enough. |
| 28 | * {{Adorkable}}: Naruto's socially awkward, and early on, most of his boasts came off more as cute/laughable than intimidating. Gets an extra dose in ''The Last'' when Naruto realizes he's in love with Hinata; he becomes bashful and nervous around her, giving her cheesy grins whenever she looks his way. |
| 29 | ** Sai has a few shades of this after he starts genuinely showing interest in emotions and human interaction. The sixth ''Shippuden'' film took this and ran away with it. |
| 30 | * AlasPoorScrappy: [[spoiler:Obito]] was a notorious case of UnintentionallyUnsympathetic, but by the time of his sendoff, many had grown to at least not celebrate his death, something that would have been unheard of when Sasuke attempted to finish him off earlier. That said, Naruto calling him "[[CharacterShilling nothing but awesome]]" after everything he's done was generally viewed as [[{{Narm}} extremely silly]]. |
| 31 | * AlternateSelfShipping: The title character is able to create a clone of himself--of the [[OppositeSexClone opposite gender]] to boot--and the fans haven't ignored its [[PowerPerversionPotential potential]]. It's called the Harem Jutsu for a reason. |
| 32 | * AmericansHateTingle: |
| 33 | ** Sasuke Uchiha is [[BaseBreakingCharacter much more divisive]] in America and Europe than in Japan, and was hated by large segments of the American fanbase long before his FaceHeelTurn. This is because he's seen as a one-note 'brooding', overly edgy, and [[{{Wangst}} whiny]] character whose motivations are [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic not as sympathetic as they're supposed to be]] or simply [[ValuesDissonance baffling]]. As a result, American and Europeans fans were absolutely not surprised by the FaceHeelTurn. Tellingly, [[https://soranews24.com/2019/01/19/japanese-internet-confused-and-intrigued-by-sudden-influx-of-choking-sasuke-memes/ Japanese fans were baffled by the "Sasuke gets choked" meme.]] |
| 34 | ** Sakura Haruno is also a BaseBreakingCharacter in the west, due to her being '''reviled''' by much of the western fandom, with common complaints including her [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale often violent behavior]] toward Naruto and conversely overly passive behavior toward the aforementioned Sasuke (which some saw as a very unhealthy relationship), and is the butt of many jokes regarding her perceived usefulness (or lack thereof) compared to her two teammates. In Japan, she does decently well in popularity polls (albeit nowhere near Naruto and Sasuke), but Kishimoto also acknowledged frequent criticism toward her character, to the point that she became a bit of a CreatorsPest when he couldn’t quell their negativity. |
| 35 | ** Reactions to [[DiabolusExNihilo Kaguya]] in her home country mostly range from [[BaseBreakingCharacter distaste to ambivalence]], but she's absolutely '''loathed''' by Western fans, who view her as a [[DeusExMachina walking plot device]] created solely to get rid of Obito and Madara because Kishimoto [[WriterCopOut had written himself into a corner]] that he couldn't figure out how to resolve in any way that made sense, so he [[AssPull made one up.]] It really doesn't help that she's based on a [[MoonRabbit Japanese myth]] that Western viewers are unlikely to be familiar with and had [[AssPull not been sufficiently referenced in the story]] before her appearance, which makes her presence in the story seem even more inexplicable. Not to mention that she [[spoiler:kills Obito and Madara, angering both 1) the people who ''liked'' those two and were disappointed to see them [[AntiClimax dispatched so pathetically]] by someone who barely lasted a fraction of their page time, and 2) the people who ''didn't'' like them]] and saw her as yet another cheap RetCon thrown in at the last minute so that [[CreatorsPet the Uchihas escaped culpability and weren't actually punished by the main characters at all.]] Her being the [[UnexpectedCharacter main franchise villain rep]] in ''VideoGame/JumpForce'' was met with negative reception in Japan, too, but it didn't hold a candle to the absolute fury that greeted her arrival in the Western fanbase. |
| 36 | * AngstWhatAngst: Madara learns that he had been played by the Black Zetsu to revive Kaguya [[spoiler:and his attempts to save the world would have lead to everyone he was trying to save being turned into White Zetsus. For a man who learned he devoted his entire life to plot that unintentionally caused the end of the world, Madara is amazingly calm about the realization.]] |
| 37 | * AntiClimaxBoss: Several times. |
| 38 | ** Orochimaru was the main villain of the entire series and Part I ended on a note that he would still be the BigBad of Part II, or at least a villain driving much of the storyline. Nope; Sasuke attacks him while he's bedridden and Orochimaru gets a pretty quick defeat, not appearing again for ages. |
| 39 | ** Kabuto tried very hard to take his master's place, using some incredibly extreme methods. He commanded an army comprised entirely of resurrected, nigh-unstoppable shinobi whose names alone are still enough to drive the Shinobi Alliance's forces into a panic, ''[[GeneralFailure yet somehow ends up losing almost all of them in a single day]]''. At the end of all, personally he was defeated relatively easily by [[HoistByHisOwnPetard one of his own pawns]] and was mostly forgotten by the story for a few years. |
| 40 | ** Madara Uchiha, hyped as an InvincibleVillain and apparently the BigBad of Naruto, was defeated literally by means of one hit in the back from Black Zetsu who is later revealed to contain the will of Kaguya, aka the first being to ever wield chakra on Earth. ''He isn't even dignified with a final face-off against Naruto and Sasuke''. |
| 41 | ** Kaguya Otsutsuki has officially qualified as this. Thanks to her inexperience in making decisions in the heat of battle, she gets sealed in her own dimension which few can access to revive her ever again. Ultimately this only took ten chapters after the character's official introduction for her to be sealed (again). It makes the above example of Madara ''even more humiliating'', since he was supplanted by someone who did not even last a tenth of the page time he did. |
| 42 | * {{Applicability}}: The series puts significant emphasis on the powers granted by the tailed beasts and ''kekkei genkai'' (unique traits of particular ninja family lines), and in general portrays a very traditional aristocratic society. Even Naruto himself, the village outcast, can use the Nine-Tailed Fox as a battery to power his moves and is eventually revealed to be the orphaned son of [[spoiler:the Fourth Hokage]]. Into this, during the Chuunin Exam arc, steps Rock Lee, who is [[BadassNormal completely incapable of anything but martial arts]], making him functionally [[FictionalDisability a person with a disability by ninja standards]]. This means [[HardWorkHardlyWorks he has to train all the harder just to be a competitive second-stringer]] next to the aforementioned superpowered ninja aristocrats who were handed far greater baseline levels of power by accidents of birth: Lee nearly kills himself fighting the Kazekage's son Gaara without ever landing a damaging hit on him, something the aristocratic Sasuke then does with relative ease. This can be read as a commentary on class privilege and the inherent advantages of generational wealth. |
| 43 | * ArcFatigue: Naruto has usually been good with preventing arcs from lasting too long, but... |
| 44 | ** The final arc, taking a day and a half InUniverse, went on for about three years. The initial action mainly serves to give the side characters ADayInTheLimelight, with the overall plot not really advancing until Naruto arrives. Then the fighting turns into a tug-of-war marathon, with each side endlessly churning out increasingly powerful techniques. During this, the actual main antagonist [[TheBigBadShuffle changed at least seven times]], with some villains getting the focus multiple times each, and with several of them declaring that everything has gone AllAccordingToPlan for them. When the war finally ends, [[spoiler:Sasuke declares he will take over the world to reform the shinobi system, triggering the long-awaited final battle between him and Naruto]]. While the author had already stated that the final battle would be between them and Naruto, it still felt like yet another extension to an already bloated arc. |
| 45 | ** The anime has the Three-Tails filler arc. It contains some ideas that would make for an interesting three or four episodes but instead goes on for an exasperating 23 episodes. |
| 46 | ** The original anime had the lengthy Filler-arc, which is technically dozens of small filler arcs and episodes right after each other. Now, a few filler episodes here and there doesn't hurt. But when the last 85 episodes in the series are all Filler... It starts to get a bit jarring. Even the final arc, which ends with Naruto and Jiraiya leaving to train isn't even {{canon}}, but it does set things up for his return in the first episode of Shippuuden. |
| 47 | ** The manga had finished in November of 2014. The anime, despite being not far from the heels of the manga up to that point, ended in late March of ''2017''. Why? Because the anime studio added a metric ton of {{Filler}} after the BigBad initiated their plan in the Fourth Shinobi World War mentioned above; what was only a couple pages of happy WhatIf scenarios in people's dream worlds in the manga was expanded tremendously into ''two season's worth'' (nearly '''sixty episodes''') of random filler, dream sequences, flashbacks for exposition, and the aforementioned WhatIf taken to the extreme. While this helps explore backstory and the MythArc a little better than the manga's straightforward approach, this happened at a climactic moment in the series and puts ''everything'' on pause for the entire duration, unlike other filler arcs that at least progressed the timeline and pretended to have significance. All for the sake of continuing to milk the CashCowFranchise ([[{{Manga/Boruto}} and probably to make the transition to the sequel a bit more seamless by ending shortly before it'd begin]]). |
| 48 | ** Naruto's WillTheyOrWontThey LoveTriangle with Sakura and Hinata persists throughout the entire series, which can grow tiresome after awhile. Especially with how obvious it's made out to be that Naruto's feelings for Sakura are completely one-sided, which some just wanted Naruto to move on. Hinata's LoveConfession during the Pain arc getting completely glossed over in favor of continuing the ShipToShipCombat throughout the 4th Shinobi World War didn't help matters either. |
| 49 | ** Naruto's whole journey to bring Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf Village spans from the Sasuke Retrieval arc all the way until the end of the series. From the moment that Sasuke officially departs from the village with the Sound Four, it takes around 500 chapters for Naruto to finally complete such an objective. |
| 50 | * ArchivePanic: Although not as bad as ''Manga/OnePiece'', let's see. 72 Volumes for the manga, Around 10 novels, 220 episodes for Naruto and 500 episodes for ''Naruto Shippuden''. And let's not even talk about the movies or the SequelSeries, ''Manga/{{Boruto}}''. Yup, good luck to newcomers. |
| 51 | * AssPull: "[[FanNickname Plot no Jutsu]]" (PNJ). This is an accusation often thrown when a character's abilities are suddenly [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe more powerful, less powerful]], [[MagicAIsMagicA function differently than you'd expect]] or just [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands get made up on the spot]] as a justification for a character winning a fight the plot needed them to win. |
| 52 | ** Substitution Jutsu as a whole. It's a technique where the user replaces themselves with an object like a log to distract an attacker, but despite being used quite early in the series, it never really gets any explanation for how it truly works, meaning it gets to be used as a "Get out of a fatal attack" excuse. |
| 53 | ** The [[SandBlaster Gaara]] vs. [[BareFistedMonk Lee]] fight; Gaara managed to get away from Lee's Initial Lotus by slipping out of his sand armor, leaving an empty shell, and burying himself in the ground A) while rather high in midair, B) while he was getting the crap beat out of him, C) in the time it took the person hitting him to wince for a second. |
| 54 | ** Sasuke's JustForFun/{{egregious}} Great Snake Escape. He summoned a giant snake, hypnotized it, jumped in its mouth and teleported it and himself out of harm's way all to avoid a massive 10-kilometer-radius explosion. All of that was done after said explosion had already gone off a few feet away from him, and in spite of both techniques consuming massive amounts of chakra, ''after'' Sasuke was observed to be out of chakra. |
| 55 | ** The Hokage's three guards knowing Flying Thunder God. The only other known users are the second and fourth Hokage. While all three of the guards are named characters[[note]]Genma, Raido, and Iwashi[[/note]], they were also {{Living Prop}}s and were never depicted as knowing secret techniques or even being especially capable shinobi in the first place. |
| 56 | ** Itachi Uchiha suddenly revealing the existence of Izanami. Izanami is only useful against Izanagi users, Kabuto or those like him, whom the user happened to be fighting at that moment. The fact that Izanami was (in-universe) created solely for a very specialized purpose (countering Izanagi, an extremely rare technique that offers the user a few seconds of invulnerability at the cost of one eye, clearly meant to be a last resort) yet turned out to also be the perfect counter to a completely different threat seals the deal. It doesn't help that the technique is never discussed again at all, whereas Izanagi is developed much better during the fight Sasuke had with Danzo, and later fights as well. |
| 57 | ** Madara, after becoming the host of the Ten Tails, manages to grab Kakashi's Sharingan and uses it to perform Kaumi on himself despite Obito, the person the eye originally belonged to, saying he could not use Kamui as the Ten Tails host. |
| 58 | ** Minato suddenly [[spoiler:reveals he can use Sage Mode during the fight with Ten-Tailed Jinchūriki Madara Uchiha, even though he had previously needed his son's help to provide senjutsu. He weakly tries to explain that he's not good at it, but this falls flat when you notice he is a perfect Sage like his son, instead of the imperfect form Jiraiya had to use in his fight with Pain. It seems to exist mainly because Minato without the Nine-Tails would have been absolutely useless fighting Madara, so to keep him relevant, he needed the form to even remotely harm him.]] |
| 59 | ** Everything about Kaguya is a concentrated storm of these for some people. [[spoiler:In fact, some people think that her entire fight against Naruto and Sasuke should fit into this trope, given how unexplained and random things were. A notable example is the apparent appearance of Rin's spirit during the fight, who proceeded to seemly assist Obito and Kakashi in pulling a save against Kaguya's ash-killing bones, saving Naruto and Sasuke and subsequent ability of the eyes Obito to transfer his soul and chakra Kakashi which fully manifests a Susanoo [[InstantExpert in its stabilised perfect form in the first try]]. Her relationship to Black Zetsu also retcons him from being a creation of Madara Uchiha to being an entity that has been working under her orders for the past few hundred or thousand years, which includes tricking the Uchihas into turning evil and pretty much everything else that's ever gone wrong in the Naruto universe. Many fans felt her only real purpose was to make the Uchihas look good, and as a solution to have [[InvincibleVillain Madara]] lose due to her being a case of UnskilledButStrong.]] |
| 60 | * SugarWiki/AwesomeAnimation: The anime is well known for some of its fight scenes being incredibly well animated and highly choreographed. Examples include Rock Lee vs. Gaara, Sasuke vs. Killer Bee, Kakashi vs. Obito, and Naruto vs. Sasuke (both the original and Shippuden). |
| 61 | * AwesomeEgo: Madara Uchiha was clearly an attempt at this. How successful it was depends on the reader. |
| 62 | [[/folder]] |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[folder:B-D]] |
| 65 | * BadassDecay: |
| 66 | ** Sakura Haruno starts off the TimeSkip as the first member of Team 7 to go up against a Akatsuki, Sasori. She was hailed as the second coming of Tsunade, who'd she'd eventually surpass with her talent. Come next arc... she's knocked out at the starting bell after Four-Tailed Naruto smacks her hard enough that he almost kills her. Come next arc... she does nothing, she doesn't even get to fight. [[RuleOfThree Come next arc]]... she still isn't able to land a blow on Tobi (though an overlooked scene has her deduce the mechanics behind Tobi's intangibility, which is proven right during the climax of the War arc). {{Subverted|Trope}} in the Invasion of Pain arc, where she knocks out one of Pain's summons with [[OneHitKill one blow]] and organizes the survivors while Naruto fights Pain one on one. THEN in the next arc [[NeverLiveItDown she hits her lowest low]]: First she's treated as a ragdoll by Karui and Omoi, getting knocked out. Then she delivers a [[FalseConfession painfully fake love confession]] to Naruto to get him off Sasuke's trail, and [[ShipSinking it does not work at all]]. Then [[KillTheOnesYouLove she decides to kill Sasuke on her own]]... and at the very last second, she can't bring herself to do it because [[SingleTargetSexuality she still loves him]]. Then she gets strangled by a weakened Sasuke ''despite having SuperStrength'' and needs Naruto to save her from the stab of her own kunai... but because of that, he ends up getting cut by ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero that very same kunai]]''. |
| 67 | ** Sasuke Uchiha is strangely another contender for this trope. At the start of Part II, he was on another level than Naruto, Sakura, and Sai together, and he took over Orochimaru's consciousness when [[GrandTheftMe he tried to transfer his mind into his]], battles the powerful Akatsuki member Deidara one on one and wins (AssPull escape notwithstanding) and then fights Itachi and manages to impress him and ''force'' him to use his trump card, [[PoweredArmor Susano'o]] to survive his [[ShockAndAwe Kirin]]. Then he faces the awesome Killer Bee and...gets owned even with his full team AND is humiliated when he takes a tentacle of Killer Bee back to Akatsuki. Then he faces the Kages, and puts up an impressive but futile fight against [[FourStarBadass the Raikage, A]] before Gaara needed to [[SaveTheVillain save him]]. He fights Gaara who blocks all of his Amaterasu strikes without even moving while simultaneously protecting his siblings and Darui. He is then nearly killed by [[LadyOfWar Mei Terumi]] despite having a higher level of Susano'o available, needing White Zetsu to save him. And then [[BigBad Obito while playing Madara]] had to save him from being atomized by Onoki. He managed to get some badass credentials back when he fought and beat [[WellIntentionedExtremist Danzo Shimura]] despite Danzo holding back, the very fact he could hold out against [[RealityWarping Izanagi spam]] even Itachi complimented on. Then come Kakashi...he loses his sight fighting him when he gets Susano'o's final armor. And is nearly stabbed by Sakura in the back. Then in the [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]] he takes down all Zetsus alone but is limited from fighting Kabuto with all power by Itachi. |
| 68 | ** Naruto briefly became inflicted with this during the Five Kage Summit arc. He had just [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable defeated Pain]], but much like the aforementioned Sakura loses a lot of badass credentials in this arc due to spending most of the arc's duration angsting over Sasuke. Not helping matters were his embarrassing performances during the arc such as grovelling and sobbing in front of the Raikage, and hyperventilating upon hearing Sasuke's further descent into villainy. |
| 69 | * BaseBreakingCharacter: |
| 70 | ** The Uchihas in general. Either they're the epitome of EvilIsCool with badass skills and are well-characterized or they're the epitome of SpotlightStealingSquad who were treated as merely misunderstood in spite of all the unforgivable things they have done and always [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands having a random power out of nowhere]]. Fans actually seem to splinter into [[TakeAThirdOption four groups]] instead of just two: fans of the Uchiha, Itachi fans who don't like Sasuke, Sasuke fans who don't like Itachi, and Uchiha haters. |
| 71 | *** Sasuke is a ''massive one'', [[AmericansHateTingle especially in the west]]. Some fans adore Sasuke as a cool character with genuinely sympathetic motives, especially those who consider Sasuke (alongside every other victim of the Uchiha Massacre except for [[GenocideFromTheInside Itachi and Obito]]) to be a GenocideSurvivor suffering from a bad case of UnintentionallySympathetic and/or InformedWrongness as a result of systemic FantasticRacism on the part of Konoha. These fans generally see his quest for revenge as [[GenocideBackfire him being rightfully furious]] at a system where people like Danzo can and do get off scot-free despite being genocide perpetrators and where people like the Third Hokage [[AccompliceByInaction don't seem to care enough to stop it]], especially if you consider the FridgeHorror that in a clan as large and well-established as the Uchiha there would have been plenty of noncombatants (civilians, [[WouldHurtAChild children, and even babies]]) who couldn't possibly have participated in the coup but were slaughtered anyway just for [[FantasticRacism being Uchiha]]. Others, however, consider Sasuke to be a painfully bland asshole who [[SpotlightStealingSquad steals away too much attention from the rest of the cast]] and [[TookALevelInJerkass becomes too cruel]] [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic to feel remotely sympathetic]]. Even after his HeelFaceTurn, people are divided as to whether his redemption was earned or if he was EasilyForgiven and should have died at the end of the manga. |
| 72 | *** Itachi was insanely popular at the start of the manga, and still is in many circles, but he's also become a much more divisive character as his true nature's been revealed. Fans are now divided over whether Itachi is a cool, stoic badass with an interesting character arc or an insufferably preachy and insanely overpowered character who exists purely to make everyone else look bad in comparison. A huge part of the reaction to Itachi is whether people view his character as a {{Deconstruction}} of TheAce, where his overwhelming power and near-invincibilty in battle highlights his many shortcomings as a human being, or TheAce played depressingly straight and absorbing a disproportionate amount of praise from others despite the many terrible things he did, only admitting his failings to look humbler and even ''more'' praiseworthy. Opinions on him, like opinions on Sasuke, also tend to be very dependent on whether or not you see the Uchiha Massacre as a genocide; if it's not, Itachi is a hero or at worst a WellIntentionedExtremist, but if it is, then he was (at best) a brainwashed and exploited thirteen-year-old with [[ScyllaAndCharybdis no real good options]], or (at worst) a brainwashed enforcer of an oppressive system who suffers under extreme InternalizedCategorism. |
| 73 | *** Madara is either seen as a complex WellIntentionedExtremist and the embodiment of EvilIsCool who managed to become one of the heroes' greatest threats, or a boring InvincibleVillain with [[EvilIsPetty rather petty motives]], and broke too many rules of established {{canon}}. Or, to a certain degree, ''both''. |
| 74 | *** Obito Uchiha. Initially an EnsembleDarkhorse due to his kindness and loyalty to his friends in ''Kakashi Gaiden'', the revelation that he was Tobi all along turned him into a more divisive character. One camp either sees him as a TragicVillain who was a victim of war and Madara's manipulations, while others see him as a PsychopathicManchild due to his motivations being summed to the death of a girl he loved in his childhood, which [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic hardly justifies the sheer scale of the atrocities he had committed]]. |
| 75 | ** For a non-Uchiha example, there's Sakura Haruno. For the longest time, Sakura was TheScrappy of the series for being [[TheLoad useless in most fights]], [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale regularly assaulting Naruto]], and [[SatelliteCharacter having little purpose beyond worrying about Naruto and Sasuke]]. However, in recent years, there have been a growing number of fans who argue that her negative traits are [[RonTheDeathEater exaggerated]] and that she actually has her fair share of cool moments. And while most agree that Sakura was given hardly anything to do in the narrative, there are some who at least believe [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter she had the potential to be interesting]]. Even after her portrayal in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap gained her more fans]] for becoming [[TookALevelInKindness kinder]] and [[GoodParents a good mother to Sarada]], there are those who still feel that Sakura is largely uninteresting and continues to be largely defined by her relationship with Sasuke and not much else ([[BrokenBase which in itself is hotly debated]]). |
| 76 | * BetterOnDvd: Or better on Crunchyroll, being able to binge this show improves the experience a whole lot, especially considering that the show is heavily reliant on WebcomicTime, the events of part 1 happen in about a couple months, Part 2 last for a 13 to 18 months in universe, the whole 4th ninja war is just 2 or 3 days in universe. Watching it at a pace comparable to in universe makes thing like character development, the lack of it, [[EnsembleDarkhorse some characters]] that never appear again, etc. Less exasperating and make more sense. |
| 77 | ** One big example is Sakura, if you list everything she does in a span of 14 years of publication it is not that impressive for such a main character, if you notice that it's been only a year, it makes more sense and it's easier to see how useful she is and why her feelings for Sasuke do not change, there's literally not enough time, if you take in account how much she did in the last leg of the war, which is a matter of hours it's not surprising she's considered a sannin. |
| 78 | ** Sasuke HeelFaceRevolvingDoor after Itachi's death is much more understandable if we know that's he's being constantly bombarded with new information that completely change his outlook of life in the span of some months and trying to deal with it. |
| 79 | ** A lot of secondary characters have their fights showcased leading to the war and never appear again, considering that's a week at most, they should be grateful of having ADayInTheLimelight. |
| 80 | * BigLippedAlligatorMoment: |
| 81 | ** [[DenserAndWackier Episode 101]] of the original series. The village idiots conspire to exact revenge upon Kakashi by means of hiccuping, laughing and crying powder[[labelnote:*]](granted, it was celebrating the 100th episode)[[/labelnote]]. |
| 82 | ** Anime filler in general does a lot of weird stuff, but the weirdest, most out-of-nowhere moment might be when a ''Shippuden'' villain was revealed to be a floating, talking, body-snatching ''wig'', with zero explanation for how that came to be. She's [[spoiler:killed almost immediately after this reveal, and is never mentioned again]]. |
| 83 | * BizarroEpisode: |
| 84 | ** Episode 101. Apparently they were trying to figure out what Kakashi looked like without his mask, but that didn't make sense. |
| 85 | ** The "prison escape" arc during the Part 1 {{filler}} also qualifies. Two of the main villains are giant men shaped like giant Russian dolls (tiny at the top and wide at the bottom) and equally bottomless; their battle cry is "Food! Food! Food!", and Naruto plays hide-and-seek with them (?). Meanwhile, it turns out that the BigBad of the day is none other than [[spoiler:Mizuki]], who is now fully AxCrazy and has an old grudge against Iruka. For some reason he has grown giant muscles over the previous year, so the previous {{Bishonen}} now looks like one of those scary bodybuilders with a serious case of TestosteronePoisoning. And [[spoiler:Orochimaru supplied him with a potion that turns him into a sort of tiger-thing]]. Pass the [[BrainBleach mind bleach]], please. |
| 86 | ** Many of the one-episode fillers qualify. The first of these was the HotSpringsEpisode 97, which is so different from ''Naruto'' in animation, story and style, it makes you wonder if you're watching the right show. |
| 87 | * BrokenBase: Being such a big and popular LongRunner, the series is bound to have lots of these. |
| 88 | ** The truth of Itachi Uchiha and the Uchiha Clan Massacre is a notable point of contention. Did it redeem his character and effectively portray him as a tragic character, or was it a shoehorned twist that undermined his complexity as an AntiVillain and instead portrayed him as an UnintentionallyUnsympathetic character given the crap he did to Sasuke? |
| 89 | ** The ending and the subsequent spin-offs are very hot topics among those in the fandom. [[Main/FlameWar And we shall leave it]] at that. |
| 90 | ** The entire concept of "Talk-no-Jutsu" from none other than Naruto. While some believe that it signifies a message that people can be redeemed even after what they've done, others downright hate it because of how cheap it is for Naruto to just defeat villains with just words, while believing that the villains are already irredeemable in the first place. Not to mention how it feels like a massive AssPull when they have a big HeelRealization (Don't get us started on Obito...). |
| 91 | ** [[spoiler:Sasuke and Sakura's relationship]], especially after they officially get together in the ending. Not so much in the sense of them getting together (albeit that's another [[ShipToShipCombat big point of controversy too]]) but rather whether or not they're an actual functional couple. Some people think that the problems they face are justified, and that the fact that they stay together is a testament to how much they truly love each other. Others think that the pair is together just out of sheer delusion (specially on [[spoiler:Sakura's]] part), and that it should be bound to fall apart sooner rather than later. |
| 92 | ** Whether [[spoiler:Naruto]] is a good family man after [[spoiler:he becomes Hokage]]. Again, some people find it justified, and a testament of how much that family loves each other. Others think he is being completely neglectful, and that is bound to bring some serious problems. |
| 93 | ** The Power-scaling escalation of the series over time can provoke this reaction. There are those who prefer the smaller scale, more tactic and martial arts focused combat of Part I and early shippuden over the latter stages focus on excessively more powerful ninjutsu, which many deride for abandoning concepts such as stealth and hand signs for the sake of DBZ level spectacle and fight scenes. There is also the feeling that the increase and concentration of power in main characters, resulted in many supporting characters being left behind in the dust due to an inability to maintain pace. However there are those who welcome the changes and consider them a natural extension of the characters growth in power and for bringing a higher dimension to the combat and excitement, and while they agree that hand signs and certain characters were abandoned in the process, they believe that complaints of strategy and tactics being abandoned are overblown. |
| 94 | * CantUnHearIt: Many fans consider Creator/MegumiHan's performance as young Obito to be a lot more memorable than that of his original voice actor, Sosuke Komori. |
| 95 | * CaptainObviousReveal: |
| 96 | ** The identity of Naruto's father. Didn't see [[SarcasmMode THAT]] one coming. |
| 97 | ** Tobi is [[spoiler:Obito]]. After it was confirmed Tobi wasn't Madara, he was the most obvious choice. So obvious, that many were pushing other Uchiha (most notably Izuna) as an alternative identity. This eventually died down when the chapters leading up to TheReveal made it so blatantly obvious that it was him that it literally could not have been anyone else. Not like anyone was surprised because his true name is [[spoiler:literally ''[[TheUntwist an anagram of his fake name plus one letter]]''. It's worse when written in kanji -- it's the same two characters, but in reverse]]. |
| 98 | * CharacterPerceptionEvolution: |
| 99 | ** Hiruzen Sarutobi was once highly regarded by the fanbase for being a CoolOldGuy who was a ReasonableAuthorityFigure when dealing with Naruto's antics, and his HeroicSacrifice was regarded as one of the saddest moments in the franchise's history. However, Sarutobi's reputation took a massive hit in Part II, where many of his failings during his second tenure as Hokage were revealed. Examples include enabling the Uchiha Clan Massacre as well as the village's ostracization of Naruto, the latter of which is a major sticking point among the fanbase as his inaction contributed to Naruto's troubled childhood. The anime doesn't help matters by revealing that Hiruzen promised to Naruto's parents ''while their bodies were not even in their graves'' that he would take care of Naruto, which paints him in a more negative light. |
| 100 | ** The entire Uchiha Clan underwent this twice over: During the manga's early run, many viewed them as sympathetic and badass. This provoked an enormous backlash as the story began to revolve around them more and they became widely viewed in TheNewTens as everything wrong with "edgelord" characters alongside receiving common criticism for taking over the manga, particularly in the realm of villains. In the late [=2010s=] and TheNew20s, however, fans expressed that they were at least complex and interesting alongside giving the story direction; while debate still rages about how sympathetic they are and how well they're executed, many fans came to praise the Uchiha for being comparatively much more varied and interesting than the Otsutsuki Clan that followed them in the antagonist role. |
| 101 | ** Sasuke Uchiha was overwhelmingly considered an UnintentionallyUnsympathetic wimp by fans as the series went on. After the second part wrapped and ''especially'' after [[Manga/{{Boruto}} the sequel]]'s own controversial handling of the character (Particularly him being a NiceGuy in the New Era but receiving a RedemptionDemotion), many fans have admitted they feel they were unfair to him, and the division around the character now centers around whether he was handled well rather than a sense that he was a terrible character unto himself. |
| 102 | ** In the [=2000s=] and TheNewTens, Itachi Uchiha was viewed as ''the'' badass of the Uchiha Clan and the franchise on the whole and a WellIntentionedExtremist. In TheNew20s, however, many fans (particularly those who began to sympathize with Sasuke more) came to feel that Itachi was a messy character who received too much CharacterShilling and who had done more harm than good, particularly with his actions toward his own family. Whether this makes him [[BrokenAce more likable]] or [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic less so]] is still debated. |
| 103 | ** Tobi was viewed, at the time of TheReveal surrounding him [[spoiler: being Obito Uchiha]], as a monstrous UnintentionallyUnsympathetic character whose motives boiled down to being DrivenByEnvy and whose many, ''many'' atrocities aren't remotely explained by his backstory. Toward the start of the TheNew20s, however, it became much more common to see fans arguing that when you look at his entire backstory, Tobi was a genuine WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds who was more a victim of [[CharacterizationMarchesOn inconsistent writing]] and too much CharacterShilling than anything else. |
| 104 | ** Sakura Haruno was widely considered TheScrappy during the series' run due to being seen as [[TheLoad useless]] and annoying. While [[BaseBreakingCharacter many still don't like her character]], now that the series has long concluded along with the ShipToShipCombat, many have come to see Sakura less as the scrappy and more as the biggest victim of Kishimoto's poor handling of female characters as many of the complaints fans raised about her were largely due to his inability to give her a compelling narrative or expand her characterization beyond being a satellite character to Naruto's and Sasuke's stories. Even her reputation for being useless is now largely discredited as she is acknowledged as one of the most powerful members of Konaha 12, but simply [[CantCatchUp suffers]] from being constantly compared to Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi who received much more attention and development. This combined with her [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap much more positive reception]] in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', has lead many to reevaluate her character. |
| 105 | * CommonKnowledge: |
| 106 | ** [[spoiler:Obito/Tobi]] is absolutely not the mastermind of Mist's policy to exterminate bloodline users, largely because no such policy actually ''existed''. While bloodline users ''were'' persecuted in the Water country, that was by ordinary people, not the Mist village; the only clan the Mist wiped out was the Kaguya clan, and that was only in self-defence. Nowhere in the manga is it stated that the Mist conspired to annihilate bloodlines or that he had any problem in particular with non-Uchiha bloodlines. |
| 107 | ** No, the Rinnegan isn't produced by mixing Uchiha and Senju DNA, but by mixing Asura and Indra's chakra. [[RightForTheWrongReasons The fact that Madara's plan to acquire it was successful despite his initial assumption being wrong was pure luck]]. |
| 108 | ** Iwa is claimed to hate Minato and will kill anyone even related to him despite the fact that he's dead. It's usually the reason why Naruto's parentage is hidden. The Fourth Hokage has never even been mentioned by any Iwa Shinobi. What Iwa had was a "flee on sight" order regarding Minato during the last Shinobi War (when Iwa and Konoha were on opposing sides), because [[PersonOfMassDestruction Minato was too powerful for any of them to stand a chance against]], with the possible exception of [[OldMaster the Tsuchikage]]. This doesn't indicate any grudge against him, just a tactical judgement that it's never wise to fight the OneManArmy on his own terms. |
| 109 | ** Kurenai has been claimed to have been in Hinata's life since she was a child. However multiple (anime-only) flashbacks say otherwise. |
| 110 | ** ''Naruto'' doesn't take place in the past, but in a RetroUniverse. They have modern technologies like cellphones and video games but lack automobiles and guns. ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', which takes place less than two decades later, is straight-up modern in most respects. |
| 111 | ** The idea that you need to be twelve to become a genin is incorrect. There is no known minimum age to be a ninja. Kakashi, for example, is indicated to have become a chunin at the age of 6, meaning he was that old at the most when he became a genin. |
| 112 | ** Many people think that genin are all beginner ninja. That is not true. A ninja could theoretically never become a chunin. The chunin exams even showed a lot of adults taking the exam. Might Guy's father, however, showed that while adults can be permanent genin, it's seen as very embarrassing (similar to, say, never graduating high school or college). |
| 113 | ** No, Naruto is not immune to Genjutsu, even after getting into good terms with Kurama (It was even shown that he was vulnerable to the Infinite Tsukuyomi, which is why he, Kakashi and Sakura had to be shielded from it by Sasuke's Susanoo). What was actually said was that when a Jinchuriki who has control over their Biju and is in good terms with it, falls under a Genjutsu, its Biju could act as a partner and snap them out of it. So there could be cases when the Biju is either unable or, for any number of reasons, unwilling to snap them out of it (as it probably happened during ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie''); plus it was shown with Killer Bee that the Jinchuriki ''does'' experience the Genjutsu for a few seconds before being snapped back by the Biju, which with cases like [[YearInsidehourOutside the Tsukuyomi]] would be more than enough to take the Jinchuriki out (this is even remarked by Naruto during his and Killer Bee's encounter with a resurrected Itachi), and if the opponent uses genjutsu simultaneously on the Biju and Jinchuriki it will work as normal. |
| 114 | ** Due the fact that Danzo is a staunch adherent of Tobirama's teachings (though he misinterpreted them pretty badly) and his relationship with Hiruzen was a big part of his character, a lot of people are under the impression that Danzo was Tobirama's student and Hiruzen's teammate. He wasn't; Tobirama's students besides Hiruzen were Koharu and Homura. A flashback ''implied'' that Danzo's teammates were Kagami Uchiha and Torifu Akimichi, while the identity of his sensei was never revealed. |
| 115 | ** There's a widespread rumour that [[spoiler:Kaguya]] was introduced as the TrueFinalBoss of the story because Kishimoto had written himself into a corner by making the current BigBad Madara Uchiha too powerful. While Kishimoto has admitted in an interview that he indeed made Madara too powerful, there were already instances of foreshadowing that there was a GreaterScopeVillain pulling the strings before the War arc even began, already hinting that Madara won't be the FinalBoss. |
| 116 | ** A lot of people wrongly believe that the Flying Thundergod/Hiraishin Jutsu produces a golden flash of light upon being used, which is where Minato Namikaze's moniker "[[RedBaron The Yellow Flash]]" comes from. Both the manga and anime shows not to be the case, with the users simply instantly vanishing and reappearing somewhere else without any special effect involved. Minato's nickname of the Yellow Flash came from the fact that he could move so fast (even without the Hiraishin) that most people only saw a yellow blur. |
| 117 | ** Izanagi, which retcons every negative outcome te user sustained throughout the jutsu's activation, works on a time-limit; it does not deactivate when the caster is injuried or dies, meaning the caster may die or get injured multiple times during the time-limit, the negative outcomes will be retconned. And the jutsu has different time-limits for different people; Danzo's was around one minute per eye and for Obito it was speculated to be around five minutes. |
| 118 | * ContestedSequel: ''Naruto Shippuden'' has become this over time due to the [[SpotlightStealingSquad focus put on Sasuke and the Uchiha Clan]], who happen to be [[BaseBreakingCharacter highly divisive characters]], which means that those who like them see this as a good thing, while the opposite goes for those who don't. Ironically, early on it was same because it took so long to put Sasuke on the screen at all, and his conflict with Naruto is, after all, the central conflict of the story. Another common complaint is the SerialEscalation of jutsu to near-''Manga/DragonBall'' levels that left many ninja who weren't part of the most important bloodlines in the dust. |
| 119 | * CrazyIsCool: |
| 120 | ** Rock Lee and Might Guy. They may be eccentric fitness junkies obsessed with the power of youth, but damn can they kick ass at the same time. This is especially so with Might Guy with his [[spoiler:epic beatdown on Madara.]] |
| 121 | ** The ''entire Hidden Cloud Village'', from a Jinchuriki of the Hachibi who prefers rapping over fighting, the Raikage who uses wrestling moves and being able to play Sasuke like a fool, to his bodyguard who seems lazy but is actually a strong and capable bodyguard who is next in line for the Raikage. |
| 122 | * CreatorWorship: Creator/MasashiKishimoto gets a bit of this, but in particular gets a lot of it from the video game company Creator/CyberConnect2, who makes a lot of good licensed games based on the Naruto that even Kishimoto himself loves and approves of. |
| 123 | %% * CreepyAwesome: Many villains; Zetsu, Sasori, Deidara, Hidan, Kabuto, Kisame, Orochimaru, Itachi, Kimimaro, Pain, Konan, Tobi, and Madara. For non-villainous examples there's Shino and the Tailed Beasts. |
| 124 | * CrossoverShip: Along with almost everyone in the series, Naruto is shipped with countless characters from other franchises. [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra]] is one of the most popular thanks to fans who dislike Naruto's LoveTriangle with Sakura and Sasuke and for those who dislike Korra's love interests from the early seasons. But to name a few other characters Naruto is shipped with; [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha Takamichi]], [[Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi Evangeline A.K. [=MacDowell=] and Asuna]], [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Orihime Inoue and Yoruichi Shihoin]] and [[Manga/RosarioPlusVampire Moka Akashiya]]. Or [[OneTrueThreesome All of]] [[HaremGenre them at]] [[{{Polyamory}} the same time]]. |
| 125 | * CryForTheDevil: |
| 126 | ** Gaara seems like an uncontrollable sociopathic monster during the Chuunin Exams, until we learn his backstory and discover he is the For Want Of A Nakama counterpart of Naruto. He mellows out afterwards. |
| 127 | ** Pain was driven by these lengths by three main incidents in his youth which shattered his early idealism and dreams of peace. |
| 128 | ** Kabuto gets one of these too. Forced to kill the woman who raised and loved him as a son in self defense who didn't even recognize him as she had been brainwashed to not recongnize him by Danzo. |
| 129 | ** To say nothing of Obito Uchiha, aka Tobi. Found by the madman known as Madara and forced to watch as the love of his life killed herself by stepping in front of his best friend's jutsu, all to save their village, and then there's the Uchiha Clan's Curse of Hatred... you really can't blame the guy for going insane. |
| 130 | * DiagnosedByTheAudience: Fans speculate that Kaguya Ōtsutsuki has some form of disorder due to her aloof nature and not normally showing emotions, appearing near-emotionless around the father of her sons, not even showing visible emotion around the servant she was attached to until the girl died trying to protect Kaguya. When other members of the clan appear in ''Boruto'' they act much more human, albeit as SmugSnake villains. |
| 131 | [[/folder]] |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:E-F]] |
| 134 | * EndingFatigue: The final arc, taking a day and a half InUniverse, went on for about three years. The initial action mainly serves to give the side characters ADayInTheLimelight, with the overall plot not really advancing until Naruto arrives. Then the fighting turns into a tug-of-war marathon, with each side endlessly churning out increasingly powerful techniques. During this, the actual main antagonist [[TheBigBadShuffle changed at least seven times]], with some villains getting the focus multiple times each, and with several of them declaring that everything has gone AllAccordingToPlan for them. When the war finally ends, [[spoiler:Sasuke declares he will take over the world to reform the shinobi system, triggering the long-awaited final battle between him and Naruto]]. While the author had already stated that the final battle would be between them and Naruto, it still felt like yet another extension to an already bloated arc. |
| 135 | ** After the end of the war, the anime took a detour to adapt the Konoha Hiden novels, before finally ending the series on episode 500 with [[spoiler:Naruto and Hinata's wedding]]. |
| 136 | * EpilepticTrees: Fans who dislike the ending like to theorize that Madara really ''did'' win and every event since Tsukuyomi's activation has been an illusion, with the heroes [[SchrodingersButterfly still imprisoned in the dream world]]. Never mind that this has continually been {{Jossed}} to hell and back. |
| 137 | * EsotericHappyEnding: |
| 138 | ** Sakura Haruno. Her ending sees her married to her longtime crush Sasuke Uchiha and having a daughter, Sarada. Great! Except for the fact that in the intervening years after Sasuke had pulled a FaceHeelTurn, he succumbed to the Curse of Hatred that plagued the Uchiha clan for generations, attacked Sakura both physically and psychologically on several occasions, and tried to murder her friends. But after [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor turning Face again]], he develops genuine affection for her and marries her in his travels around the world. At one point, Sakura becomes pregnant with their daughter, Sarada. After she gives birth at one of Orochimaru's hideouts, they return in Konoha to raise their daughter together. Unfortunately, he had to leave again to investigate Kaguya, while Sarada was very young. Sakura, has no other choice, but to raise Sarada alone. Years pass, which means that Sakura doesn't see Sasuke for many years, and he is away from seeing his daughter growing up. In time, Sarada grows being conflicted about Sasuke and distrustful of her own mother, after being kept in the dark for her own safety for too many years. Most fans believe that this was another unnecessary drama, and that Kishimoto could have just made Sasuke leave from time to time, as him being parted from his family for so long didn't affect the plot in the long run. The fact that Kishimoto created this storyline as a "TakeThat" [[TrollingCreator to troll]] the people who couldn't comprehend that Sarada was Sasuke and Sakura's daughter, didn't calmed the spirits, making Sasusaku divisive even among their shippers. |
| 139 | ** Many fans were also unsatisfied with the fates of the villains. Of the BigBadEnsemble members, only [[WellIntentionedExtremist Danzo]], [[GenericDoomsdayVillain Kaguya and Zetsu]] receive severe punishments; the rest are either [[RedemptionEqualsDeath forgiven in death]] ([[DragonWithAnAgenda Nagato]], [[TheManBehindTheMan Obito]], [[PredecessorVillain Madara]]), get a [[EasilyForgiven slap on the wrist]] ([[MadScientist Orochimaru]]) or [[KarmaHoudini just plain aren't punished at all]] ([[DragonAscendant Kabuto]]). |
| 140 | * EstrogenBrigade: The sheer amount of [[{{Bishonen}} pretty boys]] ''definitely'' helped the series to have a fairly big female fanbase. |
| 141 | * EvenBetterSequel: A variant example. The series itself has been continuous since the beginning, and thus has never had need of a true sequel. However, after the drought of {{Filler}} (over eighty continuous episodes, nearly two year's worth) after the animated episodes OvertookTheManga, there was a {{Retool}} to coincide with the series' TimeSkip, leading into ''Naruto: Shippuuden''. Much like the manga it derives from, it jumps in quality to become much more mature, relying far less on toilet humor and greatly emphasizing CharacterDevelopment. The producers also learned their lesson from the Great Filler Drought, interjecting a filler arc in between every 1-2 {{Canon}} story arcs so that there's no chance of [[OvertookTheManga Overtaking the Manga]]. These filler arcs are worth mentioning, in that they are actual story arcs of fairly decent quality, unlike the pre-TimeSkip episodes which were mostly stand-alone slapstick. |
| 142 | * EvilIsCool: All members of the Akatsuki fall under this in varying degrees. Also Madara Uchiha though it depends on the reader. |
| 143 | * FandomRivalry: |
| 144 | ** With ''Manga/OnePiece'' and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', especially since it has a DuelingShows dynamic with the former. |
| 145 | ** With ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', with some fans even accusing it of ripping it off. Ironic, considering Kishimoto and Yoshihiro Togashi are friends in real life. |
| 146 | ** A point of contention with parts of the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' fandom is a short snippet of the fight between Naruto and Neji in episode 60 of the anime, which has identical choreography to a part of a fight in the Cowboy Bebop [[Anime/CowboyBebopKnockinOnHeavensDoor movie]][[http://i.imgur.com/TFaTK.gif]]. The sticking point is whether the segment was intended as an {{Homage}} or not. |
| 147 | * FanonDiscontinuity: |
| 148 | ** In the Shipping Fandom, ALL sides (especially the Big Three [[LikeBrotherAndSister NaruSaku]], [[OfficialCouple NaruHina]], and [[LoveHurts SasuSaku]], as well as [[TrueCompanions NaruSasu]]) like to ignore some parts of the manga that support other couples. Some (extreme) [[ShipMates NaruHina and SasuSaku]] fans refuse to believe/remember any chapters/pages that could hint at [[JustFriends NaruSaku]]. Some (also extreme) [[JustFriends NaruSaku]] fans downplay Hinata's actions (especially the Pain battle). Goes even further when the characters themselves suffer from discontinuity (particularly [[DieforOurShip Sakura]] who suffers to the extreme) in that thoughts, feelings, words, and actions are ignored just because it could be used as support for the other pairing. |
| 149 | ** The fandom has gone into apoplectic fits trying to reconcile sudden plot twist after the battle between Sasuke and Itachi. The problem isn't so much the idea of him having been secretly loyal to Konoha all these years, but the fact that there was nothing whatsoever in the manga even suggesting such a thing, making the revelation seem like an AssPull out of left field. |
| 150 | *** After said revelation, Sasuke haters tended to forget that Itachi pretty much destroyed his sanity. The fan discontinuity from both ends of the Itachi-reaction spectrum was pretty astounding. |
| 151 | *** Some fans are just disgusted by the notion of genocide as a peace-keeping measure (he killed every single Uchiha but Sasuke, including civilians, children, etc). |
| 152 | ** After Chapter 449, some fans seem to just tell themselves that Pain never invaded Konoha. Konoha's a crater now because of a sinkhole that appeared offscreen. |
| 153 | *** Those that did enjoy the Invasion arc usually don't have [[OffModel good]] [[MemeticMutation things]] to say about the anime's rendition of it. Of special note is ''Shippuden'' episode 167, which was massively criticized for its art style. |
| 154 | *** Due to how controversial the later arcs are that occur after, many consider Naruto returning to Konoha after dealing with Pain to be the true ending of the series. The anime successfully makes it feel like a series ending in episode 175 thanks to its use of "Departure to the Front Lines" over a series of flashbacks regarding what Naruto accomplished throughout the series until that point, as well as the villagers slowly warming up to Naruto along the way. |
| 155 | *** In general, a great number of fans (or haters) of any characters tend to reject pieces of {{canon}} that show the characters in a negative (or positive) light. |
| 156 | ** The [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]] as a whole cuts this. Partly due to its sheer length and because the plot takes increasingly bizarre turns with the main villain constantly changing. (You think it's Madara? Nope, it's this Kaguya woman who was only just introduced 40 chapters ago!) Characters pulling out new abilities through asspulls to keep the story moving. The whole arc is widely regarded by fans as a mess. |
| 157 | ** With Chapter 700, some fans (mostly [[DieForOurShip Die For Our Ships]], although non-shippers are also pretty vocal) are denying the existence of the epilogue. This is mostly due to the lack of resolution to political issues, the number of ShipSinking and what appears to be an EsotericHappyEnding. |
| 158 | ** The continuation manga ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', not only for bringing the series into FranchiseZombie territory, but also for [[spoiler:apparently killing off Naruto.]] |
| 159 | * FanDislikedExplanation: |
| 160 | ** The revelation that [[spoiler:chakra came from a literal ForbiddenFruit]] rubbed some people the wrong way. [[spoiler:The story feels out of place, with a sudden Biblical ForbiddenFruit background amidst all the Japanese mythology and Buddhism]], as well as adding a PlotHole regarding how [[spoiler:people can die from the loss of chakra that they never had in the first place.]] |
| 161 | ** The Revelation that [[spoiler:Naruto and Sasuke were the reincarnations of the sons of the Sage of Six Paths and that the entire conflict between them was preordained to happen.]] Many dislike this twist since it devalues their rivalry and relationship by having it not be the result of their own distinct conflicting characterizations and backgrounds, but rather having it simply be another occurrence of a long line of rivals in a conflict that only exists because Destiny says so. It's not uncommon for fans to use this revelation as proof that Neiji was correct in his belief that the Ninja world is governed by destiny. |
| 162 | ** In tandem with the previous explanations, many did not like the explanation regarding what Black Zetsu was; [[spoiler:essentially he is the third son of Kaguya who manipulated every conflict across Shinobi History for the sake of resurrecting his mother.]] Many found this twist a cheap way to remove Madara and Obito from the story and replace them with the far less popular [[spoiler:Kaguya]], and lend the entire story an element of artificially since none of it occurred naturally without Black Zetsu's involvement. |
| 163 | * FoeYayShipping: Madara's fixation with Hashirama was so big it led many fans to interpret it as Madara being in love with him. |
| 164 | * FranchiseOriginalSin: Even in early episodes you could already see that Sasuke was going to be really important and tips about how the Uchiha clan's MythArc is key were dropped. Then Sasuke became [[SpotlightStealingSquad really important]], and the Uchiha clan's MythArc [[PlotTumor swallowed the plot]]. [[BrokenBase It's a sore spot between fans whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between]]. |
| 165 | * FriendlyFandoms: |
| 166 | ** With ''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia,'' due to them covering similar themes, the fact that the manga started around the same time ''Naruto's'' ended, leading to some looking to it as something to fill the void, and the fact that Creator/KoheiHorikoshi was a fan of ''Naruto'' and named it as one of his inspirations. |
| 167 | ** With ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', heavily because the two series ended in the same year. |
| 168 | ** With ''Anime/QueensBlade'' of all things, despite the two series having little in common besides being action oriented. That said, some of Naruto's female characters wouldn't be out place in ''Queen's Blade'', like [[FanservicePack Ino Yamanaka]], [[MsFanservice Tsunade]] and [[HiddenBuxom Hinata Hyuga]]. |
| 169 | [[/folder]] |
| 170 | |
| 171 | [[folder:G-L]] |
| 172 | * GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: |
| 173 | ** While the anime is popular in Japan, it's even bigger in America and Europe (and the manga is ''comparatively'' more popular, though as with all manga sales they are much lower in foreign markets). |
| 174 | *** Special note for the anime is it became quite the crazy CashCowFranchise not seen in America since the ''Franchise/SailorMoon''/''Anime/DragonBallZ''/''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' craze of the 90's. |
| 175 | ** Orochimaru is met with better reception in the West than in Japan, with many fans seeing him as a far more interesting and entertaining villain than the Uchihas. |
| 176 | ** A lot of American fans '''love''' Might Guy for being both completely loopy and also a [[BadassNormal hardcore, skull-cracking badass]] who spends most of his screentime beating the shit out of people with his bare hands. |
| 177 | * {{Glurge}}: The central lesson is that ThePowerOfFriendship can overcome anything, as long as enough people support. But it's delivered so ridiculously that it's impossible to apply it to real-life; by the end, the story believes so strongly in DefeatMeansFriendship that it works on villains who were previously trying to [[KillAllHumans wipe out humanity]] and did nothing to ''deserve'' such redemption. The show tried to mitigate this by bringing us Kaguya, a PhysicalGod, who comes out of nowhere to retroactively excuse the other villains' crimes. |
| 178 | * GottaShipEmAll: Every character in this series is shipped with somebody, '''EVERYONE'''. |
| 179 | * GrowingTheBeard: Any moment in Part I that serves the methodical advancement from crass jokes/filler to epic sacrifices can qualify, but the introduction of Orochimaru and his ambitious plot are probably the turning point. |
| 180 | * HarsherInHindsight: |
| 181 | ** When Rock Lee was left crippled by Gaara during the Chuunin preliminaries, he was thought to be left with a CareerEndingInjury until he's healed by Tsunade. Years later, his sensei Might Gai would also end up with CareerEndingInjury when he used all Eight Gates. Unlike Lee, however, his injury was permanent and can't be healed. Fortunately, spin-offs would show that it does not make him any less badass for it. |
| 182 | ** When Naruto first defeated Neji in the chuunin exam, he convinced him that he isn't bound by fate, just as Naruto is able to defeat him even though he is a failure, while Neji is born with a pedigree that makes him strong. Later we learn that Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage and his mother came from a clan that was related to the first two Hokages, making his pedigree even better than Neji's, and meaning that if fate existed, it was fated for Neji to be defeated by Naruto. What makes this worse is that Naruto is TheChosenOne of a prophecy, destined to either save the world or destroy it. [[{{Irony}} No matter which way you spin it, Neji turned out to be right in the end]]. |
| 183 | ** Nagato/Pain's plan involved using the combined power of all nine Tailed Beasts within the Gedo Mazou statue, so that he can use a kinjutsu powerful enough to wipe out a nation, pressuring people to peace, for prolonged periods of time. Already it sounds disturbing, so that could possibly be worse than that? Well, later Tobi revealed that the Gedo Mazou is a vessel for the [[EldritchAbomination Ten-Tailed Beast]]! And now let's think about how Nagato could use a demon whose chakra is so evil and which according to Kurama, can create entire continents and swallowed whole oceans? How he planned to use it as a weapon to use to wipe out a nation and leave it until war broke out again and one side got to it first, would have reintroduced the world to unspeakable horrors, all in the name of world peace? When Minato told Naruto that Nagato was probably an UnwittingPawn to Tobi, he wasn't wrong. |
| 184 | ** In Chapter 244, after Kakashi passes out while fighting the Rock ninjas, and having to leave Obito behind under a pile of rubble, two sentences come up, "Have I died?" and "Where am I?" The first happened on a black screen after Kakashi passed out. The second appears right after that on the next page on a star filled sky, we see Kakashi wake up, and assume he thought those words. In Chapter 601 (YEARS later in-story and in the real world) those words are repeated as Tobi flashes back to when he awoke half-dead, and missing his right half of his body, Madara having saved him. |
| 185 | ** In his heart-to-heart talk with Nagato, Naruto promises to him and Konan that he will make Amegakure into a better place once he becomes Hokage. Come ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', it's revealed that Amegakure fell into a far worse state following Nagato and Konan's deaths, making Naruto's promise come off as hollow and only reinforces their views of how smaller countries like Amegakure kept getting stepped on by their more powerful neighbors. |
| 186 | * HeartwarmingInHindsight: Although it's a {{Filler}} episode, in episode 159 of the original anime, Naruto and [[FanOfUnderdog Hinata]] have a cute moment together when he eats one of her riceballs and compliments her by telling her she's going to make a good wife someday. Nine years after that episode aired, the manga ended with an [[DistantFinale epilogue]] revealing that [[spoiler:the two did get HappilyMarried and started a family.]] Then, a month after the manga ended, a [[Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie canonical movie]] was released, and it showed [[spoiler:how [[LoveRevelationEpiphany Naruto realized his love for Hinata]] and how they finally became an OfficialCouple]]. |
| 187 | * HesJustHiding: |
| 188 | ** Fans of Jiraiya deny that he died, despite the fact that he was impaled through the chest repeatedly, lost copious amounts of blood, had emotional flashbacks reflecting on his failures and accomplishments in life, transferred his knowledge of the enemy to a frog messenger for Naruto, and sunk to the bottom of a lake while his vision faded to blackness. The fan rationale? It was just one of his shadow clones (even though those would disappear after even ''one'' of those things happened). |
| 189 | ** Itachi's death was questioned, despite Tobi implicitly stating that his body is lying around somewhere by saying Sasuke could have taken his eyes. Made even worse during the winter break of 2009/2010, when he made a "reappearance" which readers could tell was just genjutsu from a mile away. And then completely finished off when Kabuto used Impure World Resurrection, which only works on the dead, to briefly bring back zombie-Itachi. |
| 190 | ** Many fans believed that Obito Uchiha was just hiding, as Tobi of all people. [[BigBad They were right]]. |
| 191 | * HilariousInHindsight: |
| 192 | ** In the ''Shippuden'' dub, Chiyo is voiced by Barbara Goodson. Her grandson, Sasori is voiced by Creator/JohnnyYongBosch. That's right, [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Rita Repulsa and Adam]] are doing role reversal (Goodson as one of the heroes, and Bosch as a villain). |
| 193 | ** The joke when Choji sees Naruto's [[RazorWind Rasenshuriken]] and assumes, based on the name, that it was a projectile attack ([[ElementalPunch it isn't]]). Nearly one hundred chapters later, [[spoiler:it shows up again and now it ''is'']]. |
| 194 | ** ''Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja'' is a ''Shippuden'' movie set in an alternate universe. The difference? Naruto's parents are alive and Sakura's are dead. Now remember that comment Sakura made in Episode 3 of the original anime about Naruto and his behavior because of a lack of parents and it turns into GallowsHumor. |
| 195 | ** Back in the first chapter/episode, Naruto is doing graffiti all over the Hokage Monument. [[spoiler:One of them is his dad.]] |
| 196 | ** Chapter 599 revealed that [[spoiler:Obito is the BigBad Tobi, while in the English dub Obito was voiced by Creator/VicMignogna who also voiced "serious Tobi" in one of the video games. Consequently, Tobi might not be a [[MemeticMutation good boy]] now, but he once was one.]] |
| 197 | ** In the preview for episode 25 attached to the end of episode 24, Naruto is freaking out over Part I of the Chuunin Exams, worried that he'll be "the oldest living Genin". As of ''The Last'', Naruto's still a Genin and it looks like he's gonna stay that way. [[AlmightyJanitor Not that it really matters]]. |
| 198 | ** In one {{Omake}}, Sakura calls out the staff because the current ending only features Hinata. The omake ends with her angrily demanding her own ending - which she got for the very next ending. |
| 199 | ** Naruto's fight with Gaara has him and Gamabunta do a joint transformation into an image of the kyuubi, though just to use its tails and claws for gripping. [[spoiler:During the [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]], Naruto gains the ability to turn into the real thing.]] |
| 200 | ** Creator/AkiraIshida (Gaara of the Desert's Japanese VA) is the defacto voice actor in Japan for [[Franchise/StarWars Luke Skywalker]]. Luke was raised in Tatooine, a ''desert'' planet. Hiroshi Iwasaki (Shukaku's Japanese VA and Gaara's Tailed Beast) is also the defacto Japanese VA for ''C-3PO'' in the same franchise. Extra hilarity both Shukaku and C-3PO are the opposite of each other. Even more hilarious is the fact Gaara's life is basically [[spoiler:what could happened if Luke was raised by his father Anakin aka Darth Vader, rather by his uncles and killing (a resurrected) Vader by himself, rather than Emperor Palpatine]]. |
| 201 | ** Creator/TesshoGenda's role as the Kurama The Nine-tailed Fox is pretty hilarious if you take into account he voiced some roles with some odd relation with him voicing a [[AnimalisticAbomination giant-sized fox]]. |
| 202 | *** As [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]] in Japanese: Kratos' main speciality is killing creatures like Kurama for breakfast, and that's before going against ''gods''. |
| 203 | *** As WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn in Japanese: You know, foxes eats poultry. |
| 204 | *** As [[Film/PacificRim Stacker Pentecost]] in Japanese: Stacker's job is stopping apocalypses in a HumongousMecha against the {{Kaiju}}. Kurama is a {{Kaiju}}-sized fox who causes '''them'''. |
| 205 | *** As [[Manga/YuYuHakusho Younger Toguro]]: Well, Kurama has his name because of that series. |
| 206 | ** There are a number of dramatic scenes where [[http://i.imgur.com/Yf1vVaP.jpg Naruto proudly proclaims]] [[http://i.imgur.com/tZyuQr3.jpg he's going to become hokage no matter what]]. Which kinda gives the impression that being the Hokage is awesome. [[spoiler:Well, Naruto eventually becomes hokage and [[http://i.imgur.com/WBxxUNB.jpg it turns out the job isn't all it's cracked up to be in the slightest]]]]. |
| 207 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nFM4wDeXco One FOX "Animation Domination" short]] had the idea that Naruto and Sasuke's final battle would just be them [[SayMyName screaming each other's names]] and ''literally'' kissing and making up. [[spoiler:The final battle is pretty much this, but the "kiss and make up" part is metaphorical.]] |
| 208 | ** In the English dub, Sasuke was voiced by Creator/YuriLowenthal, who would later voice VideoGame/{{Spider|ManPS4}}-Man. In other words, Sasuke finally became an [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avenger]]. |
| 209 | ** Guy's long-winded BigOMG after realizing that he amounted to an UnknownRival for Kakashi is more hilarious years after its airing now that [[Creator/MasashiEbara his Japanese VA]] became [[TheOtherDarrin the go-to replacement]] of [[Creator/UnshoIshizuka a certain VA]] made famous in the 2010's for [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders a role that requires tons of "OH MY GOD!!"s.]] |
| 210 | * HypeBacklash: This is probably the most popular ninja-based '''anything''' ever and also one of the most looked-down upon in terms of how much of a "generic shonen manga" it is, and the backlash from both directions is proportionate. |
| 211 | * IKnewIt: |
| 212 | ** It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage, which is something that's a common fact for the entire audience. How people in-universe haven't realized this when it's so ''obvious'' is still left unanswered. |
| 213 | ** [[spoiler: Tobi being Obito]] had been a fan theory circulating for years, until it was proven right in Chapter 599. |
| 214 | *** Zetsu being involved in [[spoiler: Obito's survival]] had also been guessed several years before [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3323125/1/Tobi-of-the-forgotten-memories due to this]]. |
| 215 | *** Almost somewhat of a subversion though. [[spoiler: Tobi being Obito was considered by many fans to be so obvious they disregarded the idea outright as way too obvious for the author to do.]] |
| 216 | *** It's also a DoubleSubversion, as [[spoiler: Tobi seemingly {{Jossed}} it by claiming to be Madara Uchiha, only for them to be revealed to be two separate people later on. With Tobi being confirmed to be Obito after all]]. |
| 217 | ** Another theory that had been pretty popular for quite a while and also confirmed to be true was Naruto and Hashirama being [[spoiler:reincarnations of the Younger Son]] while Sasuke and Madara being [[spoiler:reincarnations of the Elder Son]]. |
| 218 | ** With the epilogue and the {{canon}} movie ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie'', [[spoiler:[[FanPreferredCouple Naruto/Hinata]] shippers]] were [[OfficialCouple proven correct]]. |
| 219 | * InformedWrongness: Kishimoto remarked in an interview that his reason for why Sakura still ended up with Sasuke, despite [[FaceHeelTurn him being an antagonist for the majority of the series]], repeatedly trying to kill her and her friends, and even telling her to her face that she was an idiot to have feelings for him, is that she would've been a bad person if she'd given up on her feelings. [[DieForOurShip Shipping wars aside]], this ''really'' doesn't hold water: her feelings for him even when they were on the same team largely consisted of a schoolgirl crush on the neighborhood hottie, a boy whom she barely knew and shared essentially no meaningful interactions with before he left the team. Not to mention the fact that [[LoveMartyr it reeks of an abused girlfriend convinced she can change the man she's with if she just tries hard enough]]. Other characters give up on relationships throughout the manga without being portrayed as wrong: Naruto abandoning his own crush on Sakura herself was portrayed as a sign of maturity on his part. |
| 220 | * ItsPopularNowItSucks: Before the anime's release in the West, ''Naruto'' was hotly anticipated, beloved by the anime/manga fandom, and heavily requested for import, second only to ''Manga/OnePiece''. After its release in the West and subsequent evolution to CashCowFranchise, ''Naruto'' started to suffer large amounts of HypeBacklash with detractors deeming it a "generic shonen series" and bashing popular characters such as the Uchihas and the Akatsuki at every possible opportunity, essentially turning ''Naruto'' into the anime equivalent of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''. However, this has subsided as the franchise's heyday has come and gone. |
| 221 | * ItWasHisSled: |
| 222 | ** Sasuke abandons Konoha right before the TimeSkip, and the mission to bring him back ends in failure. Sasuke actually spends most of the story away from the village, and one of the overarching plot points in Part 2 is Naruto's struggle to bring him back, so few people are going to be surprised by this. |
| 223 | ** Itachi was actually a WellIntentionedExtremist who slaughtered his own clan to protect Konoha from their coup d'état. |
| 224 | ** Tobi not only isn't the real Madara Uchiha, he's also Obito. Both were ''huge'' spoilers when first revealed, but by the time they were animated, both facts had become almost impossible to hide. The fact that "Tobi is Obito" is a very popular fan theory ever since Tobi's introduction is just icing on the cake. |
| 225 | ** Naruto's father is the Fourth Hokage. This was regarded as common knowledge long before it was officially confirmed. |
| 226 | ** The final {{Official Couple}}s: Naruto/Hinata, Sasuke/Sakura, Shikamaru/Temari, Sai/Ino and [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Chouji/Karui]]. |
| 227 | * LauncherOfAThousandShips: |
| 228 | ** Naruto. While most commonly shipped with him have varied from Sakura (whom he had a one-sided crush on [[ShipSinking up until Chapter 469]]), Sasuke (due to the massive HoYay between them), and Hinata (due to her having genuine feelings for him and then the UnresolvedSexualTension they developed in the [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]]), it doesn't stop there. He's shipped with almost everyone in the cast; from Tsunade (whom is old enough to be his mother) to Temari, Tenten and Ino (all of whom he rarely spoke to on-screen), and almost any other character you could name. |
| 229 | ** Hinata, surprisingly. She used to provide the trope image in fact. Shipping her with Naruto is the most common, but she's also been shipped with Kiba and Shino, Neji, Gaara, and Sasuke, among others. For the record, Hinata barely has any interaction with Sasuke in the series. |
| 230 | [[/folder]] |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[folder:M-N]] |
| 233 | * {{Macekre}}: The ''German'' dub, to the extreme. No visible wounds, erased weaponry, BloodlessCarnage (which becomes especially grating when for example Neji gets ''shot through with two gigantic arrows''), NeverSayDie, and blood changed into sweat, tears and spit. Additionally, the dialogue is atrocious. |
| 234 | * MemeticBadass: |
| 235 | ** Teuchi, the owner of Ichiraku Ramen, has gathered a massive following amongst fans, considering to be ''the'' most powerful character in the series. Fans like to joke that Naruto gets his {{Next Tier Power Up}}s from eating his ramen, or that he is Tobi's true identity. For a while his name was thrown out there for contender of the 6th Edo Tensei coffin, because Tobi had every right to be scared of his lethal godliness. Then when Tobi's identity was questioned, Ramen Guy was another contender because who else could orchestrate the series' events like this? No body would have seen the sharingan because he always squints. But that was thrown down because the fans got over their joke and agreed that Tobi couldn't be Ramen Guy. If he was, Tobi would have taken over the world LOOONNG ago. |
| 236 | ** Madara Uchiha is a more serious case. While he is legitimately an extremely powerful shinobi, his PlotArmor and [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands ability to access new powers]] takes things up a notch. It escalated to the point that Kishimoto even commented that he had written himself into a corner by making Madara ''too'' powerful. Repeat, Madara was so powerful that not even ''the author'' could find a plausible way to defeat him. Not only that, his entry into the series proper was considered to be the point where the [[SerialEscalation ninjutsu transitioned]] to Dragon Ball-esque levels of destruction. As a result, fans began comparing Madara to Creator/ChuckNorris, listing off many random feats that Madara could be able to pull off. |
| 237 | ** Due in large part to him [[ButterflyOfDoom starting a chain of events that ultimately caused Sasuke to defect from Konoha]] by letting it slip that Itachi came by, thus bringing the story to where it is now, [[http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Aoba_Yamashiro Aoba Yamashiro]] has been hailed as a badass SpannerInTheWorks or ChessMaster by the fans. His legend grew when he showed up again with a team of reinforcements after two major villains succeeded in [[spoiler:killing a major secondary character]]. The villains were ordered to retreat shortly thereafter, but that didn't stop the fans from claiming that they had, in reality, ran in terror at the sight of Aoba and his Murder of Crows no Jutsu. It's worth noting that the databooks state his favorite phrase is in fact "[[Manga/DeathNote Just as planned]]". He's also stated to be the "door master", generally with shoops showing him killing people by opening a door. |
| 238 | ** For a time on Website/{{GameFAQs}}, a running joke on the ''Naruto'' boards claimed that the strongest person in the manga was [[EnsembleDarkhorse Iruka Umino]]. The man who did little more than get hit in the spine with a giant shuriken. Ironically, ''this is one of the reasons fans cite as him being near immortal'', as well as claiming that he possesses [[spoiler:the Rinnegan]] and can dual-wield two [[{{BFS}} BF Zabuza swords]], which are [[MemeticMutation memetically mutated]] into insanely powerful weapons of mass destruction which "cannot be beat" (based on an ad for a toy of one which accomplished the feat of ''tearing rice paper''). |
| 239 | ** Einstein's original theory of relativity said: If Might Guy kicks you, your relatives will feel it. [[spoiler:Humorously, near the end of the manga, Might Guy unleashes a technique that ''bends space and time''.]] |
| 240 | ** It is all part of Shikamaru's {{plan}}. [[GambitRoulette ALL of it; no matter how strange or farfetched]]. Its AllAccordingToPlan. An excerpt from [[http://www.narutoforums.com/showthread.php?t=424008 this thesis]] that meticulously details exactly ''why'' [[MemeticMutation Shikamaru is hot shit:]] |
| 241 | --->"8. Number Eight, He fucking moves shadows. Do you even understand that. Moves...Shadows. THEY ARE FUCKING SHADOWS. IF HE WANTED TO HE WOULD FUCKING TAKE THAT SHADOW ON THE MOON AND PULL THE EARTH AND MAKE A FUCKING EPIC COLLISION." |
| 242 | ** And then there's [[TookALevelInBadass GARuto]]... His latest form, [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6CztPET-kCg/Tx_az9J45-I/AAAAAAAAACI/DWVIZuELtqQ/s1600/3019d851e50c537bef9415b49f229c49.png Tailed Beast Mode]], has a longrobe. Made of ''chakra.'' So far, no character has managed to look that awesome (and open a skyscraper-sized can of whoopass while doing so!). |
| 243 | ** The Raikage was badass from the word "Go", and it now seems Kishimoto is trying to outdo himself each week. So far he's broken a table by accident, [[ThereWasADoor broken through a wall instead of taking the door]], tanking a Chidori with little more than a scratch, [[spoiler:nearly killed Sasuke]], survived Jugo's BeamSpam, punched through [[spoiler:Amaterasu to get to Sasuke (nearly killed him again!)]] and chopped his own burning arm off ''with his hand''. BAD. ASS. [[strike:[[AllThereInTheManual Dude doesn't even have a name yet]]]] [[OneLetterName His name is A]]. It's now generally accepted that his punches are nearing Falcon-level, and can solve pretty much anything. [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer ANYTHING]]. He also [[spoiler:broke the "Zabuza sword"]], and then he [[spoiler:decapitated Kisame, WITH HIS ARM! And not even his good arm (because he didn't have it anymore)!]] |
| 244 | ** A gets it from his Badass father who faced 10000 shinobi '''BY HIMSELF''' for three days!!! |
| 245 | ** The entire Hidden Cloud Village can be considered memetically badass, due to spawning a lot of badass ninjas (WordOfGod has actually stated they're tied for having the biggest army, and have ''the'' best economic strength), and everybody claims that their ninjas can [[spoiler:destroy a village with one pebble]], due to a joke that happened in Chapter 450 when someone from the Cloud Village thought they accidentally did exactly that. |
| 246 | ** A more specific form of this is how some joke that Karin has "Kage level dodging skills" for how she was able to stand in middle of a battle against [[spoiler:multiple Kage]] without getting injured in the crossfire. It may also be called "Kage level survival skills" and also refer to how she was ''[[ManOnFire set on fire]]'' once ([[spoiler:and by [[HellFire Amaterasu]] fire to boot]]) and later getting [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom kicked across a bridge]] and hitting both the ground and a wall from about 50m in the air, again [[ConvectionSchmonvection with minimal]] [[MadeOfIron visible injury]], and then surviving [[spoiler:being impaled by a sword made of electricity.]] |
| 247 | ** The Fanon said that, Tora the cat was said to be a descendant of Nibi the Demon Cat. |
| 248 | ** Paperwork can defeat even the mightiest Kage. |
| 249 | ** [[DrunkenBoxing Drunken]] Rock Lee is unstoppable; not even Madara can NoSell him. |
| 250 | ** The real reason Kisame committed suicide is because he knew he could not stand a chance against Yamato's Headgear. Yamato's headgear is so badass, it is the only non-human/demon to receive any votes in the latest popularity contest. |
| 251 | ** Hashirama is this in-universe for very, VERY, VEEERRRRRYYYY good reason. |
| 252 | ** Some people joke that Tenten will be the hero of story, because she's THE minor character among the Konoha 11. Other claims that she has infinite screentime but that the normal eye can't see it. She's helping out the heroes in the shadows. That being said, she overlaps with MemeticLoser. |
| 253 | ** Itachi has [[MindRape entered your mind]] the minute you start fighting him. He's called the Solo King for a reason. He can defeat anyone, be it Minato, Kaguya, Madara, etc... |
| 254 | * MemeticLoser: |
| 255 | ** [[FauxActionGirl Sakura]] is considered to be the biggest and most prominent example in the series. Aside from being a victim of a case of CantCatchUp with the rest of Team 7, she's also mocked for being TheLoad whose uselessness ends up causing more problems for the story and forced many characters to save her instead. The biggest example is her failure to destroy [[spoiler:Madara's Rinnegan in Obito's possession in time, despite her expertise as a medical ninja, which snowballs into Madara being able to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi and Kaguya's revival]]. Combined with jokes at her expense in anime filler and Kishimoto viewing her as a CreatorsPest, Sakura has become the whipping girl of the series. |
| 256 | ** Kurenai gets some of this for trying to use genjutsu on [[MasterOfIllusion Itachi]], with predictable results. |
| 257 | ** While Sakura still had her highlights, barely anything could be said for Tenten. She has the least amount of screentime out of the Konoha 12, with her first major battle being on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle against Temari (which in the manga was completely ''offscreen''). The climax of the war arc rubs salt to the wound by having her gain possession [[spoiler:of the Six Paths Treasure Tools which could be used against Madara, only for Madara's ''headband'' to destroy the scroll by accident.]] Her primary characterisation amongst fans is to be the OnlySaneMan and StraightMan to her more eccentric teammates. Unlike Sakura, however, Tenten's status actually makes her more popular amongst the fans due to seeing her as TheWoobie. |
| 258 | ** Surprisingly, ''Sasuke'' has developed this reputation lately ([[AmericansHateTingle at least in the West]]), and is viewed by many people as everything wrong with characters who appeal primarily to 12-year old Hot Topic customers. This interpretation became especially popular in early 2019 with the "[[MemeticMutation choking Sasuke]]" meme, where the scene of Itachi performing a NeckLift on Sasuke was edited to feature [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/449/848/9d7.jpg dozens]] [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/449/921/7d4.png of]] [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/449/881/809.png unrelated]] [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/449/822/f1c.png characters]] (who would logically be far below his power level) strangling him instead of Itachi. |
| 259 | * MemeticMolester: |
| 260 | ** Orochimaru, for his tendency to lust over the [[GrandTheftMe bodies]] of teenage boys. |
| 261 | ** The 5th Mizukage, for her tendency to cuddle her teenage bodyguard and the rather interesting comments she makes about Gaara and Sasuke. |
| 262 | ** Itachi. While his interactions with Naruto and Sasuke gave off this vibe, a certain [[NotSoStoic event in Chapter 386]] cemented his status as this. |
| 263 | ** Hinata of all people has fans who don't let her stalking habits go. Never mind that she's actually a {{Downplayed|Trope}} version of StalkerWithACrush and nowhere ''near'' as bad as Karin is to Sasuke. |
| 264 | ** The Raikage has recently become one, due to the Cloud being responsible for abducting Hinata ''and'' Kushina while they were children, resulting in fans jokingly depicting the Raikage as having a thing for little girls. |
| 265 | * MemeticPsychopath: |
| 266 | ** Due to being a BaseBreakingCharacter, Sasuke is often painted as being purely evil, ungrateful and a toxic character, who commits crimes for fun instead of being seen him as a TragicHero[=/=]TragicVillain who was traumatized by the Uchiha massacres. Most fans forget there are '''three characters''' who are responsible for messing up his mind by manipulating and [[MindRape mind raping]] him, which resulted in him becoming a mentally unstable dangerous criminal ninja. |
| 267 | ** This often happens to Sakura, who tends to be painted as a psycho girl whose temper goes completely out of control when it comes to Sasuke. This is largely the result of the anime [[{{Flanderization}} flanderizing]] her {{Tsundere}} traits. However, depending on how fans see her, she can also be portrayed as a MemeticLoser when it comes to shipping. |
| 268 | * MindGameShip: Naruto is practically brimming with this sort of thing. It doesn't help that most of the characters show signs of having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Of exceptional note is Orochimaru with ''many'' people, especially Sasuke. Later on, Pain and Naruto have traces of this, to an extent. As do Itachi and Sasuke. Additionally, any Kabuto pairing is bound to have some of this- he usually presents himself as this harmless, bumbling oaf with NerdGlasses, but is in fact in league with this villain, and...well...poor Naruto's look of betrayal when he realizes this is almost too much. |
| 269 | ** Naruto also gets this with Obito. The latter tries to pull a WeCanRuleTogether on him and is determined to break his ideals down since he used to be a lot like him. The Naruto wiki even refers to it as a "fixation". |
| 270 | *** Naruto's whole innocence, gullibility and inspiring-Messiah-like outlook are a lot of reasons why a lot of fanfics either a) mind-screw him over, or b) pair [insert name here]xNaruto ... and not the other way around... It's probably why the author likes to break him so much too. |
| 271 | * MisaimedFandom: |
| 272 | ** Many fans wanted to see Naruto kill Pain/Nagato just for the sake of revenge. The entire point of the arc (and most of the series) is that revenge is a form of cheap satisfaction that never solves anything, which [[CycleOfRevenge just leads to more revenge]], and that some problems are best solved without violence (and if Naruto killed him he would have proved his belief that [[RevengeBeforeReason people are incapable of overcoming their hatred or showing mercy to those that have hurt them]] to be ''[[IResembleThatRemark completely right]]''). Oddly enough, these fans also seem surprised by his tragic backstory, even though it had already been mentioned, and even though Naruto never accepted {{Freudian Excuse}}s as justifications for misdeeds, often criticizing the logic behind them. |
| 273 | ** Whilst many Naruto fans see Sasuke as a SmugSnake who eats babies and enjoys [[KickTheDog kicking puppies]], others see him as a badass with absolutely no flaws, who is not emotionally unstable in the least and who simply does bad things because he's "cool" and "badass" and "evil". Both sets of fans are wrong, as it's pretty clear that while he's supposed to be sympathetic, or to have ''been'' sympathetic once before he crossed the MoralEventHorizon, most of his life choices are shown in quite a negative light. In an [[http://www.saiyanisland.com/2014/02/masashi-kishimoto-spends-135-minutes-per-naruto-page/ interview]], [[WordOfGod Kishimoto]] finally weighed in on what he thinks of Sasuke's MisaimedFandom; while he denies Sasuke being an actual villain, he also slammed anyone who tried to rationalize his actions and said they were ''not'' justifiable. |
| 274 | * MisBlamed: |
| 275 | ** Most complaints about Naruto's English voice being "so annoying" ignore that the character is a BrattyHalfPint and state that it just doesn't show up as much when listening to his voice in another language. Instead of sounding like he has a sore throat in English... he sounds like he has a perma-screech in Japanese. |
| 276 | ** The dub supposedly replaced a swastika on Neji's head with an X. Except the anime did that originally. |
| 277 | ** The dub even got blamed for some art changes made for the ''Japanese [=DVDs=]''! |
| 278 | ** Upset {{shipping}} fans have accused Creator/StudioPierrot of ExecutiveMeddling for the final OfficialCouple; when in reality, Creator/MasashiKishimoto [[WordOfGod has stated in several post-series interviews]] that [[spoiler:Naruto ending up with Hinata was entirely '''his''' idea, and he had planned on Naruto/Hinata being the main OfficialCouple since the early stages of the manga]]. |
| 279 | * {{Moe}}: Hinata is one of the most popular examples of this. |
| 280 | * MoralEventHorizon: |
| 281 | ** Orochimaru probably crossed it in his fight with the Third Hokage for the viewers. In-universe, that's peanuts compared to the extremely perverse things he had been up to long before that. In fact, nearly everything that he does, but the kidnapping and experimenting on multiple people, callously discarding them when they became unnessary and taking over their bodies, takes the cake. |
| 282 | ** [[spoiler:Black Zetsu with his manipulating Indra and other Uchihas, being at least partially responsible for their Curse of Hatred, instigating wars and conflicts all to free [[BigBad Kaguya Ootsutsuki]], also deserves mention.]] |
| 283 | * NarmCharm: |
| 284 | ** Episode 28 of ''Shippuden''. Team Guy, who has been fighting a hopeless battle against their own, never-tiring clones so far, turns the tide after a speech from Lee. What he tells them is.....to be stronger than they were yesterday, which is apparently the Team's motto. Essentially, he is telling the team just to ''punch harder''. Corny as hell? Sure. But given the heartwarming speeches everyone gives, the epic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZW48afGp-o soundtrack]] playing, and the ensuing asskicking, it's awesome nonetheless. |
| 285 | ** Episode 167 of ''Naruto Shippuden''. Full stop. It goes from full-on ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' action at various points, including the "hammer person into the ground with huge boulder without killing them" and "Road Runner legs" effects, to being absolutely awesome with incredibly high-speed and experimental animation techiques put on full display. The fight between the Kyubi and Pain in the forest and Pain's ensuing [[ColonyDrop Chibaku Tensei]] is almost a mood whiplash after the previously mentioned ''Looney Tunes'' segment. |
| 286 | ** Sasuke's EvilLaugh in Chapter 483 and ''Shippuden'' episode 214 is NarmCharm. It's hilarious mainly because it's ''[[TheComicallySerious Sasuke]]'' but it also shows how [[AxCrazy far gone he is]]. |
| 287 | ** Itachi's epic freak out may be ridiculous in the manga though since it was an act, [[FridgeBrilliance this may have been the point;]] it's also seemingly the terrifying instant when a normally emotionless, albeit already evil, character reveals his true nature as a complete and utter psychopath. In the anime, both Creator/HideoIshikawa and Creator/CrispinFreeman's respective performances are so utterly bone-chilling that the scene becomes ''much'' less ridiculous than it was in the manga. |
| 288 | ** Gaara screaming "BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!" in the dub is so over the top it's almost laughable... But how genuinely ''terrified'' he sounds due to Creator/LiamOBrien's brilliant voice acting makes it pants wettingly terrifying! |
| 289 | ** Naruto screaming "Obito was the coolest guy!" after said character's death is ridiculous since Obito was mainly a horrible person... But to some people, it's also heartwarming and a TearJerker. |
| 290 | * NeverLiveItDown: [[NeverLiveItDown/{{Naruto}} Has its own page]]. |
| 291 | ** Naruto is forever connected to his narmworthy catchphrase "Believe it!" for English fans. |
| 292 | ** Sasuke's "Great Snake Escape" was what really started turning fans away about characters surviving death by [[FanNickname Plot no Jutsu]]. |
| 293 | ** The supposed rape that Karin planned, which was actually the result of a mistranslation. Nonetheless, the allegations are still being brought up years afterwards. |
| 294 | ** Certain fans like to accuse Hinata of being a [[StalkerWithACrush stalker]]. In reality, she's a {{Downplayed|Trope}} version of the actual trope: we only saw her ''remotely'' act like one in Part I because she was too much of a ShrinkingViolet to talk to Naruto face to face in her early appearances. Apart from being nervous about seeing him for the first time post-TimeSkip, [[CharacterDevelopment she completely dropped this behavior]] in Part II. |
| 295 | ** Sakura's [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim painfully fake]] [[FalseConfession love confession]] to Naruto in [[ShipSinking Chapter 469]]. Fans who already didn't like her ''really'' hated her after that, while the more neutral fans joined in on the hate. |
| 296 | ** If there's ever any talk about Kurenai, it will be about that one time she tried to put [[MindRape Itachi]] under a genjutsu. It's mainly used as a joke to poke fun at how OutOfFocus she became over the course of the series since the only other thing that the casual fanbase knows about Kurenai is that she had a baby with Asuma. |
| 297 | ** Fans will never let Tobirama, the Second Hokage, live down his prejudices towards the Uchiha. Despite having legitimate reasons to be wary of the Uchiha and being able to let go of his prejudices towards certain Uchiha who overcome the Curse of Hatred, it's common for some to [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderize]] Tobirama into an outright bigot. |
| 298 | ** Many people consider the adult Naruto to be [[spoiler:a terrible father]], based almost entirely on the scene where [[spoiler:he sends a shadow clone to Himawari's birthday party instead of going himself]]. He's shown to be competent but busy the rest of the time, but those scenes aren't as dramatic or memorable. |
| 299 | ** On the anime side of things: |
| 300 | *** The original series will always be known for the "[[FanNickname Filler Hell]]" saga which was basically 84 episodes of back-to-back {{Filler}} that capped off the show leading up to Shippuden. |
| 301 | *** Episode 167 of ''Naruto Shippuden'' has the dubious honor of having such bonkers animation so out-of-place to what's usually seen with this series that you could swear the producers took inspiration from moments straight out of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''. |
| 302 | ** The series' treatment of female characters has and continues to be a sore point among many fans, not helped by Kishimoto's own admission that he's not great at writing female characters. While its sequel ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' does try to steer away from this trend with characters like Sarada, it's unlikely that the original series could really shake off its reputation. |
| 303 | * NightmareRetardant: |
| 304 | ** Orochimaru is introduced as a thoroughly creepy character: eating people's faces off and taking on the role of an already creepy woman (?) and first making himself known by picking up a kunai knife with his ''tongue'' and talking about bloodlust because he lost some hair... which all comes into perspective after the Internet "outed" him as gay. His otherwise creepy Body Transfer Technique loses its scary appeal entirely when inside it. That tongue. ''His expression''. |
| 305 | ** Pain also to get hit with this fairly often. There's his {{Motive Rant}}s, which combined with excessive body piercings makes him sound like an EmoTeen... |
| 306 | *** Pain is very hard to take seriously ever since [[ThisWasHisTrueForm his true form]] has been revealed: an emaciated guy in a wheelchair with bright red hair that would make Carrot Top proud. Others can see his appearance as even more scary and disturbing with the FridgeHorror attached. |
| 307 | *** Chapter 427, where he gets knocked across the room by twelve-year-old comic relief character Konohamaru. Of course, he later recovers from the hit and doesn't even need to repair that body but still. |
| 308 | *** The terrible, ''terrible'' animation quality during the Pain arc did not help, of course. |
| 309 | *** The tropers who insist on spelling his name "Pein", which never stops looking like [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=peen "Peen"]]. And/or "Pain", which just fully underscores how emo he is. |
| 310 | ** The Ten-Tailed Beast has a habit of getting more goofy-looking with each transformation. Its first form was intimidating enough...up until you notice it has no hind legs and thus has to drag its bloated body around. Then matures into its second form, which is missing an arm, has chubby baby-hands on the ends of its tails and a head that has an eye on one side, a human mouth on the other and a human ear on the back of its head. When it does grow back its missing arm and put on some mass, it goes back to being chunky and its weird-looking head is now too small for its body. |
| 311 | * NotBadassEnoughForFans: Aside from a small pool of elites, a lot of sympathetic characters (especially girls) constantly get the short end of the stick in their fights and appear to be physically incapable of accomplishing anything that matters. This generates resentment from fans who every once in a long while find themselves subjected to the hopeless, pointless, doomed antics of these characters failing at life until the BigDamnHeroes show up to save the day. "Character X is too weak/useless to deserve screentime" is a common sentiment in forums. |
| 312 | * NotSoCheapImitation: ''Naruto'' has some notable similarities to ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', mostly due to Masashi Kishimoto being friends with Yoshihiro Togashi. However, ''Naruto'' ended up being the more popular work (particularly in [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff America]]) for a multitude of reasons. One was that ''Naruto'' didn't suffer from the same frequent ScheduleSlip that plagued ''Hunter x Hunter.'' Another was because the first ''Hunter x Hunter'' anime from 1999 didn't reach American shores until nine years later, which was at the height of ''Naruto's'' popularity by then. The third possible reason was that the 1999 anime was CutShort due to [[OvertookTheManga overtaking the manga]] rather quickly, and it didn't get a more proper adaptation until 2011. This has been subverted as the 2011 Hunter x Hunter adaptation gained a lot of attention in the latter portion of The New '10s and one of the most well known and highly praised Shonen out there. |
| 313 | * NoYay: |
| 314 | ** There is much suspicion among fans that Orochimaru [[GrandTheftMe wants Sasuke's body]] for reasons more... personal than simply having a [[ShowingOffTheNewBody powerful new vessel]]. The Chapter 345 manga cover that featured a smiling Orochimaru literally wrapping his tongue and arms around Sasuke with the caption to the side reading "Within these arms. At the end of this tongue. The future that I raised," or [[http://i24.tinypic.com/34pfhv6.jpg the anime intro with a nude Sasuke wrapped in Orochimaru's pet snakes]] with Orochimaru's eyes watching the image, make it so much worse. |
| 315 | *** Orochimaru's apparent fondness for randomly caressing the faces of little kids (such as Kimimaro), or trying to wrap his ridiculously long phallic-looking tongue around people's bodies, or referring to Naruto and Sasuke as [[{{Bishonen}} "cute" and "beautiful"]], or thinking [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything "Your body will be mine soon, Sasuke-kun"]]. Then there's his final fight with Sasuke, in which Orochimaru sweats and struggles against being pinned against the wall before reverting to his true form, a giant snake comprised of a bunch of tinier snakes, and trying to wrap his snakes and curl himself around/smother a half-naked Sasuke while screaming "Give me your body, Sasuke-kun!" |
| 316 | ** In episode 53 Jiraiya briefly pervs on Naruto. |
| 317 | --> '''(Japanese)''' "You! You're quite sexy when you're naked."\ |
| 318 | '''(English)''' "You know... you have quite a tight sexy little body." |
| 319 | ** Kabuto/Orochimaru is nowhere near wholesome. It gets worse: Kabuto has absorbed Orochimaru's remains so Orochimaru is literally [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything inside of Kabuto]]. |
| 320 | ** Hidan and Shikamaru. Just watch Hidan's reactions when he got Shikamaru alone in the woods. It almost felt like an AttemptedRape was about to go down. And Hidan looked to be almost [[TheGruntingOrgasm orgasming]] after stabbing Shikamaru. |
| 321 | ** Naruto and FillerVillain Fuka. She makes quite a few suggestive comments to him and tries to kiss him while ignoring his personal space but we mustn't forget that she's actually just a living head of hair and that when she tries to kiss Naruto she's trying to suck his soul out. |
| 322 | ** Kabuto/Sasuke. He attempted to get Sasuke to join him and said he'll be like a big brother to him and never leave his side after just attempting to eat him nonetheless. Lord, NoYay. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[folder:O-R]] |
| 326 | * OlderThanTheyThink: |
| 327 | ** Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru were characters in Japanese mythology long before they showed up in this manga. They show up in the story ''Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari'' (literally "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"), a Japanese folktale. In it, Jiraiya is a ninja who has the ability to transform into a giant toad. He falls in love with and later marries Tsunade, a beautiful '''young''' princess (in contrast to the manga, where she is [[OlderThanTheyLook Older Than She Looks]]) who is a master of snail magic, and battles his arch-enemy, Orochimaru, a master of snake magic who used to be his follower. |
| 328 | ** Many elements of this series are actually drawn from old Japanese folklore or other fiction. Some of these include: [[DopplegangerAttack Bunshin, Kagebunshin (including the distinction between the two), using these kagebunshin in a combo]], Windmill-Shuriken, {{Kusanagi}}, XYZ-Release-techniques (XYZ-ton in Japanese), ninja called Sasuke, Sarutobi, the Element-Kage as ninja leaders, ninjas being able pin shadows to the ground or otherwise manipulate their or other shadows, NinjaLog, etc. |
| 329 | * OneTrueThreesome: |
| 330 | ** Sakura/Naruto/Sasuke was around since Chapter 3. Also Ino/Shikamaru/Choji, Kiba/Hinata/Shino, etc. All the teams could be seen as ready made threesomes. There are also people who avoid the pairing wars and ship Sakura/Naruto/Hinata or Ino/Shikamaru/Temari. |
| 331 | ** Obito/Rin/Kakashi was mildly popular after the team's history was given focus in ''Kakashi Gaiden''. Later revelations such as Tobi's true identity as Obito and the [[LotusEaterMachine Moon's Eye Plan]] largely stemming from Obito seeing Rin die at Kakashi's hands ([[HeroicSacrifice long story there]], but it was actually Rin ''[[SuicideByCop impaling herself]]'' on Kakashi's Lightning Cutter) only seem to have bolstered the threesome's standing among the fandom. |
| 332 | * {{Padding}}: |
| 333 | ** Anime does this when it doesn't just decide to fill out episodes with nothing at all. For example, when Suigetsu joined Sasuke in the manga they went to the Land of Waves to get Zabuza's {{BFS}} which was right where they expected it to be and it only took up a few pages. But in the anime someone else took it, and the two spend the episode retrieving it, eventually making a game out of it (as well as spending [[RuleOfFunny a rather amusing]] scene in a restaurant). This also serves the purpose of demonstrating Suigetsu's [[NighInvulnerable abilities]] much earlier than in the manga (where he doesn't get to properly demonstrate his power for nearly fifty chapters). The same thing happened with the other two members of their team, but with flashbacks. Earlier in the anime series, during the attempted rescue of Gaara, there were flashbacks to things that had been covered in flashbacks, as well as flashbacks to things that had happened five real-time minutes earlier. While this is done in an attempt to not outpace the manga, it gets painful during fight scenes. |
| 334 | ** The early episodes of Shippuden tended to drag out scenes with repeated footage and still-image reaction shots. |
| 335 | ** The [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]] has taken Padding through so many turns of the dial that listing all the examples would take up several times as much space as ''this entire page''. The most notable example is the rampant Obito flashbacks that are extremely repetitive and pad out several panels to several ''episodes'', and the reveal's flashback padding actually ''derailed'' to show an entire arc of Kakashi's and Yamato's post-Rin-death history. |
| 336 | * ParanoiaFuel: |
| 337 | ** Zetsu can fuse with any natural surface and emerge from anywhere, completely untraceable, which means any place outdoors is dangerous. Later it turns out he can release a bunch of undetectable spores which grow into freakish duplicates of himself by clinging to people's bodies and leeching off their Life Energy and transform himself or one of his copies into an almost perfect copy of anyone he touches. |
| 338 | ** Shisui Uchiha's hypnotic abilities were so overpowered that he could guide your thoughts and actions without eye contact or even having the eye open, and you would never even notice you were being manipulated. The only way to tell anything was happening was to be a sensor type that could feel the chakra trying to affect you, and even then it wasn't a given thing. But he was a Leaf Loyalist and didn't abuse his power for his own gain.... and then Danzo ripped his eye out while he was still alive and then Itachi killed him. They never go into detail what all Danzo actually DID with the eye beyond what we saw in the present, and there is a long list of things that COULD have been done with the eye. Why wasn't Sasuke given an adult guardian and just left on his own after his clan was killed, which doing to an emotionally unstable child and making him not have proper guidance could only lead to problems later on, and DID? Was the Third Hokage's delay in picking a successor really his own choice? Did the council and Hokage really make the hard choice of killing the Uchiha clan on their own volition? Was it really Shisui's idea to go to Itachi to commit SuicideByCop so that Itachi could get the Mangekyo Sharingan, specially since the chances of him escaping someone as thorough as Danzo are incredibly low and Shisui was never said to be immune to his own power, when he could have gone public to the Hokage and put a stop to Danzo? And the last thing Shisui planned to do before Danzo took his eye was to use his powers against the warmongers in his own family to pacify them and prevent the coup. Did Danzo know this? And if he did, did he do what he did so that nothing would stop him from getting rid of the Uchiha clan? |
| 339 | * PopularityPolynomial: During its initial English manga release in ''Shonen Jump'', ''Naruto'' was beloved by the anime/manga fandom and its anime was heavily requested for import, but it was very obscure outside of it with ''Manga/YuGiOh'' being the predominant force in anime at the time. When its anime was finally dubbed and imported, Naruto's popularity [[CashCowFranchise exploded]], causing it to become very popular with the mainstream but also for it to suffer heavy HypeBacklash with the anime fandom, and its general perception with older core anime fans became less unanimously positive. ''Naruto'' finally ended in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, and with that, its mainstream popularity also faded; however, it also had a cyclic resurgence of sorts with core anime fans, due to the HypeBacklash not being as prominent and many fans having grown up with the series as kids or younger teens during TheNoughties. |
| 340 | * PopularWithFurries: Not as much as [[Manga/DragonBall one of its inspirations]] (or its [[Anime/DragonBallSuper follow-up]]) but many furry fans were drawn in because of the giant tailed beasts and talking Ninken such as Pakkun. |
| 341 | * TheProducerThinksOfEverything: While Kishimoto said he didn't plan everything in the series, there were several key elements that were planned beforehand: |
| 342 | ** He has stated ever since the series' beginning the final fight will be between Naruto and Sasuke. Not only it is based on the plot but also due to the fact Sasuke's last name is a reference to the hand fan Uchiwa originally used to blow Foxes. Though it is notable that while he clearly had ''that'' decided far in advance, he didn't really have any specifics around it planned, so the actual circumstances of their final fight can still feel contrived after everything else that just happened. |
| 343 | ** Itachi's backstory was planned ever since his introduction but was not reveal until almost 20 volumes later. Same with Naruto's heritage. |
| 344 | ** The final OfficialCouple of Naruto/Hinata was planned since the early stages of the manga according to several interviews Kishimoto has provided. |
| 345 | * ReplacementScrappy: |
| 346 | ** The main characters (at first) hated Sai for replacing Sasuke on Team 7. Some fans too. Since among a sizable segment of American fans Sasuke is considered a [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] himself ([[AmericansHateTingle in stark contrast to his overwhelming popularity in Japan]]), this gave Sai [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff a slight fan following in America]]. |
| 347 | ** Kaguya gets hit with a lot of this for abruptly [[spoiler:[[AssPull yanking the plot off course in the very last part of the story]] [[DiabolusExNihilo with no build-up whatsoever]] and killing off the much better-received Obito and Madara (the latter being killed by her [[TheDragon lieutenant]] Black Zetsu in literally ''[[AntiClimaxBoss one hit]]'' despite his having been built up as practically invincible up until that point), and ultimately not lasting ''a tenth'' of the page time or character development that they had.]] A lot of fans believe that the only reason she was even included in the story is because Kishimoto [[OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow had no real way to get rid of the other two]] so he [[AssPull made one up on the spot.]] |
| 348 | * RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: |
| 349 | ** A rather odd example: Sasuke has been considered TheScrappy for the longest time [[AmericansHateTingle in America]]. But once he'd been pitted against Danzo, American fans have actually started ''[[BlackAndGreyMorality rooting]]'' for him. Though this may be more because it's his SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome than him just being the lesser of two evils. Others root for Danzo instead, as they think he is making pretty good points and agree with his way to lead the village. |
| 350 | *** Sasuke gets even more of this in the Fourth Shinobi World War arc, when he ''finally'' decides to follow Itachi's intentions and lets go of his irrational rampage against the Leaf Village. From this point, many of his actions that are [[StrawmanHasAPoint supposed to be seen as cold and cynical]] compared to Naruto were often viewed as completely rational by the audience, such as trying to finish off [[spoiler:Obito]] once he loses his powers (which would have prevented most of the problems from that point if he hadn't still been alive to [[spoiler:resurrect Madara]]). |
| 351 | * RomanticPlotTumor: Characters like Sakura and Hinata could've had [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter plenty of potential]] but their character arcs chose to revolve around Naruto and Sasuke. And while those two had plenty of the spotlight, the girls barely got any character development in favor of the story displaying how deeply in love they are with the boys. When Sakura ''did'' get some character development and was able to show off how strong she was, she ended up getting screwed over all because of her crush on Sasuke, [[SarcasmMode thanks Kishimoto!]] |
| 352 | * RonTheDeathEater: |
| 353 | ** Danzo has the recurring habit of being {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed in FanFics. Yeah, he's horribly ruthless and has crossed the MoralEventHorizon, but he's ''far'' too complex for the label. It didn't help that the anime expands on his already long-list of crimes to include manipulating Hanzo into betraying the original Akatsuki and attempting to assassinate Hiruzen. |
| 354 | ** Hiashi isn't "Father of the Year" material, but isn't exactly a total {{Jerkass}} either considering that he is given a lot of sympathetic moments in {{canon}} and by the time of {{Manga/Boruto}} is a mellow and loving grandfather, but fanfic writers very often ignore this and have him raping and abusing either Hinata, Hanabi, Neji or even Hizashi ForTheEvulz. |
| 355 | ** Being the BaseBreakingCharacter he is, Sasuke gets this from the opposite side of the fandom he gets the DracoInLeatherPants treatment from. Many fanfics have him as an irredeemable evil bastard even in the beginning of Part One, when the worst he could be called is rude. He's sometimes exaggerated to paint him as the evilest and most irredeemable Uchiha, or even one of or the evilest character and some of Itachi's [=DiLP=] fandom [[spoiler:bash him for initially wanting to kill Itachi even though he saw him kill his family hundreds of times, or blame him for Itachi's death even though he didn't kill him, Itachi was already dying and [[ThanatosGambit planned precisely to die fighting him for what he saw as Sasuke's benefit]]]]. Even in post-series material, he also gets a lot of accusations of being [[spoiler:an abusive husband who hates Sakura and never was redeemed, ignoring his HeelFaceTurn and the fact that the narrative makes it clear that for all of his many faults as a father, he does love his family]]. |
| 356 | ** While it could be argued that Kakashi could have been a better teacher, and he did teach very little to Naruto and Sakura in Part I, many FanFic writers love to turn him into an incredibly neglectful teacher who only cares about Sasuke and doesn't mind if Naruto and Sakura get killed on a mission due to not training them properly. This also ignores the fact that not only is he the best choice to train Sasuke given they both have Sharingans, but the majority of the "exclusive" training he gave Sasuke was to watch over him due to both Orochimaru's open desire to take him and keep an eye on the Cursed Seal, plus he needed the personal training to stand a chance against [[AxCrazy Gaara]] in the Chuunin Exams while Naruto had a much lower risk of getting ''murdered'' by his first opponent. |
| 357 | ** Thanks to later revelations in the series, even the Third Hokage became victim to this. [[spoiler:While he did try and look out for Naruto, the fact that he still suffered bullying and alienation under his watch and the later reveal that the Hidden Cloud Village actually ''revered'' their tailed-beast hosts made him look worse by comparison. Add in everything about Orochimaru and it's not uncommon to hear people call him the worst of the Hokages.]] |
| 358 | * RootingForTheEmpire: |
| 359 | ** There are quite a few readers who root for the Akatsuki, and even for Sasuke during his [[FaceHeelTurn stint as a bad guy]]. It doesn't help that the main character himself took his AllLovingHero traits straight into TooDumbToLive territory, with his doing so fueled by desperation. Though Naruto's gotten better, said fans still take Obito, Sasuke, or Madara over him. |
| 360 | ** The fans who hate Konoha and want to see it destroyed because of the Uchiha massacre being given the go-ahead, despite all the evidence pointing to the Uchiha not only bringing it upon themselves, but actually turning down the peace attempts that Hiruzen tried, especially with their ItsAllAboutMe attitude. While Konoha isn't the worst of the hidden villages when it comes to atrocities - especially given what Sunagakure [[BreakTheCutie did to Gaara]] - it's certainly not faultless either. Alternatively, some dislike it because of how Naruto was treated, even if he did ultimately end up better off than some of the other Jinchuuriki save Killer B and Yugito Nii, and if B is any indication, they were always treated with respect. |
| 361 | [[/folder]] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | [[folder:S]] |
| 364 | * TheScrappy: |
| 365 | ** Karin is hated for due to being characterized as only being obsessed with Sasuke, essentially being a rip-off of Part I Sakura. While initially RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap after being stabbed by Sasuke just to kill Danzo [[UngratefulBastard despite healing him just now]], after she reverts back to being obsessed and [[EasilyForgiven quickly forgave]] Sasuke, she becomes TheScrappy again to the point that [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic fans hardly reacted when she was in tears over the fact that Sasuke is stabbed by Madara]]. And when Manga/{{Boruto}} kicked off, the hate ranked up when [[spoiler:there was a discrepancy about who Sarada's true mother is, her or Sakura, with ended up going no where, and didn't do much to make Karin look better in the eyes of fans]]. |
| 366 | ** Kinkaku and Ginkaku are generally regarded as one of the weaker parts of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Their fight is rather dull, as the brothers aren't considered particularly interesting, and mostly fight against minor Cloud ninja. The story also abruptly shoves importance on them with a shallow connection to the Sage of Six Paths, allowing them to not only wield his Treasured Tools (which have no actual relevance to his backstory), but also survive on Kurama's flesh after being SwallowedWhole and become pseudo-Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki. Ultimately, they're not seen as much more than a transparent plot device to get Naruto to realize that there's a war going on, and revive the Ten-Tails without having to kill the main character (which is rendered moot when the real Madara manages to do it anyway). |
| 367 | ** [[EvilMatriarch Kaguya Otsutsuki]]. Immediately after she makes her debut she's already despised for hijacking the plot [[AssPull completely out of nowhere]], [[TheManBehindTheMan stealing the main villain thunder]] [[ReplacementScrappy from the better established Madara]], and shifting the storyline unnecessarily to a new villain arc and making the already horrendously convoluted plot even more so. Add to the list, her resealing about only 30 chapters after her first mention, meaning she [[GenericDoomsdayVillain never gets any characterization]] beyond her lust for power and contributes essentially nothing to the story aside from extending its length and [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork killing off Madara and Obito]], meaning some will hate her due to her sheer pointlessness. Her existence is also a walking {{Retcon}} in regards to the origins of [[TheDragon Black Zetsu]] and the nature of chakra itself, thus making her the scapegoat for many of the controversial changes in regards to the lore of the series. |
| 368 | * SeasonalRot: |
| 369 | ** For the ''original'' series, literally everyone will say that it's a pain to sit through the 84 filler episodes that capped off the show. Though the 4-episode Bikochu Search Mission arc gets a lot of love for being a Hinata TookALevelInBadass moment, and the final 5-episode Sunagakure Support Mission has the welcomed return of the sand siblings, and for returning the story to the main plot in the final episode. |
| 370 | ** For ''Shippuden'', the lengthy Three-tails filler arc was tiresome for some folk. However, the general consensus among fans is that quality began to dip after the Pain arc due to filler arcs that returned to episodic one-offs, and {{canon}} material being filled to the brim with flashbacks. |
| 371 | ** The [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]] being a nadir for the series is a common complaint due to the arc's final stretch being a convoluted mess filled with TheBigBadShuffle and [[AssPull twists]] galore. The anime being vastly extended with "war filler" only rubbed salt to the wound. The Infinite Tsukuyomi spell at the tail end of the war ended up with several dream fillers, and two filler arcs being shoved in it, which caused the year of 2015 to be almost entirely filler episodes. Hardly anyone was pleased. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that at that point, the manga had finally ended. There was really no excuse to keep doing filler, much less over a year worth of it. |
| 372 | * SelfFanservice: Sakura is a slim girl who sometimes displays ACupAngst towards the endowed Hinata, and she retains this figure even in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}''. A number of fan artists tend to ignore this and draw her to be just as voluptuous as Hinata herself. |
| 373 | * ShipToShipCombat: Thanks to the prominent use of the TwoGuysAndAGirl trope in the multiple teams, ''Naruto'' became one of the first martial arts Shonen series to tend towards a more balanced male-to-female ratio in its cast compared to previous works in the genre, which tended to feature [[TheSmurfettePrinciple just a few token females]]. That created a recipe for fans to start shipping characters like there was no tomorrow. [[HoYay Straight ships or otherwise]]. As the series got [[LongRunner longer and longer]], these arguments got bigger and bigger. |
| 374 | ** By far, the biggest one were the ships involving Naruto himself. Especially with his two potential LoveInterests, [[{{Tsundere}} Sakura]] and [[NiceGirl Hinata]]. The on-and-off dynamics, and the sheer amount of ShipTease that Kishimoto put all over the place during the run of the series seemed to be explicitly designed to make the fans go nuts: Naruto not having a talk with Hinata after she confessed her love to him (while trying to save his life at that!), Sakura's infamous [[FalseConfession fake love confession]] to Naruto--which he easily sees right through, [[WhatTheHellHero calls her out on for lying]], and then [[ShipSinking rejects outright]] by telling her that he '''hates''' people who lie to themselves--in comparison to Hinata's sincere AnguishedDeclarationOfLove 30 chapters ''before'' hers, all the Hinata-centered ShipTease in the anime adaptation and then the UnresolvedSexualTension she and Naruto developed in the [[WarArc Fourth Shinobi World War Arc]], the expectations the fans had out of the conventions in the shounen genre (which pointed to Sakura), etc, etc, etc. Something that went on, and on, and on... AND ON, for the 15 years the original manga ran, making this one of the longest, most intense shipping wars in manga and anime history.\ |
| 375 | \ |
| 376 | Finally, Hinata ended up being [[OneTrueLove the one]]. The details about how she and Naruto ended up together were described in [[LuckySeven the seventh Shippuden movie]] (which is also the first {{canon}} movie in the franchise), ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie''. Turns out the ShipTease ''was'' indeed [[TrollingCreator deliberately designed to mess with the shippers]], since [[WordOfGod Kishimoto has stated in several post-series interviews]] that he made up his mind about Naruto/Hinata being the main OfficialCouple since the early stages of the manga, and the dynamics involving Sakura were a deliberate RedHerring because Sakura was ''never'' going to be Naruto's main LoveInterest to begin with. Although this made the debate to cool down, there are still some remnants that treat it as FanonDiscontinuity, albeit they're a tiny minority at this point. |
| 377 | * TheShipsMotor: Some fanfics with the [[KissingCousins Neji]]×[[IncestYayShipping Hinata]] couple have the two arranged to marry in order to keep the Byakugan bloodline trait within the family, thus precluding any other ships. |
| 378 | * ShipsThatPassInTheNight: |
| 379 | ** Chouji and Karui. The two are from two different villages, never interacted with each other or even appeared on-screen together, yet for some reason, they married and have a daughter together at the end of the series. |
| 380 | ** There are lots of fanart featuring Hidan x Tayuya, on the sole basis that they are [[SirSwearsALot the most]] [[LadySwearsALot foul-mouthed]] [[ClusterFBomb people]] in this franchise. |
| 381 | * ShockFatigue: The reveal of Tobi's true identity as Obito Uchiha was not well-received by a large portion of fans who felt that the reveal felt too on-the-nose thanks to "Tobi" being an anagram for "Obito" after years of fandom speculation regarding said identity and the reveal cheapening out Obito's supposed death scene which was generally seen as heartrending. Obito's motivations for his turn to villainy also caught criticism as it's yet another example of LoveMakesYouEvil, CynicismCatalyst, StrawNihilist, and WarIsHell that was already done with past villains like Orochimaru, Nagato, Itachi, and Sasuke, hence fans were less inclined to care about his fall to evil. |
| 382 | * SignatureScene: |
| 383 | ** Naruto discussing his aspirations over a bowl of ramen with Iruka. Notable for being the first time he states his intention of [[SeriesGoal being Hokage]]. |
| 384 | ** The demon fox inside of Naruto awakening as Naruto furiously declares his intent to kill Haku at the climax of the Zabuza arc. |
| 385 | %% ** Sakura cutting her hair to escape Kin's grip. |
| 386 | ** Gaara vs Rock Lee is undoubtedly the best remembered fight in Part 1, and probably the most well remembered fight in the series period when compared to its significance within the story (or rather, lack thereof, as Lee was DemotedToExtra and Gaara, while relevant, doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things), in a similar vein to [[Manga/DragonBalL Piccolo vs 17]]. |
| 387 | %% ** The final battle between [[spoiler:Naruto and Sasuke]], especially in the anime. |
| 388 | %% ** From ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie'': [[spoiler:[[OfficialCouple Naruto and Hinata]] [[LoveFloats floating in the air]], with the moon in the background, and [[TheBigDamnKiss kissing each other for the first time]].]] |
| 389 | * {{Squick}}: |
| 390 | ** Kisame's suggestion they cut Naruto's legs off so it would be harder for him to get away, and almost does this to Killer Bee before he grabs the pencil he threw at the start of the fight. |
| 391 | ** In Chapter 513, finding out that armadillo's gender was not necessary. Creator/MasashiKishimoto evidently didn't agree, so he treated us to another panel full of it in the next chapter. Yes, we love biology. |
| 392 | ** Coupled with NightmareFuel. |
| 393 | --->'''Sasori:''' Do you know how I add to my collection? First I tear out the organs. Once I've washed it clean, I drain out all of the blood. After I've made sure it won't decay, I fill it with weapons and traps, and add it to the collection. As grandma said, Hiruko is part of my collection. With you and Chiyo, I will have exactly 300 puppets in my collection! '''This is my art!''' |
| 394 | * SlidingScaleOfSocialSatisfaction: Categorized as "Outside is Burning, Inside is Safe". The Hidden Leaf village can be seen this way since it purports itself to be the least cruel and inhuman of the ninja village. Which it is, to an extent, scheming elders and incompetent leaders notwithstanding. Additionally, it's the richest and most powerful of them. However, given it's a militaristic state, its ninja get up to morally dubious means to ensure that -- they sabotage other villages and the Hokage is just short of being a dictator who can sentence death penalty and [[spoiler:even the genocide of one of the Clans]]. And that's not counting the "hired assassins and mercenaries" business that defines every ninja village. |
| 395 | * SpiritualSuccessor: The main character of ''Manga/{{Ninku}}'', Fuusuke, is a wind ninja who wears orange and uses a move similar to the Rasengan. It's set in a universe where ninja are highly militarised and wear flak jackets, there are supernatural entities who can possess humans and bestow great but dangerous powers; it deals with themes of war and hate, often with interpersonal stories where even the villains may have faced tragedy. Sounds familiar? WordOfGod explains, indirectly, how the similarity came to be. ''Naruto'' was originally not supposed to be about ninjas at all; when the author made up his mind he was going to turn it into a story about ninjas, he recalls that |
| 396 | -->''[...] the samurai story didn't work out, so I figured I was gonna try ninjas. But in Jump, we had "Ninku" already. That wasn't really the best moment to create a ninja story. "Ninku" already created something quite original by fusing Ninja Arts and Karate. I had to find something else, something new to add on. That was quite the challenge. But that challenge is exactly was motivated me. I felt that, of the multiple japanese themes, ninjas was the right one to choose. I tried my luck with that.'' |
| 397 | * StrawmanHasAPoint: During his brief stint as acting Hokage, Danzou officially declared Sasuke a missing-nin, which is one of many policies he endorsed that are used to suggest he's up to no good. But he did have a point. Sasuke abandoned Konoha and the village was in bad enough shape already. Having a top-class ninja running around planning to further run it to the ground was not a good idea. And considering Sasuke immediately afterwards kidnapped the Raikage's brother (as far as anyone knew at the time), if he weren't a missing-nin and were still considered one of Konoha's ninjas it would have even worse. |
| 398 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Part of the melody for Orochimaru's theme is borrowed from Music/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor, and the opening to Sarutobi's battle music is an almost exact copy of Music/OzzyOsbourne's song "Bark at the Moon." |
| 399 | [[/folder]] |
| 400 | |
| 401 | [[folder:T-W]] |
| 402 | * ThemePairing: Voldemort (from ''Literature/HarryPotter''), Orochimaru, and Medusa (from ''Manga/SoulEater'') are a OneTrueThreesome that share the ReptilesAreAbhorrent theme and are creepy {{Big Bad}}s. |
| 403 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: |
| 404 | ** The Hyuga Clan. They are introduced as one of (if not ''the'') most powerful clans in Konoha with cool and coveted MagicalEye abilities, but are a BigScrewedUpFamily who use seals to force branch family members into slavery to the main house members. A past affair with the Hidden Cloud village saw their Head Ninja try to kidnap Hinata, so the patriarch Hiashi kills him. Neji's father Hizashi was secretly sacrificed in his twin brother Hiashi's place to keep the peace with them. Then Neji grows up blaming and hating Hinata and the main branch for what happened, and Hiashi disowns Hinata in favor of Hanabi her sister. Yet after Naruto defeats Neji and Hiashi apologizes to Neji, almost none of this is ever relevant again. There's brief mention of the affair when the Hidden Cloud Village actually becomes prominent in the plot, and Hiashi also decides to be kinder, but nothing else. There also isn't any explanation as to ''why'' the Hidden Cloud tried to kidnap Hinata. Was it to learn the secrets of the Byakugan, {{blackmail}} the Hidden Leaf, or was it something against the Hyuga specifically? They surely had to have known kidnapping a child from a prominent family was a terrible idea, so why send the Head Ninja? Also, why did the Hyugas just decide to seemingly agree to the terms of giving them ''the corpse of Hizashi'' when they were the ones that started that mess? And why did the Hyuga clan adopt (and quickly drop) such abusive practices in the first place? There was a ton of story potential for the oppresive clan and the perfidious alliance with Cloud Village, but none came out of it. |
| 405 | ** Kiba's dream to become Hokage could have made for an interesting rivalry between him and Naruto had it been developed beyond their Chunin exam match. However, [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter Kiba was pushed so far into the background]] following the Sasuke Retrieval Arc that it became a laughable joke whenever he brought up that he still one day wants to be Hokage. |
| 406 | ** Team Taka's battle with the Eight Tails implies that Sasuke is beginning to form bonds of frienship and comradery with his new teammates, as a shadow of his lost bonds with Team 7. We even see Sasuke gain the new ability to extinguish Amaterasu flames in response to his desire to save Karin's life when she gets lit on fire. However, the very next arc discards these developing bonds entirely, as Sasuke sinks into darkness and begins abandoning and sacrificing his new teammates without a thought. |
| 407 | * TooCoolToLive: |
| 408 | ** Minato Namikaze is a particularly notable example. He was hailed as one of the strongest shinobi ever, saved the Leaf village from the Nine-Tailed Fox's attack, was shown to be able to wipe out whole platoons of shinobi in the blink of an eye (to the point where enemies were ordered to flee on sight from him), [[StoryBreakerPower and could teleport anything, even a Spirit Bomb level chakra blast miles away without breaking a sweat.]] Needless to say, a lot of potential threats to the Leaf would not be deemed so dangerous if he was still alive. |
| 409 | ** Jiraiya the Toad Sannin has become this over the course of Part II since his death. Possessing a high amount of badass skill, his own SuperMode, and being able to fight the DiscOneFinalBoss and temporarily defeat him, as well as his own wisdom being used to redeem his fallen student through Naruto Uzumaki, it's easy to see why he's cool. Even Kabuto lamented his inability to use Edo Tensei on him. |
| 410 | * UnintentionallySympathetic: |
| 411 | ** The Genin that attacks Kushina in the flashback to how she and Minato met. He did it because she beat up his younger brother. Yes, she beat him up because he was bullying her, but he didn't know that and from his point of view, he was just protecting his brother. It doesn't help that Kushina was frighteningly strong for a child compared to other genin. |
| 412 | ** Shikamaru's annoyance towards his mother is presented as him being {{wangst}}y, and him later marrying Temari, who is shown to be LikeParentLikeSpouse, is meant to be CharacterDevelopment. However, it was implied that his mother was so overbearing, if not outright abusive, that it negatively affected his view on women, and ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' shows that Temari is rather physically abusive towards both him and Shikadai. |
| 413 | * UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: |
| 414 | ** The Uchiha Clan itself comes off as this. Despite being destroyed by Konoha, the manga ''repeatedly'' goes out of its way to show that they have been a violent, unstable clan since ancient times due to their Curse of Hatred mantra. The fact that the Uchiha also have warred amongst ''themselves'' with the reality abusing Izanagi, the way they gain power by killing their friends and siblings... and when responded by a good supposition that one of their own controlled Kurama--instead of helping in the investigation and enduring a bit of surveillance to catch the culprit they isolate themselves from the village and begin plotting a coup. The four main Uchiha members suffer from this the most: |
| 415 | *** [[DesignatedHero Sasuke]] seems to be meant to be seen as a morally gray character being led down the wrong path by his obsession with {{revenge}}, but to a number of fans his ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, descent into mass murder of Samurai he could have easily defeated non-lethally, and callous disregard for how many people have to suffer for his own emotional satisfaction has caused a number of fans to think he does not deserve Naruto's goodwill or his being treated as redeemed despite making no attempt at redemption besides an offhand apology. The anime tried to address this by having him accept going to prison for a year before being pardoned by Kakashi and declining on not getting a replacement arm, signifying he accepts the crimes he committed, but even then, many saw Sasuke's punishment as being too little too late and a slap on the wrist at. Things would only get worse come ''Anime/{{Boruto}}'', as despite becoming TheAtoner, many still found Sasuke difficult to sympathize with, due to his desire to make up for his crimes leading him to walk out on Sakura and leaving her to raise Sarada alone for an entire decade, resulting in some audiences feeling that he was unworthy of Sakura's patience and understanding. |
| 416 | *** [[TheAce Itachi]], for his MindRape of Sasuke and Kakashi, which the former kicked him down the slippery slope and never gets punished despite his good intentions. All because he "loved" and wanted to "protect" his "precious" little brother. It got worse when he was turned into a SpotlightStealingSquad in the [[spoiler:Fourth Shinobi World War arc]]. |
| 417 | *** [[spoiler:Obito]] orchestrated the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha, which killed Naruto's parents and made him an orphan, turned the Mist Village into a brutal dictatorship that resulted in hundreds of deaths, many of them children who were forced to fight each other to the death as part of their schooling, and started the Fourth Shinobi World War, resulting in tens of thousands of more deaths. Basically, he's the worst. His only real motivation for any of this being because his love interest Rin died. Despite all of that, he's meant to be a sympathetic character who is deserving of Naruto's kindness because he was similar to Naruto as a child and simply strayed down the wrong path, and his death is meant to be seen as an AlasPoorVillain moment, [[DeathEqualsRedemption reuniting with Rin in the afterlife]]. |
| 418 | *** The real [[InvincibleVillain Madara]] is painted as a WellIntentionedExtremist whose attempts for peace in the past are declined in favor of his rival Hashirama. So what does he do after this? [[DisproportionateRetribution He immediately challenges the first Hokage to the death in hopes to destroy their entire creation of Konoha along with it]]. Right before his death he ended up being EasilyForgiven by Hashirama in spite of everything that he had previously done before Black Zetsu betrays him. Also, Hashirama wanted HIM, not his brother, to succeed him as Hokage as a show of how much he trusted and believed in his rival, making Madara look like an ungrateful Jerkass due to his betrayal, preferring to destroy the Leaf Village out of spite instead of believing in his friend's faith in him. |
| 419 | ** Similarly, the backstory of the legendary "Salamander" Hanzo, the ninja against whom the Sannin won their titles by ''surviving'' a battle with him, sets Hanzo up as a WellIntentionedExtremist who lost sight of his goals but is honored in defeat by his rival as a man who strove for peace. By starting a lot of wars and turning his homeland into an unlivable hellhole that produced the most psychologically broken, defeated human beings in the series, just because he was arrogant enough to think his strength could unite the world. Most fans still consider Hanzo an utterly unsympathetic character whose violent death at Pain's hands was richly deserved, as his claim of good intentions didn't make him any less of a paranoid warmongering dictator. |
| 420 | ** Karin's tearful reaction over Sasuke's near-death is supposed to be a TearJerker, but when her half-assed characterization (like how she [[EasilyForgiven easily forgave]] the same man who once try to kill her because she is just a burden despite healing him before) comes into play, her crying over Sasuke is instead met with complete apathy from the readers. |
| 421 | ** Sakura when she confessed her feelings for Sasuke at Chapter 693; we're supposed to sympathize with her when her confession got [[DesignatedEvil "coldly"]] rejected by Sasuke, except that the person that is listening to this is the same person who shows no feelings for Sakura at all and attempted to kill her multiple times without remorse, giving fans the impression that she doesn't really develops any character beyond loving Sasuke regardless of his crimes. It got to the point that not only Sasuke has an [[StrawmanHasAPoint unintentionally valid point]] regarding her but also made fans root for Sasuke to kill her and became disappointed when it is just a genjutsu. Her [[EasilyForgiven easily forgiving]] [[KarmaHoudini Sasuke's]] weak apology and [[spoiler:marrying the same person in the future]] does not help her case. |
| 422 | ** The way Utakata's master Harusame tries to extract the Tailed Beast from his disciple in an anime-only {{Filler}} is supposed to be seen as good intentions to the point that upon realizing this, Utakata eventually rebuilt the pedestal with him after accidentally killing him. The problem is, extracting the Bijuu from a Jinchuuriki will also directly kill the host, and with no indication of Utakata having trouble with his Bijuu, nor even knowing why his master does it in the first place against his will, it comes off as Harusame crossing the MoralEventHorizon with Utakata having every right to defy his master and killing him sounds more like a KarmicDeath than what it should've been in theory. |
| 423 | * TheUntwist: So many people [[CaptainObviousReveal instantly figured out]] that Tobi was [[spoiler:Obito]] that many were convinced it was a deliberate RedHerring. Nope, it was ''exactly'' what everyone thought it was all along. Maybe the "twist" would have been less [[CaptainObviousReveal obvious]] if Tobi's real name wasn't [[spoiler:''an anagram plus an extra letter O'']]. |
| 424 | * UglyCute: |
| 425 | ** Rock Lee and Guy-sensei (aka Thickbrows and Superbrows). Also Kisame's sword Samehada, especially when it's cuddling up to Killer bee. |
| 426 | ** White Zetsu and his brother Guruguru have this going for them. Despite being villains, both are quite childlike to the point of being AffablyEvil. White Zetsu only has half a face, but likes to joke around while Guruguru is a humanoid mass of tendrils whose obsession with poo keeps him from seeming sinister even when he is being sinister. |
| 427 | ** Some of the Tailed Beasts fit this category during that brief flashback where we see them as babies. |
| 428 | * ValuesDissonance: |
| 429 | ** The core reason why a substantial part of the Western fandom hates Sasuke moreso than the Japanese fandom. Many eastern cultures place greater emphasis on respect and honoring one's extended family. As Sasuke's revenge quest can be seen as piety to his clan, many Japanese fans are more willing to accept decisions as honorable or at the least understandable. While a point can be made about the author saying that he is self-centered in an interview, it doesn't change the fact that since it is not clearly said in the story his actions will look a lot more understandable for people in the Japanese fandom not aware of said interview, hence the different reception. |
| 430 | ** An early chapter had Naruto impersonate Sasuke so that he could attempt ([[PottyEmergency and failed]]) to get a kiss from Sakura. It was seen as harmless comedy back when it was written in 1999, but by today's standards, trying to kiss a girl under false pretenses is seen as incredibly creepy. |
| 431 | ** An example that exists within the fandom. Back in the days of the show's popularity, it was quite common to mockingly call obsessed, toxic, and outright ''weird'' fans of the series "Narutards". For rather obvious reasons, this abruptly stopped around the late 2010s when people realized how offensive it was, with many now viewing it as an OldShame. |
| 432 | * ViewerGenderConfusion: |
| 433 | ** Haku acts like a girl, looks like a girl, and even dresses like a girl, but states himself that he's a man. That doesn't stop some people from still getting confused. |
| 434 | ** Orchimaru’s Grass Ninja disguise is male in Japan but female in the English dub, presumably due to their looks. Orochimaru himself is something of a canon version since, due to his body-hopping tendencies, he can be both male AND female depending on who he is possessing at the time, not withstanding his natural effeminate appearance. This is even lampshaded in the ''Naruto Gaiden'' series and the ''Boruto'' movie. |
| 435 | ** If it weren't for the fact that names ending in -maru indicate that they're male, Gaara's uncle Yashamaru would have most people fooled as well. To the point that in some translated versions of the manga, the producers [[ShesAManInJapan mistook him for a woman]]. |
| 436 | ** Deidara deserves a mention too. Seriously, he looks like Ino's evil older sister. |
| 437 | ** Sai was mistaken for a girl by some fans at his very beginnings. Admittedly, his ''midriff T-shirt'' isn't helping his manliness. |
| 438 | ** Kurotsuchi neither looks (and that flakjacket covers up her torso very well) or acts feminine and fans were uncertain about her gender for a while. |
| 439 | ** Fu was an ambiguous case for a time, as even after Kishimoto released artwork of her, he hadn’t decided what gender she had but eventually stuck with female. |
| 440 | * ViewersInMourning: [[spoiler:Jiraiya's death brought about this.]] |
| 441 | * {{Wangst}}: |
| 442 | ** Many readers found Nagato's backstory uninspiring and weak compared to those of several previous antagonists. Or simply poorly told. |
| 443 | ** Many consider Obito's reason for turning evil -- the death of Rin, his childhood crush -- to be poorly executed as a FreudianExcuse. To elaborate, this stems from two main issues: 1. Rin gets virtually no development as a character outside of being a NiceGirl so we get little insight into what she was like as a person, specifically what made her the kind of person whose death would prompt Obito to turn evil. 2. Obito's feelings for her are not explored in any depth either, meaning we're given nothing to indicate that those feelings are anything more than a simple crush; which is a problem when the narrative implies that his feelings for her were stronger than that. While the story tries to give Obito more reasons than just that, at his core Rin's death is treated as the main reason why, making some view it as a weak excuse. |
| 444 | * {{Woolseyism}}: |
| 445 | ** The Viz translation of "Sexy Jutsu" has it translated as "Ninja Centerfold". However most people like "Sexy Jutsu" better as it's something more people would get without realizing what "Centerfold" is a reference to. |
| 446 | ** In fact, almost EVERYTHING. One prime example is the term "Jutsu" (which is Japanese for art or technique) being left untouched in the more currently popular English dub of the anime to this day. |
| 447 | * WriterCopOut: A common accusation hurled at the ending of the Pain arc, which basically undid nearly every shattering twist of plot that had happened during this huge [[WhamEpisode Wham Arc]], including several major character deaths. |
| 448 | ** Especially of note is Hinata NOT dying during this arc, instead being shown to only have been heavily wounded. It comes off as a cop-out because like the above says, major character deaths were overwritten en masse at the end anyway so from a writing standpoint the only reason Hinata didn't die was so fans wouldn't complain about her getting killed off for the two chapters worth of time before she'd just get revived anyway since the longterm is identical. |
| 449 | *** Speaking of Hinata during the Pain Arc, there's her confession to Naruto. Fans were hoping that, after everything calmed down, Naruto and Hinata will have a talk in which Naruto would either accept Hinata's feelings and become a couple, or reject them and stay just as friends, hopefully to put an end to the neverending WillTheyOrWontThey and ShipToShipCombat. Except none of that happened. Not only the story progressed as if such moment never happened, future interactions between Naruto and Hinata also happen without taking into account this game-changing moment, save for a brief moment in Chapter 559. It isn't until ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie'', in which [[RelationshipUpgrade Naruto and Hinata finally become an]] OfficialCouple, that this moment is fully revisited. |
| 450 | [[/folder]] |
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