History Trivia / Naruto

** The complications surrounding Obito Uchiha a.k.a. Tobi could potentially fill a whole essay:

** Kishimoto explains that the Chunin exam was mandated by his editor, because introducing each of the teams one-by-one would take too long. His editing team also told him to disrupt the tournament with Orochimaru, the villain that became the threat for many years.

*** Tobi's introduction until his "death" by being caught in an explosion had him being voiced by Creator/WataruTakagi in Japanese until the aftermath where he "revealed" himself to be "Madara Uchiha" and was now voiced by Creator/NaoyaUchida in a deep aged sounding tone. It wasn’t until the real Madara Uchiha was unveiled during the Fourth Shinobi World War that the masked man's identity was called into question and his voice became Wataru Takagi's again, though this time as serious and cold as his Madara voice had been and without the cheerful bounce from before. Surely enough, the mask came off and Tobi was revealed to have been Obito all along with Takagi being his proper voice. But that’s just the Japanese side.

** And in the video games (except the ''Clash of Ninja'' series), Tsunade is also voiced by [=McGlynn=] instead of Creator/DebiMaeWest. ''Revolution 2 partly'' avoids this; because it uses old voice clips of the regular actress and new ones. Odd, considering that her voice in the anime has remained the same.[[note]]Mary [=McGlynn=] doubled two lines as Tsunade in episode 201 of the original anime.[[/note]] It is notable that in the series, [=McGlynn=] was already the voice of Tsunade's childhood self.

** Episode 343 has Creator/MegumiHan replacing Sosuke Komori as [[spoiler: young Obito Uchiha]], and the flashbacks to the events of [[spoiler: Kakashi Gaiden]] have the character's lines redubbed. Also, young Kakashi's lines are redubbed by Creator/MutsumiTamura, who replaces Creator/KazuhikoInoue, Kakashi's standard voice, in the role of the character's younger self.

* {{Jossed}}:
** The series Jossed a bunch of theories involving Akatsuki members [[BloodbathVillainOrigin Itachi]], [[BigBad Pain]], and [[TheFaceless Tobi]] when it turned out that [[spoiler:Itachi was a good guy, Pain's true identity is Nagato, and Tobi is both Obito Uchiha and Akatsuki's ''true'' leader]]. Chapter 474 finally Jossed the theory of [[spoiler:Danzo being Tobi]] by merit of [[spoiler:them facing off against each other]].
** A lot of theories about the bijuu were Jossed with the revelation that they were split from the Ten-Tails by the Sage of the Six Paths, and again with the reveal that a bijuu will "die," but reform later if its host is killed. And [[spoiler:Naruto's mother Kushina being the previous jinchuuriki of Kurama.]]
** A lot of fanfic writers assumed that Naruto's HealingFactor allowed him to regrow lost limbs. Chapter 699 shows that no, [[AnArmAndALeg that's not the case]].
** The "[[AllJustADream Genjutsu]] [[EpilepticTrees Theory]]", espoused mostly by [[DieForOurShip upset shipping fans]], which claims that the events of the final chapters and ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie'' are in reality [[SchrodingersButterfly taking place in the]] [[LotusEaterMachine Infinite Tsukiyomi]] dream world, of Hinata, to be more precise (since ''The Last'' is very Hinata-centric). Suffice to say, the fact that Hinata's dream featured a still-alive Neji, even though he ''died'' to save Naruto and Hinata in Chapter 614, and then everyone, including Hinata, woke up from their dream and attended Neji's funeral in Chapter 699, plus the subsequent releases of ''LightNovel/NarutoHiden'', ''Manga/{{Naruto Gaiden}}'', ''Anime/BorutoNarutoTheMovie'' and the sequel manga ''[[Manga/{{Boruto}} Boruto: Naruto Next Generations]]'', not to mention [[WordOfGod Kishimoto's own statements in several post-series interviews]]--statements that are heavily supported by the fact that ''The Last'' was confirmed '''with''' Kishimoto's approval and direct involvement ''two years'' before the manga ended--have disproved this theory to hell and back.
** Post-main series finale, there was the pervasive fan theory that [[spoiler: Sasuke's child, Sarada, was, in reality, Karin's daughter instead of Sakura's]]. ''Naruto Gaiden'' not only disproved this but also gave it a rather [[TakeThatAudience large middle finger]].

** Creator/DougErholtz ended up replacing Creator/MichaelLindsay as Kankuro from the Gokage Summit arc onwards due to Lindsay's retirement. Lindsay had suffered health issues throughout his life and the culmination of problems, alongside him becoming a father at the time, caused him to leave after the Kazekage Rescue arc. Said issues sadly claimed his life in August 2019.

*** Zō, the white-robbed ANBU with the cat mask, had changes happen on both sides of the Pacific too. Creator/YojiUeda and Creator/KirkThornton voiced him during the Konoha Crush, Keigo Suzuki and Creator/LexLang took over in the Trap Master filler arc[[note]]To be fair in the latter case, Kirk was already voicing the arc's antagonist Gennō, so the recasting in English was very likely deliberate[[/note]], and then Daichi Endo and Creator/VicMignogna replaced them in the part during the Invasion of Pain. What's worse is that there's room to speculate that they may all be separate characters as a similar-looking captain, voiced by Eisuke Asakura and Creator/DerekStephenPrince in the respective versions, was shown being killed by Kabuto in the opening of the Three-Tails filler arc.

** Zetsu, Deidara, Kakuzu, and Pain are yet more cases where the dub voice for the character was someone completely different on their first (cameo) appearance at the end of Part I: Zetsu went from Creator/BrianBeacock and Peter Lurie (each one voicing [[SplitPersonality a different of Zetsu's halves]]) to Creator/TravisWillingham, while Pain went from Creator/DaveWittenberg to Creator/TroyBaker, Deidara went from Creator/QuintonFlynn to Creator/RogerCraigSmith, and Kakuzu went from Creator/PaulStPeter to Creator/FredTatasciore.

** Due to [[Creator/TroyBaker Troy Baker's]] increasing schedules with voiceover for video games, both his roles of Pain and Yamato were recast with Creator/MatthewMercer, even in the Naruto-related video games over time. Mercer took over for Pain (and by extension Yahiko) in episode 324 whereas he took over Yamato for the Paradise filler arc before Baker briefly returned up until Yamato's capture by Kabuto. Mercer would take over permanently for the character afterward.

** Aoba Yamashiro was voiced by Creator/HideoIshikawa (Itachi) and Creator/HiroshiTsuchida for his speaking appearances in Part I, but Creator/KenjiroTsuda took over in Part II and became the ''de facto'' voice of the character.

*** CopyCatSue (fan-art)

* ActorAllusion:
** In [[{{Filler}} Episode 159]] of the original anime, Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata run into a bounty hunter voiced by [[Anime/CowboyBebop Steve Blum]]. In Japanese, the character has scars with a straw hat and is voiced by [[Manga/OnePiece Shuichi Ikeda]].
** This isn't the first time Creator/TravisWillingham ([[AxCrazy Juugo]]'s voice actor) has voiced an [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk easily disturbed person]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow who turns into a monster]].
** In the English manga, Madara greets Hashirama with a hammed-up "It's about damn time!" Madara's voice actor, Creator/NeilKaplan voices [[VideoGame/StarCraft another character]] who has that line as his CatchPhrase.

** Mizuki was voiced by Michael Reisz in the first episode plus in his return filler arc, but in a flashback at the tail end of ''Shippūden'', Creator/MickWingert did the voice. Reisz had mainly moved on from voicework to producing and writing for television which necessitated the recast. Earlier in ''Clash of Ninja 2'', Creator/JoshKeaton would voice Mizuki due to Reisz's declining availability.

** During the height of Madara's reign as ultimate villain, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20131225234646/http://www.shonengamez.com/2013/12/22/kishimoto-naruto-will-end-2014/ Kishimoto outright stated]] that he doesn't know how he's going to have him lose. [[spoiler:His solution was to have him stabbed in the back by a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere, who wound up being UnskilledButStrong and barely knows how to fight]].

* TheOtherDarrin: As a LongRunner that aired for over fifteen years (2002-2017) in Japan and was dubbed in America for almost the same amount of time (2005-2019), this should come as no surprise.[[note]]Even with the dub's union status, some actors would either retire or leave[[/note]] The show was lucky it didn't have '''MORE''' recasts:

** A rather unusual example comes from the English voices of Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, the First and Second Hokages. During their first appearance in episode 69, Hashirama was voiced by Creator/JamiesonPrice, while Tobirama was voiced by Peter Lurie. In later appearances and video games, both actors were replaced... by ''each other''; Lurie now voicing Hashirama, with Price as Tobirama.
** And in the video games (except the ''Clash of Ninja'' series), Tsunade is also voiced by [=McGlynn=] instead of Creator/DebiMaeWest. ''Revolution 2 partly'' avoids this; because it uses old voice clips of the regular actress and new ones. Odd, considering that her voice in the anime has remained the same. It is notable that in the series, [=McGlynn=] was already the voice of Tsunade's childhood self.

*** MasterApprenticeChain

** Fugaku Uchiha, interestingly enough, had this happen to him on both sides of the Pacific. In Sasuke's initial flashback, Dai Matsumoto and Wally Wingert voiced him respectively but during the flashbacks from the first Final Valley battle and on Kenji Hamada and Doug Stone provided his voice. Bizarrely, Doug's voice had been heard in the former-mentioned flashback as Sasuke's uncle, Teyaki Uchiha, while Hamada had voiced Shibi Aburame only five episodes prior to Fugaku's debut in the anime.
** Izumo Kamizuki, the first half of ThoseTwoGuys from Konoha, is mainly voiced by Creator/RichardCansino, with the exception of episode 25 from the original anime, where Creator/QuintonFlynn filled in. Jamie Simone also substituted for a video game and the third Shippuden movie.

** In Part I of the anime, Sakura's mother, Mebuki Haruno, was an unseen character whose voice was provided by Creator/YukiMasuda in three episodes. When she properly debuted in ''Road to Ninja'', she was recast with Creator/KazueIkura. This happened in English as well, where Saffron Henderson voiced Mebuki in episodes 3 and 55 of the original anime but Kate Higgins took over in episode 83 as well as in her Shippūden appearances. Henderson had since moved back to Canada after not being able to find much work in the U.S.

** Haku's adult actress has always been Creator/SusanDalian, but his childhood self has been through '''four''' different voices. Dalian voiced young Haku in episode 12 whereas Mona Marshall, the voice of Inari, took over at the start of the succeeding episode. Creator/MichelleRuff voiced little Haku in the longer flashbacks in episodes 17 through 19 while Kate Higgins would take over for his quick appearance in Kimimaro's flashback during episode 126.

** Poor poor Yūgao Uzuki had this happen to her no less than '''SIX''' times in her appearances throughout the series for the English dub. Her debut in finding Hayate's corpse was voiced by Jeannie Elias before Susan Dalian would take over during the Konoha Crush arc. In ''Shippūden'', for her cameo restraining Sora in the Twelve Guardian Shinobi filler arc, Wendee Lee provided Yūgao's voice only for Dalian [[TheOriginalDarrin to return]] for her bodyguarding Tsunade in the Invasion of Pain arc[[note]]This was a different female ANBU called Gazeru in the manga[[/note]]. [[HereWeGoAgain However,]] in the Fourth Shinobi World War arc, since Dalian was already voicing a freshly resurrected Haku at the time, Yūgao was recast yet again with Karui's actress Danielle Nicolet for her [[ADayInTheLimelight reunion storyline]] with Hayate. And again, for her appearance in the Tsukuyomi dream of Tsunade's before the GrandFinale, Sascha Alexander would take over and would later also replace Nicolet in the role of Karui for ''Boruto''. The Japanese version, on the other hand, had a change occur only once during the Invasion of Pain where Toa Yukinari filled in for Yūgao's usual actress Keiko Nemoto.

** And in the video games (except the ''Clash of Ninja'' series), Tsunade is also voiced by [=McGlynn=] instead of Creator/DebiMaeWest. ''Revolution 2 partly'' avoids this; because it uses old voice clips of the regular actress and new ones. Odd, considering that her voice in the anime has remained the same.

** Hamura Ōtsutsuki was voiced in the series by Creator/YoshimasaHosoya whereas he's voiced by Creator/HisaoEgawa in ''The Last''.

** [[Creator/SteveStaley Neji's]] English VA usually voices the cocky/grumpy character and [[Creator/StephanieSheh Hinata's]] English VA voices an optimistic character that softens him up. [[{{Manga/Bleach}} Hitsugaya and Orihime]], [[Manga/KannazukiNoMiko Soma and Himeko]], and [[Anime/MarvelAnime Takeo and Hisako]].

** Kushina was first voiced in Jiraiya's DeaderThanDead flashback by Creator/DorothyEliasFahn, who also voiced Konan, but all her later appearances were done by Creator/LauraBailey, likely due to the former's voice not matching with what we'd learn about [[HotBlooded Kushina's personality]] later.

** While averted[[note]]Except in the Rock Lee spin-off[[/note]] by Naruto himself, his Sexy Jutsu persona [[FanNickname "Naruko"]] has had a few changes in the English dub. Mainly, at least early on, Stephanie Sheh voices the sexy persona, but Jeannie Elias supplied the voice during Jiraiya's training with Naruto, and Mary M[=c=]Glynn herself took over for "her" appearance in the "Please, Mr. Postman?" filler episode. Cindy Robinson voices "Naruko" in the Konoha History filler whereas Kate Higgins took over for the jutsu's appearance in the Paradise filler arc.

** Poor poor Yūgao Uzuki had this happen to her no less than '''SIX''' times in her appearances throughout the series for the English dub. Her debut in finding Hayate's corpse was voiced by Jeannie Elias before Susan Dalian would take over during the Konoha Crush arc. In Shippūden, for her cameo restraining Sora in the Twelve Guardian Shinobi filler arc, Wendee Lee provided Yūgao's voice only for Dalian [[TheOriginalDarrin to return]] for her bodyguarding Tsunade in the Invasion of Pain arc[[note]]This was a different female ANBU called Gazeru in the manga[[/note]]. [[HereWeGoAgain However,]] in the Fourth Shinobi World War arc, since Dalian was already voicing a freshly resurrected Haku at the time, Yūgao was recast yet again with Karui's actress Danielle Nicolet for her [[ADayInTheLimelight reunion storyline]] with Hayate. And again, for her appearance in the Tsukuyomi dream of Tsunade's before the GrandFinale, Sascha Alexander would take over and would later also replace Nicolet in the role of Karui in ''Boruto''. The Japanese version, on the other hand, had a change occur only once during the Invasion of Pain where Toa Yukinari filled in for Yūgao's usual actress Keiko Nemoto.

** Gatō's bodyguards, Zōri and Waraji, went through three pairs of actors in the English dub despite their limited screentime. During Gatō's interrogation of Zabuza, Sam Riegel and Creator/DanWoren voiced them respectively for one line apiece. During their more prominent appearance when they attempt to kidnap Tsunami, they'd been recast with David Rasner and Wally Wingert. Upon Zōri's return in the anime equivalent of Suigetsu's introduction, Rick Zieff had taken up the character's voice due to Rasner's choice to retire by the start of the New '10s. In the filler episode shortly after the Invasion of Pain, Rick retained the part of Zōri while Waraji was recast again with Michael Sorich.

** Due to [[Creator/TroyBaker Troy Baker's]] increasing schedules with voiceover for video games, both his roles of Pain and Yamato were recast with Creator/MatthewMercer, even in the Naruto-related video games over time. Mercer took over for Pain (and by extension Yahiko) in episode 324 whereas he took over Yamato for the Paradise filler arc before Baker took over again up until his capture by Kabuto. Mercer would take over permanently for the character afterward.

*** Zō, the white-robbed ANBU with the cat mask, had changes happen on both sides of the Pacific too. Creator/YojiUeda and Creator/KirkThornton voiced him during the Konoha Crush, Keigo Suzuki and Creator/LexLang took over in the Trap Master filler arc[[note]]To be fair in the latter case, Kirk was already voicing the arc's antagonist Gennō, so the recasting in English was very likely deliberate[[/note]], and than Daichi Endo and Creator/VicMignogna replaced them in the part during the Invasion of Pain. What's worse is that there's room to speculate that they may all be separate characters as a similar-looking captain, voiced by Eisuke Asakura and Creator/DerekStephenPrince in the respective versions, was shown being killed by Kabuto in the opening of the Three-Tails filler arc.

** While averted[[note]]Except in the Rock Lee spin-off[[/note]] by Naruto himself, his Sexy Jutsu persona has had a few changes in the English dub. Mainly, at least early on, Stephanie Sheh voices the sexy persona, but Jeannie Elias supplied the voice during Jiraiya's training with Naruto, and Mary M[=c=]Glynn herself took over for "her" appearance in the "Please, Mr. Postman?" filler episode. Cindy Robinson voices "Naruko" in the Konoha History filler whereas Kate Higgins took over for the jutsu's appearance in the Paradise filler arc.