Sexism In Anime

I'm surprised that apparently was an indifferent enough reaction to her role in the first shippuden arc for him to start actively neglecting her. That's pretty much the only time I enjoyed Sakura as a character cause it made her seem smart and resourceful.

That said, the way he's always written her personality is probably my main gripe with her anywho, especially when Sasuke is involved

Kishimoto's attempts at improving Sakura were only skin deep and didn't address the root issue with her. It's not that she couldn't fight or that she wasn't cute, they're certainly factors but they're not the underlying cause of her unpopularity.

Sakura is unpopular because her character is simply not interesting, at best. At worst, she's a hinderance. The worst thing a character can be, especially a major character, is to be uninteresting next to their peers and contribute little to the setting.

Sakura has no role in the plot, her motives revolve around another character, and there's just nothing inherently interesting about her. That's fine for a secondary character, but she's meant to be a major character.

Knowing what I know now, I understand that it wasn't Kishimoto's lack of writing that was the problem; Sakura was an editorial mandate for a cute main heroine and Kishimoto had no plans for her whatsoever given I'm sure he already had an outline on where his story would go. He tried to work her into the story, but it's obvious that she wasn't a fit. So I can understand just throwing his hands up with her.

It's a real testament to how badly he dropped the ball with her that even his target audience disliked her.

It's a shame it happened right when he was really starting to finally build her arc in early Shippuden too.

Though if he really tried with her as he claimed, he would have done more with her in earlier arcs.

Her family is non-existent, she has no motivation beyond Sasuke as pointed out (even Ten-Ten, the only other female with no family shown in the series has a desire of her own in wanting to be like Tsunade), she gets one big one on one fight in the first arc (though her attempt to protect Naruto and Sasuke from the Sound Genin is notable) that she only manages a draw in, and in later arcs she's pushed out of the story while Naruto and Sasuke actually do stuff.

To say nothing of her constant abuse of Naruto. Now I'm not sure if these things are the reasons people in Japan disliked her or not, but something must have done it. Unfortunately, instead of fixing the problem, his belief that he was trying just made him toss her under the bus.

She didn't fail you Kishimoto. You failed her, and you did so from the start.

You don't get to hate someone when you're the one who screwed them.

She's a nothing character who's literal only defining characteristic is that she fancies Sasuke. Most of her "character development" revolves around rare moments of realising she's a nothing character and trying to do something about it, but even they're kinda pathetic attempts to breathe life into the character by Kishi, who obviously stuck her in to create romantic tension between Naruto and Sasuke in the very first few chapters and had no idea what to do with her after that.

The issues with Sakura were apparent from her very introduction.

Kakashi asks them why they became ninjas and what they want out of life.

Naruto wants to become Hokage, i.e he's an orphaned youth ostracized by his peers who wants to make a name for himself and finally be accepted by his community.

Sasuke wants to kill Itachi, i.e he's a child who's lost everything that was important to him and is now left with only the most hollow of pursuits.

Sakura...mumbles some nonsense about "the boy I like is..." or whatever.

Neither Naruto or Sasuke are all that interesting in my opinion, but both of them are clearly written to have well-defined goals and motivations that move them forward in the story and speak to an inner life.

Sakura has no such thing and exists entirely for the sake of the other two characters.

Even other classmates that don't have any grand goal like Naruto at least have understandable reasons to become Shinobi, mostly because of their clans/family legacy. Sakura have nothing to even fall back on.

Edited by BattleRaizer on Feb 26th 2020 at 12:16:45 AM

Is she the least developed of the Konoha 11? She might be.

I'd say TenTen has her beat there.

But yea, Sakura is a good example of what happens when you try and force a character into a narrative she had no place in.

It's pretty telling that her unpopularity stretched to even the staff members. Anime filler makes her out to be as unlikable as possible and most of its jokes are at her expense.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Feb 25th 2020 at 12:30:24 PM

I suppose, she was created because Team Guy needed a girl and so he just came up with her to fill in that gap. But then, Sakura was created for much the same reason. She just had closer proximity to the main characters.

Honestly thought she was going to be Demoted to Extra and then maybe overshadowed by another female character later in the story

That would have been literally better. In fact, if Sakura had either faded away or died earlier on and Hinata (i.e. the female character Kishi had always planned to be the love interest) had become the main female character, then I think that would have been much better.

The team structure was also an editorial mandate iirc, but don't quote me on that.

I mean...that's technically what happened lol. Hinata overshadowed Sakura something fierce. The ironic part is that Hinata is even less prominent than Sakura and still eclipses her in popularity.

Just shows how important good character writing is.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Feb 25th 2020 at 12:40:21 PM

If memory serves, Kishimoto heard even little girls say that they hated Sakura, at which point he just gave up.

Still, it's well known that Naruto had a fair bit of editorial influence. From Sasuke's very existence to the Third Hokage being human. Sakura's job was to be the team normal, but she's The Load half of the time. I think it speaks volumes that the test to be a Ninja was to do the Clone Jutsu, Sakura is the only character in the series to use said Clone Jutsu in combat, and it didn't even work. For a battle shonen, that's not just bad, it's pathetic.

Edited by devak on Feb 25th 2020 at 6:57:27 PM

She was dealt a raw hand from the get go.

She sucks, and always will, but Kishimoto didn’t try at all, and him claiming otherwise is incredibly ignorant on his part.

The worst part about Sakura is that Kishimoto teased moments of awesome development from her through the story. Her cutting her hair in the Forest of Death, her fight with Ino, her fight with Sasori, etc. She shows signs that she’s finally ready to move past her obsession with Sasuke and get serious, only to almost immediately slide back into the background and look bad for it. Sure, most of the supporting cast didn’t get too much focus, but she’s meant to be one of the four main characters.

Wasn’t there some interview where Kishimoto said Sakura was meant to be symbolic of “the weakness of the human heart” of something? Because...yikes.

Edit: Ah, thanks. Might have been reading a wonky translation or something.

Edited by ILikeRobots on Feb 25th 2020 at 11:28:25 AM

No. He said that she and Rock Lee are supposed to be the normal humans. The difference is that Rock Lee does everything to overcome his fate, and Sakura barely gets to try.

Even after her big fight, there was the spy arc where she had a positive influence on Sai by talking with him, which I thought was nice… but then she was thrown back into oblivion as soon as Sasuke returned.

it's kind of interesting, despite how much I hate comparisons of MHA with Naruto, Uraraka And Sakura do share their fate of being significantly side lined as the story develops, often not being utilized as well as the could be and a lot of their character being tied to a crush on another character. What saves Uraraka though is that:

-Izuku lacks all the baggage Sasuke does regarding their romances. The worst you can say about really is main boy x main girl pairings being cliche.

-Hori seems to actually care about her even if he doesn't always use her well.

Uraraka also has the bonus of not actually being a main character, as much as it would have been great for her to be there. Bakugo, Todoroki and Izuku are the big three, and they get the most focus and development. For a side character, Uraraka has a pretty decent amount of focus.

Plus there’s the fact that her motivation for being a hero isn’t so she can attract Izu’s attention, but to give her hardworking parents an easier life. She struggles with her feelings for Izu, and decides it’s best to put them to the side while she focuses on her career. It’s a mature aesop that focuses on her as an individual and her character motivations outside of her crush.

But yeah, she and the other female characters in the series should do more and get more screen time.

Edited by ILikeRobots on Feb 25th 2020 at 11:30:03 AM

Uraraka is saved because she was given an unique goal and decent power from the beginning. If Hori finally stops sidelining her he'll have somewhere solid where to start.

With Sakura, everything (including her other relationships) was about Sasuke and it felt like she was made Tsunade's apprentice only because Naruto and Sasuke were the other sannin's disciples and they needed Sakura to complete the set. By the end of the story she has reached the bottom of the Satellite Love Interest trope.

It's a pity because the Sasori arc was a step in the right direction. And I've always thought her status as the "normal one" could have been used better. Maybe have Konoha be really classist and elitist, making Sakura wish to change that, or become stronger to stop being a pariah.

Interestingly, Black Clover has a similar protagonist trio but Noelle is a well developed character whereas Yuno is a probably beyond saving Satellite Character

Edited by Ayal92 on Feb 25th 2020 at 11:50:35 AM

Women have 3 fates in Naruto. Die to cause man pain; stand in the corner as the medic/injured/pregnant person; be badass, but only to impress your father/brother/boyfriend.

Uraraka, for as unimportant as she is, I can at least say she is her own character. Has separate goals from her crush, and as said, decides to focus on that and sets her feelings aside. It feels like a direct response to Sakura.

It is really sad that she still hasn't had prominent role in an arc yet.

A rare case of where the rival is less developed than the heroine lol. A rare change but a welcome one.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Feb 25th 2020 at 3:01:37 PM

From what I've been seeing on Black Clover forums, Yuno is getting some development away from being Asta's rival

Would you really consider Yuno a protagonist though? The fact they're on separate groups kinda makes me say he's meant to be important but not as important as that.

I mean, Sasuke is undoubtedly a protagonist and spends most of Part 2 away from Naruto.