#Neji (mangaka)

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

#Kuzuryuu san no Oshi wa Chiisai #Ms Kuzuryu's Favorite is Small #Neji (mangaka) #hamster

[skeletonpendeja]

Still not over how this ended

#beauty and the beast girl #Bocchi Kaibutsu to Moumoku Shoujo #heath #lily blind #yes thats her actual fucking name #youll never guess what disability she has #dont like at me i didnt write jt skskdmdmkd #its v sweet n cute tho #bones rattle #skelearts #yuri #monster girl #the last sketch is a heath closer to my design sensibilities #more muscular a bit more toothy plus her tail ends in a snake head like most chimeras do #i know neji (the mangaka) said they didnt wanna make heath too gnarly but like #this is THE time to do it skskdmd #eh dont mind me im doing research and this one really touched me #also heath's pants situation confuses the fuck out of me smdmkds #at that point just cut a hole in the back

[martialmonki]

🄲🄷🄰🅁🄰🄲🅃🄴🅁 🍥 𝗡𝗲𝗷𝗶 𝗛𝘆𝘂𝗴𝗮 🄵🅄🄽 🄵🄰🄲🅃🅂 🍥 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲, 𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗛𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝟲𝟮 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆, 𝗡𝗲𝗷𝗶 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗟𝗲𝗲. ____________________________________ @goodayanime @slicsmith #anime #manga #naruto #narutoshippuden #neji #nejihyugu #hyugaclan #byakugan #mangaka #otaku #japan #culture #believeit #daily #shonen #animepage #narutopage #narutoart #fanart #cute #kawaii #konoha #leafvillage https://www.instagram.com/p/CeUcUw3I8ys/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#anime #manga #naruto #narutoshippuden #neji #nejihyugu #hyugaclan #byakugan #mangaka #otaku #japan #culture #believeit #daily #shonen #animepage #narutopage #narutoart #fanart #cute #kawaii #konoha #leafvillage

[oratokyosaigunda]

Vacation Maou to Pet, volume 1

#Vacation Maou to Pet #Neji (mangaka) #manga covers #YuriHime manga

[narutocharacterpolls]

ROUND THREE

ROCK LEE vs HYUUGA NEJI

Reasons for submission under the cut

Lee

ROCK LEE VS GAARA

kind as can be; willing to jump to action to help his fellow comrades even after going through a life-threatening, major surgery

practical and fashion-forward with his bright green onesie. Function over form, and is prepared at all times by carrying around a spare onesie he will give without question to anyone - even complete strangers

has a surprising edge to him at the beginning of the series; he was ready to severely maim anybody that he saw as a genius

more dedicated than anyone. Was forced to face his own mortality and make a life-or-death decision in the name of his dream, after a literal crushing defeat, and he chose to fight for it. Inspiring

embodies the ideals of original series Naruto. True underdog, had nothing going for him, came from nothing with no legacy or powers, was so disadvantaged that he physically could not meet the bare minimum abilities of his peers. But he worked harder than everyone else and proved that he can be a great shinobi despite all the adversity he faced

Sasuke had to copy Lee’s moves with his Sharingan to succeed during Chuunin exams

cute as a button. Come on.

his fans are dedicated and make amazing work, fanart and fanfic

Kishimoto said he was his favorite character to draw. Boom. Favoritism. Love to see it.

pairs well with everyone. Platonic or romantic, Lee has a great dynamic with other characters

his summer outfit from Guardian of the Crescent Moon Kingdom was the best outfit in the movie

gave us Metal Lee! Blessed us with Metal Lee, really

was the character to beat in the early series if you wanted to show how strong you actually are

Gaara vs Rock Lee was one of the most iconic fights in the series, and everyone remembers where they were when they first saw Lee drop his weights. He owned that fight so hard that people forget he lost.

was wronged by the series. He deserves to win as justice.

got [submitter] personally through the worst times; his ability to persevere face of adversity convinced me I could do it too. He wasn’t special and neither was [submitter], but we didn’t need to be. We can make ourselves great. If no one else got me, Rock Lee’s got me

he’s one of the first non-jutsu using ninja so make such a big impact

was the first person to actually harm Gaara

played a huge part in Gaara becoming a better person

he’s one of the only people that can catch up to Sasuke and easily rivals Naruto in Taijutsu

his kind, determined and cheerful attitude is a joy to watch

Rock Lee removing his weights is easily one of the most iconic moments in the entire anime

has helped several submitters feel better by simply thinking about how he wouldn’t want them to think like that

objectively would’ve made a better protagonist based on the themes alone

KICKS MAJOR ASS

wrecked Sasukes shit, I like Sasuke but that was really funny

he looks like a frog. Who doesn’t like frogs

inspired Sasuke

fights are always entertaining, they’re very well choreographed

he forgave Gaara for nearly killing him and nearly ending his dreams; he was never even mad at him

Rock Lee vs Sasuke was iconic

his heart is so full of love

never did anything wrong

had a squirrel befriend him

hard worker

good friend

rises to any challenge

when he does diss people they are the most brutal yet entertaining disses you ever hear

positive, weirdo, energetic, enthusiastic, joyful, chivalrous, motivated, dedicated, sweet

Lee and Neji had something homosexual going on

YOUTH !!!!

Neji

very tragic character

has so many layers

has a great arc (if you ignore the. yknow)

the eye imagery is very good

the inherent queerness of rebellion

carried the Hyuuga clan

awesome hair

disrecpected by the narrative

could've easily been a revolutionanist if the mangaka wasn't a coward

#bestnrtcharapoll #naruto #polls #rock lee #hyuuga neji #neji hyuuga #id in alt text

[felsenbluete]

Fixing the Chunin exams arc

While I do think that the first two rounds of the exams are nearly perfect in narrative execution (except that Anko afterwards ceases to be relevant even though her backstory is so intriguing and could mirror Sasuke in so many ways, but I’m getting already off track here...) - I have some gripes with regards to the duels, especially Naruto’s, which is a fucking pity, given that he is the main character. 

So this is my attempt to fix the mess that Kishimoto made of the last two rounds (concerning Naruto’s duels and the narrative around them, we don’t have the time for Kishi’s misogyny and whatever Sakura/Ino is):

1) Naruto vs. Kiba: In @margalotta​‘s wise words:

Imo, it doesn’t benefit Naruto at this point in his story to win out of dumb luck. He is teamed up with Kiba, who pretty much suffers the same weaknesses as Naruto, mostly bad rage control. So seeing Naruto actually staying in control and outsmarting Kiba would have been such a great character moment for him! Especially given that his lack of any strategy already gave him a pretty humbling defeat from Lee in the very beginning.

> Fix #1: Let Naruto outsmart Kiba, keep the fart joke for a filler.

2) Chouji vs. Dosu: While disliking the outcome of the Naruto-Kiba duel, I do think that the point of “one can win with nothing but luck” is one worth making. So looking at the other duels of the preliminaries, I find Chouji vs. Dosu most fitting. We have already seen Dosu being completely brutal in the Forest and him losing would give him an extra reason to challenge Gaara before round 3 - him thinking he got cheated out of this encounter.

> Fix #2: Let Chouji win against Dosu through luck, let Dosu be bitter about it.

3) Naruto vs. Neji:

This actually get my blood boiling, because - as many have pointed out over the years - Naruto winning only because of the Kyuubi just proved Neji’s god damn point about predetermination. But (even though I like seeing Naruto lose) I don’t think Neji should win either. My solution is to scrap that entire duel. 

> Fix #4: Let Neji fight against Shikamaru, let him lose

I am dead serious. While I like the ShikaTema interactions as much as anyone else, I think Shikamaru could have pulled his stunt with basically everyone else. The only difference is, that with Neji, it would have an impact. Because Neji technically losing only for Shikamaru to throw the whole thing out would have impacted Neji’s world view much more than losing against a jinchuuriki. In my very humble opinion.

> Fix #5: Neji vs. Naruto - talk-no-jutsu, the Hinata brawl

Between the preliminaries and round 3, a whole month passes. And I am aware that Naruto as a shounen protagonist has to change everyone’s path personally. So why not between the rounds? Let him be enraged about what Neji did to Hinata, so fucking livid that he doesn’t wait patiently for a month, but corners Neji the minute they are out of the arena and Hayate isn’t looking.

I have no idea, when Kishimoto decided on NaruHina as endgoal, but that would have set up that whole thing as well! Just a thought!! And you can have the Talk and maybe even Naruto actually catching Neji off-guard, if you want to. Idk, Masashi, you’re the Big Mangaka, you figure that out.

BONUS > Fix #6: Let Naruto fight against Temari, let him have a realistic chance, let him lose (?)

Surprisingly, I don’t have a strong opinion how this match should go. I think there is something for the idea of Naruto encountering someone with years worth of experience and losing and realising that even though he has grown a lot, he still has so much more to learn, which fuels his training under Jiraiya. But as a Proper Shounen Protagonist, I also have no issue if he has to win this fight. Maybe, to make it more spicy, have the Kyuubi come out and actually wreck Temari. Like, obliterate her to such a degree, that he is horrified. Show him and the audience in the arena why the village hates the jinchuurikis. I actually quite like this turn, because it mirrors the brutality Temari employs to win against Tenten.

BONUS BONUS: Actually I do have time to fix Ino vs. Sakura

> Fix #7: Keep the fight, throw out Sasuke and make Ino status-obsessed

Popularity aside, the main difference between Sakura and Ino during their academy years is that Ino has an inkling of her abilities, while Sakura is only aware that she can control chakra in the vaguest of ways. Ino is born into a clan, Sakura’s family isn’t mentioned in the canon. So why not make Ino think that she will get the best team (................... *sigh* and best team mates aka The Uchiha), while treating Sakura as an amusing puppy, but not really competition. If I remember correctly, Sakura has the best academy exam scores after Sasuke, so why not let her evolve into a real threat for Ino, maybe having their falling out be an actual duel on the training field that mirrors the duel during the chunin exams.

I think I am done now.

#Ola #excuse my Naruto blogging in 2022 - do you still think I'm hot? #my English is HORRENDOUS #Uzumaki Naruto #Hyuga Neji #Haruno Sakura #Nara Shikamaru #Inuzuka Kiba #Yamanaka Ino #not tagging the others let me be #someone pay me to rewrite Naruto plssss #Naruto meta

[nighttide-yuri]

Yuri mangaka/author/artist on Youtube that I've found so far

Yuama - Author & Artist of "The Summer You Were There"

Nekotarou Shinonome - Author & Artist for "The Fed Up OL wants to serve the great Villainess"

Kashikaze - Author & Artist for "Can't Defy the Lonely Girl"

Neji - Author & Artist for "Beauty and the Beast Girl"

Tida Kietsungden - Artist for "A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986"

Mieri Hiranishi - Author & Artist for "The Girl That Can't Get a Girlfriend"

Shilin Huang - Author & Artist for "Amongst Us"

Inori - Author & writer of "I'm in Love with the Villainess"

#youtube #links #text #yuri #i'm in love with the villainess #I favor the villainess #the fed up office lady wants to serve the villainess #The fed up OL wants to serve the great villainess #the summer you were there #Beauty and the beast girl #amongst us #the girl that can't get a girlfriend #a summer's end hong kong 1986 #can't defy the lonely girl #If anyone wants to add on to this list. Go ahead! I just want to share this with other's since some of them post their drawing process- #play games and some qna's #Also I don't speak nor understand japanese so if anyone is fluent by any means. Enjoy hearing your favorite artists speak! #manga

[tamelee]

Even when Kishi stopped caring so much about the series which you can tell (like the war arc) the one thing he always cared about from start to finish was Naruto and Sasuke's bond. Even if I don't like the franchise that Naruto has become and Boruto, and even if they're now OOC at times, I HOPE that Kishi will still find a way to give Naruto and Sasuke a good ending in the circumstances they find themselves in. One dying? Unacceptable. We already have Brokeback Mountain. Both of them? At least they'll be free. And together.

Hi! Ah you think so? If a company decides to create a sequel because the franchise is successful and talks to the Mangaka about needing some sort of bridge.. like the Alien-thing and Kishimoto decides that "ok, Neji dies have your NH" as a "screw you" (literally) and "tadaa, there is Boruto" for example, then that's definitely a lot more complicated. But you're most definitely right about the bond.. if Naruto moves Sasuke does. When one reacts the other responds. That's not just in their personalities, or foundation- that was built in the story itself as Kishimoto mentioned in his earlier interviews. They "died" together during the Shinobi War, they grow together, get strong together.. and in 'Boruto' they.. get nerfed together.

So if they don't die together, honestly, that would be incredibly.. not just OOC..

..that would be going against the entire 'Naruto'-series (」°ロ°)」 but then again, that's already what is happening so I wouldn't be surprised. However, yes, as you say: unacceptable.

#asktamelee

[fuckishimoto]

Hinata is the archetype of the girl who was created only to be the MC’s obligatory love interest taken to the most toxic conclusion possible. The character encourages a negative mindset that consists of worrying obsessively about things you can’t control and doing nothing about things you can control. You can’t control whether your crush returns your feelings; Hinata pines for a guy she hardly knows from the time she’s in kindergarten till she’s grown. You can’t control whether your family members have bad attitudes; Hinata spends years being depressed because she craves and isn’t getting her family’s shallow approval. She fights Neji (and loses), her dad apparently gives her an E for effort and accepts her again, and that’s enough for her. If you don’t like being weak, you can work to become stronger; Hinata doesn’t do this, just complains about being too weak to get the external validation and romantic love she wants. If your cousin is being enslaved for your benefit, you can at least voice your opposition to his enslavement; Hinata doesn’t do this because she doesn’t care about the clan’s practices. Fans don’t want to believe she’s that lousy of a person, so they claim there wouldn’t have been a point in her speaking up about slavery because maybe her father wouldn’t have listened to her and she, as a child, couldn’t have solved the issue of slavery single-handedly. For Hinata to voice opposition to an oppressive practice would be ridiculous, but trying to get killed in a “fight” with a supervillain that she knew she had no chance of winning wasn’t ridiculous at all; in fact, it’s amazing writing. I used to like her, but i can’t stomach her character after looking at it critically; it’s so toxic and weird and pointless.

If we're talking about the shonen genre, Sakura is the more stereotypical love interest for MC, tsundere, comedic violent with the MC, emotional, whines, cries and yells in equal amount, insecure in some way, not very useful, gets saved by MC a lot. Female characters like Hinata are usually the side love interest, shy/quiet/submissive/no confidence, a doormat, worship the MC, blushes a lot, looks helpless and pathetic. A lot of the times, the mangaka have no interest in these two archetypes, they created them because that's part of the shonen formula.

About Hinata worrying things that are out side of her control, and do not work on herself, the first part also applies to naruto, he's obsessed with if he's popular, if sasuke acknowledged him, how people viewed and treated him, things that he had no control. the difference is naruto worked on himself and became stronger. He's the MC so he got to make progress and achieve, Hinata didn't get that, she got to say naruto kun because she's just a minor love interest. I don't think hinata was written to encourage toxic mindset, it's just that her character was not meant to have progress, she's created to let boys feel good about the prospect of having a fangirl, a cheerleader, someone who would admire and validate them.

Hinata stans are similar to Naruto stans, they always argue there's no point to them speaking up or trying to make changes happen, they wouldn't make any difference (even when Naruto is the hokage), because their stans do not care about things outside their little fantasy with getting a man/a girl and a good life, everything else outside themselves is meaningless and pointless to them

[ac-liveblogs]

Oh yeah... Kishimoto forgot to have Naruto abolish the Hyuuga clan's slavery system.

Ahaha.... after Neji died and everything, too...

I liked that cute little animation where Hinatas family + Neji all did a group attack in one of the Naruto games. The Hyuuga are the strongest in the leaf!

I do have ... some sympathy to mangaka that lose track of existing plot threads because putting out weekly chapters is absolutely brutal, and Naruto ran for a very long time.

It's just extremely unfortunate that a lot of the threads that were lost was the fucked up shit in Konoha.

#replies

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

#Kuzuryuu san no Oshi wa Chiisai #Ms Kuzuryu's Favorite is Small #Neji (mangaka) #hamster

[tassia-tastic]

Yes, finally, mangakas realizing even main characters can/should die too is just AMAZING. What do you mean the only one dying is the sidest character of all the +100 characters in the series? Why Neji? What do you mean it looks like Byakuya died but he is back? Maybe Gojo lost, but shonen manga won.

#shonen #i was losing hope because no one was dying #i'm having flashbacks to draken dying but then coming back #if you died stay dead

[martialmonki]

🄲🄷🄰🅁🄰🄲🅃🄴🅁🅂 🍥 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗞𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗶 🍥 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗚𝘂𝘆 🍥 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗮 🄰🄱🄾🅄🅃 🍥 𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗼, 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗶 — 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗼𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘃𝗮𝗰𝘂𝘂𝗺. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗷𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱. ____________________________________ @goodayanime @slicsmith @slickiks #anime #manga #naruro #narutoshippuden #rocklee #shikamaru #teamasuma #teamguy #kurenai #kunoichi #neji #tenten #mangaka #otaku #japan #culture #believeit #daily #animepage #narutopage #narutoart #fanart #kishimoto #kawaii #konoha #choji https://www.instagram.com/p/CiafimWIsux/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#anime #manga #naruro #narutoshippuden #rocklee #shikamaru #teamasuma #teamguy #kurenai #kunoichi #neji #tenten #mangaka #otaku #japan #culture #believeit #daily #animepage #narutopage #narutoart #fanart #kishimoto #kawaii #konoha #choji

[oratokyosaigunda]

Bocchi Kaibutsu to Moumoku Shoujo, volume 1

#Bocchi Kaibutsu to Moumoku Shoujo #Beauty and the Beast Girl #Lonely Monster and Blind Girl #Neji (mangaka) #manga covers #YuriHime manga

[narutocharacterpolls]

ROUND TWO

HYUUGA NEJI vs KURAMA

Reasons for submission under the cut

Neji

very tragic character

has so many layers

has a great arc (if you ignore the. yknow)

the eye imagery is very good

the inherent queerness of rebellion

carried the Hyuuga clan

awesome hair

disrecpected by the narrative

could've easily been a revolutionanist if the mangaka wasn't a coward

Kurama

his relationship with Naruto is so cute

funny to watch him struggle with accepting that he actually does like Naruto

does not trust or like shinobi which is very based

he's cute!

saved Narutos life several times

is cool

his rage and anger is very understandable

#bestnrtcharapoll #naruto #polls #hyuuga neji #neji hyuuga #kurama #nine tailed fox #id in alt text #scheduled

[non-operator]

my incoherent naruto rant 😌

i actually liked what kishimoto had going with obito and madara. to an extent

like there was a pattern/theme about dehumanization and the persistence of humanity/emotions throughout naruto. the shinobi system is based on dehumanizing its own soldiers and using them as mindless tools. but the narrative is so adamant in people's humanity and agency. it's one of the first messages of the story in the land of waves--that just because the system treats shinobi as tools does not mean they actually lost their humanity.

ignoring all the other examples bc i can't rant too much, otherwise this post will just get too long.

OBITO (to give space between the sections because oh my god it's so long ☹️)

With obito. it is about his denial of his own humanity and individual identity leads him vulnerable to manipulation from madara and black zetsu, which i think shows well in how he easily puts on different personas (ie madara and tobi) (and feels no shame in it. if i had to act like madara's raging homosexual ass i would just die on the spot). his desire to completely escape himself and his own ideals and intentions, to claim he has no personal will of his own, rendered him the perfect tool to use. but even so! kishimoto shows that obito was never able to escape his own humanity. it shows in how he ultimately wanted mugen tsukuyomi to revive rin and return to his happy past, how he doesn't trust madara/didn't want to revive him; and how he keeps trying to push naruto into giving up; and how it was his memories and bonds within his team 7 that let him overcome and control the juubi chakra. and in the end, it is his own subconscious doubts about the mugen tsukuyomi and his actions that lead to his uh. redemption. his inherent humanity was what 'saved' him and what motivated him to accept his agency to well... not do better but die a better man, i guess.

MADARA

for madara. it is somewhat similar. in that in his desperation to leave behind his flawed human side and ascend to like. god position by gaining absolute control over his world etc. it left him vulnerable to black zetsu's manipulation.

but. BUT madara unlike obito has a greater grasp of his contradictions; even as he wants to end war and conflict, he finds pleasure in battle/fighting he isn't denying that contradictory side of himself. he even admits that this hypocritical desire for both peace and conflict is inherent in humanity: he tells obito "whereever light strikes, there are shadows" and tobirama "to want only peace and discard only conflict would cause people to stop being people"

As @obihoe says, madara seems to feel that the world he lives in leaves no other choice but to engage in conflict, so he fully gives up his agency and enjoys battle. But at the same time! he doesn't want to give up his agency, he wants complete control over what happens in his world. fuck it, his plan to rid the world of chakra requires him to obtain even more chakra. everything about him is a paradox. even as he fully revels in showcasing his power and his attraction to battle, he tries to rise above it and that is why he fails. Because he is human, and he can be nothing but a human.

But he's still distinct from the previous naruto villains because he acknowledges his contradictions. it leaves no space for naruto to talk-no-jutsu him as he did with nagato and obito.

(it's absolutely insane because this acknowledgement of contradiction is the exact same mentality that naruto ultimately ends up with: even naruto himself experiences this contradiction [ie his desire for a rivalry with sasuke contradicted but also did not cancel out his desire for friendship with sasuke]; conflict is a natural state of humanity, but that does not mean the desire for and efforts towards peace is meaningless; in fact, it makes it more meaningful; the embracing of contradiction of the human heart and the persistence in not denying it. Like it's insane. so fucking insane)

(the difference between madara and naruto is that naruto accepts his contradictions and finds compromise whereas madara tried to overcome and dominate his human instinct with overwhelming power/chakra)

on one hand, that escalation within the villain hierarchy and same level of understanding of human hypocrisy makes madara a narratively appropriate final boss to naruto's character arc. naruto has always reached out to his enemies by finding the 'flaws' in their ideology and learning through them and amending the contradictions in his own beliefs; that is how he matures as a character and eventually a leader throughout his journey. madara's simultaneous desire to discard his humanity (control freak) as well as his wholehearted embrace of his humanity (battle freak and a peace lover) makes him well. the perfect embodiment of the contradictory and conflict-inclined state of humanity. you know? which makes kaguya's placement in the narrative kind of ???

on the other hand. that tragic devastation when madara realizes that in his desperation to fix everything with his power and spare himself the pain and hardship of camaraderie. he left himself open to be used as a tool for another person who never cared about him; in an epic parallel to how the shinobi system/village uses and discards its own people. that's like 👌👌👌 you could even argue that kaguya fits thematically as the last villain as a symbol of absolute solitary power or something

I just don't like how the whole story was about humanity and it's inclination towards conflict, and then the Big Bad turns out to be a fucking alien. kaguya can't even succumb to human contradiction because she's not even human 😭 and i felt like she just cut madara's character arc short? at least with obito, we had naruto confronting him, but with madara, he was betrayed before naruto (and sasuke and the rest of team 7) could confront him and prove him wrong in some way. instead we get a rabbit goddess alien fight and one brief conversation between madara and hashirama that just reveals??? madara had a change of heart???? i know it makes sense in some way, but it just. feels unfulfilling. madara was like. representing hypocritical nature of human desire; how do you go bigger than that? why would you go bigger than that?

KAGUYA

I think--i can't fucking believe i'm going to say this--kaguya does fit in thematically as the end boss, but only in the context of boruto. Like, we find out that kaguya is a member of an alien race that cultivates planets for chakra to become stronger, leaving them empty lifeless husks afterwards. Like that's peak systemic exploitation and disregard of life. And it kind of works with how madara has been used as a tool for not even towards his own goal but for a completely separate cause, like (again) how the shinobi system ignores personal motives and cares only about how people can contribute to benefiting the village or sustain this system.

But if that was the case, kaguya should've been revealed in boruto? she should've been a boruto villain???

I guess i could argue it makes sense? in a way? because even in just the context of naruto, kaguya is an outsider hoping to exploit people to make herself powerful (who went insane from her lust of power, but also she may have loved her children, does that matter? we don't know, she's given like one page of crying to flesh her out and that's it)--but i feel like it just does not have the same impact as humanity inflicting violence upon itself and breaking the cycle on its own terms etc. now it's just aliens did it all. what the fuck am i supposed to do about that :(

#there's so much more nuance i can put into this #but this is already so long :/ #like. is obito absolved of his crime because he was being manipulated? well... no! #killing neji was all him. it meant nothing to the plan but /he/ as obito wanted to see naruto's reaction #it was for /his/ benefit #when he orchestrated the kyūbi attack. he's shown to be very emotional involved #he throws away kakashi's flowers on rin's grave. he says a farewell to minato in his heart before he summons the nine tails inside konoha #even if this isn't a plan he created. this is him acting on it from personal motivation. a very human drive #now does the narrative support this reading? maybe? idk #i feel like it kind of does. obito's death is meant as atonement. meaning there is an acknowledgment that it was /obito/ who committed #those acts of violence and wrongdoing #i am frothing at the mouth over this #how does kishimoto make naruto so good and well-written #but also so bad at the same time :/ #am i giving kishimoto too much credit? maybe -w- but then again. he is a well-known published shounen mangaka #so maybe he did know what he was doing. it seems very difficult to write this all unintentionally #i tried the best i can to make this flow well. but it's still a mess lmao #i could edit it more but i feel like if i put in even more effort into this. i would lose to the naruto brainrot #i mean. i already have but i don't think i'm ready to admit that i'm a lost cause yet