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thetwofaced · 3 years

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Okay but like. We need to talk about ppl shuffling the team assignments in Naruto. why the hell would you do that it makes no sense ?

Like seriously. Think about it for a minute.

Team 8?

A tracking team why you ask?

Aburame Shino and his kikaichū

Kikaichū are best used for tracking or ambush by draining their target of chakra (useful when tracking an escapee that needs to be captured)

Inuzuka Kiba - I mean come on. They are known for their sense of smell. Again as demonstrated by kakashi in the wave arc a great sense of smell helps tremendously in finding someone despite harsh weather conditions or distance.

With Kiba comes Akamaru and I don't need to point out how useful he is I think.

Lastly Hyuuga Hinata. I got one word for you. BYAKUGAN

Team 10

Predominantly a capture and intel gathering team

I'll start this off by pointing out that they have basically been groomed to work together! Hell its the same thing they later do in Boruto even if I personally hate Boruto, you can clearly see the mindset behind it. WHY would you , as a military dictator - and thats what the Hokage is essentially- why would you disrupt a team thats already adapt at working well together ???

Now. Akimichi Choji. The muscle because honestly they need him. Be it to protect Ino and Shikamaru or to launch an assault attack or provide bait for Ino and Shikamaru to use their Jutsus. Plain and simple. Not to mention someone needs to keep the peace between Ino and Shika sometimes.

Yamanaka Ino. Now listen I get she can be annoying. I do. But. The potential this girl has is scary. She is after all the daughter of Inoichi and like -he works in T&I guys. With ppl like Ibiki and Anko. Yamanakas can not only take over your body (think of all the information they can gain with that! Without putting their team at risk! All I say is the chunin exams) No, Yamanakas can also invade the mind. And if that's not god damn scary and practical I don't know what is. Perfect for infiltration and Intel gathering. FIGHT ME add to that that she is one of the few able to actually motivate Shikamaru do do something other than laze around.

Lastly we have Nara Shikamaru aka the god damn genius with an IQ of 200. Over 200 if Asuma is to be believed. Hes a tactical genius, realistic in his approach and in his and his comrades abilities. Adapt at planing several steps ahead and predicting his opponent's behaviour. There is a reason why he made Chunin so early and why Ino and Choji trust and listen to his commands. And then remember the trapping abilities of his clan shadow jutsu. And the advanced techniques he later learns that enable him to kill with his shadows.

Aaah team 7.

The disaster. I'll start this off by saying that not one person on team 7 is mental stable or sound.

Still let me explain how they were INTENDED to work in my humble opinion.

Frontal assault team.

Uchiha Sasuke. Taijutsu proficient, top of his class. Smart. The second genius of his generation. While not as adapt at tactics as Shikamaru he learns quickly , has fairly big chakra reserves and a drive. Hell this boy learn a fire jutsu at the age of 7. Aka hes good at ninjutus as well. It is no secret that Kishimoto loves the Uchiha and it shows. And that's all before he awakened his Sharingan and the fact he is the last loyal Uchiha left in the village (by the time they form the teams and to the publics General knowledge)

Uzumaki Naruto. The ninjutsu powerhouse of team 7 simply because he is a ) an Uzumaki who were known for their big chakra reserves and b) he's the god damn jinchiruki od the kyuubi. Let's ad to that that I am still mad no one thought to capitalise on his prankster mentality by introducing this boy to traping because God damn it . This boy regularly pranked an entire shinobi village while wearing a bright kill me orange jumpsuit and he rarely got caught. Hell this boy stole the forbidden scroll. Out of the hokage tower. At the age of 12. And learned a kinjutsu in the matter of hours. Who caught him ? Iruka. Why? Because he was the only one who knew him well enough. God damn anbu didn't manage. Ad to that his ingenuity. Naruto is good at coming up with tactics on the fly by thinking outside of the box something that is shown in Shippuden when him and Sakura go against Kakashi,defeating Kakashi not by fighting him even tho that was what kakshi expected but by beating him using his knowledge of Kakshis love for Icha Icha. Boy was robbed of a good education and nobody can tell me otherwise.

And last Haruno Sakura. Book smart, good at retaining information. Have I mentioned perfect Chakra control ? She got the tree walking exercises in one go. Her place on the team is support provided either by Genjutsu or medical ninjutsu.

Lastly it is important to note why team 7 got Hatake Kakashi as their sensei. There are - at the time of team 7s formation- exactly two shinobi in the village that are able to control the kyuubi. Kakshi with his sharingan and Tenzo aka Yamato trough his mokuton abilities. Jiraya would probably count as well but unfortunately for everyone he's kind of busy outside of the village the god damn coward. Tenzo is in anbu and to valuable in his current position so Kakashi got the job. He also got Sasuke because Kakashi is the only Shinibi left in Konoha able to teach Sasuke how to use it. Sakura got thrown in because her grade were good.

And thast on my rant why in my opinion it makes no god damn sens to change the team members in Naruto. Does it mean I think this isn't flawed as hell? Oh Hell NO! I love Kakashi. I really do. But I'm under no Illusion what so ever that he was a shity teacher. He ignored Sakura, and Naruto and focused mainly on Sasuke. Not saying I don't have a theory why that was but we all know that Kakashi was in dire need of therapy before he even made Genin and it shows. He's not fit to teach. Then again its not like there's many other options left considering the situation. But maybe I'll cover that in another post who knows.

Edid:

Something I felt I needed to clarify after a conversation that I had with @hotarukanzaki 😂 I am well aware that Kakashi is not able to control Kurama. All im saying is that I personally think is was thought that he would be one of the few thought to have a chance of doing so should the need arise

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creative-type · 6 years

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The Problem with the Chunin Exams

Though I didn’t know it at the time, Naruto was my first anime and my first anime love. I was exposed to it through the American dub as a kid without realizing it was Japanese or based on a comic. In my defense, this was before we had internet at my house, and at best I was only able to watch it every other weekend because my dad had cable and my mom didn’t.

I dropped the anime when it started into filler hell and switched over to the manga in high school. I started at the timeskip and caught up to the weekly release around the Naruto-Kakuzu fight. Over the years I grew dissatisfied with the story, though I don’t really have a single moment where I gave up on it entirely. There was a slow decrease in excitement, going from eagerly waiting for the latest spoilers, to reading each chapter as they released, to dropping the manga entirely, and only picking it up again to see the final arc through and being incredibly frustrated with the finale, wondering week to week just where things went wrong.

All this to say, I’m not writing this as a hater. I loved Naruto like I love precious few stories, and though I don’t feel that way now doesn’t stop the series from holding a special place in my childhood. I reread the first 87 chapters to prepare for this - seeing many of them in the manga for the first time - and what I read reinforced what I’ve thought for a long time:

The Chunin Exam arc occurred too early in the series. My reasoning is under the cut, but be warned that long post is long. I regret nothing.

I don’t want this post to turn into a Naruto bash-fest to make One Piece look better in comparison, but in my analysis of the build up to the Arlong Park arc, one of the points I tried to make was that by letting the series build organically to an emotional peak tho “big moments” don’t feel cheap and are much more powerful to the reader.

Naruto starts much faster than One Piece does. It establishes Naruto as a character, introduces Team 7, and gets through the Wave Mission arc by chapter 33. In comparison, chapter 33 for One Piece was the middle of Usopp’s recruitment arc and had yet to have the series’s first, for lack of a better term, epic moments.

The problem for Naruto is that the Chunin Exam arc starts in chapter 34 with the introduction of the Sand Siblings. There’s no time to wind back down, no time for the audience to catch its breath, and no time to explore some of the milestones that were made in the Land of Waves.

And I’m not just talking power ups here, although that would be nice. There are several emotional significant moments for several different characters that are left hanging. I think the most obvious is Sasuke, so we’ll start with him

Team Seven’s Lost Development

Sasuke has a ton of focus even in these early chapters before the Uchia’s took over the plot, and I think it would be fair to say that Naruto and Sasuke are less main character and rival and more deuteragonists with branching stories that interconnect at key points of their lives.

This is taken from when Sasuke saves Naruto from Haku during the climax of the arc. Note the past tense. At this point in time, Sasuke no longer hates Naruto. Through the whole Wave arc there have been moments showing the evolution from Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship from a bitter one-sided rivalry into them actually acting like teammates. The Naruto-Saskuke dynamic is arguably the most important thing in the entire series, and the audience can’t be expected to believe later on that they have this super strong friendship without scenes like this.

Then immediately after the Wave arc we get this

The relationship has soured once more. Sakua even says a few pages later that their relationship is worse than it was before the mission.

I don’t call shenanigans on scenes like this because Naruto and Sasuke are both emotionally stunted orphans unused to interpersonal relationships. There’s a good chance that they don’t know how they’re supposed to react after going through such an emotional life or death scenario.

However, I can and will call shenanigans on events like the Valley of the End or the entirety of Part II because the author never shows Naruto and Sasuke growing beyond this petty antagonism. Instead of being written as two outcasts regressing to avoid dealing with the feels of the Wave arc, the Naruto-Sasuke dynamic stinks of sticking to the status quo.

Sasuke and Naruto aren’t the only ones hit with this, but I tend to give Sakura more of a pass because her character growth happens during the Exams. There are several little hints of Sakura’s increasing awareness of how far behind she is from the boys sprinkled throughout to early exam chapters before hitting the bulk of her character arc during the Forest of Death. There’s even a nice little moment during the written exam where she actually considers someone other than Sasuke for what feels like the first time in the series

The problem here is that this development isn’t given enough set up. I would trade six panels of Sasuke looking cool to see just one interaction between Sakura and her parents. It is absolutely abysmal character writing that we learn about Sakura’s former friendship with Ino from Shikimaru and their rivalry from a freaking info box

Why did Sakura become a ninja? What do her civilian parents think about her being in life-threatening situations as a 12 year old girl? How does she feel about being the only (besides Naruto, as far as she knows) to graduate without a bloodline or family jutsu? What’s the deal with her “Inner Sakura”, is she just repressed, or is there some sort of split personality going on there? Does she have a crush on Sasuke for any reason other than his alleged cuteness? Why didn’t she ever apologize to Naruto for saying that she was jealous he was an orphan, even though he wasn’t present at the time?

Whether intentional or not, Kishimoto made Sakura a very unlikable character early on. I for one remember despising her when first watching the series. And you know what, that’s okay. Each member of Team 7 has enormous personality flaws, and having them slowly overcome said flaws makes for a strong narrative.

The thing is, it takes more time to develop an unsympathetic character than it does one who is sympathetic, and Sakura gets the least character development out of all Team 7 (Kakashi included). This is exacerbated by the fact that she is physically the weakest and does the least during fights - a huge flaw for a main character in a battle manga to have.

Lastly, Sakura’s greatest assets - her intelligence and superior chakra control - are rarely presented as useful. In fact, during her fight with Ino she falls into a basic trap, and the only thing that saves Sakura is her willpower...split personality...whatever the Inner Sakura is. It’s not really made clear and never shows up again.

And speaking of ignored plot points, remember this?

Do you remember Kakashi’s reaction to the possible weakening of the seal keeping in the Nine-Tailed Fox? You know, the innately evil demon monster that can level mountains with just one of its tails?

Yeah, that never gets addressed before the Chunin Exams.

Sakura and Sasuke have an excuse because they didn’t actually see Naruto, but Kakashi is never shown pulling Naruto aside and asking him what happened or taking steps to keep it from happening again. Naruto - the Leaf Village’s Number 1 loudmouth ninja - never asks what happened or is worried that he might lose control to a monster.

Also recall that Naruto decides on his Ninja Way during the Wave arc, yelling it out for everyone to hear because of how upset he was about having to fight and nearly kill someone he liked. This clashes with the current system, a fact Kakashi points out, but Kakashi doesn’t warn Naruto about the potential dangers of this line of thinking, nor are the ramifications of having kids act as child soldiers ever explored.

It’s things like this that make the time taken between major arcs so, so, so important. Not only does it give the characters (and audience) time to process what happened, but quiet moments can lead to incredible character growth, or at least set up later growth that in turn becomes more powerful and realistic because it was properly set up to begin with.

Establishing Secondary Characters

When rereading the primaries for the third round of the exams, three fights stick out as carrying the most emotional weight: Rock Lee vs Gaara, Hinata vs Neji, and Sakura vs Ino.

I’ve already touched on the travesty of the Sakura-Ino rivalry, and while Rock Lee was also introduced during the exams, his motivation and character were established pretty well during the early parts of the arc.

That leaves us with Hinata vs Neji (and later on Naruto vs Neji). Now, out of the Leave genin introduced during the exams, only Ino and Hinata have any real connection to Team 7, and considering Hinata’s place as possible love interest to the main character, she’s arguably the most important to the narrative. Not that she’s ever treated that way, but I digress. Her wholehearted, albeit silent, support for Naruto sets her apart from almost every other character thus far, and her timid, gentle nature is a nice contrast to, well, almost every other character thus far.

(In case it’s not apparent, I really enjoyed Hinata in Part I. I’ll try to keep my bias to a minimum)

In addition, Hinata brings a nice spin on the “hard work trumps natural talent” theme that at this point was important to the story. Unlike Rock Lee and Naruto who (supposedly) are neither talented nor from powerful families, Hinata is a character from a powerful family who has no talent, and has to work past her weakness and overcome the burden of being the heir of one of Konoha’s most prominent families.

We learn none of this until her fight with Neji.

Time is an integral part of tension, and previously establishing conflict would go a long way in getting rid of some of the more awkward exposition dumps. For the Hinata-Neji fight Kishimoto has to explain 1) the byakugan 2) the gentle fist style 3) chakra points 4) how Neji and Hinata are related 5) Hinata’s struggle to better herself and 6) Neji hatred of the main house/fatalist mindset.

That is a ton of information to try to get across in a short period of time, and this isn’t an isolated thing. These mega info dumps aren’t quite as pronounced during Rock Lee and Sakura’s fights, but they’re certainly there. To be fair, it can be hard to convey to the reader what’s going on without some kind of commentator character, but nothing kills the flow of a fight by cutting away from it constantly.

Lastly - and this is again pulling back and looking at the series as a whole - Hinata is basically ignored after this fight, so whatever character development she gets is lessened because there’s no followup.

To be fair, I am just talking about Hinata in this instance. Neji goes through significant growth during the rest of Part I before being mostly ignored in Part II. Because of her injuries Hinata a non-factor during the invasion, and obviously she wasn’t picked to recruit Tsunde or retrieve Sasuke.

This lack of focus has the unfortunate side effect of making the Hinata-Neji fight nothing more than a reason to hype the Naruto-Neji fight. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with hype, and in fact it’s necessary when looking at the arc as a whole. At the same time, it’s also clear Kishi had no idea how to handle the ensemble cast he’d created during the exams.

This mishandling of secondary characters becomes an even bigger issue during Part II, when Shikimaru becomes the only one of the former rookies to get any sort of character focus. Hinata is a favorite of mine, but I don’t buy her love confession anymore than I do Sakura’s, because she’s never seen interacting with Naruto. She is in love with the idea of who she thinks he is (much like Sakura and Sasuke, to be honest. Maybe Kishi should just stay away from romantic subplots.)

I mean, it’s well over 100 chapters before Hinata’s confession is even addressed in canon. I don’t think they have a word for how terrible that kind of writing is.

Fixing the Problem of the Chunin Exams

It can be almost impossible to have “slow” chapters while trying stay up in Shonen Jump’s popularity polls, and I don’t envy the mangaka trying to plan their manga under crushing schedule of weekly serialization, but using the power of retrospect, this is how I would have gone about fixing the problem of the chunin exams.

Firstly, I would have had at least a few of the other rookies be present in the first chapters. Ino would have been a good one to slip in the background when introducing Sakura.

Secondly, I would show the entire rescue the Fire Lady’s cat mission. This might seem stupid, but it would give a baseline for Team 7′s teamwork ability, and give Sakura a chance to show off her brain. For example, Naruto and/or Sasuke could attempt a simple henge only for Sakura to tell them that a cat will still be able to smell them. Something simple like that to establish she’s not absolutely useless.

Thirdly, during the Wave arc I would have Kakashi assign Sakura alternate training, planting the first seed of how far behind the boys she is in terms of ability. This could be anything from working on a jutsu to practicing infiltration to being responsible for setting up booby traps around the house for protection (which would not only make her immediately useful in the Wave arc, but be a nice call forward to the traps she sets during the Forest of Death).

I’d have Team 7 run into Asuma, Ino, Choji, and Shikimaru upon returning from Wave, introducing the concept of the Rookie 9 and Sakura’s rivalry. I would also have Naruto ask Sasuke if they want to train together sometime. In this scenario Sasuke reluctantly agrees, but during the training Naruto asks who Sasuke’s brother is and why Sasuke would want to kill him. This goes about as well as can be expected, thus souring their relationship into the canon state I pointed out earlier.

Forced to train alone, Naruto runs across Hinata working on her taijutsu after Kiba and Shino have gone home for the night. I don’t know if Hinata’s shyness would let her speak in such a situation, but Naruto sees how hard she’s training and tells her to keep up the good work.

Alternately

Team 7 could run across Team Gai at some point, and the audience is introduced to Kakashi and Gai’s rivalry. The Sasuke vs Lee fight from the exams is moved here, while Neji acts like enough of a douche for Naruto to hate him on principle. I kind of like the idea of Sasuke respecting Lee for working to beat someone stronger than he is, which would give Sasuke an added anchor to the village outside of Naruto (for added tragedy when he defects/humanizing him in the present) and give another reason for Lee to chase after Sasuke later in the series.

I would also put a scene where Kakashi asks Naruto about what happened when the seal weakened and/or telling the Hokage about the fox. This would also be a good time for Naruto to first contemplate telling Sakura and Sasuke that he’s a vessel for the fox.

No matter what happened, I would do a repeat of the team’s first cat mission just to show off how far our band of lovable ninjas has come.

Lastly, when Kakashi hands out the application for the exams I would have Sakura talk to her parents about it, or at the very least get their reaction. It would not only give Sakura greater depth but also be a good chance for some world building.

All of this could be done in a chapter or two and without breaking the flow to the exams. Hell, Kishi could have sent them on another C Ranked mission to another country and get in some sorely-needed world building and set up some of the political side of the chunin exams. The possibilities are endless.

In Conclusion

The older I get, the more convinced I become that it’s the stuff that goes on between major story beats that’s most important when developing a story’s emotional tone. It’s a little thing, but it gives a story depth. Unfortunately, it’s a thing that Kishimoto failed to do, and it’s a flaw that only worsened as time went on.

Agree of disagree, thanks for taking the time to read the ramblings of a disenchanted fan. Going over these early chapters reminded me of how good early Naruto was, flaws and all. I don’t regret all the time I’ve put into this series over the years regardless of the omnishambles it turned out to be.

But hey, at least there’s fanfiction.

#naruto #analysis #manga #Sasuke #Sakura #Hinata #Writing #Kakashi #creative-type analyzes

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avenger-hawk · 7 years

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I guess you could say Naruto’s failures in the ending were realistic for his character, if you considel his intellect, abilities and temperament. I was worried Naruto would given a unearned triumph by declaring in some narration or monologue that naruto made peace happen in the ending despite Naruto consistently displayed no understanding about the source of conflicts or injustice. It’s the narrative’s fault that he’s set up to be the savior when he’s clearly the wrong person for the job.

Uhm, yes and no.

The narrative is clear, the manga is called Naruto, it’s about a kid who wants to become Hokage, so it’s a given that he would become Hokage in the end, no matter how other characters are more suited for the job. See also this for more.

(slight anti-kishimoto, anti-konoha and anti-naruto under the cut)

But is that the narrative’s fault? Most narrative, especially shounen, show someone who reaches his goal without being that smart or suited. Sometimes because the message they want to convey is that impossible goals can be reached through hard work and cooperation (which in my opinion is also a way to lightly brainwash readers into becoming good citizens in the future but ok), sometimes just because it’s a fixed trope and most readers identify with the not-so-smart one, instead of the smart suited person.

Actually I’d have been happy if Naruto had solved the conflicts and changed the system for the better, no matter how. But if he did, the whole shinobi system would no longer have a reason to exist, almost. So there always have to be some flaws or the story wouldn’t go on, and clearly kishi doesn’t want that. But this is another issue, and sure there would have been better ways to keep the story going.

Besides, I think that Sasuke would be a much better Hokage but I prefer him in a less stifling and structured position, outside the system, not inside, even though said system hasn’t changed like he wanted, and even though said system brainwashed and tamed him until he became his older self.

Anyway if Naruto made things better for real, I wouldn’t mind how he made it. I’d fill the blanks myself. I would think that he isn’t smart or strategic but he has the resolve to learn the basics at least. And he has smart and strategic people around so he can borrow their knowledge to learn something and to let them deal directly with issues, under his rule.

After all, Itachi warned him to not do everything alone. And he values his friends so he could rely on them. Shikamaru is his advisor, and so should be Kakashi. Tsunade loves him, she should teach him a few things. On top of which, how to rule a village without becoming an asshole, like she did, slacking off and delegating to her secretary, but also keeping it all together and protecting her people on many occasions.

The narrative fault is not that he became Hokage, but that he doesn’t rely on others in the way it would have been natural and IC for him, who always gladly accepted others’ advice and help.

His political ability is close to zero, and he lacks focus, but he is a good motivator and he magically reaches people’s hearts so that they follow him…that is an important quality for a leader, with a vision for the future or not.

The best outcome in my opinion would have been him as Hokage, Shikamaru and Kakashi as his advisors, and Sasuke, as his “shadow”. Imagine this as you prefer. Sure I don’t see Sasuke as a Danzo, because fuck Danzo, but Sasuke has no interest in being acknowledged or popular like Naruto. He certainly wasn’t looking for people’s recognition. He wanted justice and a real change. He wanted to become Hokage because he wanted to change the system and that was the most logical move, but he stepped aside when Naruto said he would change things himself.

Unfortunately, he believed in his words…which led him to be guilt-tripped and brainwashed.

So I would have liked Naruto Hokage with Sasuke as his shadow, even his personal Anbu, because the uniform suits him and I always liked that scenario in fanworks. Because Anbu is where Itachi worked, Anbu is where silent injustice were carried on, so he would want to take that role upon himself and change it, becoming the Anbu new leader. Because I don’t see Sasuke as someone who seeks political power at all but wants effectiveness, and what a better way to keep Naruto in check and spot his possible mistakes or his advisors’ possible interference, than being his “bodyguard”, but actually being more, so that if Naruto is the face and heart, Shikamaru and Kakashi are his brain, and Sasuke is his deep and ever present conscience, that makes sure no injustice happens again.

#anonymous #vivalarevolution #anti-konoha #anti-kishimoto #anti-ending #anti-naruto #just to be safe #Hawk's NS

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