The Definitive Moment Naruto Screwed Up, and Why I Had Higher Hopes for Boruto

Anime has been a big part of my life for a while now, and though people give it a really bad rep, Naruto is a big reason as to why. Yes, Naruto is what you would call my "Gateway Anime".

I guess that my first animes were technically Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Dragon Ball Z, but though I always kind of knew that there was something kind of different about those three from the other types of animation and cartoons I watched, I hadn't quite understood what anime was until I began watching Naruto. After watching that delightful cartoon about a young ninja-in-training wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, I followed with One Piece, then Death Note, then Angel Beats, and so on and so forth.

I am a little ashamed to say that I was kind of obsessed with Naruto for a couple years before branching out into other anime, though. I was just so enamored with the characters, the story, and the unusual amount of violence that you just don't see in western animation that it drew in literally all of my attention for an amazingly long period of time. But then, somewhere in Shippuden, I just stopped.

First, while I realize that Naruto is far from a perfect anime (it in fact became a guilty pleasure of mine after I began watching others), I also feel as if it, at times, had a lot of heart and characteristic charm to it, which is the reason why I believe it drew in a lot of kids like me when it began airing on Toonami. But there is one genuine moment in the anime Naruto that completely betrays its fanbase, and in order to explain when it was and why I'm talking about it now instead of when it happened, I feel it to be more appropriate to talk about what made the show work in the first place. Which means, basically, that this will contain spoilers. So if you either haven't finished or haven't started Naruto and want to watch through all the 500+ episodes before reading this, be my guest. I'm not going to stop you.

Now, there were a couple of things that I felt really worked in Naruto's favor, and one of them was the underdog story that everyone just loves. Don't get me wrong- underdog stories are definitely overused, though for whatever reason, our modern culture seems to absolutely love them. There's something uplifting about stories featuring a person being looked down on or being pushed around rising to the challenge and showing everyone what they've been missing- this especially works since a great portion of anime fans can relate to Naruto on some level. Many of my current anime-watching friends and I would describe our high school-selves as being the quiet kids that sat by themselves in the cafeteria reading a book. A lot of anime fans felt like outcasts, and so seeing this kid that was clearly being treated unfairly look at life in a positive way and fight to overcome each obstacle he faced- that was something we wanted to see. That was something we felt we needed to see.

Another thing that I find Naruto did really well with was- and I know that quite a few of you will fight me to death over my saying this- the characters. Now put down the pitchforks, guys, I know you disagree. And I will concede to you that a lot of characters weren't well developed- I especially hate Sasuke for just being himself; I don't need crappy character development to to do that for me- and that quite a few of them felt one-dimensional, with only a few key traits that helped define them. But, those of you that watched the show in your childhood, please stop and just think of as many characters by name that you can in five seconds.

Pretty quickly, you probably have a lengthy amount of names: Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Kiba, Hinata, Kakashi, Gaara, Orochimaru, Sasuke, Shikamaru, just to name a few. And you're likely to remember each of their personalities, their backstories, who all was on their team, and who they did or didn't like. Sure there may be a ton of characters, and sure, they may only have a couple of really defining character traits, but they're memorable, and I'm willing to bet that there is at least one character in the cast that you can relate to.

I've always had two from the characters that I could relate to very well: Choji and Hinata. Ever since middle school (AKA: worst three years of my life), I've had a very bad case of social anxiety, and though it has died down to a degree, I still have trouble interacting with people, like how Hinata does with Naruto- I even do the same hand thing that she does when she gets nervous. And I can relate to Choji because I, too have had a low self-esteem, though, once again, it was mostly in middle school (AKA: Hell); my self-esteem issues had more to do with me finding myself ugly and thinking that I had no friends because I was an awful person while Choji was self-conscious of his weight, but it was still nice to see someone on TV that suffered through the same kind of stuff that I did when I was a kid.

And I'm sure there are some characters you can relate to, too.

Ever felt trapped by family expectations? Neji and Hinata

Feel like no matter how hard you try, you just can't keep up? Rock Lee

Have you ever let a friendship slip away due to the stupidest reason possible and regret it? Sakura and Ino

Do you sometimes want to lose all sense of feeling in order to stop the pain? Sasori

Or maybe you're just super dedicated to your art and would do literally anything for it? Deidara

I could go on and on with lists of examples, but I won't.

That said, this show is also a haven for shippers, as there is a ton of fun to be had with these characters. And lots of people get very defensive over their ships, which is probably one of the many reasons that the ending to the anime got such a backlash. (As a KibaHina girl, I'm just offended. I mean, come on, the only ships they got right were ShikaTema and InoSai, and I was pretty sure the last one was a crack ship! And don't even get me started on SasuSaku! D:<)

*Deep Breath* This is not a shipping post, this is not a shipping post, this is not a shipping post...

*Ahem* Anyway, because the characters tend to be pretty likeable for the most part (I'm looking at you, Uchiha), we tend to get attached to them rather quickly, which makes the deaths in the anime all the more gut-wrenching. Haku was a death very early in the series that hit you hard and really set the bar for this anime pretty high. Meanwhile in Shippuden, the death of Asuma was heart-breaking not only because he was such a cool teacher, but also because it was thanks to him that we saw Shikamaru completely lose it for the first time- and this is arguably the most relaxed, laidback character in the series, whose closest emotion to anger thus far had been annoyance.

And that is one thing that I will say that I know a lot of people will disagree with: Naruto can be very genuinely emotional when it wants to be.

And that, my friends, is where Naruto screwed up big time.

You may have guess it by now: The very moment when Naruto began to totally and completely betray its loyal fans, who were able to turn away from the poor pacing, inconceivable amount of filler, and terrible Sasuke story arc, was the moment in which it began making death null and void. Yes, Kishimoto did it. He brought characters back to life. And not just a few. 

All of them.

He brought every single god damned dead character back to life.

Are you happy now, fanbase that was screaming for Haku, Zabuza, Asuma, and Deidara to rise from the dead to complete their unfinished business? Because I sure as hell hope you are. And I hope that you shed sweet tears of regret when they were all killed off a second time.

And, no, it isn't just the way that they are brought to life again that boils my blood- it is the incredibly stupid and contrived way in which it is pulled off.  They are brought to life by Kabuto, the enemy, who amazingly enough has enough power to control them all into fighting against their loved ones and former allies. Already, this is triggering some warning bells. But then we receive confirmation that Kabuto can control the amount of will they have and how much of their individual personality they can still retain, but that he lets them keep their personality. Um, OK. 

And, well, I suppose it would make sense, then, that some of these reincarnated characters would be asking their loved ones to put them out of their misery once more. But... But all of them are. Not just a few, but all. There is not a single reincarnated person afraid of dying again, begging not to be killed once more. They are all telling our characters to kill them.

Screw this.

Though I will admit that Deidara acting like Sasuke's crazy ex girlfriend was absolutely unintentionally hilarious, everything else about this arc is absolute garbage and just a cheap grab at the viewers' feels for a round two. Hell, I wouldn't have been nearly as enraged with this entire plot point if all the characters had just been puppets with no free will whatsoever- it would have been much more emotional, in my opinion, and the characters would have had to really think and battle with themselves over whether or not they wanted to punch the life out of their dead friends a second time if they weren't having "KILL ME PLEASE" screamed directly in their faces.

It's cheap, and it's a cheat.

And after the episode with Team 8 and the White Zetsu , I dropped Naruto faster than Rock Lee without his leg weights. I haven't even considered picking up where I left off since. The only other things I watched in regards to Naruto were the last two movies- both of which I had some major problems with.

Which brings me to part two of this post, the reason why I'm writing about this now:

Boruto.

I was a lot more excited than I should have been when I heard that Naruto ended and that the story following the next generation of ninja, Boruto, was getting an anime. I mean, yes, I was still a little pissed about SasuSaku and (to an extent) NaruHina, but having a new story revolving around the kids of the characters we grew up with provided an opportunity to start off clean. There was no way Naruto could have been salvaged, I knew that, but starting again, years after the first series ended, with a mostly new cast? Sign me the hell up!

While Boruto's movie had some big problems, I still thought that the action was fun and the characters seemed pretty refreshing, so it wasn't bad.  Except for Sakura and Sasuke literally naming their kid 'salad.' That's just awful parenting. Still, I was pretty hype.

 But with the first two episodes out and the next coming out soon, I feel as if Boruto is starting on a very unfortunately low note.
 It starts out with a flashforward way into the future, where the Leaf Village is pretty much destroyed and Boruto is facing off with a strange new adversary. Which is kinda cool, I guess, until we continue on to the rest of the episode and realize that probably the only reason it was there was to keep people watching because we can tell it's going to be a long drag, probably filled with filler and various obligatory anime school plotlines like bullies, the importance of studying, and how you can become popular by beating that rebellious kid no one likes/is afraid of in a fight.

They try to draw you in with some sort of weird eye power that Boruto seems to have somehow, possibly having to do with the fact that he's part Hyuuga, but overall, it just seems predictable so far, and the new character, Denki seems really... boring. Like he's just standing in as that obligatory best friend stereotype.

Now it could just be that the animators are trying to set some stuff up so they can do a time skip later and get to the real action, but so far, it has been exceptionally slow compared to its predecessor, and I was really hoping for a lot more. Still, I have hopes that it will improve with time, so I'll continue watching for now. I may actually make another post with my revised impression on Boruto after a month or two.

Oh, and I'm still hoping that some idiot randomly walks by the hole that Hidan is still buried alive in and accidentally digs him up. I'd like to see another fight with the guy, hopefully between him and Shikadai, who is already my favorite character in the new series, followed closely behind by Chocho.

That's all I've got for today. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments: Do you think that Naruto got bad at a different time? Do you think it never got bad in the first place? Was it always bad? And how about Boruto? What are you thinking of it so far? I'd really like to know!

For now, though, Imma get going. See y'all later!