Masashi Kishimoto is one of the legends in the anime industry thanks to his masterpiece, Naruto. Hailed as one of the Big 3s of shonen, the series continues to entertain millions of fans across the world, even years after its conclusion.
However, there is one complaint that fans have been vocal about against his series for years. That is, the lack of substance and depth in his female characters.
Although there have been many moments throughout Naruto’s run that point toward it, a particular sequence where the mangaka inadvertently undermined Tsunade’s tragic past and trauma just cemented that fact.
Masashi Kishimoto proved the haters right by undermining Tsunade’s trauma
Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto is one of the most popular anime series of all time. Inevitably, with as much popularity, criticism has also continued to hound the mangaka throughout the years. One such criticism happens to be that he doesn’t do justice to his female characters.
The biggest example of this, as user babygurlaura explained on Tumblr, was the way Kishimoto did one of the strongest characters in his series, Tsunade, dirty. Fans would remember there was this sequence in Naruto where Sakura, one of the protagonist trio and Tsunade’s student, commented that she would never use the Creation Rebirth Seal to preserve her youth like her master.
This was done in an attempt to show Sakura’s growth as a person from the naive, shallow kid she used to be. Admittedly, Sakura’s growth truly had been exponential in all aspects of her life.
In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that she had the best character and power development out of the three of them. However, her comment came across as tone-deaf at best and haughty at worst. This is exactly where the problem lies with Masashi Kishimoto’s female characters.
That is, they often end up undermining other female characters, no matter who they are and what they have been through, in order to establish themselves as superior. Naruto fans remember the severity of the trauma Tsunade witnessed during the Second Great Ninja War.
Not only did her little brother die due to the brutality of the war, but she also couldn’t save her lover, Dan Kato, from bleeding to death. The events affected her so much that the best medical ninja to ever exist ended up developing hemophobia, a fear of blood from her trauma.
In fact, her going above and beyond to keep her appearance youthful also comes from a trauma response of trying to wipe the years of pain, loss, and grief away. As such, through Sakura’s comment, Kishimoto not only degraded Tsunade but also the devastating trauma she endured.
Moreover, the primary reason behind Sakura’s comment, i.e., to show how far she has come in her life, also became void as it just made her appear the same girl who looked down her nose at everybody. Which hasn’t been true for a long time.
Masashi Kishimoto has continuously pitted his female characters against each other in Naruto
Although Sakura’s comment against Tsunade seemed especially crass, it wasn’t the first time Masashi Kishimoto has pitted his female characters against each other. The legendary rivalry Ino and Sakura fell into in order to win Sasuke’s love when they were kids is not something any Naruto fan will ever forget.
Although the competition for Sasuke had been over long ago, their rivalry continued till their teen years, with both taking potshots at each other whenever they got the chance.
In fact, when the time came to show how far they had grown, it again came down to undermining the other to prove their self-worth. Hinata is another example of completely wasted potential who served almost no function in the story at all.
Although there have been moments where each of them has gotten their chance to shine, those are so few and far between that they have become inconsequential.
Masashi Kishimoto has a chance to finally turn things around with the next generation of young ninjas in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. However, only time will tell how that turns out in the end.
Naruto and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations are both streaming on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
