[ SECRET POST #5448 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5448 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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[Naruto/Boruto]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 36 secrets from Secret Submission Post #779.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

02. https://i.imgur.com/HHrLdbC.jpg
[Naruto/Boruto]

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not a NaruSaku shipper, but I swear for a moment I thought Kishimoto might actually do something unexpected and have Sakura's feelings change for Naruto because of all the character development they'd been through together. The moment Kishimoto ruled it out was the moment I knew she was doomed to mediocrity for the rest of the story and that she and Sasuke deserved each other. lol

A super long and slightly off topic (in the second half) reply

[(Anonymous)]

These concepts are kinda baked into each other, though I agree.

There's this difficulty, especially in older anime fandoms (which, ew, I guess Naruto technically is considering even the anime is is almost 2 decades old) of a lot of in-universe criticism of girls and women (or other characters that are underused, badly used or undeveloped). Like "they're weak," "too emotional," "too boring," "too whiney," among others. Even when these have merit (and often times they have less merit than fandom thought at the time), it's placed on the character and not the writer. So, there's a tendency for "in-verse" discussions of how to pair the characters. Also, in Naruto, at this point, I'd say that Kishimoto really is not good at writing female characters. It seems like every time he tries to get better or get close he either stagnates and backs off (rarely focusing on that character again or keeping them in their same very stagnant characterization) and then adds weird characteristics. I don't want to put it solely on his ability to write romance, because I like some of the romantic ideas he has (Kushina and Minato, Jiraya and Tsunade even if you read it as one-sided). He had a very good start with his first drawn/written part of Boruto being Sarada's story... and then he wrote whatever that is. That weird stuff. The stuff that combined ninjas and aliens but somehow made it boring.

Another difficulty is fillers, added scenes, and removed scenes in adaptations. There's actually a Twitter account dedicated now to pointing out specifically added or removed things by Studio Pierrot (who notably adapted Naruto, Bleach, and Black Clover). Notably, female characters. There are exaggerations to characters, removal of pivotal scenes, etc. There are a lot of different things out there, with the most documented probably being Sakura's in Naruto and Orihime's in Bleach. Googling something like "studio pierrot changes [franchise]" should help. If you want, I have a madlad friend who has gone through the first episode of Bleach vs the first chapter and pointed out things that were changed (not that things can't be changed, mind you, but these items were bad notably because they contradicted things in the episode, some were completely frivolous and thus baffling, and others actually hurt some characters' characterizations). There's also a twitter account for some things, but I disagree with some of its stuff because it's complaining about blood and gore censorship which... it has to be on TV. It's also not as well documented/expressed with twitter being, well, twitter.

So you get bad character writing, bad relationship writing, and then further fumbling of both these things by the anime adaptation. As in, there ARE examples of fumbling the particular relationship in the anime. This doesn't mean it's particularly good in the manga. I read the post-timeskip stuff exclusively as manga and um. Yeah. Not good. But Sakura is a far more interesting character in that medium than in the anime. Though, again. Not good.

Re: A super long and slightly off topic (in the second half) reply

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

I'd be interested in your friend's comparison about Bleach! I definitely felt like Orihime (at least in the anime) was supposed to be a stronger character than she was portrayed to be -- I kind wasn't as fond of her at first (I wanted to be) but she grew on me and frankly Rukia started strong for me, but I felt like I lost her along the way? If that makes sense. It's like there was a sadness to most of the female characters.

Re: A super long and slightly off topic (in the second half) reply

[(Anonymous)]

They actually cut a lot of ship tease between her and Ichigo and some of her characterization during the early arcs! But my friend hasn't finished their second episode writeup yet (which is her introduction and actively changes a lot about her and Ichigo's relationship, from being good acquaintances and someone she already crushed on due to his 'funny face' to her barely knowing him and being scared when she knocks into him; however, even removing any ship stuff, it changes her from a kinda refreshing take on an archetype back into that archetype), but the first episode does a lot to Rukia and Ichigo on their own!

Part one:
https://kuboism.tumblr.com/post/643673860760387584/bleach-canon-vs-studio-clown-episode-1

Part two:
https://kuboism.tumblr.com/post/643685164054102016/bleach-canon-vs-studio-clown-episode-1-part-2

Re: A super long and slightly off topic (in the second half) reply

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks!

I totally agree re: Rukia and Ichigo. I felt like they were kinda teased -- especially with the whole she was in love with her mentor who Ichigo resembles in many ways to Ichigo being...protective? Of her. I always thought it was going to be a love triangle between Ichigo Rukia and Renji -- basically no one confesses or they confess to late. Lol

And poor Orihime Left to watch and pine and love Ichigo the only way she could. As a friend :/

Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

Eehh, I was pretty much a manga-only person for both Naruto and Bleach aside from watching some if my favorite chapters animated after I read them, and all the canon ending ships were still super weak to me. I don't know if watching the anime instead would have made them even worse, but there's still not much to defend about either manga from my perspective.

AYRT

[(Anonymous)]

Oh no, I'm mostly talking about characterization, not ship tease. Like, ship tease is removed, but the different characterizations are far worse. It also seeps into fandom and fanon because most people are going to come from the anime adaptations.

(Though rereading as an adult there's definitely a lot more subtle orihime and ichigo stuff to me, I am well aware that can be confirmation bias per rhe manga. But wow, i forgot how much characterization stuff i could recall ended up just being anime only stuff)

[(Anonymous)]

Obviously Sasuke should have just gotten with Naruto in the first place.

[(Anonymous)]

That.

I mean, I never expected it to happen obviously but... heck, even Naruto/Sakura would have made more sense to me. I kinda sorta get NaruHina, but for SasuSaku apparently having been planned from the beginning it failed spectacularly for me. It's still a super popular ship so I guess it worked for many people or they've reached a point where their headcanon makes it work and that's legit.

[pantswarrior]

Hahahahahah.

Every time I see stuff about these characters I think about the time when my Naruto-fan friend's girlfriend threw a fit and ran off shortly before Otakon - so even though I'd seen like three episodes of Naruto at that point, I threw a costume together and went along with my friend so she would have a Sasuke to go with her Naruto who was definitely okay with fanservice pics. (I don't regret it, we had a good time, people apparently enjoyed us, but it was admittedly pretty ridiculous.)

[(Anonymous)]

I never liked any Sasuke ships when he was a teenager, but adult Sasuke and adult Naruto has warmed me to the ship.

[(Anonymous)]

I like to say the Brienne of Tarth deserves better than Jaime Lannister because he's a hot mess emotionally but also she likes her men beautiful, powerful, wealthy beyond all reason, and overwhelmingly in love with other people. And who am I to judge, shoot for the stars.

At some point it's just about shipping the character with happiness.

[(Anonymous)]

+1