Serenity Namikaze

You know we haven't actually had anyone interested in the polls they do, in the time I've been on this site. However, even treating this as a new thing, this is getting old. They should have already have enough data from: 15 years of Naruto's success, 6-8 years of Boruto's failure, that poll they just did, and the SS manga high views but low sales. To make the decision. Eventually, your just doing endless polls to be given the same results to a company that refuses to admit what the data shows and act.

 

Kishimoto is not going to support a NS remake until at least Boruto ends because it would be backstabbing Ikemoto and the anime staff who work on it. Even if he did, has he learned what the problems with Naruto were and how to fix them?

 

I'm going to keep saying it but if you really want them to hear you, write a letter. It just as likely to have the effect of these endless polls but at least you would be expressing yourself, instead of letting some poll analyzer decided what your vote says.

 

Judging by the retweets nH/SS with...oh god they got to Hime...she looks awful even animated. Anyways if all the retweets are nH/SS does that means they are popular and bring in the money, we already have examples of that not being the case.

They have data but they kittened up with so many things regarding the story that they probably don't know what made Naruto a success while making Boruto a failure, which is probably why they are making so many polls and posts.

I agree that the best option for people being annoyed by all of this is still to write a letter directly to them if it's to give real inputs. It will mostly not work but hey, at least the people writing won't play into their games that are oh so pointless to see what can actually sale.

NS fanbase have moved on. No point to visit the twitter post just to increase its view.

If they want to reboot, sure, by all means. Theyll be dealing with a different customer segments. The NS fanbase that made large contribution to Naruto franchises financial success in 15 years is no longer here.

I agree with that!

NS fanbase have moved on and what's left are doing their own things outside the canon stuff.

At this point, the only official pairing related to NS that ''could make an impact'' would be Minakushi, if people still wish to give supports outside NH/SS.

Or give support to other pairings like ShikaTema, for example. 

I remember a couple of months ago I wrote in this forum that we will finally be able to get the true size of SS fandom with this series. Here we are, and its not surprising we found out that its actually very small.

A manga that was produced based on a novel that sold poorly to appeal to a fandom that was supposed to be big based on rumours, but its true size has never been validated. Who wouldve guessed it will sold poorly? /s

Not sure if the decision makers were in denial, desperate or simply cannot make smart decisions. It could be three combined. lol.

Anyways, I will hold my judgement until the hard figures come out (if at all). We know for sure by now, SS is very small. The sales figure for this specific product validates that. Whether it is smaller than NH, we dont know and frankly it doesnt matter.

Ive said this before and Ill say it again: Naruto franchise is dead the moment they killed NS, one of the major fandom financing this series.

Will reviving NS bring back sales to the rate before volume 64 came out? Absolutely not. Readers have moved on.

Anything NS at the moment will just kill the already very small NH/SS fandom. NS folks are generally logical and reasonable, we go by manga contents and whats written. While NH/SS fandom will try their hard to justify and get validation that they are very big without any basis except some unofficial polls about pairings, some rumours, etc. It is their insecurities since the original manga that was written for 15 years hardly made any positive content for NH/SS.

With this manga released, we can finally put that debate into co nclusion: both SS and NH are very small. They are the freeloaders and it is very unfortunate the executive made decisions that appeals to these very small audience, which end up causing the franchises death.

It's funny really, how we heard so much that SS fanbase was big in terms of popularity (which is probably was and still is) but when seeing the sale numbers of a light novel that is targetted for them, you see the total opposite. While the ending was bad (and many things that came after), the overall sales were good, last time I remember but it was harder to tell if it was because of the fanbase of the pairings the executives chose.

Sure for NH, they got the last movie and SS got Gaiden (even if it was still pictured in a more or less negative light by Kishimoto) but even that, it still couldn't really show really how much important these 2 fanbases were in terms of being big enough to support the overall sales of the franchise.

People could still hate the ending for many reasons yet still buy the mangas to complete the set and even what came after, for example. Same could be said in a way with Boruto, while at first it kinda did good in sales (not as good as Naruto but enough to continue with the project), it was mostly because it was new, fans could still hate Naruto ending for many reasons yet still be curious about it. But again, the variation of the numbers couldn't be explained just because of the support of the pairings fanbase, not really at least. But with Sasuke Retsuden, whose sole purpose is pretty much targetted for SS, you can get a better picture on how big this fanbase is still is which isn't as big as everyone thought it was at least, not in terms to support the sales. If Sasuke Retsuden came out closer to let's say, Gaiden, maybe things would be different (or not) but while it could have boosted the sales for a while, it would have been just that, for a while and not enough to completely support the franchise overall sales that were better around the ending of Naruto and start of Boruto.

With the Last for NH and now Sasuke Retsuden for SS, we get a better picture of the importance these 2 fanbases has in sales and overall, while it might still be popular, I guess it's not popular enough to really support the numbers of sales.

Not gonna lie, I'm somehow surprised with SS because SS popularity was based more on the japanese market (unless I misread information before) and unlike the westerns fans, the japanese fans buy the product, to show their support, they don't watch/read illegally. I guess even if SS was made canon, the SS japanese fanbase didn't really wanted to show their support and with good reasons as they didn't really have a good representation in how it was handle.

Not sure if the decision makers were in denial, desperate or simply cannot make smart decisions. It could be three combined. At this point, I would say the three combined hahah 

Ive said this before and Ill say it again: Naruto franchise is dead the moment they killed NS, one of the major fandom financing this series. While I can say that it wasn't the only factor, I agree with you that killing NS was one of the major factor that killed the franchise. Not only killing it but doing it in such dirty way too. Even with just friendship moments, it was still one of the core relashionship of the manga that also affected greatly the main plot of the serie. Even if fans didn't support it as a pairing, they understood that it was part of the story and they expected that this would be the logical endgame pairing (at least, the japanese fanbase and people that can actually read outside the shipping googles). While the decision to switch for NH/SS were done months, probably a couple of years before the ending, the executives might have been aware at that time that people, at least the japanese fans, expected NS at the end, which is the only big reason why they pulled the misleading tricks with The last movie. They didn't want to lose the japanese fandom support (at least not for the sales of the last movie) while trying to support the international market. Again, while NS isn't the only reason why the franchise is dead, it's still a big reason why, the executives knew they would lose the supports of the NS fanbase they probably just wouldn't know just how much this would cost them because they only saw the popularity factor, they never considered that the overall fans, shipping fans or not, cares a lot more about the integrality of the story and the characters and NS was part of the package deal. 

Reviving NS could be an option but to do that they would have to admit they kittened big time with their dirty tactics to destroy it by following what was popular instead, to maybe have a rise of curiousity from the NS fanbase but they will never admit their mistakes and even if they did, it won't work. If they don't, they could still do it but like you said, the NS fanbase are generally the logical and reasonnable fanbase that goes with what's written and after all the kitten up the executives did to make everyone believe that NS never really existed, It's a given that the NS fanbase wouldn't be tricked by them again. You said it, The NS fanbase moved on (at least to what is canon) and while some might be curious, it wouldn't be enough to support the franchise that antagonised it, even if they did admit that they kittened up, this fanbase know better and certainly won't fall into their trap.  

I still see this as the executives tired of Naruto-Boruto not making them money like it used to and trying to figure out what does.

 

They are probably not happy it got supposedly high online views but poor financial purchases. Which is the same thing that happened with nH.

 

It will probably come down to what do they do with the poll winner's manga and how it does. if it does poorly, they will probably be just done with Naruto-Boruto all together. If it does well, we will see if that even happens. if they just ghost it, they have already given up.

 

But even if they realize they MUST go back to NS they are probably reluctant to pull that trigger. One, because they already made the decision to support nH/SS. Two, Kishimoto would need to come out to show his support for it and that would require stabbing Ikemoto in the back.

 

Honestly, I just hope they keep breathing down Ikemoto's neck. So he keep rushing his story. So, it will finally reach the time skip and I can finally stop doing those summaries.

I still see this as the executives tired of Naruto-Boruto not making them money like it used to and trying to figure out what does. That the only logical explanation as to why they would do that now. Relying on what's popular (like they always did) is the worst decision to make, like I said previously, just because something is popular doesn't mean that the sales will be good. If the products they are trying to sale is bad, nothing will save it, regardless of what's  popular or not. Not only that but they probably don't even know what made Naruto so popular in the first place because if they did, they probably would have make light novels about it or add these elements into the Boruto story. So the ''best strategy'' for them, at this point is to pull the volting poll on fans. Only this is still something that could backfire on them because they don't take into consideration what could happen using this strategy and did happen, which is fans, ex-fans, other people knowing about the vote and voting for any reasons, some to support but many to troll the Naruto toxic fanbase.

Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it will help but frankly, from what I see, my guess would be that it will fail or at best for them, boost the sale for a little while and that's it.

Assistant. He was in charge of backgrounds, background characters, and anything else Kishimoto didn't feel like doing. He took over Boruto for Kishimoto.

 

He was apparently one of the people that convince Kishi to go with SS. Saying the Sakura was hated because she wasn't with Sasuke.

 

I also suspect he was the assistant who said you read the manga wrong and weren't a true fan if you didn't support nH. If nothing else for the irony.

I always assume that Ikemoto pushed more the NH agenda and not really the SS. The only rumour that I've heard about SS was that he hated Sakura but I never heard about him convincing Kishi that Sakura was hated because of her not being with Sasuke, I heard more that he tried to push Hinata's popularity factor on Kishi. then again, if him pushing the whole Hinata popularity on Kishi, one would assume that he might have pushed SS also for this very same reason and again, because he apparently hated Sakura.

Pretty sure 663 is implied as the real ending

To me, that was the hidden message from Kishi saying that's the realy ending he envisioned.

I had a feeling that it would pop out soon as I saw some drawings that looks like from this project on his twitter page in January 17, glad that it's finally came out today  

Naruto finally waking up, while I can't wait to see some more NaruSaku moments, I'm happy that it's Shikamaru that gets to tell Naruto what happened while he was out as I love to see more between these 2, love their overall friendship.

While I'm ok with how Tokai is writing Hinata, I'm more than overjoyed to see something else now, will wait patiently for the next page 

BTW, Tokai already pop out is next page (without text) on his twitter account in January 20 so I presume we should have it soon (cross fingers)

We'll see the rankings in april. I still wish for Minato to be no 1, better than Itachi (too many Uchiha in this story).

Let's hope that Hinata is not in the top 10 at the very least and Sakura still gets high in ranking even if it was thanks to people voting for her to pissed off the toxic fandom that is Naruto, among the Sakura/SS fans that is.

So Kishimoto really did a Bad Work Showing Sakura loving Sasuke into a point she was willing to abandon Naruto and the Village to follow him and "red herring" pairing become most popular than the main one.

The SS moments and mainly the chapter 181 was extremely unnecessary for a shonen manga.
Puting Hinata in this love triangle by making her declaration too.

 

Like i Said the big three pairings had chances.
Kishimoto tried to secure the pairing fans until the last moment in this messy.

Showing Sakura's feeling toward Sasuke when he left the village wasn't necessarily a bad move, at that time. It was the first editor's idea to incorporate the love interest and the rival, which also include the love triangle from the very beginning. So her confessing to Sasuke was only the continuation of Yahagi's idea. I agree that it wasn't needed but again, at that time, it wasn't necessarily a bad move.

What Kishimoto wasn't aware of is the massive influence the anime got in the west.

Hinata was irrelevant to the manga and only started to pop with her confession in the Pain arc but before that, her most ''relevant'' moment was during the chunin exam. While her giving Naruto support before his match with Neji gave her some points with the fans, what really started her popularity in the west was the fillers made by Pierrot after Sasuke left the village ( one in particular when Hinata trains aon a lake (naked, in a shadow), Naruto sees it and look enchanted by what he sees). Western fans watch more the anime and not as much reading the manga made her look relevant to the story even if she wasn't. Not only did Pierrot shows Hinata as more relevant to the story that she already was but started early showing Sakura way more violent toward Naruto than she really was in the manga. Another things that westerns fans don'ty get is the whole tsundere concept, they don't get that a tsundere refers to an outwardly violent character who ''runs hot and cold'', alternating between two distinct moods : tsuntusn (irritable) and deredere ( soft/caring), usually in the presence of the main character. They also don't get that a tundere usually began with a harsh outgoing personnality but slowly revealed a solf and vulnerable interior over time. Also note that the tsuntsun is shown as humour when the character that is in the receiving end of it  does somethng stupid. The westens fans that usually don't get this concept only see the violence whithout understanding why well you get fans pissed about how Sakura is so cruel toward Naruto. 

So you get fillers giving more relevance to Hinata while showing Sakura in a negative ways (even if it's for humour), you get fans wanting Hinata to save Naruto with her love from the kitteny Sakura. Adding this with her confessing to Naruto's rival well it just make them fuel there logic even more. 

At the start of shippuden, the NS moments, while subtle, were a lot more clear to see the shift on Sakura's part but what westerns fans never get to acknowledge (mostly because again, more anime fans and the anime show Sakura in a more negative light) was that there were moments long before that and yes, even on Sakura's part toward Naruto. While these early moments weren't necessarily saying hey, I love Naruto now, it was a start of her seeing Naruto in a different light and growing to eventually caring about him. Sakura blushing at Naruto's being more amazing than she first gave credit for, smiling tenderly looking at Naruto when Sasuke told her that it was Naruto that saved her were the deredere side showing, something that western fans don't get because like I said previously, they don't get the concept of a tsundere.

I think the mistakes was to play with too much subtle moments with NS, leaving an open door with NH that was growing more popular because of the anime while already having a stronger SS moment.

If for example, in the scene when Yamato speaks to Sakura holding an injured Naruto after his 4 tails transformation , Kishimoto should have finished Yamato's sentence. while it wouldn't have shut the door for SS completely since they already had Sakura confessing to Sasuke, at least it would have giving a more solid ground on NS.

If that is the case, certain lines Junko herself voiced make no sense! Naruto thinks love is like fruit/Ramen, but is afraid to express these feelings to Sakura due to his failure to keep his promise to bring Sasuke back? What about Naruto's POAL scene where he claims to understand exactly how Sakura feels? Was Naruto comparing all of that crying from Sakura to love/infatuation with fruit? WTF Junko!!!!

Of course it doesn't make any senses, like many things they did to try to discredit NaruSaku as romantic pair, as if people that knows how to read and don't have only shipping googles are too stupid to makes 2 and 2 together with past moments with these 2.

They really want to erase everything that is NaruSaku, even frienship moments because if they give some moments with these 2 just as casual friends, it look bad for the official pairings because the official pairnigs just doesn't have anything positive for them and outside the people that ship NH/SS, everyone else knows they are bad pairings.

One of the main things about younger Naruto was that he understood pain from others, and yeah, even a girl's feelings. The painful look/smile he did when Sakura hugged Sasuke on the hospital bed after Sasuke's confrontation with his brother speaks volume. Just because he didn't say anything in that moment doesn't mean he didn't understood Sakura's feelings. Like you said, the POAL, a clear moment were he clearly said that understood exactly what Sakura was feeling is another example. But because NH's foundation is so weak, they need to not only discredit all these moments about Naruto actually understanding Sakura's feelings but any moment these two had because even a normal friendship moment between Naruto and Sakura would look 1000 times better than any moment between Naruto and Hinata, even if they are paired together. 

Even worst, not only do they try to erase NS but even the whole importance of team 7. Even the bound between Naruto and Sasuke doesn't mean anything as much as it used too be (from what I heard and see because I don't follow new materials) because again, anything between these 2 would still look better than any moment between Sasuke and Sakura/Naruto and Hinata because again, weak foundation as credible pairings.

Since the official pairings as such a weak fondation as credible romantic pairrings, the only thing they can do is to discredit anything that look better than NH/SS, which is use whatever dirty tricks to make people believe that they believe in these pairrings and of course, they would use the VAs for that as well. I didn't watch/read much more about what Junko said outside this so I don't know how she looks when she said it but to me, knowing that she didn't particularly approuve of TL movie (her face expressions and what she said, while not trashing NH, didn't speak in a positive way about it either) tells me that it's more about trying to validate NH to make it look good than her actually agreeing with what she said. 

Again, why continue to try to validate your official pairings like that, over the years if it isn't to do damage controle. If NH/SS were written better, they wouldn't need to do these tricks but everytime NH/SS is shown, it look bad and laughable to anyone that has commun sense. They have no choices but to play these tricks because they are simply too deep into their own kitten to know how to properly fix them in a better way.

 

VAs are expected to make statements supporting current pairings.

 

I know all too well still, while Junko didn't specifically said that it was crap before, she didn't shy away with expressing some comment that wasn't all that positive about the Last movie, for example. It's just pathetic that they're using the VAs just to continue to validate the canon pairings even after years of being official because it didn't make any sense and still doesn't, even with their new material 

But hey, as long as it help to boost for a short while the sales, who gives a flying kitten about making any senses right?

 

Some Naruto/Hinata Fanboy made a video acusing One Piece Fandom for Voting/cheating for Sakura because it's impossible Sakura in TOP 5. The video goes viral in TikTok

One Piece influencers/fans didn't like this and deliberaly started to vote and make campaign for Sakura to piss of the toxic side of Naruto Fanbase

 

Ah I see, thanks for the info, I was like were all of this come from lol

Love to know that these One Piece influencers/fans deliberately were voting for Sakura just to pissed off the toxic side of the Naruto fanbase hahah

Even if it's for pissing off this toxic side of the Naruto fanbase, more voting for Sakura is a win in my book, even if it's for that reason.

As for the vote, can't help but to be slightly curious to know if, for example, Minato is still #1. At the same time it's not like I give that much of a damn about the whole situation outside enjoying the trainwreck show with a big bag of pop corn hahah

Sadly that is all they will ever do is pull dirty tricks. I do fear that the executives will try the mess with the numbers and make Hinata closer to number one. I mean, with Hinata not doing so well, this has to be something that the ones who pushed Hinata so hard she was so universally liked, seeing how she wasn't even at number one, must be really setting off the ones who tricked Kishi into thinking Sakura wasn't liked.

 

Like you, I voted for Sakura for the same reason, and I didn't want Hinata to win. Because of what she and her fans have done to Naruto and what they are still doing to it. Retrospective Greg said it best in his Rise and Fail of Naruto video how even in the game Hinata was treated as this sweet little innocent angel, and the other girls were treated as demons.

Oh believe me I know, what still surprise me is that they are doing these specific dirty tricks now to help boost the sales instead of doing it earlier, knowing that the sales of their products were dropping drastically over the years?

Maybe they've done other dirty tricks like this before that I'm not aware of since I was MIA since 2016 regarding new information on Naruto/Boruto stuff but I find it odd that they do those tricks now instead of doing it closer to the Naruto ending or Gaiden, for example, were the franchise was still strong and would have given more power to these moves they pulled about NH/SS/Hinata. Why wait for the whole 20th anniversary celebration with voting polls (which is, again, another of their dirty tricks) to revive sales that had been weak for years?

It's like they know they kittened up but dont know how to fix the situation and wait for a big event like the 20th anniversary to make one last move to save the day. boosting SS/NH/Hinata when there was nothing for years for SS/NH/Hinata, knowing that all of these have a bad reputations since the last of their real significance appearance makes these moves even more stupid.

Anyway, it's a never ending circle of bad desicions after bad decisions, desperate attempts before Boruto end, regarless of the why now instead of earlier.

Sakura was in #3.

She has a Big Chance to win since all SasuSaku/Sakura Fandom are massively mobilizing votes for her with various collabs even with famous asian bands/streamers and some shops.

Since the MidTerms Sakura gained a massive support from One Piece/others animes fandom (Yes most of them are voting in her to troll Naruto toxic Fandom), Sasuke Fans, Female/Kunoichis fans and even some NaruSaku fans to support Sakura against Hinata...

(Ironically SasuSaku comes to hates Hinata as well since NH ghosts are desperates since Retsuden and wanted some validation to prove superiority against SasuSaku/Sakura)

 

The montage chosen for the ending has two Sakura moments.  SasuSaku/NaruSaku was in the image while NH was nowhere to see.

 

Oh so Sakura also gained a lot of support from One Piece/other anime fandoms? I didn't see this info anywhere but if it is indeed true, even if it's just for the sake of trolling the toxic Naruto fandom then I say thank you for that hahah

It's funny that other fandoms are doing this, guess that it's well known around the anime community how the Naruto fandom is bad and most probably, people know how bad the story turned out mostly because of it. Probably some of these voters are also old Naruto fans so they already knew but again, wouldn't be surprised if the news was spread on how bad the Naruto fandom is and knowing about the voting poll, decided to mess with it. 

Personnally, I voted for Sakura, not because I like what she has become (couldn't care less about this fangirl-over-Sasuke Sakura) but because I still love the Sakura before they kittened her up past the Pain arc and removed her as the main heroine in the OG story because of the Hinata popularity in the west. So yeah, overall, it's to troll the Naruto fandom that I did that mostly so old Naruto fans that are in other anime fandoms ddid also the same to troll the Naruto fandom.

Also, talking about the fandom being toxic, can't help but to include the dirty tricks the executives of the franchise are pulling even after all these years just to boost the sales. In my opinion, the whole Sasuke Retsuden would have made more sense if it was done closer to let's say, Gaiden since SS didn't have a positive image because of it. Of course, knowing that the executives didn't care about Sakura probably explains things but last time I checked, SS was and is somehow still popular so if they knew about it, why not boosting the sales with more SS materials then? With NH/Hinata, again, they play dirty tricks too to boost sales of Boruto because the sales are dopping drastically over the years  and with the SS boost thanks to Sasuke Retsuden, they feels the need to suddently make Hinata poping out of nowhere in the manga (and probably I presume, NH with it) because she is the reason of Boruto's existence.

Talking about another dirty trick, yesterday I heard Junko made a comment comparing Naruto's love for Sakura vs Hinata, like his love for Sakura is like llove for fruits while with Hinata, it's the real deal, like him finally understanding a girl. This is most probably another dirty tricks of these executives, using Junko since she's still in contract with them, to validate NH because people see this parring still in a bad way, even after all theese years. 

Overall, I see these dirty tricks as damage control over the dying franchise on their parts and again, it's pathetic that they are still pull these tricks even after all these years 

Yeah while I do admit that the unaltered scenes make it feel snail paced, at the same time taking them out would wreck the the flow of the story still. remember he's not remaking it into something new, he's just altering the context of some of the key points to make it a more natural narrative that fits the characters' characterizations more and make it about NS instead so that in of itself isn't really the issue it is the fat that it takes time to fillout a single page but remember it is being done out of love and appreciation for Naruto as a whole and it's not a funded project either and most of all we have to respect the creator's personal time as well

I totally agree and seriously, I much prefer waiting a long time and have a final product that gives us a proper ending for NS fans than rushing it and get what the official gave us.

Yeah seeing too many Hinata/Toneri pages is annoying, but like  you said, it's part of the story of the movie and it is an essential annoyance that is needed to make the story flow better.

The author could have done a complete original story but decided to simply fix The Last movie plot to give a proper respect to all characters but mostly, to give NS an ending that this amazing pairing derseve but got robbed.

We all wish to have more NS goodies but let's be patient and continue to give the author our support 

I already know. I think its all the NH stuff he had on his page that was throwing me off and gave me that feeling. I WANT you to be right and my feeling to be wrong. That kitten made me paranoid after what Kishi did.

You right though.

On the chapter 2, page 2, someone mentionned that it was weird that he decided with an NS ending, which Tokai2000 replied :

''I prefer Narusaku, they have proper development unlike the others. Naruhina is so one sided and Sasusaku is simply not right. Sasuke is a total jerk during most part of the story and even tries to kill Sakura. I don't like it.''

When asked if he doesn't love NH/SS, why drew them, which Tokai2000 replied : 

''The drawings from The Last were made before seeing the movie.

At that time, I thought "Hey let's give studio pierrot an opportunity, maybe the movie is good and explains why Naruto switches from Sakura to Hinata. I can even accept the ending if they make a good story" so I made some fanart from The Last. I thought it would be cool because it has some good character designs and besides it was the newest Naruto material available.

After seeing the movie I was very dissapointed. Some time later I began my project so I don't have any Narusaku fanart because this manga is the only thing I have been drawing since I decided that I would make my own ending''

Hope this will help ease the bad feeling you have.

For now, let's wait patiently for his next page 

cant shake the feeling that he gone troll us. Been feeling like that since page 1. Praying Im wrong though.

Don't see why he would troll us, he mentionned a couple of times in comments that it would be NS in the end. Also, there are a lot of precise moments that clearly show that proves it..While it's still suttle and slow developement (as it should be for NS IMO), it's not as suttle and unsure hints as the original manga, I really don't see any indication that he's playing with us like Kishimoto did because he suck at writing romance (and also, got lots of unwanted pressure from his team and western fans).  

NH and Hinatards fanbase are ridiculous small in west and NON EXISTENT in Japan.
Most of the Hinata/NH fans are "louder ghosts". Ghosts are pretty useless for view/sales/Support. Look at the pathetic Hinata position in the poll (While Sakura is in #3 and could get #1) and the  The Last movie Fiasco.

Sasuke/Kakashi was promoted much more in the Movie material than the own Hinata. When Japonese people noted Sasuke/Kakashi wasn't in the movie and story was a simply Hinata's fairy tale. The Last FLOPED HARD.

Wich resulted in Kishimoto writing a full volume about Sasuke/Sakura and their daughter and turn Sasuke the main Character  in Boruto  Movie.

I still didn't know what Ikemoto wanted to archieve with Hinata randomly slaping a boy who made her desapear 2 seconds later.
This is just pathetic...

 

The last marketing was definately a trap, they knew that Hinata didn't sell in Japan and even if they wanted to succeed in continuing in the west, they knew that they couldn't just advertise that it was a big Hinata love fest., they wanted to give false hope of the majority of the fans. While they expected a fall down (mostly NS but also, like you said, Kakashi, Sasuke and team 7 central fans in general),  they still did it as they expected the west to help them after the backslash. It was a big mistake on their part as the the majority of the sales are from Japan. Japanese fans are very loyal people, they are not greedy when they really want to support something, unlike the west that use illegal streamings and read manga for free while not necessarily buying (or not as much as Japan). So when you get a marketing team playing dirty trick like they did with the Last, you get Japanese fans pissed because they feel betrayed, especially when they had the nerve to play the ''no refund ticket policy'', something that never happened in previous Naruto movies. With that, you get the backslash of the majority of the japanese fans upset and no longer want to support anything of the franchise. 

I don't know why they would put Hinata after so long of being inactive/not being involved in the manga. If Hinata was indeed more popular in the west, they would have given her a more important role in the manga way before this moment yet they didn't so I presume that they realized that Hinata wasn't as popular in the west as they expected or at least, not enough to boost the sales after the ending and mostly, the whole The Last fiasco. The only thing I see is a desperate move to try to see if maybe they could once again reach the Hinata/NH fandoms in the west.

At this point, I just don't understand why they still play this game, outside of being totally desperate, as the majority of the fans of the original story left (and not in a good way), the pairrings fans and the new fans of Boruto are not enough to boost the franchise at least, not in the long run. If they didn't have a stick in where the sun doesn't shine, they would just do a reboot, fixing some of the problems (mostly after Pain arc but could have changes before, depending on what they want to do). It would be a big work on their part but it could be done, if they really want to....but they won't as this move will show to the world that they kittened up big time, even if these changes would give a ''better light'' to the let say for example SS/NH (if they still would take that path, for example). Also, even if they make changes, it probably won't do the trick, like I said, the majority of the fandom left with a bad taste in their mouth and while it might peak some curiosity, I don't think it will be enough to bring back the franchise to its glory days.

Speaking of changes, out of curiousity (dunno if it was discuss before so sorry if it was) but if you were in charge of changing parts of the manga, what would you do (seaking to whoever want to give imputs and wish to do it of course) ?