https://www.ranker.c...rystal-brackett
This is accurate.
Allow me to share a revelation I've had. For all of his bluster about "with great power comes great responsibility," Naruto Uzumaki is one of the most irresponsible superheroes ever.
He never learns from his mistakes, never takes into consideration how his life as Hokage affects everybody else. Now, some would say that's the core concept of the character, the constant struggle between the job and the man. But he never actually gives any consideration to the man, preferring to make excuses about it. He disappoints people around like his son all the time because "something more important was happening as Hokage". But instead of trying to find ways to balance his two lives properly, he will go out of his way to make excuses for it and gets drunk. he places more importance on being Hokage than he should distance himself from relationships that would hurt that. If he places more emphasis on being a family man, he needs to sacrifice his time as Hokage. Now that's not always going to be the case for everyone in the real world. But Naruto never actually changes as a result of his actions. He just makes the same mistakes over and over. During Chapter 687 He called Obito a mass murderer the coolest guy ever. Forget if you want Naruto married to either Sakura or Hinata. This is the moment Naruto's character was kittened. Obito murdered his family, Destroyed the village and was the reason Kohona was in a war.
Another rant is that he missed his daughter's birthday and his wife Hinata never called him out on it. Now he was a young dumb kid by starting out but he was supposed to change as a character but he hasn't. He takes more responsibility as Hokage than he does as a family man. But hey, maybe that's just the reasoning of a jaded individual looking at this stupid-ass Manga in hindsight. Of course I don't want Naruto to stop being Hokage. What I want is for him to be written like a goddamn adult already! But the writers and Kishi and Studio Periott wouldn't let that happen. Naruto is just escapist fantasy to them. And they don't want the escapism of Naruto stopping bad guys and going home. And that's just hilarious considering the fact that Naruto was supposed to be a relatable character who was an orphan and life sucked and he became a father and make his kids' lives suck. He was supposed to relate to the reader. But the truth is that the reader has grown up. The reader got married, had kids, has relatives that die and they have to move on. The reader changed... but Naruto has not.
You know there are fans wanting a Naruto reboot to fix the ending... It's not happening it's just fans wishing but you know what? Maybe they should reboot Naruto. But you know what? Maybe they should reboot Naruto. After all, if the creative team isn't gonna give him a happy family... then why does he have one in the first place?
Linkara rant aside, I feel like there's a bigger issue to dig into here.
What was Naruto really about? What messages was it trying to pass on? Because on that front the work has always been a mess. Growth and maturity are thrown out the window whenever it's convenient, something we saw as far back as the beginning of the Chunin exam where even Kakashi talks about how things went back to normal after the Zabuza incident. The growth there did not stick. The idea of bonds is nonsensical considering how shallow the bond between Sasuke and Naruto actually was, and that's not even going into The Last making Naruto's most important bond the one he had with someone he never interacted with. Naruto does not learn how to lead to become Hokage, he never passes the Chunin exam that would have shown him reliable enough to shoulder more responsibility. Instead, it all becomes some social Darwinist BS where he's just soooo strong (Hell, I think the reason why so much Japanese media nowadays is calling out this might makes right mentality is because of how prevalent it used to be in shonen, with Naruto being one of the definitive examples), and he's just given power up after power up to detract from the idea of hard work beating natural talent, The truth doesn't matter either as Itachi is still left labelled a criminal, the Hyuuga family slavery is forgotten, Naruto's forgiveness isn't based on empathy but rather him seeing some aspect of himself in his enemies, he doesn't even challenge the system, and he raised a son who is in love with the idea of being Konoha's black ops doing jobs the village can not officially be tied to. And now to top it all off, he's become a crappy dad.
The story of Naruto has no real meaning, whatever messages the series could have had sold out a long time ago in order to milk it relentlessly. The series has nothing it really takes seriously, while leaving behind a slew of unfortunate implications. And when you think about what messages it might have passed on to the reader, that's a scary thought even beyond that what Hinata does is somehow considered love.