@kcclaw
Kishi doesn't have the guts like most big name Mangaka. I think the reason that happen because how most of his success in Naruto directly or indirectly come from his old editor, yahagi. Maybe he thought other opinion is important.
It ties in to what he said in the interview where he revealed he had virtually NO input on the original story. At least with Yahigi, it seems there was some consistency in the story and something of a plan. When different people came in...that's when things got out of hand.
^This. All of this.
On the third paragraph, that's exactly what had happened. As a mangaka or a regular author, you are supposed to follow your own ideas, plots, etc. to the audience whom are engage with the story and willing to bring in profit to support. You can accept some outside input BUT not all of them, including the audiences. But in this case, as other members here had said, Masashi was going through different editors too, whom were willing to share their input and advice which eventually tarnished the franchise. All sides to blame in the end though: Masashi for not paying attention, the editors, Studio Pierrot and the executives at Shueisha for somehow thought it would had been the "best" idea to change heroines based on fan AND inside input at the last minute.
They're also not paying attention to general trends. The Tsundere almost always gets bashed in most anime, but the authors keep them as the heroine. And you know what? They've all done fine. Chi-chi is called a crazy kitten, but Toriyama stuck with it. DragonBall is still one of the biggest anime franchises today, and she is not making it suffer. Asuka's got her haters. Evangelion is still considered a classic. Akane has hers, Ranma 1/2 is still considered one of Takahashi's better works. Erina got a lot of hate in Shokugeki no Soma. People are still reading it.
My point is the haters of Tsunderes are the MOST VOCAL. People like us who watched several anime know the trend, understand the whole thing is a gag, and we accept it for what it is.
It's pretty hard to do your own thing if there are so many people against it,- especially if you are somehow dependent on them. I just recently watched a youtube video about anime culture and haters and I felt sorry for all those creators trying to do something fun and inspiring and so many people spitting on them. I agree, Kishi could have handled that better, but I still feel sorry for him.
Again, haters are the most VOCAL. People balk at the change in trends, and it all comes down to your ability to handle the writing and give a good pay-off in the end.
Unfortunately, if you're working for a business, that can be hard to do. They see trends, and order their writers to tell their stories a certain way. But as the guy from Terrible Writing Advice says, following trends is dangerous: they don't last forever.
Right now, it feels like although Naruto had enough fans to keep it going, it feels like SP grossly underestimated how much money the shippers would bring. The Last did well because of the false advertisement and the Japanese fans being confused from the ending. Those not into the shipping were disappointed with what they got. With Boruto, they at least gave the SNS fans something to enjoy, at least with the movie. Hinata's change in character is proof that the whole thing with NH was NOT what the true fans wanted back then.
