Man, I need to stop doing these LAP. Anyway, here we go!
@Paptala: Great post as always. I highly agree. Say what you want, but that movie was the biggest opportunity that Kishi could have established his approach on pairings and he decided to go with NaruSaku. Hinata was used for comedy and only interacted with Naruto once for a short time. Actually, she interacted with Sakura more than Naruto. In the end, she got a small screen time and nothing but comedy came out from her. As for Sasuke, barely 3 minutes on the movie and only to show Sakura's shallow love (or naive) for Sasuke. Again, Kishi has no reason to do this scene at all. He chose to do so for making a connection to the manga and continues to tease Naruto's love for Sakura. He only continues to create hope for Naruto to be together with Sakura in the end.
Like I said before, if you want SS and NH to be logical and to happen, they need an arc solely based on them, but it looks like that won't happen, especially to SS. Sakura already established that Naruto is the only one that will deal with Sasuke and no one should be in the way. What brought her back to curiosity is his statement about dying together as in what's his plan and is he trying to keep it to himself, even though she heard him. So, she has more concerns on Naruto because not only he is the only one that's with her as well as Sasuke is on the enemy's front but the fact that she worries about him a lot more than she thinks. Plus Sasuke intends to kill Naruto and will make him forever loser. Sakura has high hopes for Naruto to achieve everything, which is why she yelled back at Sasuke for bad mouthing Naruto.
Naruto vs. Sasuke will happen and when it happens, which is most likely towards the end, Sakura can't communicate with Sasuke before he goes to the battle, rather can do it with Naruto. They will have that calm before storm moment and it could be a breaking point to her character. As I said before, it's given that there will be another Team 7 reunion, but it will be the last one. That will happen after the final fight.
Thanks a lot :-) I agree - the movie was definitely the place for him to play around with the couples, but he only reinforced NS and I think that alone speaks volumes.
I also fully agree that Sakura has removed herself from Sasuke's redemption. I don't think that she will have any significant role in it; but perhaps there will be some last scene between them for Sakura to get closure and move on after Sasuke's redemption.
I am eagerly and impatiently awaiting for that calm before the storm moment; Kishi has already set up for an inevitable Naruto and Sakura moment because we already know that Sakurs is concerned about what exactly Naruto meant when he said that he and Sasuke would die together. I don't think that there's any way that Sakura isn't going to confront Naruto about it, and right before the fight with Sasuke seems like the best time for it. Hopefully, that confrontation will open the door to more discussion.
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Now I want to comment back at redragon88 previous post about Sasuke and his possible pairing. As I stand today, I believe that SS has been dead since the end of part 1. Sure, Sakura is still in love with him, but it's finally brought to her attention on love, whether it's good or not, and judging by the panel, it's not good at all. In other words, it's finally time to let it go because no one is supporting her to be with Sasuke. No parallels, no hints from Sasuke, no third party support, nothing. It's all on her now and she needs to flick the switch and forever let it go. Does it mean she can be friend with Sasuke? Sure.
Now why did I bring redragon88 post to this? Well I want to say something about Karin. I know well enough that people in here don't really put much focus in SK, but here me out. Otherwise, no need to read further. Ok, to be honest, Sasuke only has two directions: Karin or alone. I recapped the manga a while ago and while I'm not sold on SK, I must say that it has better potential than SS to say the least. People often forgot that Karin is not a typical fangirl who is weaken by a man, and that's what got me liking her as a character. First of all, she has harsh tone with Sasuke when he acts like he's the top dog. For example, when Sasuke told her to use her ability to sense Juugo's location, she scold him for thinking he's the leader all the sudden and tell him to wait up. There are other ones like bashing him for getting brutally hurt if he's the one that defeats Orochimaru, or when Sasuke asked for Itachi's location while hurt. Simply put, she is strong (not in attack power but her will).
People would say, "Well Sakura spends more time with Sasuke than Karin." This is actually not debatable. What's really debatable is how much time did Sasuke and Karin spend in the past 3 years? First of all, Sakura finally got close to Sasuke physically when she was placed in Team 7. First arc is learning the ninja way and dealing with danger. Second is the Chunnin exam, which she spent time with Sasuke all the way to the elimination match, then Sasuke disappears and then they spent time, only for Sasuke to tell her that Naruto did the saving. He didn't even bother mentioning that he was going let both of them escape so he can die for his team. Nope, he only said that Naruto is the one that saves her and he is someone that she couldn't imagine. After that, you got the hospital scene which Sasuke was completely blank by Itachi and then, the apple scene. Then we got the confession and that was it. Wow, Sakura is right, they really never talk. If you noticed, the time is not well spent and she spent more time with Naruto in part 1 and all of them were on positive note. Notice that when she has to keep the curse seal a secret, it was hurting her. When she told Naruto about Orochimaru and all, he brought her smile. That's amazing for a guy to heal a girl quickly with a smile. Also, why Kishi showed the panel of Sakura's smiling after remembering her talk. It's understandable that Naruto needed to know, but the whole couple of panel of Naruto cheering her up wasn't needed unless it's made for, I don't know, character development.
Before going back to Karin, let’s recap Naruto/Hinata for a short moment. The first interaction is when Hinata tells him that he can look at her paper, but he refuses because well, chances that he might fail was high. Sakura steps in and looks like she wants to see him to succeed. Talk about stealing the glory. The next interaction is when Hinata gives him the healing stuff. That’s a way to have Naruto to respect her before going against Neji, so Naruto can see the fight reasonable to fight back Neji. Next, we have Hinata finally got a word to him, which he finally sees her as a friend. Now then, we don’t see them together interacting until Part 2 second arc. Splendid…it was more of an intro to the new design of Team 8 and 10, and apparently, Hinata hasn’t got out of shyness and has no confidence, so she fainted. Search for Itachi Arc, they teamed up but not one interaction other than best of luck. Then, we got her worrying about Naruto against Tobi, no reaction from Naruto. Then, in the Pain Invasion Arc, we got her finally standing up and have confidence, regardless of the odds. She confessed and then easily blasted. Yeah, when I think of a heroine, I’ll think of someone who got one shot and never won a fight outside filler. Sure, Sakura took a backseat, but Sasori vs. Sakura/Chiyo kicked ass and she has been in the manga more enough than any other females. Anyway, Naruto doesn’t comment back on her courage until now. Wow, he only commented on that and not the confession, which a lot of media has ignored it. So yeah, if you noticed, not much is going on there and only like two developments for Hinata. One is acknowledgement of a friend and the next one is acknowledgement of her courage/strength, which she needed that due to well, she didn’t win a fight ever. I see this as more of a Hinata’s development. There is no tease, no Naruto’s reaction that will indicate that she likes her more than a friend, no third party, and the list goes on. Opportunity has been missed and the glory moments were stolen by Sakura (the hug, the cheering, etc.).
Agreed again - if Sasuke is going to get with anyone, I'm pretty certain that it will be Karin, for all the reasons you talked about. And she joined Orochimaru because of Sasuke (or at least according to the data book), so she definitely spent more time with him (or at the very least an equivalent amount of time with him) as Sakura did.
And yep, you summed it all up excellently -- NH is all about Hinata. Sakura is the heroine - Kishi himself said that she was, and that Hinata wasn't, and so nothing any other fans say is going to change my belief in Kishi. He made his intentions clear there for those who didn't already get the message from his manga in his interview and his movie.
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To end this whole LAP, simply put, NS is most logical pairing there is. The other two, SS/NH, need more time to develop more starting with Sasuke being open minded with Sakura and Naruto actually go out with her for a good fun time. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. The time is already been wasted and we are near to the climax. Sakura has more questions for Naruto, while Sasuke continues to be away from them. Hinata only want to express her love, if Kishi care at all, but that’s like the last development for her. Otherwise, the one with Naruto telling her to stand up is her last development. As for Sasuke, do you really think his whole character will change drastically, up to the point we don’t even recognize him anymore? The only difference will be that he will be good and that’s it. The attitude he has will remain. I don’t even know if Sakura expects love from him anymore. She just wants him to be back to them as Team 7. What about romance? Nothing will change. She needs to finally bury the hatchet and we are getting there. SK has a chance to happen. It’s all on Karin’s first action when meeting with Sasuke again. Make it or break it. Otherwise, Sasuke will continue to be alone, which is ok for him. Also, I don’t see Team Taka dying at all. Kishi had the opportunity to do so. Can it still happen? Sure, but it’s unlikely. It’s not like they’re bad, rather just outcast and following the leader, Sasuke. In the end, if NS and SK/Sasuke happens, everyone wins. What about Hinata? To begin with, her theme was more of admiration of a hero, which is Naruto. So you could kind-of say she’s a fan. Yeah, she will be alone. Then again, Kishi could pair her with Neji or Kiba or whoever. He sure acknowledges that incest is ok in his movie and I have nothing against it. I already encountered that (Elfien Lied). That’s all I want to say.
Once more, I agree - especially with Sakura's feelings for Sasuke. Kishi made a pretty clear distinction between Sakura's positive hopes and desires for reuniting Team 7 (her positive attitude at the end of the summit confrontation with Sasuke, ending with her believing in her teammates), and her romantic feelings/hopes regarding Sasuke, which just continue to be presented in a negative light.
I also think that NejiHina has a fair chance of becoming canon too, if Kishi wants to pair her with anyone at all. Neji is the only one who has shown any arguable sort of non-platonic affection (calling her cute when they were younger), and then being super protective over her after getting over his grudge with her; plus there was the fact that he looked a bit put off during Naruto and Hinata's last talk in 589, and I can't help but think its because he was jealous. In all honesty though, its just as likely that Neji is just acting like an overprotective brother to Hinata too; the cute comment can just as easily be platonic. Who knows - but RtN movie and the Rock Lee show certainly seems to ship them hard.
All in all, excellent post - great reading material as always.
A short question:
Is there someone else who thinks that the anime studio maybe knows which pairing kishis going to make canon?
I came to that thought as i saw some translations of naruto openings and endings. I mean if you compare the translation with the animations in some openings/endings, youll see that they sometimes fit perfectly with NS.
An example:
You see how young jiraya pushes young naruto to young sakuras side and the songtext says:"the answer i was looking for has always been in front of me" or something like that.
Another example would be ending 22 i think.
You see sakura reaching out for naruto and naruto's screaming something and the songtext says:" also if my feelings are deeply hurt im going to shout theres only one love for me."
But there are also many other like this. I cant imagine thus is coincidence, so there mist be something behind that.
I don't think that the anime team knows anything more than we do, if only for practical reasons; seems like it would be way to easy for any of that information to leak out and spoil the story way in advance, and there's just no reason for the anime team to know either (they stay well behind the manga after all). If anyone related to the anime knows,
maybe the main voice actors might know, but probably not.
I think the anime team just runs with what it sees in the manga, which makes it pretty awesome to me, as it seems like the anime team is acknowledging themselves that NaruSaku seems the most likely at this point. That kind of verification is very nice, especially from a team that are self-confirmed Hinata fans.
I respect that. Sasuke could be alone and I'll be ok with it. My only point is that if he has to be paired with, since it's likely that Kishi will create an epilogue that resembles to the manga itself (like history may repeat in a way), then she is the only one I can accept. If it's some random girl, then whatever. As long it's not Sakura, which will do more harm than good, then I'm ok.
I wouldn't say anyone would be paired with someone during the war, but I believe there will be final clues to which pairing Kishi has chosen. For example, if a guy tells a girl that he will protect her and she will be all touching, then you'll know they will be together. Calm before storm. It happens a lot in war or beginning of the end. That's what I believe.
My thoughts to a 'T'. It's not so much that I actively ship Sasuke with Karin (or anyone else), but if he is going to end up paired with anyone, I can't see him ending up with anyone but her. There's just a lot that Kishi has established with that relationship that seems redundant and superfluous if Kishi pairs him with some other random character that he hasn't had any development or prior substantial relationship with.
I remember how Kishi said in an interview that he wasn't interested in writing romance with Shikamaru when asked about his relationship with "s certain kunoichi from Suna"
, but I don't believe he meant it in a way that implied they wouldn't get together.
I think Kishi just meant to say that he wasn't gonna focus on how they would develop their relationship in the story, but instead he would simply show an epilogue of them being together (probably with Temari being all tsundere on him while he says how troublesome this is
). As for how they decided to get together, that will probably be up to the audience interpretation.
It's the same scenario with Asuma and Kurenai, Kishi didn't write any romance between them, he just put some teases here and there, and lo and behold, we suddenly find out that Kurenai was pregnant with his child.
I think that's what Kishi meant by not being interested in writing romance for Shikamaru, he would just put some minor hints and then show them together without going into specifics. Which is completely different from Naruto and Sakura since we will see every last bit of their development together.
Yup, this is pretty much how I took Kishi's comment too - not that he isn't going to pair Shikamaru up with someone, just that he isn't going to show their romantic relationship developing on panel. Epilogue pairings would not be unexpected at all.
and by the way, I'm glad you put the link XD I was searching of what was the name of this event.
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