God, Sai was so much better than Sasuke when he was in team 7 ! At least, he cared about his teammates, and tried to become their friend and understand them ...
Team 7 with Sai AND Yamato is soooooo much better ! Ugh.
I mean, nothing against kakashi. But sometimes he annoyed me because of his favoritism towards sasuke.
Sai, WHY?! MY BABYYYYY. </3
Grrr....one more LAP....
So, I finally read that recent interview with Kishimoto, and I've decided he's a complete tool.
Passive and insecure. After many attempts he struggled on a gimmicky storyline, but he had no idea how to carry on. His only special talent seem to be in making cliffhangers. But they aren't really cliffhangers if they lead the readers nowhere and contribute nothing to the story. They are just a giant flashing sign that the author is drowning.
No wonder he's gotten as far as he has in the commercial world. He's their yes-man. He's even admitted he's not capable of writing without good guidance, and once that left, he was rudderless. So that's why he so readily sold out his characters/story for popularity contests and editor/publisher suggestions.
As for Sakura and his 'not understanding why she was so unpopular'all I have to say is WHAT A COP OUT. A writer alone determines the fate of the character, not the reader. If he wanted her to be more popular, then he could have written her with more developed and complicated storyline. He should have made her more important to the story. This is his only job.
Instead he answers the questions as if he was powerless. Even when the interviewer suggests 'it was too late to drop her (Sakura) from the storyline' Kishimoto is ambivalent instead of outraged. This bonehead interviewer acts as if it's common knowledge that Sakura was just a frivolous part of the storyline. But she was intrinsic to it. It's Hinata that was the throwaway character (only built up by the anime). But instead of defending his work or explaining it, Kishimoto just meekly agrees.
Kishimoto doesn't even understand his own work. He seems to me very passive and malleable.
I mean, imagine dropping Hermione in the middle of the Harry Potter series, because the fans likes Luna Lovegood better? Dropping the main female lead for a secondary character who doesn't make a real contribution to the story until the end of the series. That's what the interviewer is suggesting!! But Kishimoto says nothing.
If Kishimoto had written a better story for Sakura, showing her development along with the rest, then her reception would have been different. Had he seen her story through to it's resolution, with her changing and evolving to love the Naruto as much as he had always loved her, then fans would have loved her. There is no mysterious formula here. Naruto's the hero, the story centers around what he wants. And part of his charm is that he's always loved this girl who has been just out of his reach. And through the whole story he's steadily closed that gap. It's Kishimoto who let down the story, not the characters.
The anime drove fans to Hinata, no one's in doubt of that. The manga simply didn't feature her enough to warrant any kind of real shipping.
But Kishimoto is the one who made Sakura's unpopularity a reality. He's the one who stopped promoting her and writing for her. He's the one who's given her an ambiguous storyline in relation to Naruto and Sasuke loving Naruto and going overboard for him, but then crying and begging for Sasuke.
Kishimoto wrote that.
He reinforced that ridiculous popularity of a throwaway character with no story, passive behavior and big boobs
No one else did. And blaming it, even obliquely, on the popularity of fans and pretending he had no control over what he was writing shows just how much of a tool he is. Literally.
Sometimes artists are visionaries, expressing their story as only they can. But sometimes the artist is just a pen, waiting for someone else's hand to guide him. This is Kishimoto. He may have started with a vision, but he long ago let go if it and gave over control to someone else. Now he's just a tool directed by the anime team, the publishers and the businessmen above him.
He's mystified by Sakura's lack of popularity, but he doesn't even realize that he's the one in control of it. Instead he blames it on the fans. But reading beneath the lines, he knows the story has gone wrong. That's why people are still asking about Sakura, and he's still making excuses. He knows the story has unraveled, but he's can't admit that it's his own fault because he didn't stand up for his own work.
This is exactly what Miyazaki was talking about in that article. That the otakus and fans are driving the industry instead of the other way around. And he may have had Naruto in mind when he gave that interview.
I've gone through levels of closure since the end of the manga, and this interview is just another door closed for me. After this, I don't have any sympathy for Kishimoto. Instead of protecting his story, he just handed it over to others. And the fact that he blames fans for the failure of characters is the last and loudest insult. Kishimoto is the failure here. No one else is to blame.
YASSSS
BLESS YOU TRICKSIE.
Kishimoto just has no backbone whatsoever. He expects people to feel sorry for him by acting like a victim & as if he had no power towards his own story.
Why the kitten is he blaming the fans?! It's truly pathetic. & yes. Now by reading all these interviews it is clear that kishimoto needs guidance when it comes to writing. But even with guidance, the story was kitten!

LOLOLOL
honestly going back to it, part 1 & the beginning of part 2 were the best parts of naruto. THATS IT.
He really sucks at developing his characters. & he doesn't know jackkitten of developing females! ESPECIALLY HIS OWN HEROINE! MY GOD. IVE NEVER SEEN SUCH DISRESPECT TOWARDS A HEROINE IN MY LIFE.
He just he doesn't understand people in general. Does he even liiiiike... communicate with people? Like I don't even..?