Is it necessary for him to paint his employers in a negative light when admitting to his mistakes? No. Kishi can deflect the accusations of an involvement from executives and pantomime if he wants. I just want the truth of whether this was his original, authentic ending or if he intended to complete the series with something else before "parties unknown" compelled him to rethink his decision.
Ok, even if he did cryptically say it was someone who forced his hand, it isn't hard for the general public to infer these "parties unknown" are. Either way, he would end up painting himself as a tool and lose any credibility as an author.
You'll probably never get a direct answer to whether he wanted the series to end like this, but there's quite a lot of evidence to go by, even as late as the girlfriend comment chapter.
Since when does Kishi have much knowledge of the western fanbase? This is the same man who scratches his head at the concept of digital reading and online social media. Direct influence from the desirous masses would hold no consequence in his mind unless his superiors forced their opinions into his perspective.
I didn't specifically refer to the Western fanbase at all. What we do known is that, according to that interview conducted right after the Land of Iron arc, he himself admitted several people told him Sakura wasn't heroine-like and people won't stop talking about Hinata.
Really, I can write a book at this stage to prove that Google hits and polls are an inaccurate representation of fandom popularity. But it doesn't matter in the end, because in this case, Hinata being more popular than Sakura was what Kishimoto thought at the time of the interview.
Regardless, my point was if he admitted he wrote the ending to please the NH/ SS fanbase (if that was the case), there's no way he can come out of it without making himself look bad, without his manga looking bad, or his new NH movie looking bad.
I also doubt that Kishi would prefer to be known as one of the biggest misleading authors who purposefully sabotaged his own work for the sake of ratings and profit. It doesn't have to be a self-denigrating admission of guilt. Just offering a better insight into what he originally intended without paining himself in a negative light would be semi-acceptable for short-term closure.
No one can actually say for certain that Kishimoto wrote the ending he did for money, so unless he admits it in any interview, no one can actually accuse him of such without the accusation looking like baseless slander. I personally think he just wrote what he did because the NH/ SS fandoms combined were much bigger than the NS/ SK fandoms. It looked like to me that he just wanted to please more people.
No author has been able to admit they've changed their ending at the last minute without getting flack for it, honestly. JK Rowling ignited a whole new wave in the HP shipping war for telling people Hermione should be with Harry.
Edited by Nefertieh, 13 November 2014 - 03:17 AM.
