Endros

Ok, still working on the tropes one. It's just a drag to go through every single issue to look for stuff. I'm up to an issue in the 50's... I think. This bit is gonna look at the famous Forest of Death Scene (Sakura/Sasuke) and the Heaven and Earth Scene (Sakura/Naruto).

However first I'm gonna address something that truly annoys the piss outta me when reading fanfiction and when discussing the nature of pairings with people.

Suffixes

Suffixes in Japanese culture(-san, -sama, -kun, etc.) are effectively similar to titles such as Dr., Mr., Mrs., Master, etc. in Western culture. The only one of these that doesn't fit that mold is the suffix -chan which is more similar to a knickname or generic aphorism such as cutey, honey, muffin, etc. in American. Granted that is a very very crude but still applies.

Now, the suffixes are assigned a ranking based upon how they applied, with -sama being the most important. In Japanese culture, the suffix -kun is applied to a young/er male of perceived approximate rank socially with the speaker. Whereas, -san is applied to a full grown adult. This delineation is seen in the western titles of Master and Mister(Mr.) or Miss(Ms.) and Misses(Mrs.).

Further closeness/familiarity with the subject can be seen in whether or not the family name or given name is used. The difference between Uzumaki-san and Naruto-san. With that stated, this is how the naming convention would be applied to Senju Tsunade: (from most formal to least)

Hokage-sama
Senju-sama / if familiar Tsunade-sama
Senju-san / if familiar Tsunade-san
if subject was male (Tsunade-kun)
Tsunade
Tsunade-chan/ Tsunade-baachan
Tsunade-teme (this is so informal it's insulting, such as calling someone and reffering to them as Jackass, a**hole, or b*tch)

Note that the inclusion and use of these titles is important in Japanese culture and someone is considered disrespectful if they are not used. Disrespect is a huge no no in Japanese culture and one of their huge gaffes (which is why Naruto is punished affectionately when he doesn't use the titles or refers to Tsunade as baa-chan). Typically the only people who someone wouldn't refer to with a title are spouse, VERY close friends, and siblings.

Ok, so why is this important?

Because titles create space and distance between the speaker and the person being referred to. Which is why people will often say "Don't call me blank, Call me blank2" in order to create closeness. This is reinforced by dialogue Kishimoto himself wrote about the titles, refer to the section where Sai discusses titles in Issue 311.

So by imposing these titles, you are creating a distance between yourself and the other person. By maintaining the titles, you are maintaining the distance between you and the subject. So by looking at this, There is an implied distance between her and Sasuke that is not implied between her and Naruto. This is also replicated by the relationship between Hinata and Naruto (as well as everyone else). The initial lack of title represented either lack of respect or familiarity with Naruto and the current lack of a title represents closeness and friendship, a shared bond. That's much better than Sasuke is doing.

Now, there is also not much use of titles within the Konoha 11 due to their closeness as comrades. So we can't read too much into it.

Two other subjects covered in this part of the post:

First, If people want to use the splash pages/covers for support of a pairing and the argument that either Naruto/Hinata or Sasuke/Sakura is still supported, simply point them to the very first splash page. This is the first time any of the "main four" characters are seen. Naruto occupies the majority of the two page spread and is the foreground being breathed out of a Giant Frog's pipe smoke. Sasuke is shown alone in the upper left astride a giant hawk. Where are Sakura and Kakashi you ask? Oh, Sakura is seen, two issues before she appears, in a giant frog's kimono flap staring at Naruto with a bit of a blush. Kakashi is seen looking at Naruto with a bored expression on his face on top of the Giant Frog. The frog/toad of course being one of the two animals that Naruto is very closely identified with through out the manga.

Okay, now I'll wait quietly while you go check that out...

Done? ok let's move on

Second, Sakura in her pre-fangirl phase has short hair. May be that this is important, may be it's not. I would personally consider the haircut combined with the decision to protect the boys as a step out of her fan-girl phase. In fact, the part before that are littered with Fan-girling and inner sakura moments. Compared with the sections after there are very little with the moments going down almost exponentially to the current state where there has only been one (she's terrified of Tsunade)

ok, taking a break. Will post bridge and forest of death analysis later tonight, just need to put my thoughts into sentences and paragraphs from my notes and type it up.

Edit: It's going up tomorrow. tired, need sleep

Basically, I'm looking to examine the numerous anime "tropes" within the Anime of Naruto with regards to the Naruto/Sakura Dynamic.

The first and most irritating one from the view of Naruto/Sakura fans is the argument that Sakura is abusive. Note that often in an anime a male and female character and their closeness is defined by physical reprimands when the male does something stupid or perverted. This is seen again and again in anime after anime that is comedic. The "abuse" is not intended to be mean or hateful and is, in fact, intended to be educational as the male is seen as being dense and unresponsive to more subtle clues. These actions do not cause any permanent damage to either the male or the relationship between the two.

If there were ever a case for this method being used upon a person, it would be Naruto. I will openly admit that I do not consider him to be stupid just incredibly dense at times. He's far too creative, sensitive, and quick on the uptake with some things to be stupid, but thats another essay. The manga casts him as incredibly dense when it comes to how to interact with people and knowing the proper way to deal with things socially. This is especially important in a highly social and contextual environment such as Japan.

Let's examine the nature of this "abusive" relationship by going through the scenes where she could be cast as abusive.

The first scene we see her acting this way is Issue 3. In fact, there are 3 seperate times where she mistreats Naruto in this issue. The first scene is where she orders him to move because she wants to sit next to him and then literally runs over Naruto to get to Sasuke. The second is where she beats him into the ground for the accidental kiss and the third is the famous henge/bench scene where she calls him a nuisance and lucky for not having parents. Following this she is quickly admonished by Sasuke and feels regret. These scenes are establishing the ground work for the relationship in the future and showing how Sakura initially feels about Naruto. In short, she is cruel and insensitive in these scenes.

The next scene where she either admonishes him for a stupid decision is Issue 10. Naruto has just stabbed himself in the hand with a Kunai. She asks if he's a masochist in what would be a most likely condescending tone. This is replicated again an issue later when he's almost impaled a bunny on a kunai "by accident" and she yells at him. These are both in response to Naruto making a stupid decision and a bad result coming about because of it.

Note: The scene with the bunny is one that makes me think Naruto is smarter and more perceptive than he seems. He, not Kakashi, notices the other Jounin first.

Issue 13, Naruto is admonished again. This time for challenging a jounin and charging straight at him. Considering that this jounin had neutralized Kakashi, this was another stupid decision.

Ok, here's the thing. Anytime, she admonishes Naruto for something other than what he deserves it for, she is shown the errors of her ways. Basically, anytime she lacks confidence in Naruto he does something unexpected.

Ahhh... geez this is taking forever. I need to take a break, I'll have a bunch more up but most of these events are similar.

Ok, gotcha. Because it's Anime Cliches, you all may get a two for one because I don't think there's enough there to truly satisfy the amount I want to write

Well, I don't really think it as a decrease because it's not there. More because of the change in focus of the Manga for the last 9 months or so. It'll get there eventually of that I have no doubts. Plus we have a Sakura and Kakashi heavy arc coming up, that should be good

I have left this thread for far too long. I promise this weekend I will put together an "essay". What topic would you like me look at?

Anime Cliches, The Sannin parallels, or Sakura's acceptance of Naruto (This will probably be very similar to Miz's work)

If you don't pick one, I'm probably gonna look at the Sannin stuff.

By Jerk-off, I meant idiot or someone who's incompetent.

I express my support for drumma's post, the hints are there we just need to see them