11 replies to this topic

[K9ofChaos]

This is a topic that I think would be very interesting for this forum. I think there was once a topic like this but it might be either old, closed or inactive and had a link to a similar topic in another forum so I don't think this topic would qualify as a candidate for closing.


Basically it's asking the question of which shinobi nation do you think is similar to a certain real-life country. I know in the ninja continent is basically a continent sized Japan with each nation with a culture presumably similar to Japanese culture but I could see some vague echos to different countries as well. Here's my opinion for example:


*Hidden Leaf Village/Land of Fire-Japan: obviously Kishi is japanese and the leaf is based on his hometown so the Land of Fire could be most likely be the Japan of the Narutoverse.

*Hidden Cloud Village/Land of Lightning-America or various African nations: the Cloud could be a slight reference to America since it has the most diverse ethnic population in comparison to the other shinobi countries or to African nations due to there seeming to be more black people then white people (if they are of caucasian decent that is) and the fact that there are white people who live in Africa.

*Hidden Sand Village/Land of Wind-Various Middle-Eastern or Sahara Desert nations: This one is mainly because they live in the desert and I've seen some Sand ninja wear some hats you wear when your in the desert.

*Land of Iron-It's Switzerland with SAMURAIS! I say they're similar to Switzerland because they were introduced as a neutral party that would be dangerous if provoked and the Five Great Nations trusted enough to have it's leader act as a voice of reason to work with them to make a compromise. Switzerland is well known for it's neutrality throughout history. But I could see it's climate being similar to that of Russia or Canada or various countries up in the north.

*Five Great Shinobi Nations-The UN Security Council: The Five Great Nations are the superpowers of the narutoverse while the UN Security Council comprises of the leading Allied Forces against the Axis Powers. One being a superpower (USA #1 baby! okay enough patriotism from my part), two being emerging superpowers (China and Russia, though that's debatable depending on the person) and two being just great powers but former colonial powers (UK and France). I won't get into which one is which because that would take to long.


Just like that. Feel free to post.

Edited by K9ofChaos, 03 March 2011 - 11:57 PM.

[Greed-Sama]

Mist/Land of Water - America's former and possible current self. We were pretty isolated from the rest of the world until the World Wars started happening. We literally tried to ostracize those of different races, similar to the way they eradicated those with bloodline limits. We also still do it with people of different preferences (yaoi and yuri).

Rain - Could be a reference to Japan's former self trying to stay isolated from any other countries during seventeeth-eighteenth century expansion in the West.

Just my thoughts.

Edited by TheOmegaMan, 03 March 2011 - 11:58 PM.

[K9ofChaos]

Mist/Land of Water - America's former and possible current self. We were pretty isolated from the rest of the world until the World Wars started happening. We literally tried to ostracize those of different races, similar to the way they eradicated those with bloodline limits. We also still do it with people of different preferences (yaoi and yuri).

Rain - Could be a reference to Japan's former self trying to stay isolated from any other countries during seventeeth-eighteenth century expansion in the West.

Just my thoughts.

That's pretty interesting. Now that I think about it, I could see a similarity between the Mist and Nazi Germany. The Mist targeted people and clans with bloodline limits out of fear of their powers while Nazi Germany targeted Jews, Gypsies and any other type of ethnic group they hated and used scientific racism to try to create a so called "master race" (IE. Aryan).

[Kamina-Yoshi]

Seriously? Comparison of nations (or rather, villages, if you're quick to realize that outside of the ninja villages there is little to no contact with the rest of the 'nations' in Naruto) in a Japanese manga about a boy with a giant fox inside of him in a world that relies on mystical ninjutsu to the point of creating atomic-bombs in their pockets to today's piss-poor and weak nations?

Edited by Kamina-Yoshi, 04 March 2011 - 08:19 PM.

[Greed-Sama]

Seriously? Comparison of nations (or rather, villages, if you're quick to realize that outside of the ninja villages there is little to no contact with the rest of the 'nations' in Naruto) in a Japanese manga about a boy with a giant fox inside of him in a world that relies on mystical ninjutsu to the point of creating atomic-bombs in their pockets to today's piss-poor and weak nations?

As opposed to yesterday's nations? Seriously?

[Cupcake-chan]

Rain - Could be a reference to Japan's former self trying to stay isolated from any other countries during seventeeth-eighteenth century expansion in the West.

Could be that or China

[Strangelove]

Rain...?

I see Rain as the uhmm Somalia...

the breeding ground for pirates [The Akatsuki]

a civil war that overthrew its leaders. [The Akatsuki under Nagato overthrew Hanzo] [The Somali civil war that overthrew Siad Barre]

Currently in Anarchy Konan is dead, Rain has no leader. Somalia is still in civil war.

[desaix]

Honestly, I think they're all supposed to be more-or-less pre-Tokugawa Japan, or perhaps for a more Western perspective post-Charlemagne Holy Roman Empire. They're run by "daimyo" instead of kings or presidents or emperors or anything of the sort; a Daimyo is a feudal lord, like a Duke. Somewhere out there, Kishimoto probably has an Emperor\Mikado who is relatively powerless that is supposed to have lip-service leadership over all of these "countries."

Um... and I'm not just saying that because I'm planning to have such a character in one of my fanfics, either.

[Kamina-Yoshi]

Honestly, I think they're all supposed to be more-or-less pre-Tokugawa Japan, or perhaps for a more Western perspective post-Charlemagne Holy Roman Empire. They're run by "daimyo" instead of kings or presidents or emperors or anything of the sort; a Daimyo is a feudal lord, like a Duke. Somewhere out there, Kishimoto probably has an Emperor\Mikado who is relatively powerless that is supposed to have lip-service leadership over all of these "countries."

Bingo. Excellent analysis.

[ciardha]

Cloud is a pretty obvious American comparison. The Cloud ninjas act very much how Americans are viewed in Japan.
Mist probably is something of an allusion to Germany, while Earth perhaps Russia. Fire is mostly Japan but also something of a general central East Asian symbol (China and Korea as well as Japan), visually Wind is an allusion to Middle Eastern Desert cultures, but politi-culturally it might not necessarily be that, if it is a Middle Eastern country, it's likely Turkey- long history of being a powerful country in that region.

Rain- the various "third world" countries where the Cold War was fought between the US and Soviet Union (especially south east Asian countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia)

[K9ofChaos]

Seriously? Comparison of nations (or rather, villages, if you're quick to realize that outside of the ninja villages there is little to no contact with the rest of the 'nations' in Naruto) in a Japanese manga about a boy with a giant fox inside of him in a world that relies on mystical ninjutsu to the point of creating atomic-bombs in their pockets to today's piss-poor and weak nations?

It's just a little harmless fun man. Even though the culture is more similar to Japan on the Ninja continent that doesn't mean that people could find similarities to real life nations with ninja nations. This topic was mainly conceived from boredom to see if there are people who find this intriguing.

Honestly, I think they're all supposed to be more-or-less pre-Tokugawa Japan, or perhaps for a more Western perspective post-Charlemagne Holy Roman Empire. They're run by "daimyo" instead of kings or presidents or emperors or anything of the sort; a Daimyo is a feudal lord, like a Duke. Somewhere out there, Kishimoto probably has an Emperor\Mikado who is relatively powerless that is supposed to have lip-service leadership over all of these "countries."

Um... and I'm not just saying that because I'm planning to have such a character in one of my fanfics, either.

That analogy makes sense (due to being a manga about ninjas and the fact that since ninjas are from Japan, the culture of the continent is similar to that of feudal Japan). But to me, it makes more sense to compare these ninja countries to real world nations since nations don't tend to have an entire continent as it's territory (with the exception of Australia, that is). I will admit, the ninja continent having an emperor would be interesting.

Cloud is a pretty obvious American comparison. The Cloud ninjas act very much how Americans are viewed in Japan.
Mist probably is something of an allusion to Germany, while Earth perhaps Russia. Fire is mostly Japan but also something of a general central East Asian symbol (China and Korea as well as Japan), visually Wind is an allusion to Middle Eastern Desert cultures, but politi-culturally it might not necessarily be that, if it is a Middle Eastern country, it's likely Turkey- long history of being a powerful country in that region.

Rain- the various "third world" countries where the Cold War was fought between the US and Soviet Union (especially south east Asian countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia)

Nice analogy. I pretty much agree with you on this one. Could you elaborate more upon how Americans are veiwed in Japan using the Cloud ninja characters if you want? When you said "Earth perhaps Russia" I thought you were referring to the planet but then I realized that you were referring to the country in the Narutoverse.

[ciardha]

Nice analogy. I pretty much agree with you on this one. Could you elaborate more upon how Americans are veiwed in Japan using the Cloud ninja characters if you want? When you said "Earth perhaps Russia" I thought you were referring to the planet but then I realized that you were referring to the country in the Narutoverse.

Heh.

Ei and Bee are the most overt ones and fit the two most common images of Americans in Japan.

Ei- arrogant, loud, domineering, prone to violent and other emotional outbursts, narrow minded, yet competent leaders who can be a positive force. (Kishimoto balances the negatives with the positives moreso than what you usually see when this image of Americans is invoked. This tends to be used in most very negative criticisms in Japan of Americans- minus the competent leaders who can be a positive force. Kishimoto was sharp enough to look at the negative image, but then think- but look at all they've accomplished, and look how they can be a positive force, like during the Occupation of Japan. They aren't monsters in victory, they can be a positive force in a bad situation. )

Bee- laid back, loud, funny, openly self-confident (only brags in a humorous way), very friendly- likes lots of physical contact with friends, but in a clearly friendly way, not crossing over to what feels intimately invasive, especially with a person of the same gender. (back slaps, bumping fists, high fives not standing too close, touching in sexual zones, etc...)

Karui and Samui also kind of fit the two most common images of American women in Japan. (Kishimoto balances the negativeness of Karui's type moreso than the usual Japanese picture of that type of American woman. Basically an uber tsundere- violent temper, gets enraged at the drop of a hat, etc...)

Samui fits the positive idealized image of American women in Japanese culture. Cool, confident, sexy body, etc...