So I've been thinking about what happened in the manga, the switch of the female lead for a secondary female character, and why it bothers me so deeply. And I think it's has a lot to do with the balance between an active character vs. a passive character, and that in the end the author flipped the roles to end the story with a different 'heroine.'
One of the reason's Jane Austen was such a ground breaking author in the early 1800s was that the women she portrayed actively changed and made a change on the world they lived in. And that was how they accomplished their goals and won their true love. Only through their own action.
Before Jane Austen, every single novel with a female heroine was awarded her final goals and true love only on the basis of her goodness. The hero finally realized how sweet and kind she was and awarded her with the prize of his affection and whatever else it was she wanted. Very much like Cinderella. But the woman never changed. She may have stood up for herself, but she never went very far out of her comfort zone to actively change her world, or even actively reject it.
So I bring this up because Hinata is very much the pre-Austen version of female heroine. She does a little, within the confines of her role, never truly outside of it, and is thus rewarded for her good nature.
And, this is important, she is rewarded because the object of her desire finally recognizes her. Not because she has gone out of her way to draw attention to herself.
Sakura however is the modern girl, an Austen-worthy heroine and seeks a modern love with Naruto.
She is active rather than passive, at every turn, in every situation. Even in her misguided love of Sasuke early on, she is the one who breaks the norms and runs out in the middle of the night to stop him. It doesn't work, but Sakura shows she is capable of breaking out of what's acceptable to get what she wants. She continues to work toward this goal, not just of love or change for another person, but of bettering herself to be a better teammate and better protector and healer for her village. And Naruto's crush deepens to love because of that.
However in the end of the manga, Kishimoto has reduced Sakura to a passive character to make her more palatable to the dark-brooding Sasuke. Sakura doesn't challenge Sasuke and require him to step up and be a better person to be with her. And Sasuke doesn't acknowledge her changes. Ever. In the end, she is just awarded his love, even though her actions show she has developed past it.
And the real rub is that making Sakura a passive character actually pushes Hinata forward into a slightly less-passive role than before. Now she can be the empathetic support for the broken hearted hero. She wins the hero's love, and everyone else's because she's supporting him. But she hasn't changed herself to deserve him, she hasn't challenged the world around her or broken out of her comfort zone. She was just given the hero as a prize for her goodness.
Anyway, I'm curious to see what other people think of the two female characters, whether their roles were switched, and any thoughts on active development vs. passive in the manga. Who's the heroine — the one who changed her world or the one who waited for the world to change — and did they ultimately reach their goals? Or did the story get it wrong?
