122 replies to this topic

[ThroughWithLove]

Hell, Asuna from Sword Art Online. Tsundere, but without any haters and with legions of fans wanting bet to be their Waifu.

[RulesofNature]

Huh, now that I think about it it;s really something how the anime community has changed, As anime became more and more accessible, it ended up becoming more niche due to multiple factors.

 

1) More anime being created, as well as availability. It's not like it was in the old days, where groups would fansub shows that looked interesting. There's a lot more anime available to people on streaming services, and not all of it's good. In the past, you could name a few examples to make anime appear like it was serious storytelling, but nowadays it's not hard to see that's not the truth.

 

Not to mention, how this affects budgets. Or how good anime can go unnoticed due to being lower-profile, while sometimes the worst gets a lot of coverage.

 

2) Otaku Pandering and the rise of late night anime. Related to the first point is how now there's anime airing during the middle of the night that can get away with stuff the typical shonen series can't. This can be achieved due to the levels of violence, fanservice, or a cross of the two (Cross Ange, for instance). Without the distinction in the West between what is made for general audiences (like Naruto) and what is made for niche demographics (like SAO), it cheapens anime by making it look,,, more whorish.

 

3) Season anime and the death of long runners. While long-runners weren't perfect, having their own list of criticisms, you can't deny their length helped people really invest in them. A story told over a long period can be more interesting, where even the fluff can be used to deepen/flesh out even the side characters (filler can be done right after all). While short anime seem less daunting, they also have their shortfalls as well. Characters are often flat in order to make them easier to understand, resorting to various tropes rather than investing time in developing them. And again, this cheapens the experience for newcomers.

 

4) Western Geek Culture takes off. One of the big things about anime was it was supposed to be more serious than stuff made in the West. While that became demonstratively non-true as the boom died out, we also saw a revolution in Western stuff. The MCU and the Dark Knight trilogy, Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead. You get the idea. Think about what it would say about a person if they wore a Batman shirt back then, and what it means now. Geekdom in the West became more accepted and even championed. My mom, for instance, loved Daredevil/Walking Dead/Supernatural and you wouldn't consider her a geek.

 

For bonus points, the rise of nostalgia baiting.

 

5) Online fandoms make it look bad. Especially shipping. This can be a major turn off to people, who only see the discussion of who the forum members want to stick their wee-wee in.

 

6) Social differences between Japan and America (And SJWs who love being offended). Plus it's far harder to get anime on TV nowadays since most of it would need to air late at night. You know, so impressionable children won't accidentally see it. Lot different than when Escaflowne and Gundam Wing were shown after school (in Canada).

 

There's more, but these are some very basic points. It's why Naruto had a hard time towards the end, along with the bad writing.

[KClaws_2]

It's a pretty asinine move in my book to purposely make one of your main characters unlikable. When you make a story, you need your characters to engage the reader, and if you go out of your way to make that character seem like a bad person, you're going to cause problems for your readers. It was clear Kishimoto WANTED his fans to like Sakura overtime, but his constant favoritism towards Sasuke hurt BOTH Naruto and Sakura. Fans wanted to root for Naruto because even with all his flaws, he was still the "hero" of the story. However, because Sakura was the third wheel of the group, too many wanted her replaced.

 

 

Huh, now that I think about it it;s really something how the anime community has changed, As anime became more and more accessible, it ended up becoming more niche due to multiple factors.

 

1) More anime being created, as well as availability. It's not like it was in the old days, where groups would fansub shows that looked interesting. There's a lot more anime available to people on streaming services, and not all of it's good. In the past, you could name a few examples to make anime appear like it was serious storytelling, but nowadays it's not hard to see that's not the truth.

 

Not to mention, how this affects budgets. Or how good anime can go unnoticed due to being lower-profile, while sometimes the worst gets a lot of coverage.

 

2) Otaku Pandering and the rise of late night anime. Related to the first point is how now there's anime airing during the middle of the night that can get away with stuff the typical shonen series can't. This can be achieved due to the levels of violence, fanservice, or a cross of the two (Cross Ange, for instance). Without the distinction in the West between what is made for general audiences (like Naruto) and what is made for niche demographics (like SAO), it cheapens anime by making it look,,, more whorish.

 

3) Season anime and the death of long runners. While long-runners weren't perfect, having their own list of criticisms, you can't deny their length helped people really invest in them. A story told over a long period can be more interesting, where even the fluff can be used to deepen/flesh out even the side characters (filler can be done right after all). While short anime seem less daunting, they also have their shortfalls as well. Characters are often flat in order to make them easier to understand, resorting to various tropes rather than investing time in developing them. And again, this cheapens the experience for newcomers.

 

4) Western Geek Culture takes off. One of the big things about anime was it was supposed to be more serious than stuff made in the West. While that became demonstratively non-true as the boom died out, we also saw a revolution in Western stuff. The MCU and the Dark Knight trilogy, Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead. You get the idea. Think about what it would say about a person if they wore a Batman shirt back then, and what it means now. Geekdom in the West became more accepted and even championed. My mom, for instance, loved Daredevil/Walking Dead/Supernatural and you wouldn't consider her a geek.

 

For bonus points, the rise of nostalgia baiting.

 

5) Online fandoms make it look bad. Especially shipping. This can be a major turn off to people, who only see the discussion of who the forum members want to stick their wee-wee in.

 

6) Social differences between Japan and America (And SJWs who love being offended). Plus it's far harder to get anime on TV nowadays since most of it would need to air late at night. You know, so impressionable children won't accidentally see it. Lot different than when Escaflowne and Gundam Wing were shown after school (in Canada).

 

There's more, but these are some very basic points. It's why Naruto had a hard time towards the end, along with the bad writing.

1) If anything I think the change in technology has helped anime overall. I think the problem is the advertisement and exposure that is the problem. While in the old days fansubbers would pick shows that were quality and maybe overtime licensing companies would pick them up. Now you can find most of them on Cruncyroll, Hulu, and even buy the episodes on Itunes (like I do). However, advertisement tends to favor standard anime and the more niche products don't get much. This reminds me of something I saw on adultswim, back when they had eyecatches where they answered questions. A viewer wrote to them that they would get higher ratings for their anime if they simply advertised them, but they responded "Most of our anime relieves about 300k with or without advertising" Basically niche products have a niche that more or less reaches its audience but has little potential to expand. 

 

2) I too have noticed a lot of modern anime seems to be more about gratifying fantasies than storytelling. Many echi shows are probably a good example. They air late and night, and I've also noticed a gimmick where certain scenes when broadcast are censored so that the audience will buy the episodes to get the uncut experience (again, ecchi)

 

3) I personally prefer anime divided up into seasons. It's a new trend, and I grew up on the old days where anime would start airing in Japan and just keep going until they reached the end. Granted, this didn't affect my viewing much since on American television which did divide the arcs into seasons, but I think it's good to take a break and be exposed to something else. One thing I noticed that has changed is that a lot of anime are actually being legit cancelled. I used to be amazed that anime actually had finales. The long runners kept going until they reached the end, and others if they diverged from their source material would just make up their own endings. Now a lot of anime are being produced without guarantees of a second season and in some cases the producers cut out a lot of story and character elements. My advice would be to wait until the author reaches the end of a particular arc that could be treated as a conclusion, get up to there and then see if the audience wants more.

 

4) Indeed, Geek Culture in the West has taken off, but I feel that a lot anime is still left out as being weird. I think only DragonBall is widely accepted as mainstream in the West, others are more "Heard of it" at best to me. I guess it depends on where you look.

 

5) With the revolution of the internet, you realize people are not as smart as you would like to believe. The anonymity one gets makes one feel like they can get away with anything, and often say things they wouldn't otherwise. Add in how any site can become an echo-chamber, and a lot of personally reasonable people will quickly be disgusted by what they see and look elsewhere. I think this in particular made the Naruto fandom look bad. It feels like other anime can get a diversity of opinions and no one is demonized when they express fondness for one era of the anime more than the other. With Naruto it feels like you have to like EVERY SINGLE THING Kishimoto did. I remember looking for Naruto forums to join when I got into the series, and I was disgusted by what I saw. Most of it was either mindless Kishimoto bashing or worshiping, and it seemed people were more interested in hating on the characters than exploring them and trying to like them. At least the DragonBall fandom is somewhat aware that Toriyama is not the best author in the world.

Companies are also making the mistake of taking online comments as gospel of the whole fandom. A youtube video expressing a certain viewpoint can get 100k+ views, but that doesn't mean the said person is correct in his opinion, or that the people watching his videos actually agree, and it's not a good measure for who's actually going to pay for your kitten. They also don't consider "How can we SWAY this person's opinion?" I'm sure there were many times we said "I won't like this story if they do this", but change our minds once it happens.

 

6) I think this also was an issue in the Western fandom. Naruto was a gateway anime, and most of the people watching it had never been exposed to Japanese culture. They also weren't exposed to the tropes of anime previously, mainly the Tsundere trope. Too many took Sakura's beatings as serious, and rode the bandwagon of this new trend of going against feminism (or rather certain types of feminism, what they perceive as feminism, take your pick, and a topic best explored elsewhere).

 

For the record, I don't really see so-called "SJWs" making a rallying cry against anime; I guess I've seen more of the anti-SJWs/Culture Warriors TALKING about SJWs, but again, different topic for a different place. I guess I should look more (more proof on how MASSIVE the internet really is).

[Bryon_Konoha_Ninja]

It's a pretty asinine move in my book to purposely make one of your main characters unlikable. When you make a story, you need your characters to engage the reader, and if you go out of your way to make that character seem like a bad person, you're going to cause problems for your readers. It was clear Kishimoto WANTED his fans to like Sakura overtime, but his constant favoritism towards Sasuke hurt BOTH Naruto and Sakura. Fans wanted to root for Naruto because even with all his flaws, he was still the "hero" of the story. However, because Sakura was the third wheel of the group, too many wanted her replaced.

 

 

1) If anything I think the change in technology has helped anime overall. I think the problem is the advertisement and exposure that is the problem. While in the old days fansubbers would pick shows that were quality and maybe overtime licensing companies would pick them up. Now you can find most of them on Cruncyroll, Hulu, and even buy the episodes on Itunes (like I do). However, advertisement tends to favor standard anime and the more niche products don't get much. This reminds me of something I saw on adultswim, back when they had eyecatches where they answered questions. A viewer wrote to them that they would get higher ratings for their anime if they simply advertised them, but they responded "Most of our anime relieves about 300k with or without advertising" Basically niche products have a niche that more or less reaches its audience but has little potential to expand. 

 

2) I too have noticed a lot of modern anime seems to be more about gratifying fantasies than storytelling. Many echi shows are probably a good example. They air late and night, and I've also noticed a gimmick where certain scenes when broadcast are censored so that the audience will buy the episodes to get the uncut experience (again, ecchi)

 

3) I personally prefer anime divided up into seasons. It's a new trend, and I grew up on the old days where anime would start airing in Japan and just keep going until they reached the end. Granted, this didn't affect my viewing much since on American television which did divide the arcs into seasons, but I think it's good to take a break and be exposed to something else. One thing I noticed that has changed is that a lot of anime are actually being legit cancelled. I used to be amazed that anime actually had finales. The long runners kept going until they reached the end, and others if they diverged from their source material would just make up their own endings. Now a lot of anime are being produced without guarantees of a second season and in some cases the producers cut out a lot of story and character elements. My advice would be to wait until the author reaches the end of a particular arc that could be treated as a conclusion, get up to there and then see if the audience wants more.

 

4) Indeed, Geek Culture in the West has taken off, but I feel that a lot anime is still left out as being weird. I think only DragonBall is widely accepted as mainstream in the West, others are more "Heard of it" at best to me. I guess it depends on where you look.

 

5) With the revolution of the internet, you realize people are not as smart as you would like to believe. The anonymity one gets makes one feel like they can get away with anything, and often say things they wouldn't otherwise. Add in how any site can become an echo-chamber, and a lot of personally reasonable people will quickly be disgusted by what they see and look elsewhere. I think this in particular made the Naruto fandom look bad. It feels like other anime can get a diversity of opinions and no one is demonized when they express fondness for one era of the anime more than the other. With Naruto it feels like you have to like EVERY SINGLE THING Kishimoto did. I remember looking for Naruto forums to join when I got into the series, and I was disgusted by what I saw. Most of it was either mindless Kishimoto bashing or worshiping, and it seemed people were more interested in hating on the characters than exploring them and trying to like them. At least the DragonBall fandom is somewhat aware that Toriyama is not the best author in the world.

Companies are also making the mistake of taking online comments as gospel of the whole fandom. A youtube video expressing a certain viewpoint can get 100k+ views, but that doesn't mean the said person is correct in his opinion, or that the people watching his videos actually agree, and it's not a good measure for who's actually going to pay for your kitten. They also don't consider "How can we SWAY this person's opinion?" I'm sure there were many times we said "I won't like this story if they do this", but change our minds once it happens.

 

6) I think this also was an issue in the Western fandom. Naruto was a gateway anime, and most of the people watching it had never been exposed to Japanese culture. They also weren't exposed to the tropes of anime previously, mainly the Tsundere trope. Too many took Sakura's beatings as serious, and rode the bandwagon of this new trend of going against feminism (or rather certain types of feminism, what they perceive as feminism, take your pick, and a topic best explored elsewhere).

 

For the record, I don't really see so-called "SJWs" making a rallying cry against anime; I guess I've seen more of the anti-SJWs/Culture Warriors TALKING about SJWs, but again, different topic for a different place. I guess I should look more (more proof on how MASSIVE the internet really is).

 

Well said by both you and Rules, Claws. :) 

[Tiller]

I don't see why Sakura is hated yet other tsunderes are beloved.

 

Because she didn't pick the person she was a tsundere towards, but instead with the guy who tried killing her multiple times, and even had his child. Despite the abuse and neglect, and despite not even being a big part of their lives after his child was born.

[Phantom_999]

From my knowledge, it was even before that so I'd say the more appropriate phrase is she didn't START OFF with liking the guy she's a tsundere towards. I've been  thinking through the double standards of why Sakura is so hated but other tsunderes that are just as bad or even worse than her are so loved in general for a while now, and I've noticed it has to do with a two fold fact: Sakura's initial attitude towards Naruto and Naruto's heartbreaking childhood. Because Naruto had it so hard growing up and was shunned and despised by almost everyone in his own village, a lot of fans feels he is automatically entitled to the first girl that is actually nice to him, which ended up being Hinata. And probably that it is not so much that Sakura is a tsundere, but that she was being a tsundere towards a boy she didn't even start liking at first and was fan-girling the local bad boy like all other girls her age.

 

In fact I don't think the tsundere concept is as alien to to western audiences as we may assume. I'll just go off tangent here for a bit, but bear with me. Tsunderes appear a lot in american cartoons too, prime examples that I can list off the top of my head are Helga Pataki from Hey Arnold, Cindy Vortex from Jimmy Neutron, Angelica Pickles from Rugrats etc. I also have been checking in on the psychology of tsunderes, and what viewers understand and expect from them, and it is pretty straight forward. For someone that is harsh, uptight, and cold in personality, when they DO soften up and show a more caring side then it is a direct and unsubtle indicator that the relationship with the person that that they are displaying more relaxed and nicer behaviour towards is developing and progressing more positively.

 

Anyway as I was saying, the most probable reason that Sakura is so hated by western audiences is not necessarily that she is a tsundere, but that she is being a tsundere to a boy she did not like initially nor ever tried to understand (up til that point at least) such as when she told Sasuke how Naruto has it so easy because he has no parents. So a lot of western viewers were turned off by that and the anime only made it worse since they made Sakura even worse of a tsundere than she already was, with no visible or positive progress with Naruto for the longest time and had her fan girl tendencies with Sasuke even more apparent at inappropriate times while belittling and insulting Naruto in filler scenes. And that consequently, had many Westerners becoming quite unforgiving on their initial impressions of her which was made worse by SP,  having her punch Naruto to the ground or sending him flying through the air in Shippuden, where she was supposed to be more tender, patient, supportive and protective of him. And we all know how many fans started with the anime.

 

But of course that is just the haters' excuse to continue hating her because again they don't want to let go of their first impressions, and don't want to acknowledge how close she and Naruto had become after the time skip. I'm sure there are A LOT of viewers that want her to get comeuppance for her initial treatment of Naruto so they want that by Naruto getting with a girl that was always crushing on him I suppose. Well, that is how I view it at least  

Edited by Phantom_999, 03 August 2018 - 08:35 PM.

[Bail o' Lies]

Another reason Sakura is more hated then others is because it obvious the others are the ones the main character is going to get with, and their isn't a better option waiting in the wing.

 

During part one people thought it would be sweet if Naruto got with Hinata, and Sakura got with Sasuke so both girls would get what they wanted. The shy girl gets with the lonely boy, the boy that is consumed by revenge is saved by a girl utterly devoted to him, and both are just so sweet. This doesn't work once you get to part two; Hinata makes no move to get closer to Naruto what so ever for years, Sasuke has completely abandon even the slightest feeling he had for Sakura at the end of part one, Naruto doesn't even look at Hinata while still madly in love with Sakura, and Sakura's feeling for Sasuke were waning while her feeling for Naruto grew every arc.

 

Most people realized that NS was going to happened, and at the very least made peace with it. The problem was with the people that became deeply emotionally invested into nH/SS happening. They were so emotionally invested into nH/SS they did not want to accept the possibility of it not happening. So to reject the fact that NS was going to happen they had to come up with justification for why their pairing should happen, how perfect it is, and how awful NS is. These people obsession made them seek places of power, and influence so they could make their pairing happen. They eventually got what they wanted a last minute change that destroyed the story, and a disinterested creator.

Edited by Bail o' Lies, 22 July 2018 - 10:00 PM.

[Bryon_Konoha_Ninja]

Another reason Sakura is more hated then others is because it obvious the others are the ones the main character is going to get with, and their isn't a better option waiting in the wing.

 

During part one people thought it would be sweet if Naruto got with Hinata, and Sakura got with Sasuke so both girls would get what they wanted. The shy girl gets with the lonely boy, the boy that is consumed by revenge is saved by a girl utterly devoted to him, and both are just so sweet. This doesn't work once you get to part two; Hinata makes no move to get closer to Naruto what so ever for years, Sasuke has completely abandon even the slightest feeling he had for Sakura at the end of part one, Naruto doesn't even look at Hinata while still madly in love with Sakura, and Sakura's feeling for Sasuke were waning while her feeling for Naruto grew every arc.

 

Most people realized that NS was going to happened, and at the very least made peace with it. The problem was with the people that became deeply emotionally invested into nH/SS happening. So to reject the fact that NS was going to happen they had to come up with justification for why their pairing should happen, how perfect it is, and how awful NS is. These people obsession made them seek places of power, and influence so they could make their pairing happen. They eventually got what they wanted a last minute change that destroyed the story, and a disinterested creator.

 

Yeah, and it's not like they really cared about the character Naruto or even the story Kishimoto was doing, and he was just out of it due to his dad's death and having worked on the series for so long, and not just the fans, but his editors and Shueisha in a way too as well as Studio Pierrot, basically took advantage of how he just didn't care anymore, and look what happened. T_T

[DrK]

 

Because she didn't pick the person she was a tsundere towards, but instead with the guy who tried killing her multiple times, and even had his child. Despite the abuse and neglect, and despite not even being a big part of their lives after his child was born.

Basically, Sakura is a real idiot. And not because her character was meant to be one, but because people who hated her character wanted her to be one.

[jak123]

Another reason Sakura is more hated then others is because it obvious the others are the ones the main character is going to get with, and their isn't a better option waiting in the wing.

 

During part one people thought it would be sweet if Naruto got with Hinata, and Sakura got with Sasuke so both girls would get what they wanted. The shy girl gets with the lonely boy, the boy that is consumed by revenge is saved by a girl utterly devoted to him, and both are just so sweet. This doesn't work once you get to part two; Hinata makes no move to get closer to Naruto what so ever for years, Sasuke has completely abandon even the slightest feeling he had for Sakura at the end of part one, Naruto doesn't even look at Hinata while still madly in love with Sakura, and Sakura's feeling for Sasuke were waning while her feeling for Naruto grew every arc.

 

Most people realized that NS was going to happened, and at the very least made peace with it. The problem was with the people that became deeply emotionally invested into nH/SS happening. They were so emotionally invested into nH/SS they did not want to accept the possibility of it not happening. So to reject the fact that NS was going to happen they had to come up with justification for why their pairing should happen, how perfect it is, and how awful NS is. These people obsession made them seek places of power, and influence so they could make their pairing happen. They eventually got what they wanted a last minute change that destroyed the story, and a disinterested creator.

Not even the slightest. Not once did I feel that Sasuke had any sort of feelings for Sakura throughout the entire series. Even her most cherished memory of Sasuke was Naruto! 

[Derock]

Not even the slightest. Not once did I feel that Sasuke had any sort of feelings for Sakura throughout the entire series. Even her most cherished memory of Sasuke was Naruto! 

 

Though the big problem about that is that SS had "one" scene, and that was when after Sakura's boost of confidence of taking action (freeing herself from the Sound ninja Kin by cutting her hair off) and Lee jumped to save her (though he was having a hard time), Sasuke woke up, activated the Cursed Seal and went on a rampage, prompting her to hug him. However, that went downhill when Sasuke immediately told her to shut up about the seal to Naruto before the preliminaries.

[rocci]

Hell, Asuna from Sword Art Online. Tsundere, but without any haters and with legions of fans wanting bet to be their Waifu.

Asuna has love Arrow to kirito and she's not into hidup rival or friend. that thing doesn't happen to sakura. Sao has Harem tag and otaku love to be in the shoes of protagonis of Harem manga since they're desire by tsundere.

Asuka from Evangelion behave the same like sakura since she like kaji. In the new movie she become part of Shinji "Harem".

@derock
That curse seal scene is one side from sakura. What Sasuke really do is testing his new power and while the hug is romantic ss scene it's not mutual because all of that come from sakura. That's the problem of ss argument that Sasuke secretly has a feeling to sakura. Which is not happening because if he does have feeling we Will know it, for example Sasuke feeling to Naruto.

pairing in Naruto ussually one side love, including ns.

[Derock]

@derock
That curse seal scene is one side from sakura. What Sasuke really do is testing his new power and while the hug is romantic ss scene it's not mutual because all of that come from sakura. That's the problem of ss argument that Sasuke secretly has a feeling to sakura. Which is not happening because if he does have feeling we Will know it, for example Sasuke feeling to Naruto.

pairing in Naruto ussually one side love, including ns.

 

I already know that. Its the reason why I put quotations on one because it was one-sided but fans felt it was legit on how they viewed Sasuke was handled in the scene and the way he responded.

[ThroughWithLove]

From my knowledge, it was even before that so I'd say the more appropriate phrase is she didn't START OFF with liking the guy she's a tsundere towards. I've been  thinking through the double standards of why Sakura is so hated but other tsunderes that are just as bad or even worse than her are so loved in general for a while now, and I've noticed has to do with a two fold fact: Sakura's initial attitude towards Naruto and Naruto's heartbreaking childhood. Because Naruto had it so hard growing up and was shunned and despised by almost everyone in his own village, a lot of fans feels he is automatically entitled to the first girl that is actually nice to him, which ended up being Hinata, and probably that it is not so much that Sakura is a tsundere, but that she was being a tsundere towards a boy she didn't even start liking at first and was fan-girling the local bad boy like all other girls her age.

 

In fact I don't think the tsundere concept is as alien to to western audiences as we may assume. I'll just go off tangent here for a bit, but bear with me. Tsunderes appear a lot in of american cartoons too, prime examples that I can list are Helga Pataki from Hey Arnold, Cindy Vortex from Jimmy Neutron, Angelica Pickles from Rugrats etc. I also have been checking in on the psychology of tsunderes, and what viewers understand and expect from them, and it is pretty straight forward. For someone that is harsh, uptight, and cold in personality, when they DO soften up and show a more caring side then it is a direct and unsubtle indicator that the relationship with the person that that they are displaying more relaxed and nicer behaviour to is developing and progressing more positively.

 

Anyway as I was saying, the most probable reason that Sakura is so hated by western audiences is not necessarily that she is a tsundere, but that she is being a tsundere to a boy she did not like initially nor ever tried to understand such as when she told Sasuke how Naruto has it so easy because he has no parents, so a lot of western viewers were turned off by that and the anime only made it worse since they made Sakura even worse of a tsundere than she already was, with no visible progress with Naruto for the longest time and had her fan girl tendencies with Sasuke even more apparent at inappropriate times while belittling and insulting Naruto in filler scenes. And that consequently, had many Westerners becoming quite unforgiving to their initial impressions of her which was made worse by SP,  having her punching Naruto to the ground and sending him flying through the air in Shippuden, where she was supposed to be more tender, patient, supportive and protective of him. And we all know how many fans started with the anime.

 

But of course that is just the haters' excuse to continue hating her because again they don't want to let go of their first impressions, and don't want to acknowledge how close she and Naruto had become after the time skip. I'm sure there are A LOT of viewers that want her to get comeuppance for her initial treatment of Naruto so they want that by Naruto getting with a girl that was always crushing on him I suppose. Well that is how I view it at least  

 

This is a great post and I find myself in large agreement with it. I've seen a lot of blind Sakura hate come from people who have no investment whatsoever in the pairings and I think this contributed to it. The anime dialed up Sakura's tsun tsun qualites and Sasuke obsessing to 11. It completely flandarized the worst aspects in her character (not to mention Naruto's, since anime Naruto's IQ is well below 30) for the sake of cheap overdone comedy hijinks.

 

Perhaps give a different first impression? Like maybe her goal isn't Sasuke, but that she wants to be a world famous medical ninja from the start? She can have a crush on Sasuke still, but not let that overshadow her character?

Edited by ThroughWithLove, 23 July 2018 - 12:52 AM.

[DrK]

 

This is a great post and I find myself in large agreement with it. I've seen a lot of blind Sakura hate come from people who have no investment whatsoever in the pairings and I think this contributed to it. The anime dialed up Sakura's tsun tsun qualites and Sasuke obsessing to 11. It completely flandarized the worst aspects in her character (not to mention Naruto's, since anime Naruto's IQ is well below 30) 

I can't tell you how much I dislike the idiot Naruto. I don't care for NaruSaku if Naruto is an idiot. They would have no good banter since Sakura would just be punching down all the time 

 

Naruto needs to be lighthearted, but serious about things that are important.

[Bryon_Konoha_Ninja]

I can't tell you how much I dislike the idiot Naruto. I don't care for NaruSaku if Naruto is an idiot. They would have no good banter since Sakura would just be punching down all the time 

 

Naruto needs to be lighthearted, but serious about things that are important.

 

Agreed, but Studio Pierrot didn't know how to handle that properly!

[Nostradamus]

 

Agreed, but Studio Pierrot didn't know how to handle that properly!

Oh they knew how to handle it. They knew from the start. That's why they got the ending that they wanted.

[jak123]

Oh they knew how to handle it. They knew from the start. That's why they got the ending that they wanted.

I wonder which ending would be more popular if the manga and anime had different endings. The manga being NS/SK and the anime being NH/SS.

[Nostradamus]

I wonder which ending would be more popular if the manga and anime had different endings. The manga being NS/SK and the anime being NH/SS.

The one that doesn't destroy everything in its path just to happen.

[Bail o' Lies]

I wonder which ending would be more popular if the manga and anime had different endings. The manga being NS/SK and the anime being NH/SS.

Most of the Hinata fans were honestly anime fans. So they would have gotten pissy once they heard about the manga's ending, but if the last was still about glorifying Hinata they would have gone on and on about how much better the anime is over the manga to the point they considered it the true canon. Kishimoto's reputation wouldn't be torn to shreds, and he would probably be far into his next manga.

Edited by Bail o' Lies, 24 July 2018 - 07:03 PM.