I think The War Arc was when Kishimoto really gave up. Now whether or not the changes were good or bad (mostly bad) you can see Kishimoto begin this "I give up, do whatever you want and I just draw" when his editors started to take control. I am making a small list here of things I know were changed due to editor influence and most happen after the Pein Arc.
-Kishi said the Kakuzu and Hidan arc was suppose to be longer but SJ told him to cut it short to get back to Sasuke. And that Hidan was suppose to return in the War arc but he admitted that he literally got lazy with drawing and didnt want to add more characters because it meant drawing them.
-Kishi has repeatedly said Sakura is the heroine even well into the War Arc, only to turn around and claim Hinata was always the heroine after the series ended. His editors and SJ also kept pushing for Hinata to be the heroine for along time.
-Kishi said Sasuke and Naruto were suppose to be holding hands in 698 but SJ told him he cant do that.
-Sasuke wasnt even suppose to exist and was added at the suggestion of his editors.
-Same thing for the Chunin Exams Arc, Kishis editors literally told him he had to do it instead of his original idea of slowly introducing many characters over several chapters/arcs and he regrets not being able to do what he wanted. He just wanted to show Naruto going on missions and learning about the outside world.
-Once again, even Orochimaru and his involvement in the Chunin Exams Arc was not his decision. His editors told him he needed a villain and that he had to make the Chunin Exams not finish. Shikamaru was also suppose to be the winner, instead of losing to Temari.
-Kishi admitted the idea of Kekkei Genkai, Sharingan and the like in the Land of Waves arc was just a bluff that he did not plan on getting in to at all.
-The Mifune/Hanzo fight was cut short because his editors hated it and told him he needed to end it very quickly and get back to the main cast, but Kishi really wanted to write it.
-Pretty much the entire Kobayashi interview is Kishi going I didnt know what I was doing the majority of the time and when I did know what I was doing my editors made me do something else because they didnt like it.
I am sure you guys can think of more.
Would it be so hard to believe that NH and SS were NOT Kishimoto's decision at all and was really the product of forced involvement by the SP or SJ teams? I would like to think so. Does this make Kishimoto blameless? No, but I really think there was more to it than is put on. The Naruto the Last movie was in production two years before the ending of Naruto which means it was planned to force NH together by the end. Now why would you need to do that if NH was going to be canon anyway? You wouldn't. It was a forced hand put on Kishimoto saying "You need to make NH canon because we made the movie about NH." This is why Kishimoto was so ambiguous.
This also feels like why a lot of the plot points seem out of place.
Couldn't have said it any better myself, being someone who is currently in the process of finishing a book from the last 3 years. I've learned alot about how the writing process goes, story direction, character progression, etc. People fail to understand that oh it was all Kishimoto's idea it was the story he wanted to tell? and my thing is if it was the story he wanted to tell then why did there have to be alot of course alteration throughout the series. There's a reason why people always debate about the quality of Naruto, and why Part 1 was better than Part 2. Alot of things were changed like why all the contradictory from the past interviews and what's currently being said. Yes, there is a thing where you as an author can tweak things that don't really change the overall course of the story, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, Naruto had more than just a few tweaks. It was a series of course corrections throughout the story. Truth be told, that's kinda why it's kinda tough for me to read new mangas because more than likely it never really goes the way the author wants it to, it's always the company like oh this isn't that good get back to the main cast? No that shouldn't even be the first thing on your mind, what you should do is see what it is the author has in store. I'm sorry, but aside from My Hero Academia which even right now I'm a little worried about, Shounen Jump is a company all about rankings. They don't give a damn if the story is a slow build that'll be beautiful, instead it's like We want you to do the story we want you to not what you do.
Which I guess also kinda made me lower animosity towards Kishi, don't to say that I forgive him for what's happened because that's not the case. The scar that was left on me and many of us still stings to this day. Hell, I'd even argue the kitten that happened with Naruto helps give me motivation to tell the story of my book on my own terms not the damn editors, not the damn company. Just straight up me! and that's what I'm gonna love by.
Also keep in mind when Road to Ninja was coming out, Kishi did say "There were things I couldn't do in Naruto that I could do here in this movie."
- We know Sakura's parents for whatever reason couldn't be shown in the manga probably because popularity and rankings of course.
- I know people say that pairings are nothing, and sure there's some validity toward that. However, Naruto is a completely different case. That's why I think NaruSaku was suppose to be the full on endgame for the series given how that movie turned out.
I mean look, if Hinata was the qoute on qoute heroine the whole time, why not have her journey to the Genjutsu world? It just doesn't make sense.
That's why I much like everyone else believes editorial decisions is what happened to Naruto.
Once again, Kishi gets no ounce of forgiveness because he allowed the editors to walks all over the story of Naruto , Do I feel bad for him,yeah by like 0.03% and that's it.
Edited by LuckyChi7, 07 February 2018 - 07:38 PM.