Bryon_Konoha_Ninja

Well, before even watching it remember that Boruto will always be a disappointment because the companies that signed off on it were promised a return to Naruto's high selling glory days. What they got instead is at best a middling/above average/below average for WSJ manga, with an anime with OK sales, and most of the money was made from licensing distribution out to other countries because it was the sequel to Naruto. It would have been cancelled long ago if it was an original IP, but it survives because its a sequel to Naruto that brings in just enough money to not cancel it.
 
That said its clear they are not happy with it. The anime is still off the air and they never finished part one. While they clearly ordered Ikemoto to wrap up part one, as the manga would still be there with his pacing otherwise, and he clearly been order to pick up the pace in part two. Which I have seen people notice how bad the story is in part two because it isn't dragged out. Where before, they convince themselves it must be leading to something.
 
So, any one who goes, "its OK," to defend it. Can be answered by "they didn't want, 'its OK.' The companies wanted at the least Naruto's sales figures to continue with Boruto."
 
If the video is above digital sales vs physical sales. It is hard to often figure out how much digital sales are worth because most companies are reluctant to release their digital sales data. So physical sales are a good aggregate. For example, lets say physical sales are 90% and digital are 10%. So if 90 books sold physically then 10 were sold digitally; so 100 books were sold overall. Its the same reason people like to use Steam to show if a game is doing well or not. While not all people buy all their games on Steam enough do that it is seen as a good way to check.
 
Dear lord that avatar is ugly. Looks like a mix between a JoJo's stand and an Otsutsuki...So, it actually looks like it fits in Boruto. Naruto Explained, well that means the continuation of interest in Naruto-Boruto is important to the continuation of his channel and any money he may receive from it.
 
So the guy starts out with the volumes sales. I just want to point out there is more to Boruto's volume sales than just is volume sales. As its important to remember Naruto's volume sales which average at what 2.1 million, but barely got 800,000 for it final volume its first week. Then Salad's gaiden had about 620,000. Then finally Boruto's started around 400,000 that declined till it eventually leveled out to around 100,000. If 100,000.is good for most manga that's nice, but the company are looking at how far the IP has fallen. Which reminds me if he tries to say something like, "as a sequel its ok on its own or something." Boruto was intended to be a continuation of both the IP and Naruto's story through his son. Like DragonBall Z is to Dragonball. Which is why one has to look at Naruto's sales as well. As they again, wanted those to continue with Boruto. To ignore Naruto and treat it as it own thing is admitting it is a failure.
 
He ask if it so unpopular why is it still ongoing? Legacy of Naruto still means it makes money through distribution rights, and from what I recall when Kodaichi was fired they are under contract. They were given a contract to write a certain amount of chapters I think it was 60. When they hit that mark Ikemoto's contract was renewed his wasn't. It also what I suspect happened with the end of part one and the pacing of part two. They refused to extend Ikemoto's contract again when they didn't see improvements they desired. So he has the remaining chapters to finish his manga; which is about 40 chapters.
 
So he brings up that physical sales is outdate. Like I said an aggregate. So digital manga according to him makes up about 70% of sales in Japan. Let's see, if Boruto's 100,000 is 30%, Digital's 70% is around 230,000, and so total would be about 330,000 volume sales in Japan...Ok. Even that was the case for Boruto, that is again still far less than Naruto had in its prime. If physical sales were 1%, then it would be getting to where the company wanted its sales to be.
 
Also, Boruto's sales charts do not have a gradual decline that goes along with the rise of Digital sales. It falls till its sales stabilize around 100,000 and was around that for years. When it should continue to go down as more people buy it digitally.
 
You know, he brings up digital sales took off in 2014. Just proving that Naruto had the worse time to end. As it ended before streaming revitalized western interest in anime (so when Boruto started it had to face competition), right as digital manga took off, and continuous anime became outdated (which Boruto one of the last greenlit.) Boruto really comes off as a relic from a bygone era. An era that ended around the ending of Naruto.
 
So Boruto sells around 400,000 each year according to him.
 
Ah he brought up the sequel excuse...already covered that. They wanted it to be a continuation not just a random spin off sequel.
 
"We shouldn't compare Dragon Ball and Dragon Super success to Naruto." Wasn't Naruto once one of the top three selling manga ever at one point and was consider a peer to DragonBall? Now we shouldn't think of putting them in the same topic much less comparing them? How far has it fallen. What ever could cause such a fall? Maybe a bad ending and a sequel most people do not like for the past ten years? Hm. Maybe it could have maintain its position with a good ending and a good sequel. A possibility maybe?
 
Similar sequels to justify Boruto's low sales. Haven't read the Seven sin sequel so can't say. Fairy Tail 100 to be honest I kind of forget that still ongoing sometimes, also I don't think it help that the anime only started this year. Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido...wasn't that put on hold for a few years due to the mangaka being arrested? I think that would affect the sales numbers. Also, it was made about 20 years after the original manga compared to 1 year for Boruto. The Inuyasha sequel which again came out years after the original's ending.
 
Ah the Boruto movie is strong...http://www.narusaku....showtopic=16678 For its time, sure. Afterwards, all its contemporaries eclipse it.
 
Now time to blame Naruto's volume count for why people aren't reading Boruto. Wait. Wait I thought Boruto was successful people were just saying it wasn't. Why the change?
 
It the best selling manga in V-Jump! Well seeing as Super ended due to the Death of Toriyama, yes. But it was once In WSJ before it was moved to V-Jump. So, it like a loser in a major leagues moved to the minor and got second place. Not as impressive as it sounds.
 
One Piece always seems to have problems with games. While Naruto once had a successful game franchise in Storm. How was the last one Connection everyone?

https://x.com/kreuz8...332782362783987

I also saw this on Twitter, and it brings up a valid point about why Boruto as a series sucks in terms of being a sequel.

What's funny is that all of it could have been fixed so damn easily. We know Kishi kept getting bugged by the Hinata fans who kept telling him what he should do with Hinata even if he didn't get why so many liked her. I have said this, but if I were in Kishi's spot, this would be before Pain, and I was told again and again to have Hinata do something to take the spotlight from Sakura.

 

I would have told my editors I would give Hinata a big moment. Her death at Pain's hands outside of the range, so she isn't coming back. It would be a way that shut up the ones who all pushed for Hinata, who kept bothering to push her into the light.

 

Then, with Sakura. She, Shikamaru, and Neji would all fight to save Naruto.

 

I would have it so that as the two keep Pain away, Sakura would free Naruto, saying she believes him and how much Naruto has helped her grow and she wants to be by his side when he becomes Hokage, sadly before she could remove the last rod Pain will use his pull and stab her in the stomach that way we would still get the Minato part.

Great idea! At least we know too with Sakura, she GENUINELY did believe in Naruto, which is why she respected his wishes no on else get involved while he fought Nagato/Pain.

This is not a new statement. Kishimoto has been saying stuff like this since the ending. This was always his justification for it happening beyond "she is popular and what the fans want while Sakura wasn't."
 
SP saw Hinata as the perfect woman that deserved Naruto as she deserved to be the heroine of the story. So, they wrote the Last to show that their Princess-Goddess Hinata-Hime-sama was the most perfect woman that was entitled to Naruto. He was her prize for being so perfect.
 
Kishimoto never got the appeal of Hinata. She wasn't his type and the people pushing her onto him would never explained to him why she should be the heroine other than she more popular than Sakura, she is prettier than her, fans like her, and she liked Naruto the longest so deserved him. Because the real answer is they love her absolute devotion, submissiveness, and no effort to obtain her. So, he needed his own reason for why Hinata should end up with Naruto? After, SP's staff pressured him to kill off Neji (the real character that was in the way of nH happening) her original storyline died with him. Leaving only her affection for Naruto. He saw that as pathetic and pitied her so agreed to put them together.
 
SP saw Hinata as perfect, Kishimoto saw her as pathetic. These views clash and helped make the mess that was the ending.
 
SP had nH's wedding be the end of the anime therefor the goal of Naruto all along was really to get together with Hinata instead of becoming Hokage and changing the ninja system's problems surpassing all those that previously held the title. The Last was to show how perfect she was and that she deserved a perfect life.
 
Kishimoto at the ending only had them together in front of Neji's grave implying Naruto was getting together with her to honor his sacrifice. And the relationship was set up by him which showed Naruto who focused on his job as Hokage was as distant to Hinata as Sasuke was to Sakura. The Sasuke that went out of his way to avoid Sakura for 12 years. Which is why both kids have daddy issues.
 
SS is still only happened because once Sakura lost her status as the Heroine he needed to put her somewhere and SS was popular with some fans; and nothing deeper than that because he dislikes the pairing. nH was the one he needed to be convinced to happened and once he was SS followed just to put Sakura somewhere.

YEEEAAAH, Knocking down and blowing up an essential part of Naruto's character (the POAL) obviously wasn't gonna backfire.    You either completely undermine Naruto's understanding of love and make him a self serving hypocritical douchebag or you accept Hinata was a pity prize. One contradicts the other.

Question, what was wrong with Sakura falling in love with Naruto? What was wrong with her changing her feelings?

The biggest factor comes from the death of Kenji Kishimoto (Masashi's father) early in 2014, and honestly a 3 month break at least could've been more than enough to give him more than enough time to properly flesh out at the very least the last 3 & a half volumes.   
 
 
Regardless of who was canon at the end ->  that to me is irrelevant in this conversation personally. 
 
 
I'm more so referring to that it would've given Masashi proper time to grieve, but also give him the chance to think of Madara could've been taken out in a satisfying way at the very least by the end of Volume 70.  Then the last 20 chapters in my opinion could've easily been dedicated to The Naruto vs Sasuke fight, and have a great conclusive ending.
 
 
 
This might just be me, but  I do like that the final page of the series was this: 
 
 

Kishimoto ultimately was playing Yes man to the authorities that were gaslighting him saying what a great heroine Hinata was and that she was more popular than Sakura because she is a submissive housewife type of girl that Naruto deserves and even go as far as to say that she is popular in the west because of a few youtuber otaku wannabes (I don't need to list them because everybody here knows whom I'm talking about, but feel free to input their names if you wish). Obviously they DID NOT do their research because they were ultimately hearing what they WANTED to hear and so that validated their personal views of Hinata too, ending with them pushing and pushing until Kishi said yes and it was because he just did not want to deal with the stress of it all anymore. He was finally hit with the consequences of writing manga consuming his life when his father passed away so he just caved in and thought he was giving the fans what they wanted because it was what all his editors ever since Yahagi left as his editor to be editor in chief for Jump Square, were telling him. "Hinata Hyuga is the greatest s** doll wife for Naruto and Sakura Haruno is a ball busting, emasculating she-devil that shouldn't deprive Hinata of her happiness and should get it on with her abusive neglectful crush." You can tell of of this is true because the writing in the movie doesn't add up, since it wasn't Kishi writing it. It wasn't even anyone familiar with Naruto from what I remember, as it contradicted Chapter 1/ episode1 of all things in the franchise. And well, here we are.

No, Kishimoto wasn't trying to gaslight anyone.  The quote that I posted is just the desperate, self-deceptive rationale that NaruHina fans clutch to because acknowledging the alternative - that it only came about because he was forced -, is too bitter a truth to accept.  He's stated in the past that he doesn't understand Hinata's appeal and that he resisted when people tried to convince him to replace Sakura with her as the lead heroine.  Add to that, he confirmed that Sakura's confession to Naruto was genuine, to say nothing of the numerous parallels that he's drawn between between them and other relationships in the series. (Rin/Obito, Jiraiya/Tsunade,  Sakura's parents as well as his own)
 
Then you have his father directly comparing Sakura to his wife,  Naruto introducing her as his girlfriend (with her not even denying it), saving Naruto with the Kiss of Life, etc.  You don't put that much ridiculous effort into structuring and developing a relationship with a clearly romantic tint for hundreds of chapters, just to go "Psyche!  The real heroine/love interest is the side character chick who contributes absolutely nothing to the overall series and barely interacts with the protagonist because boobs and men love submissive females! Kakakakaka!"  He wasn't even involved with the Last aside from the movie novelization and there, he illustrated that Naruto's feelings for Hinata were out of obligation for not realizing that she was in love with him.  Dude has even gone on record of saying that the NaruHina couple is "born out of pity for Hinata". 
 
And if NaruHina was planned, then he wouldn't go out of his way to show how dysfunctional their family dynamic is or how miserable and negligent Naruto himself is as both a husband and father.

Kishimoto didn't try to gaslight anyone, It was Hinata's fanatics in WSJ, Studio Pierrot that see how hyped up she was in the west that gas lighted HIM AND EVERY fan that actually read the story. They thought that the populace that appreciated Hinata Hyuga as a "submissive dutch wife" wife as much as them was WAAAAY bigger than it actually was and appealing to her was the ticket to make Naruto sell even more internationaly and stroke their egos on how how much the the Hinata Hyuga community loved Hinata Hyuga. See how badly tht back fired, and I just laugh at the irony of it. Kishimoto isn't some manipulative maniac with a hidden agenda, he is a man exhausted and and tired of spending so much time drawing this one series and just wanted to end it because he realizes how much time it takes away from him spending time with his family which is what he realized when his father passed away. Albeit I still would put my faith in any manga brand with his name in it anymore, but objectively everyone has to realize he was not the problem with Naruto's decline, it was greed and vicarious lust for a fictional side character that actually had no impact on the plot.

At that stage, I wouldnt say narusaku was six feet under, only strangely sidelined. The movie author had to really kill it, considering so much of the manga hammered in the fact that Naruto really loves Sakura.

That particular plot-point in The Last was not only lazy writing, but it also made Naruto look like scumbag. I mean, really? Lie about your feelings and worse, for rivalry? Even though your rival couldnt give a damn about her?

And the fact that Naruto doesn't even deny it makes it worse. Especially when you recall that the *real* reason Sakura and Ino fought over Sasuke was a pretext so that Sakura could be included within a group among her peers and avoid being ostracized over her forehead.

 

 

Tell me about it there's just so much about Naruto and Sakura's bond that tells me that they were meant for so much more than just simply best friends. 

All the parallels Minato and Kushina had with each other in the one-shot DEFINITELY reflects what was meant to be endgame!

No, popularity is utterly worthless. Argumentum ad populam. Appeal to popularity.  Maybe popularity meant something to Kishimoto and his editors, but considering the way Boruto turned out, that just goes to show you fixate too much on what they think is popular.
 
There is literally NO RHYME or REASON to SS. Chapter 693 confirms this when Kishimoto (correctly) has Sasuke state that Sakura has no reason to love him, only for Kakashi to retort that love does not need a reason.

funny i feel that filler arc is what most hinata fans go to for her which is creepy 

That's the general consensus for a lot of us.