31579 replies to this topic

[totherpage95]

I wouldn't say the pairing's behind us... (Sp recently released a acrylic of sakura confessing to naruto) Yes some people watch boruto but many people don't like the sequel series much like people don't like the new star wars... Will disney do something to make amends for their actions? It might be unlikely. Or look at the way ash's story in pokemon ended. Many things not addressed and ash never even meets his dad. But it doesn't matter enough it seems. I still wouldn't claim all of ash's fans put the series behind them. Sakura was also a lot higher than hinata in the recent poll (higher than naruto and sasuke even). Sakura vs chiyo also won the fight poll as well.... Kishimoto was likely copying the love triangle in dragon quest: the adventure of dai but probably didn't do a great job but even so i don't think sakura was hated to a huge extent. There are youtubers nowadays who openly say sakura and naruto should've been together so at least some fans know it should've happened

[luans7]

I wouldn't say the pairing's behind us... (Sp recently released a acrylic of sakura confessing to naruto) Yes some people watch boruto but many people don't like the sequel series much like people don't like the new star wars... Will disney do something to make amends for their actions? It might be unlikely. Or look at the way ash's story in pokemon ended. Many things not addressed and ash never even meets his dad. But it doesn't matter enough it seems. I still wouldn't claim all of ash's fans put the series behind them. Sakura was also a lot higher than hinata in the recent poll (higher than naruto and sasuke even). Sakura vs chiyo also won the fight poll as well.... Kishimoto was likely copying the love triangle in dragon quest: the adventure of dai but probably didn't do a great job but even so i don't think sakura was hated to a huge extent. There are youtubers nowadays who openly say sakura and naruto should've been together so at least some fans know it should've happened

 

I think that the love triangle in Naruto resembles more the one in Slam Dunk, but without the sensational declaration from the protagonist.

 

This ending will only change if the author wants, but it seems that he no longer cares about his work and just wants to rest while it makes money for him.

Edited by luans7, 10 March 2024 - 01:25 AM.

[totherpage95]

 
I think that the love triangle in Naruto resembles more the one in Slam Dunk, but without the sensational declaration from the protagonist.
 
This ending will only change if the author wants, but it seems that he no longer cares about his work and just wants to rest while it makes money for him.

Well dragon quest also had a shy hinata like girl so it goes beyond triangle

[BlueStarSaber]

I wouldn't say the pairing's behind us... (Sp recently released a acrylic of sakura confessing to naruto) Yes some people watch boruto but many people don't like the sequel series much like people don't like the new star wars... Will disney do something to make amends for their actions? It might be unlikely. Or look at the way ash's story in pokemon ended. Many things not addressed and ash never even meets his dad. But it doesn't matter enough it seems. I still wouldn't claim all of ash's fans put the series behind them. Sakura was also a lot higher than hinata in the recent poll (higher than naruto and sasuke even). Sakura vs chiyo also won the fight poll as well.... Kishimoto was likely copying the love triangle in dragon quest: the adventure of dai but probably didn't do a great job but even so i don't think sakura was hated to a huge extent. There are youtubers nowadays who openly say sakura and naruto should've been together so at least some fans know it should've happened

They did when?

[totherpage95]

They did when?

https://youtu.be/vwf50V10xTU
https://youtu.be/kG5TR70F9V4
https://youtu.be/pntgLMa3Yac
https://youtu.be/t6cBSsBpTFE
I was at awesome con and someone asked Kate higgins to yell "naruto" and she did it perfectly

Edited by totherpage95, 11 March 2024 - 10:46 AM.

[NaruSaku fan in Kentucky]

I just saw an old NS art and looked at the comments and there was Koshej. Is that douche still around?

[totherpage95]

I mean even a friend of mine recently came out of the naruto "closet" and told me he liked ns...mär was a series that probably took inspiration from ns but at least had some sort of closure at the end. Even in the final sasuke and naruto fight sakura forms naruto's rasengan with two hands because yuka miyata was carrying the fight

[totherpage95]

I just saw an old NS art and looked at the comments and there was Koshej. Is that douche still around?

Seems so

[NaruSaku fan in Kentucky]

Seems so

Out of all the NHers, he is the most obnoxious.

[Konoha'sCrimsonFox]

I wouldn't say the pairing's behind us... (Sp recently released a acrylic of sakura confessing to naruto) Yes some people watch boruto but many people don't like the sequel series much like people don't like the new star wars... Will disney do something to make amends for their actions? It might be unlikely. Or look at the way ash's story in pokemon ended. Many things not addressed and ash never even meets his dad. But it doesn't matter enough it seems. I still wouldn't claim all of ash's fans put the series behind them. Sakura was also a lot higher than hinata in the recent poll (higher than naruto and sasuke even). Sakura vs chiyo also won the fight poll as well.... Kishimoto was likely copying the love triangle in dragon quest: the adventure of dai but probably didn't do a great job but even so i don't think sakura was hated to a huge extent. There are youtubers nowadays who openly say sakura and naruto should've been together so at least some fans know it should've happened

 

When it comes to SP, I take everything from them as  salt and grain. Nothing spectacular. After the fiasco they pulled on us with The Last, I avoid watching anything that they animate. Even if its a manga series I currently reading like Black Clover.

 

I have to agree with Luans post.

 

Kishi had to roll through field of feces with a mouth full of excrement to justify the ending, heading into Borotu. Only God knows how many  brazen interviews (in the old locked thread) that Kishi never gave us a straight and honest answer. I remember Kishi got an reward (I forgot the name) sometime in 2015 or 2016 for completing his first long term manga series Naruto. He did not look happy. Even at the 2015 Shonen Jump Festa, you can tell by his body language in the photos in video that he was putting on a forced smile throughout the event.

 

So yeah, early Pt2, he got the "Sakura hate" memo from his staff and they suggest that Sakura should be replace with Hinata as the new FML... sadly this outcome became true. And Kishi got the "Endgame Hate" memo from us NS fans and loyal Naruto fans shortly after it published. Kishi realized that he had been duped. Interesting enough, his trip to New York at a comic convention, he sarcastically mentioned this along the lines of his wife not being too please with him not pairing Naruto up with Sakura.

 

He tried to move on with Samurai 9, but it got axed. This is a major blow for his career. He can't get away from Naruto without making money. I have every reason to believe that series has been a total disappointment and major blunder in Kishi's eyes longer than we ever thought.

 

We have to go back and look at the foundation of Naruto. As I said before, Naruto was originally not a ninja manga. Kishi might have never intended to have a female lead. That's why that title was vacant in PT1. If you read his very old interviews while Naruto was still in his prime, It seems romance and female characters are not his forte and seems uncomfortable. During the 2017 interview that Kishi and his entire staff had together, they implemented the FML (female lead) and it should be center around the end gaming pairing, meaning Naruto marries the FML.

 

Now to get to the meat of my post or debate, with my NS bias hat off my head, I believe Kishi never intended to include pairings in Naruto generation and wanted to aim for an opening as I mentioned that romance is not his forte. I know this is going to sound like something that a NH fan would spat from his/her mouth, but just bear with me. Theoretically, Sakura might have been a "Satellite Character" not in Naruto's favor. Her her existence is for Naruto's character growth, meaning he so post to move on from her. Sakura was not so post to have a significant role.

 

Knowing this, people working with him that wanted NH capitalized on this, which leads to Sakura being very infamous amongst the Naruto fanbase. Her being hated has to do with everything related to NS. Till this day, I believe in the conspiracy theory that people who were in charge on NH sabotage Sakura's character in the polls all because Kishi had chosen Sakura over Hinata. 

 

It's common sense why he chosen Sakura, because she is much easier to write as the FML solely because she is Naruto's teammate. That means she will have a lot of screen time as where Hinata. It will be difficult to insert her the FML position because she will not have the screen time requirements to keep up in that role not able to interact with Naruto as much as Sakura. Secondly, it seems like Kishi wanted Naruto and the FML's relationship to be like with him and his wife just for reference. I think in his mindset, using his experience marriage might have been easy for him to write Naruto's romantic relationship with the FML.

 

Now its been nearly 10 years later and here we are.

 

There is nothing that can motivate Kishi enough to reboot Naruto and give us NS after all he done and went. Even if Viz gives him the green light. He's likely going to milk Boruto as long as possible.

 

However, March 1... legendary author Akira Toriyama passed away. I know a lot of well known figures, including Kishi himself referred to Toriyama as sensei. Kishi is a fan of Toriyama, so its not the first time I see people comparing the potential pairings to the Dragón Quest games. I think, this will perhaps Toriyama's passing might only thing that can motivate Kishi to give us his true ending as a Toriyama tribute . Even so, I will still have mixed feelings if ever happens.

 

 

 

Do we still have members that can translate Japanese in the past? I known there was a native Japanese member by the Penname Ramenatsu used to translate news from Japans main anime forum "2chan".

Edited by Konoha'sCrimsonFox, 12 March 2024 - 12:33 PM.

[totherpage95]

Kishi has a sakura keychain at his desk and spent a hour or more trying to make sakura look prettier i don't think she's in the story for no reason. Him and/or his team were probably going for something similar to what dragon quest did. Another person in the forum also pointed out how sakura and poala also have similarity and an identical timeskip and beet the vandal buster was done by the same writer/illustrator as adventure of dai. Heck the fact other series have copied ns proves there actually was something there

[Konoha'sCrimsonFox]

I do remember that. Does he still have the Saku keychain on his desk?

 

There is a lot of pairings that you can compare NS to that came before their time in many forms. And I believe a perfect NS would be a romcom pairing.

 

The main issue that we seem to overlook is why did Kishi didn't follow through with the romance. The reason why I speculating that Kishi did not become a fan of Sakura until part 2 is because of that. On paper and record, it look like he hit an author's block during the the Pt2 Team 7 training when Naruto asked Sakura out on a date after the training and she teasingly rejected before going on an ice cream break. This is sadly one of the last moments that could have been NS romantic interaction because it seem like Kishi wrote Sakura getting her vengeance on Naruto when he did not gave her the response she wanted (she asked Naruto if she has become more womanly) in a romcom way.

 

Kishi had a lot of chapters and volumes ahead of that Team 7 Pt2 training outro to follow up with that.  Kishi only had Naruto asked Sakura on dates, but it was just not the same, especially, the last time he tried to asked her out. That was the day he received news of J-man's death. That's just on Naruto's side.

 

As for Sakura, Kishi has absolutely no clue and no way to follow up her romantic feelings after after the introduction scene. He could not come up with ideas for to counter Sakura's rejection to Naruto. We waited patiently. We all thought Kishi new what he was doing with delay after delay. Still no follow up to the point that we have to take everything Sakura interacts with Naruto as a NS moment, which is disheartening.

 

There should never be any complications to get Sakura loving Naruto in a romantic light on screen! Totally unacceptable. It's outrageous how he could drag it out for many years being so dense. I understand romance is not Kishi's forte as I said like many times lol. But he's a married man. So he should already have basic experience form of romance and courtship between the opposite gender.  It's so simple that even a cave man can do it. DA's artist Tokai has done it for us so take a look at some old NS content from Alternative: The Last.

 

 

 

This could have made Sakura romantic feelings for Naruto official to the audience if was implemented by Kishi. This was just only three pages and it would not only been a game changer to keep NS ship afloat in the original manga. But it would not have come at a better time than the Pain Arc conclusion. As we all know (most of us old Naruto fans), The Pain arc was where the Sakura hate spiraled out of control and people wanted a change of FML  transferred to Hinata change because Hinata risked her life to come to Naruto's aid. And of course the Sakura's infamous failed-fession.

 

Of course this time frame is set two years after the 4th War Arc, but the girl talk scene between Saku and Ino could still be used right after Naruto's victory over Pain. Sakura getting jealous over Naruto's new Konoha fangirl during the conversation. Kishi could expand the girl talk scene with more details concerning Hinata in Sakura's state of mind. 

 

Although, its going to take a long period of time to get back to the Pain Arc chapters, but you if you recall the scene where Sakura heals Hinata after getting clobbered by Pain? She had a lot of negative facials. Sakura was frowning when she subconsciously said, "Hinata loves Naruto."

 

Ino listens to a dejected Sakura. Most likely scenario, Sakura feels guilty of her mistreatment of Naruto during the academy and show probably knows Hinata was only the person that stood beside him. My theory, Ino rehash was she just said about her dilemma between Naruto and Sasuke. With Sakura being her friend, Ino will be more bias towards Sakura will mentioned that everyone in Konoha now loves him as a hero, a sibling and potential lover and he see people that are closets to him as family.

 

It doesn't matter who loves and stood beside Naruto first. Naruto has the choice to pick the one who he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Ino says it directly to Sakura's face that she always had first dibs on Naruto (because of Naruto's infatuation) and if she waits any longer. Someone else will likely worm their way into his heart. Kishi could comically top it of with the conclusion of Ino confessing that she will not hesitate a single moment go after Naruto if she becomes infatuated in the future with Naruto being the new hot potato in town. An annoyed and jealous Sakura will be motivate enough to approach Naruto.

 

But it will still be a tall order for Sakura to accomplish because the passing J-man and near destruction of Konoha, Naruto at that time is not in the mood. And it is why the failed-fession hugging scene will still play out the exact same way when Naruto thinks Sakura is lying. And who could blame him. This is why the girl talk scene could have played a significant role in Sakura character growth and importantly not a liar.

 

If Kishi had gathered is wits, instead of succumbing to Sakura hate, which lead to the abandonment of NS (one of his interview he decided to go with NH at the middle portion of the manga), this scene could have been where Kishi drop the Infinity Gauntlet onto  this Sakura hate/FML dethroning debacle. And we will likely never have a terrible ending of Naruto.

 

Going back to that 2017 interview with entire staff, the person that was doing the interview asked why there was no love triangle between Naruto, Sakura and Hinata. Kishi could have nailed in the final nail into the NS coffin if he stated that he never intended  Sakura to return Naruto's unrequited love. Instead we have typical Kishi being in character by not giving us a straight honest answer. His response is that he never have time to write a love triangle between these three character because Naruto being all about shonen action pack manga instead of romance. 

 

This makes him look like a total clueless moron because he contradicted himself. He already implemented at least two one-sided love triangle, which is the T7 and Rock Lee love triangle. You can now sarcastically put Sakura returning Naruto's feeling into this category too by not having time to fully write out Sakura's dilemma 

 

This is just insulting our intelligence 

 

 

 

Leaving the conspiracy theories out of the way, there has to be a reason why Kishi could not simply put the puzzle pieces when comes to Sakura putting Sasuke behind her and moving to Naruto. After nearly a decade, I come to two conclusions. First is that Kishi tried to avoid Sakura being the jealous type. I think Kishi acknowledges that jealousy can have a very bad influences on Sakura's character by making her two-timing (she has not gotten over Sasuke yet) and her having double standards, which is not great at all.

 

This is the hurdle he could not overcome. While  it may seem difficult very for Kishi, its not complicated at all. It's easy peasy. What Kishi should have done is dropped the romcom and upgrade NS to a traditional romantic pair by a repeat of Pt1 NS dates. This time Sakura is fully committed to Naruto. It starts off by the basic form of romance is holding hands.

 

Secondly, it is Hinata. Here is all we should look into it because it may solved the mystery way Kishi went with NH besides the popularity. Kishi knows killing off Hinata will reflect poorly on NS. He also knows that his Hinata does not move on from Naruto, she will be heartbroken. Possibly, Kishi had too have no ideas to get over this hurdle too.

 

 

 

I do apologize for the towering post. I can't remember the last time I wrote like this   Before I put this towering post to bed, there is a fun comparison one page between the original Naruto and Alternative: The Last could have helped Kishi leading up to a NaruSakuHina love triangle... 

 

 

^^ Let me just filled in the blanks, "Sakura-san.. could it be that you love Naruto too?"   

Edited by Konoha'sCrimsonFox, 14 March 2024 - 09:00 AM.

[Derock]

The Hinata heartbroken bit, that can be solved easily: have Naruto being honest with her in a private conversation, he is not interested in her romantically. It can benefit her to move on and find someone to be with her. She was never important in the first place. It was her fans (and some inside help) that were pushing her which resulted on how the franchise ended up now.

[BlueStarSaber]

Yeah I think you are looking to negatively into this, as I don't think Kishimoto only starting to like sakura at the beginning of part 2, pretty sure he was fond of sakura from the beginning of part 1.

Also I don't think sakura held too long of a grudge against naruto for the womanly comments, as she show great concern for his wellbeing when she learnt that naruto was a jinjuriki and if he is captured by the akatsuki and has his tailed beast extracted he will die. Along with the tenchi Bridge and seeing naruto in his 4 tailed transformation followed up by yamato hinting that she feels something more for naruto.

Arguably afterwards kishimoto did afterwards was slow burning development with the sakura trying feed scene and her showing having a similar pervey side like naruto when kohonahamaru showed of the sexy no justu before doing the big hug in the pain arc.

Now arguably doing the slow burn for a series as long as naruto caused long term problems as many fans failed to see and ended up thinking hinata was the love intrest due to that big pain moment. Heck this tends to be a problem for many series that do slow burn like avatar the last airbender, as not everyone saw it coming despite obvious hints.

It probably didn't help that around this time new editors came in with an anti sakura agenda to replace sakura with hinata which probably effected the writting around sakura so much that it ended up the mess that it did. Also didn't help that kishimoto became very insecure with Sakura's popularity in the west.

Pretty sure kishimoto post ending interviews are just damage control by jump to avoid the backlash with how he made the canon couples and the not a romance manga is just a poor exuse to as to why the canon couples are so bad.

I think its fine if a series makes it that one character is in love with more than one person though they got to make it eventually clear like nisekoi did. Also kishimoto should of really addressed the love confession much sooner to make it clear that sakura was in love with naruto, but also still had some feelings for sasuke.

Edited by BlueStarSaber, 14 March 2024 - 11:30 PM.

[Kagomaru]

The Hinata heartbroken bit, that can be solved easily: have Naruto being honest with her in a private conversation, he is not interested in her romantically. It can benefit her to move on and find someone to be with her. She was never important in the first place. It was her fans (and some inside help) that were pushing her which resulted on how the franchise ended up now.

This, essentially. Not to mention that Hinata seemed perfectly resigned and content when she saw Sakura and Naruto embrace at the end of the Pain arc, which, at the time, seemed to symbolize her acceptance over their relationship. And it isn't as though unrequited love triangles haven't been a thing in shonen manga for decades now. By that logic, why is it okay for Naruto have his heart broken after pining after Sakura throughout the entire manga?

Edited by Kagomaru, 15 March 2024 - 03:15 AM.

[Konoha'sCrimsonFox]

Yeah I think you are looking to negatively into this, as I don't think Kishimoto only starting to like sakura at the beginning of part 2, pretty sure he was fond of sakura from the beginning of part 1.

Also I don't think sakura held too long of a grudge against naruto for the womanly comments, as she show great concern for his wellbeing when she learnt that naruto was a jinjuriki and if he is captured by the akatsuki and has his tailed beast extracted he will die. Along with the tenchi Bridge and seeing naruto in his 4 tailed transformation followed up by yamato hinting that she feels something more for naruto.

Arguably afterwards kishimoto did afterwards was slow burning development with the sakura trying feed scene and her showing having a similar pervey side like naruto when kohonahamaru showed of the sexy no justu before doing the big hug in the pain arc.

Now arguably doing the slow burn for a series as long as naruto caused long term problems as many fans failed to see and ended up thinking hinata was the love intrest due to that big pain moment. Heck this tends to be a problem for many series that do slow burn like avatar the last airbender, as not everyone saw it coming despite obvious hints.

It probably didn't help that around this time new editors came in with an anti sakura agenda to replace sakura with hinata which probably effected the writting around sakura so much that it ended up the mess that it did. Also didn't help that kishimoto became very insecure with Sakura's popularity in the west.

Pretty sure kishimoto post ending interviews are just damage control by jump to avoid the backlash with how he made the canon couples and the not a romance manga is just a poor exuse to as to why the canon couples are so bad.

I think its fine if a series makes it that one character is in love with more than one person though they got to make it eventually clear like nisekoi did. Also kishimoto should of really addressed the love confession much sooner to make it clear that sakura was in love with naruto, but also still had some feelings for sasuke.

 

I do have to apologize my neutral perspective seems like soured the mood. It was never my intention. I mean, it took awhile to put the past behind me that it doesn't no longer effect my life.

 

Edit: For those who don't want to read my final post on this negative debate, skip down to the line breaker and read the spoiler box. I have come up with a possible NS reboot manga Kishi could serialized.

 

Even if it pains me to think outside the NS box, I come to a conclusion that shonen manga or I should say SJ comics in general got away with a lot of undeveloped endgame pairings since the dawn of manga serialization in Japan perhaps a century old or older.

 

I know the passing Akira Toriyami got away with Vegetta and Bulma. Fun fact Ramenastu translated rumors back in 2014 from 2chan (Japan's main anime forum) that Tori faced a similar situation as Kishi is that he started to get tire of DBZ and wanted to end. SJ deny it and stated DBZ was too popular to conclude, so that why Trunks was born lol. It seems like he wanted to decreased the popularity of DBZ, but like Naruto, it had too much momentum in sales. 

 

In theory, it seem like when time Yahagi left, he and Kishi had to put Sakura on the back seat because she no longer have the role as the FML. So throughout the remaining duration of the manga, the FML role is just an empty title. Where I'm basing this off of is the interview first Kishi and Yahagi had together since the conclusion. We found out in that interview that Kishi was not found off Team Taka and Sasuke became somewhat like a second protagonist (bromance). Not for the plot... as a business transaction. The increase in Sasuke's screen time was meant to bring in more fans and sadly this might have lead up to the demise of NS.

 

This is why Kishi never wrote NH.

 

Whatever happened behind close doors, it all points into the direction that the intended female lead being paired plot has been scrapped due to traditions in the shonen genre to be self centered around action and adventure from male population. Unfortunately, pairings in traditional shonen manga are meant to create/introduce more characters. DBZ is perhaps the best example I can come up with.

 

Even if its been many years since I'd watched the very last episodes of Z and the non canon GT (never watched Super), I still do not know how Toriyama got away with Goku and ChiChi too. I'm not saying I dislike the pairing (I'm also GokuChi fan too). Its that these a lot of the traditional male Jump protagonist are muscles brains that either lack IQ or knowledge. I mean Goku didn't know how to tell between the opposite. Not to mention he has little to no knowledge of romance and what happens between man and woman on screen. But it had to be done in order to create characters like Gohan and Trunks.

 

Even in modern times, I see this happening with BlackClover which is the Aster so post to be Naruto likewise Juno has Sasuke's shadows. I put Asta in this category of muscle brain MCs not because he's Anti Magic. But it seems like his intelligence on romance is misinformed like Goku. I could be very wrong since I put BC on such a long hiatus, but during my time reading, Asta apparently wants to marry the nun that seems to raised him. Apparently, unlike Naruto, Asta is lucky to have a fangirl base. However, despite wanting to marry the nun girl, It seems like Asta's knowledge what happens between man and woman might still be premature like a toddler. I mean if you have least a kid or grandchild, that child might tell you marry when they grow up.

 

This is why I lose faith and romance shonen manga these days. It's a rarity to get something like Fullmetal Alchemist and Inuyasha.

 

Traditional shonen manga forced Kishi to put NS romance on hold to increase Sasuke popularity for the sales. In general, I heard editors do get switched out in during a long durations comics from time to time. Again in theory, it's likely Yahagi's departure has to do with Sakura not getting with Naruto. 

 

It makes since that people are putting the blame on the 14 editors that kishi went through after Yahagi departed from Naruto. 

 

Now putting on my NS cap once again. If Kishi loves Sakura/NS. It make absolutely sense why he would not go with that pairing at the end besides the pairing not being popular outside of Japan in his favor. If he's unable to write Naruto and Sakura as a proper couple. Kishi knew it would be a disgrace if he had done a cop out version of NS because of tradition relating to classic shonen manga.  That's why we have this atrocity aftermath of 700 chapter in the final chapter. That's Kishi's message to us fans, writing/illustrating Naruto for 15 years.

 

 

 

Now putting this terrible past behind us. I know there is a thread that topics about a what a reboot of Naruto should be like. I'm not sure if I'm going to be as active as I am in the future so I going to give my ideas on what a Naruto reboot should be like.

 

If Kishi really loves Sakura's character. He should make her the MC of the reboot and put Naruto in the male lead position despite him being a title character. A good label and a title should be something like Naruto: Cherry Blossom Chronicles.

 

The concept of the reboot I will base it off the Chinese ripoff version of Naruto called Tales of God and Demons. In that story, the Chinese Naruto named Nei Li dies and is reborn back in the past, retaining his memory from the future/previous life. Instead of Naruto dying in Boruto... and returning to the past. Kishi should kill Sakura off somewhere in the Boruto timeline and transmigrated back to the past at the start of Part 1, retaining her memory. 

 

To avoid any mishaps, Kishi should brainstorm a prologue that summarize nearly the entire reboot. In her second life, she marries Naruto, shows that she has a child, couple kids or is pregnant with Naruto's child while reminiscing of the her past life SS marriage, Sarada and what she had accomplished in her second life, leading to her marriage with Naruto. 

 

If Boruto is still ongoing when the reboot goes into development, Kishi not only has to kill off Sakura. But possibly do a second retcon and sink SS. Sakura's memory from her first life sees her giving birth to Sarada. However, a dark plot twist unveils the true meaning behind the umbilical cord (from the Naruto post ending one-shot volume) that had Karin's DNA on it. And you guys guessed it right. Sasuke and Sakura never consummate their marriage and Karin's fetus had to be transferred  to Sakura's womb to be incubating for unknown reasons. Perhaps to prevent lost of child. 

 

Kishi can emphasize on The Last NH's wedding from an observing Sakura. She seems to be holding in her sadness with a fake smile (in the move credits). Basically, Cherry Blossom Chronicles can be like a shonen/ mystery type of manga to solve riddles of Sakura's past, present and future lives. Just imagine how a mature grown Sakura already/once a modern back in her 12 year old body.  

 

However, returning to the past usually has its consequences that is called a "butterfly effect". Lets say Minato and Kushina survives at the beginning. J-man does not get killed off. Something has to give. Lets say Sakura returning to the past has Tsunade dead. Perhaps on the night Naruto was born. She retains all of Tsunade's inherited medical skills from her past life memory.

 

This is what I think would be a good way to redeem himself from giving up on Sakura. Not saying that Kishi should killed Tsunade to make the reboot greater than its predecessor mangas    

 

I don't think the reboot will be a long story. Perhaps another one-shot volume.

Edited by Konoha'sCrimsonFox, 17 March 2024 - 02:03 PM.

[Bail o' Lies]

Other, Kishimoto has never mentioned the Dragon Quest anime you watched as his primary inspiration for Naruto in any interview. He has mentioned that the NartuoXSasukeXSakura dynamics were based off of Slam Dunk. Which I assume you have not watch/read. Hanamichi Sakuragi was a dumb punk that falls in love with Haruko Akagi an avid basketball fan that has a crush on the ace's of her high school's basketball team the gifted Kaeda Rukawa. To win her affection Sakuragi joins the team and is rivals with Rukawa. In Slam Dunk, none of them end up together at the end. Rukawa was never interested in Akagi, and Sakuragi eventually became more interested in focusing on basketball. So if Haruko got together with Sakuragi, She would have been Haruko Sakuragi. Haruko Sakuragi. Haruno, Sakura. Sakura Haruno.

 

Crimson Fox, it is clear that you have given a lot of time to thinking deeply into why the ending happen, and you hope that Kishimoto's reasonings were just as deep to justify your contemplations.

 

The simple truth is this. Kishimoto did not have any long term story with tons of intricacies. His story is quite simple. For most of the characters of Naruto, unless they managed to hold his interest, their initial story was all they were going to get. 

 

For Sakura that means, near the end of the manga she would discover that Naruto was the one that gave her the forehead comment and fall in love with him. Of course plans change, as there was a change in how girls are portrayed in shounen, going from rarely fighting and mainly just hit the main character comically, to can and will fight while still hitting the main character comically, but that meant Kishimoto never really knew what to do with her beyond that. As he never fully understood the change nor embraced it.

 

Yahagi was Kishimoto's editor until right before the Pein arc. He was his editor for about 10 years when the average is 2. After Yahagi, Kishimoto went through 14 different editors in 5 years. Rumors have it that after Yahagi his next editor was a big fan of Hinata even wanting her to become the love interest/heroine and was the one pushing her to have the scenes she got in the Pein arc.

 

You seem to think that just because they didn't get together after the Rescue Gaara arc that Kishimoto abandoned it right then and there. When again, it was more him wanting them to get together at the end of the manga. If they did end the pairing at that arc. Why did Sakura have the moment when Naruto was in 4-tails? Why did she try to feed him ramen after the Shikamaru arc? Why she hug him after Pein? Why did she keep having scenes like that till near the end of the manga? The answer is again, they were suppose to get together until Kishimoto was 'convinced' to change it at the last minute.

 

Sakura is Kishimoto's type. He married a woman that everyone says is very like Sakura.

 

Kishimoto has said multiple times he does not get the appeal of Hinata, but went with her because he was told she was what the fans wanted. He understand why people like SS and thinks it's cliche. That might have changed after seeing how far Naruto-Boruto has fallen, but he can't do anything right now without it look like he is stabbing his former assistant in the back.

 

As for the Japanese fanbase...what has happened to Star Wars is a good analogue. Naruto's manga average sale was 3.47 million. Boruto averages out at around 100k. The SS manga got about 50K. Most of the Japanese fanbase either understand that the ending was a move to appease the Western Fanbase, or just assume it was his intention. Either way most have moved on with only nH and SS really staying around, with SS being the larger one by far.

Edited by Bail o' Lies, 25 March 2024 - 10:51 AM.

[Konoha'sCrimsonFox]

Other, Kishimoto has never mentioned the Dragon Quest anime you watched as his primary inspiration for Naruto in any interview. He has mentioned that the NartuoXSasukeXSakura dynamics were based off of Slam Dunk. Which I assume you have not watch/read. Hanamichi Sakuragi was a dumb punk that falls in love with Haruko Akagi an avid basketball fan that has a crush on the ace's of her high school's basketball team the gifted Kaeda Rukawa. To win her affection Sakuragi joins the team and is rivals with Rukawa. In Slam Dunk, none of them end up together at the end. Rukawa was never interested in Akagi, and Sakuragi eventually became more interested in focusing on basketball. So if Haruko got together with Sakuragi, She would have been Haruko Sakuragi. Haruno, Sakura.

 

Crimson Fox, it is clear that you have given a lot of time to thinking deeply into why the ending happen, and you hope that Kishimoto's reasonings were just as deep to justify your contemplations.

 

The simple truth is this. Kishimoto did not have any long term story with tons of intricacies. His story is quite simple. For most of the characters of Naruto, unless they managed to hold his interest, their initial story was all they were going to get. 

 

For Sakura that means, near the end of the manga she would discover that Naruto was the one that gave her the forehead comment and fall in love with him. Of course plans change, as there was a change in how girls are portrayed in shounen, going from rarely fighting and mainly just hit the main character comically, to can and will fight while still hitting the main character comically, but that meant Kishimoto never really knew what to do with her beyond that. As he never fully understood the change nor embraced it.

 

Yahagi was Kishimoto's editor until right before the Pein arc. He was his editor for about 10 years when the average is 2. After Yahagi, Kishimoto went through 14 different editors in 5 years. Rumors have it that after Yahagi his next editor was a big fan of Hinata even wanting her to become the love interest/heroine and was the one pushing her to have the scenes she got in the Pein arc.

 

You seem to think that just because they didn't get together after the Rescue Gaara arc that Kishimoto abandoned it right then and there. When again, it was more him wanting them to get together at the end of the manga. If they did end the pairing at that arc. Why did Sakura have the moment when Naruto was in 4-tails? Why did she try to feed him ramen after the Shikamaru arc? Why she hug him after Pein? Why did she keep having scenes like that till near the end of the manga? The answer is again, they were suppose to get together until Kishimoto was 'convinced' to change it at the last minute.

 

Sakura is Kishimoto's type. He married a woman that everyone says is very like Sakura.

 

Kishimoto has said multiple times he does not get the appeal of Hinata, but went with her because he was told she was what the fans wanted. He understand why people like SS and thinks it's cliche. That might have changed after seeing how far Naruto-Boruto has fallen, but he can't do anything right now without it look like he is stabbing his former assistant in the back.

 

As for the Japanese fanbase...what has happened to Star Wars is a good analogue. Naruto's manga average sale was 3.47 million. Boruto averages out at around 100k. The SS manga got about 50K. Most of the Japanese fanbase either understand that the ending was a move to appease the Western Fanbase, or just assume it was his intention. Either way most have moved on with only nH and SS really staying around, with SS being the larger one by far.

 

Good to see Bail.

 

I assumed the first paragraph was a response Totherpage at first... got very confused at first glance. It seems like age is starting to have an effect on my memory that I developed soo many gaps over the years   .  I skimmed back to thought  included my memory of Ramentasu and Rikudou (that used to be Japanese translators here in this forum) made the NS pairing comparison to SlamDunk and that I never watched SD and played the DQ video games in my response to Totherpages. So it was a mistake lol.

 

The  first highlight in your post is what I failed and try to live up to. Again my memory/knowledge is so outdated compared to you guys. I already started to developed a series case of amnesia on this franchise related to the content, media and fans. So that's what why I'm compilating from what I can remember about the series. In fact, I don't not even remember most of the character introduced after the Pain Arc and Choji's wife (I forgot her name) that I thought had the potential to become another girl that likes Naruto because she's part of Killerbee's team.

 

This goes for the interviews. Mainly because I emphasized on the end game pairings at most, that I neglected other parts of the interviews. Now that you mentioned Team 7 dynamics based off of SD, was during the post ending interview Kishi had with Yahagi? Because now I do recalled Kishi said something like that during that interview. 

 

Although the fault lies in the NH assistant/editors for mislead Kishi, its Kishi priority to get his information outsourced. I know it easy to say this, but unless his former is related to him in anyway as being close friend or kin, Kishi should care less if he backs stabs his former assistant. 

 

I do not know if this is true or not, but I've read Kishi does not know how to operate a computer. It would have been easy for see that he was being deceived from within his workplace if he new how to surf the internet. 

 

Man I started to get worse. Better end this before I blow my find to smithereens 

 

Nice seeing you again. I wish NSforlife/TouKenForlife was still to give in analytics on the series 

 

[Phantom_999]

What bothers me about neutrality with fictional romance and taking it for as it is that viewers often forget the context of such things. Yes Naruto is a shonen battle manga that does not focus on romance as a theme per say but again there always that difference from other shonen manga that don't care about romance and make couples last second or treat it as a joke at best. Naruto has ALWAYS had feelings for Sakura and it is not a silly childhood crush or a fleeting feeling that he was not serious about or else there would never have been a POAL in the first place. Naruto shows complete selflessness towards Sakura and maturity in putting her happiness above his own. Sakura in turn shows that in her worst circumstances when she is most vulnerable and lost and upset and powerless it was Naruto that comforts her and listens to her problems. that lays the very foundation of how close they become throughout the story. I'm not going to repeat the moments they have together because it would just be redundant at this point. Think of it like this, What if Rurouni Kenshin remained unchanged in it's story and plot but Watsuki decided last second that Kenshin is would be happier with Megumi as his wife because she is more feminine and does not emasculate him, or maybe she looks more like his first wife and chucks all that development with Kaoru out the window. That is essentially what Naruto did at the end, it chucked the development between Naruto and Sakura out the window for a side character that has no real importance to the plot and for the main character in general. What if Slam Dunk resolved the love triangle with Kaede getting together with Haruko despite not showing any affection for her and doesn't care about romance in general and Haruko saying Hanamichi was only shallowly interested in her? Again That is what Naruto did. Naruto is not like other shonen series in that there is not romantic development at all and the author can slap together couples however they feel last second and whatever pleases them. Naruto had a love interest and they developed together progressively throughout the series and they owe a large part of their growth to each other. Typical romance writing in fiction, even if there is not an emphasis on it. This is different from Dragon Ball where Goku had no such moments with Bulma so who cares if he married Chichi? 

 

I know I haven't posted for a while But I just want to put that out there. In terms of Neutrality, context is very important if not everything

Edited by Phantom_999, 21 March 2024 - 01:32 PM.

[Kagomaru]

What bothers me about neutrality with fictional romance and taking it for as it is that viewers often forget the context of such things. Yes Naruto is a shonen battle manga that does not focus on romance as a theme per say but again there always that difference from other shonen manga that don't care about romance and make couples last second or treat it as a joke at best. Naruto has ALWAYS had feelings for Sakura and it is not a silly childhood crush or a fleeting feeling that he was not serious about or else there would never have been a POAL in the first place. Naruto shows complete selflessness towards Sakura and maturity in putting her happiness above his own. Sakura in turn shows that in her worst circumstances when she is most vulnerable and lost and upset and powerless it was Naruto that comforts her and listens to her problems. that lays the very foundation of how close they become throughout the story. I'm not going to repeat the moments they have together because it would just be redundant at this point. Think of it like this, What if Rurouni Kenshin remained unchanged in it's story and plot but Watsuki decided last second that Kenshin is would be happier with Megumi as his wife because she is more feminine and does not emasculate him, or maybe she looks more like his first wife and chucks all that development with Kaoru out the window. That is essentially what Naruto did at the end, it chucked the development between Naruto and Sakura out the window for a side character that has no real importance to the plot and for the main character in general. What if Slam Dunk resolved the love triangle with Kaede getting together with getting together with Haruko despite not showing any affection for her and doesn't care about romance in general and Haruko saying Hanamichi was only shallowly interested in her? Again That is what Naruto did. Naruto is not like other shonen series in that there is not romantic development at all and the author can slap together couples however they feel last second and whatever pleases them. Naruto had a love interest and they developed together progressively throughout the series and they owe a large part of their growth to each other. Typical romance writing in fiction, even if there is not an emphasis on it. This is different from Dragon Ball where Goku had no such moments with Bulma so who cares if he married Chichi? 

 

I know I haven't posted for a while But I just want to put that out there. In terms of Neutrality, context is very important if not everything

Hell, a similar situation happened to Devil is a Part-Timer.  The author went through over 20 volumes of developing Mao and Emi's relationship, unambiguously showcasing how their former animosity towards each other gradually becomes mutual attraction (with Mao explicitly admitting to himself that he enjoys seeing Emi's smile and wished to always protect her happiness, with him even noting that the emotions she arouses in him are nothing that he's ever felt before). This includes them even co-parenting a child and even establishing that Mao had a shared history with Emi's family that dates back to him meeting her mother as a child.  But what does the author do?  He tosses that development in the trash and put the main male lead with the obsessive big-boobed highschool girl that he's never entertained a single romantic thought about beyond friendship because of shock value and his own fetish.  And what did this result in?  Japanese fans review-bombing the hell out of the final volume of the series and sending death threats to his Twitter and email account.  The second season for the anime adaptation that came out last year also became one of the worst rated anime of the year because of the crap that the author pulled in the source material.  So yeah, a good foundation does matter when developing a fictional romance.