Smiter

 

:clap: Smiter, you are the BEST!! Especially since your last words are right. If you ask me, it's sad for sure, especially since Kishimoto-sensei allowed himself to be judged as one of the worst mangaka in Japan of these last few decades. And I doubt he'll ever rebuild his rep and career after he did this with the ending...

Thanks, Bryon. I didn't expect to get all these likes for my post! 

Yeah, it's really sad.  If Kishimoto had stuck to his story and character development, he could have given the manga a much better ending.  Let us actually see Naruto become Hokage (not Kakashi, he never had interest in the role and only did it because Obito told him to), let us see Sasuke leave with Team Taka, and either pair Naruto with Sakura (explicitly or hinted) or leave it open-ended pairing-wise.  Above all, KEEP EVERYONE IN CHARACTER!

By sticking to the development he had already established, Kishimoto would have been able to bow out with grace, and he would have still been free to pursue other stories.  The fans would still be interested in checking out any new works he put out.

But the way Kishimoto has ended it, a lot of people won't be interested in anything new he puts out.  Like you said, it will take a miracle to restore his reputation, and he seems to have neither the ability nor the inclination to do that. 

We have evidence that naruhina was not meant to be canon in the fact that hinata herself did end up being teased as a child.  They had to find out a way for Hinata to take Sakura's place, the actual heroine (The girl who we know WAS teased as a child), and this is the perfect way to establish a relationship way back when.  Hinata is essentially taking Sakura's place now.  But why build up the backstory for Sakura, for her to have done literally everything that Hinata is getting now, if she wasn't meant to end up with naruto?  There is no way naruhina was planned from the beginning, none.

Exactly!  It really shows when Studio Pierrot had to retcon Hinata's character so much and, like others have said in this thread, it makes no sense at all.  Why would Hinata be bullied for her eyes when her clan is highly respected?  Like you said, they took Sakura's forehead and turned it into Hinata's eyes.

It's quite striking how they took elements of NaruSaku and NaruSasu and transplanted them into a NaruHina retcon in the movie.  Not only does it highlight the massive lack of development between Naruto and Hinata in the manga, but it also shows how shameless Studio Pierrot are.

Even without Sakura having childhood flashbacks, she still had a lot of development and build-up with Naruto in the manga, right from chapter 3.

 

How are NaruHina fans satisfied with all this? Simple: They care more about Hinata than they do about Naruto. In fact, I bet if Hinata were to be split off and made the main character of her own series, her fans would go with her and never look back. It's not about Naruto for them. It's about Hinata. That's why they don't care about the integrity of the story, or how unfounded the end pairings were. It was just about the fairy tale ending for their fairy tale character, Hinata.

Not all NaruHina and SasuSaku fans are pleased with the ending, but it's true that the ones who are really pleased about it only care about the "canon status" and/or Hinata herself.  Others have shown misgivings about how the ending happened, because they were well aware of NaruSaku having all that development.  Most of them even expected NaruSaku to happen instead.

I do believe that there was an element of outside pressure that influenced the ending.  It was just too rushed, too out of left field, and didn't take into account the story and character development that had been built up throughout the manga.

It does smell of otaku culture, and it feels like the root cause of all this is Studio Pierrot's focus on Hinata Hyuuga.  In the ending, the importance of a secondary character outweighed even that of the MAIN CHARACTERS.  Even Naruto, the hero of the series, was secondary to her.

At first, I thought that there was a real possibility that Kishimoto had been forced, especially when you look at how badly Sasuke treated Sakura in the final arc and made her feel miserable.  If he had been planning SasuSaku all along, there was no need for him to make it look so bad.  The characterisations in the final two chapters were also so completely out of whack it made the majority of fans sit up and take notice.

But Kishimoto has done nothing but offer weak and inconsistent justifications for the ending and movie:

• NaruSaku was planned, but he felt sorry for Hinata.
• NaruHina was planned some months ago.
• NaruHina was planned since the beginning and NaruSaku was a complete red herring.

I think it's more likely that he was persuaded to end his manga in this way.  The New Era Project is chiefly the work of Studio Pierrot and other people, and it must have been awfully tempting for Kishimoto to just pass the series to others.  It would leave him free to pursue other projects and he would have the money roll in from the New Era Project.

Unfortunately for him, Masashi Kishimoto may have paid a high price.  His reputation, and most likely his career, have gone down the drain.  He's lost the trust of the majority of the fans.

We have now reopened the boards to guests and allowed registrations once again. 

So, if you have any NaruSaku/neutral friends waiting to join, let them know!

We are hoping that things have calmed down now, but we mods will be keeping our eyes open.

Thank you all so much for your support, and happy new year to you all. 

Old Name:Ace.

 

New Name Request:Ace of Circle

 

Date name change request is made:December 07, 2014

Done. 

Okay, we will extend the contest to 31st January 2015... and we would like to adjust the focus of this contest!

So many of you have been burning to prove that you can write a better ending for Naruto than Kishimoto and Shonen Jump could, so here is an opportunity to show what you can do!

Draw or write the great scenes we all want; a confession, their dates, their dream jobs, their marriage, their children, their life together!  Let's end the manga the way we want to, we don't need to accept that badly-written ending and the retcon movie!

Let's give Naruto and Sakura the ending they truly deserve!

 

Woah woah woah. Wait a minute. Where was this stated? Anyone got a link to an interview I haven't seen anything. Just people talking theories.

Just people talking theories.

I asked this too already. lol

He just said to read chapter 700 in order to understand the movie..or something like that. lol

Yeah, sadly I only saw that statement as part of a discussion that was taking part on the tumblr NaruSaku tag.  Just as Michi said, the nearest source I could find was Kishimoto asking us all to read chapter 700 to "understand" the movie.

If it does turn out that The Last movie will simply confirm NaruHina and SasuSaku as canon, and try to retcon 15 years of the manga, then a LOT of Naruto fans (not just NaruSaku) are going to be feeling very betrayed.  You simply don't tell a story for 15 years, then give it a rushed and poorly written ending with random developments thrown in for cheap shock value.

Can you imagine JRR Tolkien ending Lord of the Rings that way?  Frodo and Sam got blown up in the volcano, Gandalf disappeared into thin air, Legolas married Arwen, and Aragorn married Eowyn.

If Kishimoto and Shonen Jump have really decided to retcon Naruto, then a lot of fans are not going to be buying any more Naruto merchandise.  Why would they, if the mangaka and publisher couldn't respect the story enough to give it a proper ending?

Of course, if this is all an elaborate marketing ploy to get everyone talking about the weird ending and deliver a further twist (like NaruHina/SasuSaku were NOT canon), then they'd be absolute bastards for putting all the fans through the emotional wringer...

Either way, I would have preferred a well-written ending that neatly tied up all the storylines, even if NaruSaku wasn't made canon.  Nobody should "end" their story with a cheap marketing stunt.

I don't know, but I have been seeing some weird things about the final two chapters.  Apparently, Kishimoto said that there were errors in the chapter(s) that he put in on purpose as hints.  Some people have been posting about them as well.

One such moment that struck me as off is Kiba claiming that Naruto stepped down or quit something on his own.  It could just be Kiba telling tall tales to impress the woman he's with, but Naruto never quits.

If the ending turns out not to be what it seems, and if NaruSaku was actually confirmed as canon by the movie and/or subsequent chapters, then Kishimoto would be the biggest troll I have ever seen.

I don't want to get my hopes up and have them dashed all over again, but we'll find out for sure within the next 2 weeks after the movie airs in Japan.

Like Trix said, Naruto become Hokage but lost the story and the girl he loved.  He and Sakura are just not the same people that we knew and loved for the past 15 years, they were both so out of character it was painful to see.

By suddenly changing things at the ending, Kishimoto killed off his own story and the themes of surpassing previous generations and never giving up.  People looked up to Naruto and Sakura as role models, as an inspiration to overcome whatever life threw in their way, and they have now been badly let down by the author.

It's a real shame.

We can manually add accounts, if members in good standing want to invite friends.    Obviously, we have to be careful of who we invite, as the whole Naruto fandom is still in chaos and there are still a lot of trolls who will look to stir things up.

If you would like to invite someone, and you are sure that they will respect others on this website, then send me a PM with their e-mail and desired username.  A password can be automatically generated, and they will see it in their registration mail.

Then all they have to do is log in, and they can change their random password into something more memorable for them. 

Naruto will always be a huge part of my life, I spent over 10 years following it and I have met many great people and made friends through Naruto and NaruSaku. 

I will always be grateful to Kishimoto for creating the world of Naruto and its characters, and for writing such a beautiful subtle relationship between Naruto and Sakura.  It still feels like NaruSaku was originally intended to be the end pairing, but for some unknown reason Kishimoto and Shonen Jump decided to change it.

The fact that they made such a terrible ending and gave no closure to Naruto and Sakura's bond hurts a lot.

But we do still have 15 years of great moments, and it has been a privilege to create Heaven & Earth and see so many people strike up friendships and bond over Naruto and NaruSaku here. 

Naruto and Sakura will always live on in my heart (just not the 699-700 ones, it didn't feel like them at all), because I dearly loved their personalities, their dynamic, and what they did for each other.

The friends I have met through NaruSaku will always stay with me.

There's no way I could just walk away from all that.

I don't think I will be reading any spin-offs of Naruto.

I love the world and characters that Kishimoto created all those years ago, but his writing did definitely suffer as time went on and the story grew larger in scope.  Even if it was a different mangaka in charge of the new series, I don't think I could devote more years of my life to following a spin-off.  It was the original characters I loved, and to see the series end the way it did was heart-wrenching.

If they did actually appeal for disappointed NaruSaku fans to follow the new series, why would I do that?  Nobody can be a substitute for Naruto and Sakura, and why should I risk spending another 10 years following a pairing, only to see them marry different people at the last chapter?

So, I'd prefer to try out other series that are smaller in scope, and have clear goals.

Can't we ship BoltXSalada?They are pretty much like NS

Eh, for me, they would be a poor substitute for Naruto and Sakura.  Salada is also more like Sasuke than Sakura, so it's more hetero-NaruSasu.  

Perhaps I am biased, but it just feels like no other couple - canon or not - could ever match up to NaruSaku in terms of their dynamic and depth. 

Thank you for making this post, Trix! 

I am really proud to be part of this community.

When I saw the terribly written ending to Naruto, I was consumed by confusion, anger, and sadness.  15 years of mutual development between my two favourite characters in animanga, all thrown out of the window in two chapters.  The personalities of Naruto and Sakura destroyed in two chapters.  I didn't recognise them, they were not the same people.  There was also no closure at all for their relationship.  It was as if everything between them had been forgotten, discarded.  That was horrible to deal with, it was like an open wound.

But talking about our feelings here has helped us all band together even closer, and everyone else here has really helped me deal with the shock.  Now there is an amazing outpouring of fanfiction, fanart, and support from NaruSaku communities all over the world, and it is giving everyone an incredible lift.

Kishimoto may have decided not to make NaruSaku the endgame pairing, but we do have 15 years of their deep bond.  We also have this great community, and no-one can take these things away from us!

As long as people will always want to ship NaruSaku, H&E shall always stand. 

It's a bit soon to start finding those fics, perhaps, unless you mean any "ending" fanfics that have been written over the years?

I'm definitely planning to make my own AE fiction.  I just can't accept how Kishimoto destroyed the characters of Naruto and Sakura, and made other characters behave in an OOC way.  I don't know if I can do it, but I would like to try and create an ending where everyone stays in character, and events make sense, and it all progresses to pairings that make sense and have actual development.

Maybe writing will help me heal and gain closure.

Every single post in here is hitting the nail on the head.

I understand exactly how you guys feel, especially you KnS and Trix.  I really hope you guys will carry on writing!  I'm also planning to write an AE (alternate ending) fic where I try to keep everyone in character and have everything make sense.

It's just unbelievable that Kishimoto continued to keep building up and hinting at NaruSaku, right up to and including the last War Arc, then he dropped it all in favour of two pairings that were completely one-sided and had little development in the past 15 years.  In order to make NaruHina and SasuSaku happen, Kishimoto destroyed the growth of two of my favourite anime characters, made a lot of characters act OOC, erased the existence of other characters (Yamato and Team Taka), and completely discarded 15 years of build-up and hints.

Like I have said before, it's a very bad joke.

I just cannot forgive Kishimoto for completely destroying the characters of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno.  Their personalities, dynamic, and growth were massive reasons that I shipped NaruSaku in the first place.