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How Kishimoto could have made Sakura popular


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#221 rocci

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Posted 16 June 2017 - 02:56 PM

It's not like we are asking her to hate him. I think that type of character works only on side character. Main character, let alone the only one with that characteristic, is only asking for problems. If it wasn't taken serious, it could have been less harmful.

I have disagree with something:

It can work with with main character, case in point sakura from ccs. While it's not as extreme as sakura. Another thing asuka from nge with that guy, caska, haruka from slamdunk, and the heroine from Akira.

It's not the only characteristic that she have but it's the define characteristic. And author usually like character with flaw since they can easily develop. Like usop, most character in berserk, and the other. I think it could be tone down so it doesn't make her look pathetic. And kishi should work on the other sakura characteristic (her human flaw and her battle).

Sakura is main character but she's not the central main character just like kakashi. Sasuke could fall in the same category if not kishi make him naruto equal.

#222 TouKen4Life3g

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Posted 16 June 2017 - 03:10 PM

I guess what I meant to say is that canon Sakura problem is her obsession. If she was start from scratch, then that's an ok trait, even though people would be challenged to maintain their cool. If it's comedy, it's not that bad. If it is serious, better have a great payoff.

Basically, if you have to remove one part out of her, the whole love thing would be one because of how awful it was and how much of a foreground it is. If we were to start from the beginning, then it's fine. I'm used to it being comedy or from an antagonist point of view.

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#223 Aevrum

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Posted 17 June 2017 - 01:53 AM

I guess what I meant to say is that canon Sakura problem is her obsession. If she was start from scratch, then that's an ok trait, even though people would be challenged to maintain their cool. If it's comedy, it's not that bad. If it is serious, better have a great payoff.

Basically, if you have to remove one part out of her, the whole love thing would be one because of how awful it was and how much of a foreground it is. If we were to start from the beginning, then it's fine. I'm used to it being comedy or from an antagonist point of view.


I honestly wouldn't want to miss her initial obsession with/crush on Sasuke, because it's actually pretty important for her character.
It shows us her flaws, her thoughts, her enormous insecurities, her 'innocent'-idealistic inner self and her departedness from the important things and reality (also think back at her story with Ino).
It's a tool to easily and quickly establish core elements of her character and offer a platform for development and maturiation - sure, it could be handled differently, but it would be much more difficult.
Plus it makes her bond (and it's development) with Naruto even more meaningful.

#224 Onionhead Attacks

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Posted 04 July 2018 - 11:38 AM

Arguably the biggest thing Kishimoto could have done for Sakura's character was decide exactly what he wanted for her.

He wanted to add a girl to the mix to balance out two boys, done.

 

He wanted to create conflict in the team dynamic, done.

 

He wanted to create romantic tension, done.

 

But what else is there? He has a female teammate balancing out two hot headed boys in a love triangle. What else does he want to do with her character? He started showing that Sakura started from being a snooty fan-girl and child who has no real experience with ninjas due to her civilian background is slowly learning to grow up and mature as both a ninja and a person.

 

She is being exposed to the reality of what a ninja will face, will encounter, and what is expected of them. Being a ninja is a dangerous occupation and it's not a game or an occupation where you can clock in and out at the end of a day. She is slowly discovering this in their adventures, such as in the Wave arc and then in the Chuunin exams where they have to sign a waiver to even compete! There is where her self-discovery of her lack of skill comes to light and she makes a goal of improving herself so that she won't hold her team back anymore.

 

Unfortunately, we get the drive to better herself, but we don't get the execution of her actually improving. Like many have mentioned previously, Part I would have been the perfect place for her to strive for a goal of some sort. If having her eyes opened to being an amazing medic was her goal, it would have made perfect sense for her to approach Tsunade and especially if she were to witness Tsunade in action and be inspired. Otherwise it just looked like she went to find the strongest ninja she knew of to plead to become her teacher to help her improve, but did said teacher's skills and abilities align with her goals? Hm...

 

It was also in Part I where Sakura had declared that she loved Sasuke enough to the point where she was willing to leave the village, her home of thirteen years, to be with him. Granted you could write that off as being blinded by love because love makes you do stupid things, but what was her reason for loving Sasuke to that degree? Sakura started off being shown as liking Sasuke because he's good looking, he's smart, and he's a skilled ninja. It's a crush before they are formed as Team 7, but what about after they've been a team for a year? What about Sasuke transformed those feelings from crush to love? She started understanding Sasuke's reasons and feelings for why he must avenge his family, but her character wasn't written or shown well doing that and that her feelings started developing into something deeper, whether it was friendship or love.

 

Then there's the issue with how Sakura treated Naruto. This is probably something harder to overcome since first impressions are everything and she wasn't necessarily given the best first impression. For one, she is shown fawning over Sasuke and then immediately being annoyed by Naruto's presence the next. Even though she started learning to treat Naruto better because she started to understand how it feels to be treated as annoying and then later developing a friendship, her growth was slow in Part I. We can see that she still treated Sasuke better than Naruto even though they grew closer. It's not unrealistic, but since Naruto is the underdog, fans would want for Naruto to be treated better and this change in treatment was probably too slow to curb the Sakura hate.

 

As many have mentioned before, Sakura is always being overshadowed by Sasuke and Naruto. There is no information regarding her background, her dreams (not counting Sasuke), goals and ambitions, her skill set, and what she will grow to be. In Part I she didn't really participate in any fights outside of the Chuunin exams and the Wave arc. Meanwhile Sasuke is being taught more techniques with private training, Naruto is left alone but somehow bumps into Jiraiya and is taught how to better control his chakra, while Sakura... does what? There were many instances where Sakura could have some relevance to the story or even small moments showing support for Naruto (since Sasuke went into isolation for training) but Kishimoto didn't even allow her that. I thought they were friends at this point and isn't that what friends and teammates would do?

 

Sakura's character wasn't that bad to begin with. It's always better to start with a slightly annoying and flawed character and watch them grow to be a better person. In Part I there were many missed opportunities and threads that he could have used to prepare and further Sakura's character growth for Part II. Sakura's character was still growing and evolving during Part I but it was too slow and underdeveloped compared to other characters and story lines to garner fan interest.

 

Then came Part II and we see a new and improved Sakura. She's a skilled medic, powerful fighter, and a great friend to Naruto. She always puts his well being first and after finding out the burden of housing the Kyuubi she even despairs about how she is unable to help relieve Naruto's suffering. But then soon after the story became more plot driven and less character driven. In Part I the writing was heavily character driven for a lot of the characters and not just the main characters whereas in Part II it was more focused on plot. As a result, we see power up after power up, focus of the story being shifted, and plot turns after plot turns. Many emotional beats were either lacking (compared to Part I) or fell flat and the focus was rooted solely in the Uchiha clan. Let's not forget lesser and lesser screen time and character regressions as the manga ended either.

 

 

 

All together, Kishimoto didn't have a bad character to start off with. He just needed to develop Sakura more in Part I to strike a chord with readers because Part I was when he was best with characterizations and would have been a good set up leading into Part II. Despite his portrayal of Sakura's growth into being a very caring person and great friend in Part II, all her growth and maturity went out the window when Sasuke was involved because Kishimoto decided not to make it clear what lingering feelings Sakura has for him. Is it longing for a lost love? Longing for a lost teammate or friend? Is it none of the above and she just wants him back around friends and not around a creepy snake? Which is it? And what happens after Sasuke returns? What does she expect? He introduced conflict when Sasuke was officially declared a threat but her reaction feels confusing to the readers when we don't even know what she wants to do or what she feels.

And why did he decide that he couldn't include more of her skills? What exactly did she learn other than what we expected? Kishimoto could have showed us what her end goal was too. Was it to be a medic? The best medic in Konoha? The world? Or was it because that just happened because she trained under Tsunade? He basically had Sakura's character started at A--> B --X--> C but didn't end successfully at point C (end) because she's still stuck in point B throughout all of Part II.

 

If Kishimoto really wanted to improve Sakura's popularity he should have at the start of Part II started developing her the best he could to make up for lost time by providing an arc for what inspired her to become a ninja, why she wanted to be a medic, show audience how she grew and how she got to that point so that we're rooting for her journey too. And since he established the strong connection between Naruto and Sakura already, he should have just kept it going strong instead of letting it fade under all the other events going on.

 

Oh and Kishimoto should have asked for advice from people who have experience in writing strong female characters or doing some sort of research to get an idea. Or he could maybe host a fan meeting and throw out questions like what fans want to see next in the manga? How do they want X Y Z characters to evolve in the manga, etc to get an understanding of fans likes and dislikes to determine how he could overcome those barriers.


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#225 James S Cassidy

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Posted 04 July 2018 - 02:48 PM

How to make Sakura more popular? Well, this is easier.

1. Get rid of Hinata.
Let's be honest, the only real reason why Sakura was hated was because she was a threat to NH and to Hinata. If Hinata was never in the picture to begin with, I bet you Sakura's popularity would have sky-rocketed. She is still far more popular in Japan than America

2. Have her let go of her Sasuke obsession.
This one is pretty obvious, but apparently not so obvious that Kishimoto or Kodachi ever noticed. Instead, they reinforced this behavior rather than letting her get over him.

I mean, yes, you could give her more powers or more focus in some areas and that would improve her story arc, but not really her popularity. As evidence that even when Sakura did get those...people seemed to hate her more and really those complaints are really people reaching for something to hate and not a legit argument.

"That byakugo seal came out of nowhere. Sakura is such BS"
Well, Sasuke and Naruto got powers out of nowhere and most sensisble fans hated that too. The difference is is that Sakura's powers were explain by her having so much chakra control that she developed it over time and not just "because you are a reincarnation." This is really a bad argument because why is okay for everyone else to get powers out of nowhere, but not for Sakura? I think this is because people just wanted to hate on her period.

"Sakura is so useless."
Again, Hinata is far more useless than Sakura and most fans who this, but because HInata is the favorite they will never admit this. Again, the argument is only there because she is taking stuff away from Hinata and giving Naruto more attention than Hinata ever did.

There was really nothing wrong with Sakura's character arc, other than the two points I made above, because that is how most female characters exist in shonen. Thye have powwers of their own, but they will never outclass tha mian hero unless they are the mian hero. However, it is still so weird that only Sakura gets this hate and not say the other females in other shonen who behave the same.

How many people would call Orihime useless compared to Rukia?
How many people would call Ochako useless compared to Deku?
How many people call Kaoru useless compared to Kenshin?

And yes, there are some shonen where the female is far more powerful than the main hero like Mikasa from Attack on Titan.


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#226 RulesofNature

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Posted 04 July 2018 - 03:18 PM

I don't really get the idea that Sakura was that unpopular. Unlike Hinata, Sakura was in the Top 10 Favorite Characters poll and let's not forget just how the Japanese fandom went into The Last cheering for NS. Sakura sells merch, Hinata didn't. Hell, I can't count how many times I've seen people leave the fandom due to Hinafanatics, not to mention the backlash Hinata has caused due to how they tried to push her as the heroine.

 

Japan thinks she's a horrible sister, and I'm willing to bet there's enough people who don't think much of her skills as a mom either.


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#227 Tiller

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Posted 04 July 2018 - 11:46 PM

Sakura's unpopularity (especially after the terrible finally) largely came from the fact that she wouldn't change. After all that happened she continued expressing the same feelings she had as a younger child. Making her a weaker, less interesting, echo of Naruto's own hangup. When the confession became a thing, it should have been pushed as Sakura ACTUALLY changing her mindset, and her character evolving. Even if Naruto wouldn't accept it, or if in the end the pairings somehow ended up even the same, this small change of Sakura refusing to be a doormat, or a female version of Naruto's feelings would have made a huge distinction.

 

Sakura having Naruto's same drive to forgive Sasuke no matter what, combined with her sexual interest in him, made her a bit more pathetic of a character. Especially with the added sexual connection. With Naruto it could be argued that he has a case of Protagonism syndrome, always looking on the sunny side of life, refusing to believe evil exit, or people can be corrupted. Having two characters acting like that in the main case, and also making it known that her desire comes not from friendship or any simple genuine silly "goodness" and instead was rooted in a selfish desire to make Sasuke "hers" because she "loved" him made it worse. SS had no basis, and even after the failure of the ending came, Sakura ultimately ended up alone, having an absent husband. She looks pathetic. A girl who refuses to change, refuses to demand more from her mate, and in the end living alone with her child. Why? Because of feelings she had when she was 11. That's not an easy character to love. It was a character arc that returned to where it started, no growth, just tears. It's a bad character design.



 


#228 James S Cassidy

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Posted 05 July 2018 - 03:05 PM

Sakura's unpopularity (especially after the terrible finally) largely came from the fact that she wouldn't change. After all that happened she continued expressing the same feelings she had as a younger child. Making her a weaker, less interesting, echo of Naruto's own hangup. When the confession became a thing, it should have been pushed as Sakura ACTUALLY changing her mindset, and her character evolving. Even if Naruto wouldn't accept it, or if in the end the pairings somehow ended up even the same, this small change of Sakura refusing to be a doormat, or a female version of Naruto's feelings would have made a huge distinction.

 

Sakura having Naruto's same drive to forgive Sasuke no matter what, combined with her sexual interest in him, made her a bit more pathetic of a character. Especially with the added sexual connection. With Naruto it could be argued that he has a case of Protagonism syndrome, always looking on the sunny side of life, refusing to believe evil exit, or people can be corrupted. Having two characters acting like that in the main case, and also making it known that her desire comes not from friendship or any simple genuine silly "goodness" and instead was rooted in a selfish desire to make Sasuke "hers" because she "loved" him made it worse. SS had no basis, and even after the failure of the ending came, Sakura ultimately ended up alone, having an absent husband. She looks pathetic. A girl who refuses to change, refuses to demand more from her mate, and in the end living alone with her child. Why? Because of feelings she had when she was 11. That's not an easy character to love. It was a character arc that returned to where it started, no growth, just tears. It's a bad character design.

And all of this was so Hinata could get her man. Seriously, I think we all know the reason why Sakura stayed forever to Sasuke was so that Naruto would be free to date Hinata. There is no other reason why. It is also the reason why they have Sakura play the wingman (wingwoman?) to Hinata in Naruto the Last supposedly making her the "expert" in love. It is ridiculous.

I think what drives me up the wall about this one is....people blame Sakura for this. They blame her for all these things happenings, but if I blame HInata for all of it happening I get told I can;t do that because she is just a fictional character. Well, Sakura is a fictional character too and yet you blame her and hate on her like she was real as well. So why can they do it to her, but I can't do it to Hinata?

It was Kishimoto and his editors that made this all a reality. It was THEM that altered and did all of this garbage to make this happen. In reality, a real writer would have made Sakura get over Sasuke and be with Naruto and be a more predominate role. I see it happen with many other mangaka who are not good in romance so they can't tell me that this cannot be done. They did with Orihime, they did it with Mikoto Misaka in A certin Scientific Railgun and she was amazing. 

I just....Naruto is such an anomoly in the anime world. It is one of those "This should not exist," but it does and it still has a strong following. How? I feel like someone sold their soul to the devil to get this. I am not kidding. If someone told me they sold their soul to the devil to get Nh and SS to be canon, I would NOT be surprised.

 


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#229 Bryon_Konoha_Ninja

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Posted 05 July 2018 - 04:04 PM

And all of this was so Hinata could get her man. Seriously, I think we all know the reason why Sakura stayed forever to Sasuke was so that Naruto would be free to date Hinata. There is no other reason why. It is also the reason why they have Sakura play the wingman (wingwoman?) to Hinata in Naruto the Last supposedly making her the "expert" in love. It is ridiculous.

I think what drives me up the wall about this one is....people blame Sakura for this. They blame her for all these things happenings, but if I blame HInata for all of it happening I get told I can;t do that because she is just a fictional character. Well, Sakura is a fictional character too and yet you blame her and hate on her like she was real as well. So why can they do it to her, but I can't do it to Hinata?

It was Kishimoto and his editors that made this all a reality. It was THEM that altered and did all of this garbage to make this happen. In reality, a real writer would have made Sakura get over Sasuke and be with Naruto and be a more predominate role. I see it happen with many other mangaka who are not good in romance so they can't tell me that this cannot be done. They did with Orihime, they did it with Mikoto Misaka in A certin Scientific Railgun and she was amazing. 

I just....Naruto is such an anomoly in the anime world. It is one of those "This should not exist," but it does and it still has a strong following. How? I feel like someone sold their soul to the devil to get this. I am not kidding. If someone told me they sold their soul to the devil to get Nh and SS to be canon, I would NOT be surprised.

 

For the first part, it really is just insane in the long run that NH fans want to blame anyone but themselves and yet they blame everyone else, and then when you try to blame their princess, they will just bite so hard because of how they know they are scared of the reality.

 

For the second part, you can also imagine Kishimoto just not caring anymore after what happened to his dad and the editors not caring about all the planning and foreshadowing he did and then just ruined it. And at least with girls like Orihime and Misaka, we see them really trying their hardest to not be distracted by their feelings that much, like with Orihime, even as strong as her feelings for Ichigo are, she wants to become stronger to not feel like a burden for him and the others, as well as to stand at his side.

 

And really, you got a point; as it is, Naruto doesn't DESERVE to exist, but yet it does. It's a pretty dumb oxymoron when it comes to manga that exist in the long run. X_X And it really got worse so much later down the road... and now it's just a big mess, and not even the same series it was once it began. And that's what pisses me off the most.



#230 rocci

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Posted 08 July 2018 - 11:21 PM

Give her more fight and relevancy in the story, it work with Asuka.

#231 milan kyuubi

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Posted 25 April 2023 - 11:10 AM

If Kishimoto did not know how to write female characters. He should have simple closed his eyes. Imagined he was writing the dialogue for male characters. And then add the dialogue to female design characters.

 

I strongly believe this would have affected people opinion of Sakura (and any other female character) for the better.

 

Thats what he imo should have done. And people would have loved many of his female characters.


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#232 LuckyChi7

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Posted 25 April 2023 - 09:44 PM

There was one little story element from the Sakura hidan novel when I read it a long time ago, but essentially it was that Sakura opened and vouched for for the first children's hospital in Konoha. 

 

 

I think for the most part you could keep how she was in Part 1 the same,  slowly showcase her witnessing the sufferings that children (particularly orphans) go through and by the time Sasuke leaves the village and how much hell Naruto went through just to get her back...

 

perhaps you could show her expressing a huge interest in having an infinity for children. It could be like during one of Naruto's recovery segments at the hospital and you have some kids sneaking around to see Sakura... which could prompt her to mess around with them and have a good time. 

 

 

Long story short,   She wants to be aspire young kids to do their best and move forward.     

 

 

Definitely think that could really boost her character and making her more likable....  what do you guys think? 


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#233 Phantom_999

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Posted 11 May 2023 - 01:29 AM

Okay if I am to be completely honest, there really is nothing to fix. Sakura's character has never been the problem as I've said, it is the fans' perception of her and nothing will change someone's mind except for the person(s) themselves, when you get down to it. It wasn't that Sakura wasn't kind and caring, she wasn't kind and caring to Naruto when he needed it the most. Every negative feedback on Sakura is fully dependent on how she treated Naruto and Sasuke and that was because of their respective circumstances. Sasuke already was popular and talented as is so to have the MC's love interest as one of his fangirls when said MC was an ostracized social pariah and an orphan on top of it is what her haters find infinitely more unforgiveable. As I've said, I've recently been watching and reading these manga on YouTube or from the manga sites about how the mc is being treated like garbage by this snooty arrogant and selfish girl or woman and gets dumped/divorced if they are dating/married and rejected if they are not already a couple but miraculously before or after the breakup or rejection he finds this sweet compassionate and understanding girl or woman instead and they are the ones that lift the MCs' spirits and they become a couple. Then usually something terrible happens to the ex/former crush and they come trying to take back the MC but the MC tells them off and keeps to their new, wonderful and better girlfriends/ wives. I imagine that is what Sakura's most extreme haters REALLY wanted to happen to her too, judging from the comments I see with those types of stories. BUUT that didn't even happen in "The Last", I'm just saying.

 

I've no doubt in my mind that really is the case, because developing Sakura as a character did not solve the issue and it never did as long as She still has Sasuke on her mind. Have more fight scenes? She is better treated than many other females in the series when it comes to action scenes, lets not pretend. Who else can claim to have won against an Akatsuki member when they were only a chuunin and a teenager at that? Emotional strength? She has  shown that time and again throughout the series, being one of Naruto's emotional pillars and arguably the significant of all of them, and extends her kindness to strangers (children particularly), yet she gets no credit for it. But all Hinata does is stutter "N-Naruto-kun!", and they CALL THAT emotional support. Character development? She went from a normal girl with the "typical girl problem" of trying to get her crush's attention to a strong and capable kunoichi that could cure a then-believed incurable poison and again, fought one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Again, it means nothing to her haters because she is not the sweet patient childhood friend with the "cute puppy love feelings" for Naruto in their youth. "HOW DARE SHE!?" says her nay-sayers and again nothing with "writing Sakura better" was changing their minds until after Naruto married Hinata. Notice that? 

 

Now that is not to say Sakura is not popular because contrary to the negative feedback she is very popular and loved as a character I'm just saying that if you did not like her character from the start and are rabid in how much of a B* you think she, is well writing better things for her character probably won't change your mind. I've noticed it for the longest time


Edited by Phantom_999, 14 May 2023 - 09:47 PM.

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#234 Tsuki Hoshino

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Posted 11 May 2023 - 03:11 PM

Way to Edo Tensei a dead thread  :hehehe: 

But largely I agree. Sakura's character isn't the issue, its the readers. Sakura was at her absolute BEST Vs Sasori and you still had people kittening that she was "useless" Nevermind that Chiyo admits she couldn't have done it without her, Nevermind how impressed Sasori was. Nevermind that Sakura managed to somehow reach the heart of a socalled "heartless" monster and get him to literally suicide himself once he realized everything he ever accomplished was absolutely pointless. 

What so many readers wanted was a perfect little angel love interest and Sakura didn't fit that mold. She was brash, strict with the MC and often self-focused. She can be capable of great kindness and selfless gestures at times, but then she couldf turn around the next second and slap someone for being stupid. 

It seems to me that a lot of people forget that EVERYONE disliked Naruto as a kid and it wasnt just because he was a Jinchuuriki. He was purposely annoying and he relished the attention he got for pissing people off, including Sakura. Its easy to forget all that because the reason was he was lonely.  


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#235 Bryon_Konoha_Ninja

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Posted 11 May 2023 - 05:40 PM

And yet these same people who complain about Sakura probably love other tsundere characters out there.

#236 Tsuki Hoshino

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Posted 11 May 2023 - 10:44 PM

I don't know about that, but the Bleach and Naruto Fandoms which were super active at the same time had a lot of cross shipping. There were Naruhina shippers who also shipped Ichirukia but there were also Narusaku shippers who shipped it and ofc there were Ichihime shippers like me who  shipped Narusaku. 

It was a crazy experience because the Ichihimes actually had to create a fanforum a lot like this one to avoid harassment. 

TLDR: Shippers and fandoms are weird. 


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                                         Pls shame me for procrastinating.  :argh: 


#237 Therece

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Posted 12 May 2023 - 01:11 PM

Nobody wants to admit the excessive amount of hate she received throughout the years made Sakura an extremely popular character and helped Sakura fandom to grown bigger and vocal  as ever while less controversial  and perfect characters like Hinata simply died.
 
 "All publicity is good publicity" as the saying goes.

Edited by Therece, 12 May 2023 - 01:18 PM.


#238 BlueStarSaber

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Posted 13 May 2023 - 02:10 PM

She was always popular she had louder haters at the time, the the fanom how shrunk since the ending so most aren't around anymore

#239 Phantom_999

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Posted 13 May 2023 - 09:09 PM

 

Nobody wants to admit the excessive amount of hate she received throughout the years made Sakura an extremely popular character and helped Sakura fandom to grown bigger and vocal  as ever while less controversial  and perfect characters like Hinata simply died.
 
 "All publicity is good publicity" as the saying goes.

 

 

Vocal hate, yes. Excessive is debatable, since It is hard to gauge the actual number of haters from comments alone. And while Sakura is popular with or without those vocal haters, the hate comments towards her did not help with Kishimoto's esteem in writing women so that is a circular problem if you know what I mean. Kishi did not bring Sakura into the forefront of the plot more because of the criticism towards her and then because he's not involving her more, the haters going even harder on her. So I don't think "all publicity is good publicity" applies here. And even if it did, he's not even doing much with her at this point anyway. Sure she was in the Sasuke spinoff but she wasn't the focal point 


Edited by Phantom_999, 14 May 2023 - 09:44 PM.

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#240 Therece

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Posted 13 May 2023 - 10:28 PM

 

Vocal hate yes. Excessive is debatable, since It is hard to gauge the actual number of haters from comments alone. And while Sakura is popular with or without those vocal haters, the hate comments towards her did not help with Kishimoto's esteem in writing women so that is a circular problem if you know what I mean. Kishi did not bring Sakura bring Sakura into the forefront of the plot more because of the criticism towards her and then because he's not involving her more, the haters going even harder on her. So I don't think "all publicity is good publicity" applies here. And even if it did, he's not even doing much with her at this point anyway. Sure she was in the Sasuke spinoff but she wasn't the focal point 

 
The own Sakura fandom were deeply splited between SS x NS wars at the time with SS fans being extremely vocal against NS. This helped Kishimoto/Editors didn't notice Sakura's popularity especially in Japan.   Hinata fanboys still were hating on Sakura in west because she was threat to NH. The manga ended. SS fans got what they always wanted and were free to 100% support Sakura. NS fans left or started to multiship SS. So Sakura fandom grown bigger and stronger as ever...
 
Most of the Haters simply moved on. Sakura wasn't a threat to NH anymore. No more reasons for Pairing wars. Sakura isn't useless or weak, she isn't punching Naruto every time, has a good daughter, is a  good mother etc...
So no surprise why Sakura's popularity boomed after the ending.
Kishimoto should have defined Sakura final pairing at the very beginning: Sasuke or Naruto and never use Sakura to play with love triangles or drama.  If Kishimoto/Pierrot didn't trapped Sakura in this ridiculous love triangle with SS x NS x NH or erase Kage Summit arc. She would be much more popular at the time.
 
 
Sakura/SS/Sasuke are a controversial characters and Pairing. This helped to maintain Sakura fandom always alive/united  with discussions against haters, theory, fics, fanarts etc. There's nothing to talk or any appeal in Hinata,Naruto and NH. So this fandom simply died even in the west. 
Until a Boruto or Part 3 reboot comes. They simply  will produce  more novels and spin offs with Sakura/Sasuke to milk their fans. Sasuke always was a popular character  and now Sakura is at his popularity level and coincidentally is his wife. So she is the perfect partner for more romances or spin offs. They still got the "Uchiha Clan" bonus.
Shoujo mangakas are pratically begging  this to Kishimoto...

Edited by Therece, 14 May 2023 - 03:32 AM.





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