Namaenash

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Who? Are we suppose to know which dragon quest character you are referring to by instinct?
 
It's pretty obvious the one with pink hair, huge strength,tsundere personality, and healing ability in adventure of dai.[/quote]

Maam and Popp was one of my favourites too. The chemistry was there and the way the love confession was made: very classic:) (search for YouTube video on Maam x Popp if you dont mind spoilers). The manga was one classic piece, and Im glad it was made before the internet became widely accessible. The love triangle was setup just nice to get you invested into the story. Fully recommended.

From this article here https://www.animenew...omic-con/.94186

Mari Morimoto:
So the fans wanted Naruto to get together with Sakura?

Well, there's definitely camps of fans who felt that way, and there were also those that were very happy he ended up with Hinata. But there were quite passionate opinions on both sides!

I almost caused a rift in my own household too, because my wife was very upset also that Naruto didn't get together with Sakura. In fact, she complained quite vehemently to me!

Jo Otsuki:
Quite few of the female staff at Studio Pierrot that produces the anime, apparently were also upset.

Whoah. So how did you handle that, especially with your wife?

I tried to defuse the situation by assuring my wife that SHE was actually the model for Hinata. (laughs)

As you were saying that, I thought, I wonder if your family life was more like Hinata and Naruto's family or Sasuke and Sakura's? (everyone laughs)

Masashi Kishiimoto: Well it might not actually be like either. My wife is quite strong as well, she's a strong character.

Oh, so kind of like Sakura!

So I think my wife might secretly realize that Hinata wasn't really the model for her (laughs)

Ah yes, I remember reading this article back in 2015.

The interview that ends all Kishimotos interviews. His career as a mangaka pretty much went downhill from that point onwards. I suppose hes already wealthy enough and he can retire.

You can tell that hes trying hard to do damage control. They knew theyre loosing a segment of the customer with the ending. They just dont know the magnitude of killing NS (more than ~95% manga sales drop if we go by the stats).

Fast forward, Naruto franchise is not even in top 50 annual sales. His new manga barely sold 10k copies per volume and was cancelled at volume 5. Hes forced to return to Boruto, and took it over from the previous writer, only to have its sales continue declining.

Skimmed through the manga.

Is it just me, or all Im seeing is Naruto and Sakura interactions/parallels? Its NS all over the place: the tsundere traits, the signature smile to the girl, the kyuubi accidentally hurt the person dear to the host, the hug, etc.

One can put Kushina side-by-side with adult Sakura and wouldnt notice they are different characters.

Which begs a question: who is the target audience of this one shot?

NS fans left long ago and wouldnt put a dime on anything Kishi sells after the ending.

NH/SS fans wont definitely buy this since itll add to their insecurities and further proof that NS has always been the intention. They wont be able to draw any NH/SS parallels from Minato and Kushina. Imagine them saying aw look, Minato and Kushina looks so cute together, just like Naruto and Sakura. not happening.

Older fans have moved on and wont invest for the one shot. They wont be motivated to buy.

Younger/newer fans are pretty much a segment who enjoy reading Boruto. Nothing wrong with it, its just that the storytelling is very different than this one shot. For a start, no one in this one shot lives, Kurama included.

You'd think that since SS is SOoooooOooooo popular, they would have made an SS movie by now. Or since Sasuke and SAKURA are so popular they would have put the two of them in a movie together but instead they get ONE kitten tier spinoff manga and a novel almost no one read. 

Its been a while since I checked-in last time. Hope you all are doing great.

SS popularity has always been a myth. Now that there are specific products dedicated to this pairing, we can finally debunk the myths of the pairing popularity.

Not surprisingly, they are very small. We have facts and figures, so, its easy to debate and make arguments.

Fundamentally, Kishi dont need to switch direction of his story telling. Even if he did, or someone else ask him to do, he need to do it properly.

Folks who work with data would know that your source of truth shouldnt be based on quantitative data only (in this case popularity poll, or God forbid, YouTube watch count). Consumer studies always include qualitative as well as quantitative to make decision that will amplify the sales of the products. What happened with Naruto franchise is a good case study of how cognitive bias in decision making could easily brought down multi-billion dollar franchise. Not only that, but also future projects related to the key folks in the franchise (look at what happened to Samurai 8).

Today, Naruto franchise is beyond salvation, that much is clear. The producer need to accept the fact that ~95% of their sales are now gone, thanks to their bias to go down with NH/SS route. Theyll sell products, sure, but it wont be at the magnitude they used to have.

What Kishi shouldve done: focus on making a good story, ignore the noises coming from the fandom. Especially the loud ones (looking at you NH/SS).

I meant no disrespect. Simply stating the facts, instead of opinions. And the fact is as clear as day: NS was part of the significant few that finance the franchise.

Where were you in 2012? RtN novel was part of the movies promotional material (read: advertisements). This is widely known. Again, youre trying to compare adjacent products vs strategic products.

One is marketing budget, the other one is franchises production budget. Once again, its not Apple-to-Apple comparison.

One is designed to be printed in limited numbers (promotional purpose to the adjacent product), the other one is designed for strategic growth and customer stickiness (print as much as budget allowed to be in the circulation, cross fingers the sales rate goes beyond the target so that publishers wont bite the bullet for returned copies from sales channels. If sales go beyond the target, reprint again and push to the circulation using some of the revenue generated from the previous prints batch. Rinse and repeat.).

I think youre confusing yourself. Look, I know its hard to accept the fact that NH/SS just doesnt sell and they turned out to be the smallest segment that barks the loudest. The facts are just right in front of us. Not worth to dwell in details and cherry pick frankly. It further exhibits the limited understanding you might have when it comes to manga industry in Japan (publications, circulations, etc).