141 replies to this topic

[sardns]

Us NaruSaku fans are one of the proud minorities of the Naruto shipping fandom, but the most popular pairing (aside from SasuNaru) is NaruHina (look no further than fanfiction.net). We know it's the most popular, but why? Care to share your thoughts on why this pairing has so many fans? Please keep all explanations civil.

[TheBerserkMoogle]

Probably because at first NaruSaku wasn't as "obvious" as NaruHina was or something like that.

[tricksie]

NaruHina is fairytale love, as is SasuSaku. Both are one sided, where the girl never develops, never truly personally evolves. She just endures some hardships and is awarded the affections of the guy who finally turns his head and looks at her. Think Cinderella, who waits for the prince to acknowledge her because she is a kind, sweet person and worthy of his love.

NaruSaku is more a realistic love. Both sides work hard, both evolve and support the other's change, and both recognize the other as partners or equals. Think Cinderella, who stands up for herself, kicks the stepsisters out, throw her own ball and chooses the man of her dreams.

[Grace]

@tricksie--

D: What she said times A LOT.

Another reason may be that the people looking for romance thought NaruHina might be taken more seriously than NaruSaku as far as becoming canon. When we're introduced to Naruto's affections for Sakura, they're shown to be genuine but also unlikely to be returned considering the emphasis put on Sakura's Sasuke-craze. His crush on her was often used as comic relief until a battle came around.

Hinata's affections for Naruto, on the other hand, are shoved in our faces almost every single time she's around during Part 1; it's almost like her only purpose was to BE the fairytale girl waiting for the main character to notice her.

*shrug*

[Mik3]

The MOE effect. Most of them see Hinata's shyness and considerate cute. While some just relate to her. Theres nothing wrong with wanting a person like that to develop but at the same time couples built upon the others shy, idol worship type crush is too cliche.

And some of the vocal minority see Sakura as this demon woman who hates Naruto and Hinata as some goddess who will save him from that.

[James S Cassidy]

I believe it mostly has to do with first impressions and the different cultures.

When we first met Sakura, she was kind of a b*tch who was loud. I admit she was. When we first met Hinata, she was that quiet girl who had that crush on the main guy. Some people only look at the first impressions and take that as "that is the character"

Some never look at the development that involves and this is where these people need to open their eyes to. Keep in mind some do keep the development in mind and they still support their pairing. These people are not the ones I refer to.

I believe the massive development Sakura and other characters have is ignored because of the first impression.

We also have people claim that Sakura is abusive, but the "punches" Sakura gives Naruto are for comedy purposes and it is seen as that in Japan. In almost every anime we have the girl hit the guy when he does or says something stupid. The main character knows this is in good fun, but even they know that it is because they did something wrong.

Hinata changed very little in development. Her development was a late blooming and while a powerful moment did occur, it's not enough.

But because Hinata was this sweet innocent girl in the beginning, all they did was look at her like this through the whole series.

[Muffins?]

I believe it mostly has to do with first impressions and the different cultures.

When we first met Sakura, she was kind of a b*tch who was loud. I admit she was. When we first met Hinata, she was that quiet girl who had that crush on the main guy. Some people only look at the first impressions and take that as "that is the character"

Some never look at the development that involves and this is where these people need to open their eyes to. Keep in mind some do keep the development in mind and they still support their pairing. These people are not the ones I refer to.

I believe the massive development Sakura and other characters have is ignored because of the first impression.

We also have people claim that Sakura is abusive, but the "punches" Sakura gives Naruto are for comedy purposes and it is seen as that in Japan. In almost every anime we have the girl hit the guy when he does or says something stupid. The main character knows this is in good fun, but even they know that it is because they did something wrong.

Hinata changed very little in development. Her development was a late blooming and while a powerful moment did occur, it's not enough.

But because Hinata was this sweet innocent girl in the beginning, all they did was look at her like this through the whole series.

QFT

[Miss Soupy]

NH is a fan favorite only with western fans for the most part. SS is still the major fan favorite I think XD; NS is usually somewhere in the middle, which isn't so bad. And I think the fairytale category could also apply to NaruSaku, since Naruto basically loved her since childhood, and all 3 pairings incorporate at least a little character evolution. SS is popular because its the dark pairing and Sasuke has a lot of fans. NH, as a result, is largely side-shipped by SS fans. Plus a lot of people like the quiet Hinata rather than Sakura who has a stronger personality. What is really strange to me is that since SS is the biggest het pairing, it seems like more people prefer Sasuke to Naruto. What do they see in him? o.O

[Dreamer]

Godess worship!! I'm just kidding XD. First impressions is probably the most plausible case but also Hinata being the Hyuuga princess ties in with Tricksie's Cinderella theory (with the characters background swapped).

Edited by Uzumakikage, 07 July 2010 - 04:24 AM.

[Derock]

NH is a fan favorite only with western fans for the most part. SS is still the major fan favorite I think XD; NS is usually somewhere in the middle, which isn't so bad. And I think the fairytale category could also apply to NaruSaku, since Naruto basically loved her since childhood, and all 3 pairings incorporate at least a little character evolution. SS is popular because its the dark pairing and Sasuke has a lot of fans. NH, as a result, is largely side-shipped by SS fans. Plus a lot of people like the quiet Hinata rather than Sakura who has a stronger personality. What is really strange to me is that since SS is the biggest het pairing, it seems like more people prefer Sasuke to Naruto. What do they see in him? o.O

Hmmm... let me think...

Ah, I got it: Sasuke = "bad boy" type of a guy we see in most media. Many people like him because of that. Not to mention that it is said that he has great looks (and to older people, a hot body) and is very powerful. You can see why some polls Sasuke had outrank Naruto because of those attributes. And also the fact even though we had to get the info, Kishimoto "dragged" his side of the story very long in order to make it sense for viewers. If it was very short, what was the purpose of Sasuke's development?

And I do agree with everyone on why NaruHina are the most popular over here with SasuSaku is the most popular of all hetero pairings (because it was introduced first, and NaruSaku was very slow but very well hidden in the progress). Though as Mik3 said, many fans over here worship Hinata like she's a goddess because of her looks (in other words, her "potential" huge boobs) and shy personality and wants her to be with Naruto, without or a better word is ignoring, Naruto's feelings and interests.

Oh, plus the bashing on "the heartless pinky" so she won't go near Naruto and must go to Sasuke so she deserved all of the wrong she committed on Naruto.

[Toasty Warrior]

I couldn't agree more with what everyone said, but I think I'll add my two cents, more than likely why people prefer NaruHina over NaruSaku is just based on the fact that they think there's nothing wrong with Hinata, she's flawless in every way and because she was the first to pay attention to Naruto, the fans think she deserves him and they also think they look cute together and they also don't think Sakura deserves Naruto because she was always hitting him for no reason or belittling him for the silliest of things or what I hate most of all is they all think Sakura will go running back to Sasuke once he comes back to Konoha.

[dracopoi]

I think some people believe that is Naruto falls for Sakura and forgives her for her previous actions, that he would have no shred of self dignity.

I think I read that somewhere in a review, but I really think Naruto's the kind of person who forgives people rather easily.

[Gravenimage]

Most of the people here have already pin pointed the reasons why the public or should I say most of the western public prefer N/H as a couple. The pairing just like S/S is influence a lot in wetern culture.

-shy girl who secretly likes boy trying to get his attention but she can't because she's too shy, then in the end he finally notices her and they get together (I have seen a lot high shcool movies that are like this).

-Fan girl who likes the most popular guy tries hard to get his attention but she fails because she always screws up, but in the end popular boy notices her and falls for her they finally get together (again I have seen this type happening in high shcool movies especially in the 80's).

But they always forget that Kishi is doing his manga base on his own culture and that's Japanese or more precise eastern culture not base on the wetern culture. And although in the beginning of the manga it looks like it was going to be N/H S/S (god I can't believe there was a time I almost thought it was going to be that way ). He said it himself a long time ago in a interview that he clearly didn't intended to focus on romance during part 1 so all potential pairings so far during part 1 were one sided yes even N/S. It was in part 2 that he decided to give romance a shot and create a canon pairing with development and he used the development from part 1 as backup to enforce and help develop the pairing he has in mind.

Another thing they keep forgetting (or they are probably ignoring) is that Naruto is a shounen manga and a lot of the pairings from the shounen genre is always the main protagonist and the tsundere and that's not Naruto/Hinata or Sasuke/Sakura.

Edited by Gravenimage, 07 July 2010 - 12:58 PM.

[Jenskott]

I have several guesses. IMO, NH fans usually fall into four groups:

- Hinata fans whose personality resembles Hinata's. They also were shy girls pinned for a boy didn't notice them, and they think if Hinata succeeds in the manga, it will be like if they have succeeded in real life.

- Naruto fans who want he hooks up with the meek, quiet, submissive and buxom girl always fangirled him, always worshipped the ground his feet trode on, would never think badly of him, would never talk against him and would never raise her voice. Needless to say, they would like Naruto was meaner and more callous and more jerkish (in other words, more Sasuke-like, despite they aver they hate Sasuke), they hate Sakura for not fangirling Naruto from the beginning (and most likely for having mind of her own), and if Hinata hadn't a crush on Naruto or/and wasn't big-breasted, they would not notice her or want they get together.

- Hinata fans like quiet, shy characters and hate loud, tsundere-like characters. They don't resemble Hinata but they like her, and they want she gets what they think she wants, or think if she and Naruto get together, she would become an important character all of sudden and she would get more screentime.

- SS fans want someone -ANYONE!- gets Naruto out of the way so Sasuke and Sakura can get together.

When Naruto started gaining popularity in the West, plenty fans were too young to understand the Tsundere trope and they hadn't read or watched many manga o anime series.

They hated Sakura for hitting Naruto and behaving like a twelve-years-old girl would behave. And then Hinata showed up, they noticed she had a crush on Naruto and thought it was cute. Then the Neji vs Hinata fight happened, and they pitied Hinata and wished she and Naruto got together so she got her happy ending. In their minds, it seemed the perfect solution: given that Sakura hated Naruto and didn't deserve him because she was too kitteny and irritating, she could have Sasuke and Naruto could hook up with the girl had always liked him and deserved her happy ending. After the Naruto vs Neji fight, they thought NH was practically confirmed canon.

However I, for life of me, shall never understand why they -or someone else- thought that.

I have been watching anime shows over twenty years. And NS seemed obvious to me since the first chapter. Main male character had a crush on a female character claims hating him and punches him when he does something stupid? And in that same chapter the female character ponders over her actions and decides she'll try treating him better? I thought it was obvious the seeds of Sakura falling in love with Naruto were being planted on the story. And in the next chapters we got instances of she being amazed at Naruto, protecting him, blushing around him, briefly wondering about her feelings and teaching him, and characters hinting she was feeling closer to him or believing she was his girlfriend!

Sincerely, Kishimoto couldn't be more obvious.

I never hated Sakura for being supposedly annoying, fangirling Sasuke, hating Naruto or hitting him. It was pretty obvious to me the "hating" and "fangirling Sasuke" parts wouldn't last long (and she never really hated him, anyway. The grownups hated Naruto with real hatred. She merely found him an annoying brat), she wasn't more annoying than Naruto or any of the Genin brats, and hitting Naruto was obviously a humor trope and it wasn't intended to being taken seriously (and compared with Akane Tendo, Kaori Makimura, Lum or Lina Inverse she was very tame).

So I didn't let my "hatred" towards a fictional character blinded me, either. I never thought: "I don't want her ending up with Naruto because she is annoying and weak and useless and mistreats him", and then I mistook wishful thinking with reality.

And when Hinata showed up, it seemed obvious to me she was infatuated with Naruto. It also seemed evident to me that infatuation would never lead to anything serious, because the shy secondary female character has a silent crush on the male lead usually never manages -and often doesn't even try- he notices her.

I guessed Naruto would keep loving Sakura, Sakura would slowly fall in love with Naruto as her feelings towards Sasuke would begin falling apart, Sasuke would keep on ignoring her, and Hinata would remain in the background like a minor character. And the storyline happened exactly how I had imagined.

So I was astounded when I found out NH was wildly popular. I may try guessing the reasons, but truthfully, I will never understand it.

[James S Cassidy]

If I may add one more tidbit, there could be one more reason why they like Hinata over Sakura.

Hinata is very subservient to men especially Naruto. She was willing to do ANYTHING to gain Naruto's attention and willing to do anything for him. Another really sad aspect is, she babied him so much that it turned to pity and became more of Hinata not having confidence in naruto.

Sakura is strong and holds Naruto as an equal. As Naruto does Sakura. Unfortunate, some people here think that a strong women eats more carpet than a hoover vacuum, if you catch my drift.

Some people don't want a strong women who can handle herself. They want that subservient women who is always the damsel and might sometimes get action, but just needs the hero anyway to save her.

[harry4e]

Personally I blame the anime for part of the reason, they've painted Hinata in a much brighter light than in the Manga and Sakura beating Naruto seems to a much regular occurance in the Anime where it's not really an often occorance in the Manga, And considering large percentage of Naruto fans were introduced to the series through the Anime they take allot of stuff for cannon when it isn't really the case.

[Gaara's hair]

Someone on a review said that Sakura treats him like that, because he had the kyuubi in him and then the person said "Naruto's human just because he has the kyuubi in him does not give her the right to hit him." Sakura didn't know he had the kyuubi, but that was the persons reason.

[Gravenimage]

The filler arc that lasted a whole year is the reason why N/H became very famous in the west.

[K9ofChaos]

What most of the people here already said, though to this day it's still a mystery to me why they like naruhina/sasusaku more then narusaku.



Whenever I ask myself this question, I wonder what it would be like if The Joker, Deadpool, or any other messed up iconic fictional characters interrogated a NH or SS fan for no reason but pure boredom and mentally tortured the fan to the point of insanity leading to a mental breakdown.



I'm not trying to bash or anything, I'm just saying.

[Kamina-Yoshi]

NaruHina is fairytale love, as is SasuSaku. Both are one sided, where the girl never develops, never truly personally evolves. She just endures some hardships and is awarded the affections of the guy who finally turns his head and looks at her. Think Cinderella, who waits for the prince to acknowledge her because she is a kind, sweet person and worthy of his love.

NaruSaku is more a realistic love. Both sides work hard, both evolve and support the other's change, and both recognize the other as partners or equals. Think Cinderella, who stands up for herself, kicks the stepsisters out, throw her own ball and chooses the man of her dreams.

More like Beauty and the Beast, where Naruto is the Beast (Jinchuuriki), Sakura is Bell (Tough, head-strong and independent woman), and Sasuke is Gaston (The man looking to kill Beast/Naruto).

Edited by Kamina-Yoshi, 08 July 2010 - 01:14 AM.