Smiter

Agreed.  If Studio Pierrot and Kishimoto truly wanted to offer an olive branch to the NaruSaku and neutral fans that were upset by the original ending, they would need to do as CrimsonFox, Legend054, and Nate suggested - offer an alternative ending that addressed the failings of the original, and did justice to the characters.

There are a couple of problems with the possibility of going NaruSaku in the Boruto manga.

Firstly, Kishimoto and Studio Pierrot went out of their way to deny that there was ever any romantic development between Naruto and Sakura, despite the fact that Kishimoto himself emphasised the deepening feelings between the two characters in the manga several times.  Kishimoto even claimed that NaruSaku was "a red herring", despite NaruHina and SasuSaku having pretty much zero mutual build-up.

So, why would they then add in NaruSaku moments after going out of their way to sweep the pairing under the carpet - even going as far as to retcon the manga?  If they wanted to develop the pairing in the Borutoverse, they would only anger the NaruHina/SasuSaku fans.  If they just wanted to bait NaruSaku fans into reading/watching Boruto, then fans would think Studio Pierrot and Kishimoto were being just plain cruel.  The NaruSaku fans have been through more than enough.

Secondly, if they did make NaruSaku canon in the Borutoverse at the expense of NaruHina/SasuSaku, the resulting fallout would make the storm surrounding the original ending look like a minor scuffle in a playground.  There would be flame wars everywhere, and I can just see people hurling abuse at Naruto and Sakura for being heartless homewreckers.  It also wouldn't be in their characters; even if they did deeply love each other, they would not abandon their own families.

That's why I highly doubt there will be any NaruSaku development in Boruto.  The only way Studio Pierrot and Kishimoto could try to pull it off, would be to offer a spin-off of Naruto that shows an alternate reality - one where the original ending never happened.  Then they could be free to develop NaruSaku, and to try and develop the characters in a way that mended the failings of the original manga.  By offering both the original and revised realities, you could retain the NaruHina/SasuSaku fans with Boruto, and offer an alternative to people who didn't like the original ending and New Era Project.

Unfortunately, that would cost Studio Pierrot and Shonen Jump time and money, and I doubt that they would be willing to spend time and effort trying an experiment that has no guarantee of bringing back a large number of disillusioned fans.  Even if the New Era Project was hemorrhaging fans, it would be simpler for Studio Pierrot to keep beating the dead donkey with fillers until they got all the yen they could out of it, then close up the franchise and move on to something else.

I would love to see NaruSaku return and to see characters restored to who they really were, but it's been 1.5 years since the ending.  It's not likely to happen. 

Quite honestly, right now my answer would be no.

He spent almost 15 years building up the story and characters for Naruto, then proceeded to throw all that work out of the window.  He didn't just destroy his own work, he also destroyed the trust many readers had placed in him.  He also compounded his mistakes by lying to the fans in interviews afterwards, and he couldn't even keep his cover story straight.

I would only give him another chance if he did genuinely regret his actions and he put every effort into writing a good solid story... and didn't sell out again.

Oh dear, Kishimoto just won't stop talking, will he?

The funny thing is, I think I've finally let go of my anger about the whole thing.  I mean, he's just not worth being angry about, and he has basically committed career suicide.  He broke the trust of his fans, he cannot stop making up excuses, and he has shown no regret or remorse whatsoever.

The only people still taking him seriously are those who never cared about the Naruto story and characters in the first place.

Well, it's business as usual with Kishimoto's latest interview.  He has definitely lost all credibility now.

It's been almost a year since the ending, and Kishimoto is trying to say that he's "unaware" about the controversy with the ending pairings?  Ever since the ending came out, he's been having to answer questions about how they happened!

He still can't lie consistently:

• NaruHina was planned "a few months before the end".  NaruSaku was originally planned, but then he "felt sorry for Hinata".
• NaruHina was planned "since the beginning", and NaruSaku was always a "red herring".
• Now NaruHina was planned "since the middle of the manga."

Like Sparda3g said, if Kishimoto had planned for Naruto and Hinata, why did he not write their development into the story?  I would have actually accepted the ending, if the story and character development had been laid for it in the first place.  Then it would have made sense, at least.

But Kishimoto did not even bother to do that.  Instead, he just butchered the story and the characters.  That is why so many fans are so angry and disappointed with him.

Even some NaruHina and SasuSaku fans are disappointed with him.  The other day, I came across a well-written blog post by a NaruHina fan:  http://358memories.t...-nh-perspective

There are perfectly legitimate concerns with the story and character development, and how the ending seems to completely discard everything from the previous 14 years of the manga story.

I believe that Masashi Kishimoto and Studio Pierrot do know  that they have screwed up very badly with the ending and the New Era Project.  It's been nearly a year, and many fans are still angry.

After all, the anime went to fillers JUST before Sakura was due to give Naruto the kiss of life.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the fillers are still going, and they have not resumed the main story yet?

Now, if everything was going fine and Naruto was still popular, why would they need to keep inserting new filler stories?  Why not just go straight to a Boruto spin-off anime series, which I believe was their original plan?

I think that they are trying to play for time and appease fans as much as they can.  But that tactic is clearly not working, as there is still fresh anger.  Kishimoto keeps stoking that anger every time he has an interview, because he cannot stop lying and contradicting himself.

The way things are headed, I think there is a real chance that Naruto will end permanently in 2016.  Sales have been falling, and the anime and movie ratings have plunged.

It would be a sad way for Naruto to go, but I think that it would be for the best.  It's very unlikely that Kishimoto, Shonen Jump, and Studio Pierrot will do a U turn and try to fix what went wrong.

This way, the fans who like the ending will still have their "canon" ending, and everyone else can have closure and move on.

Thank you for creating the wiki!

I hope that it will soon fill up with content from the manga development and all those great fandom concepts, such as Shinachiku. :)

I'll certainly keep an eye on the site, and I definitely plan to add a link to the wiki in the H&E header if that is okay with you. :)

Thank you, everyone!    It's been really nice to read all your messages. 

Thank you for all the effort you've put into keeping this place up for 11 years.

Yay!!!!! Happy Birthday H&E!!!!! 

 

And yes, like everyone else has said, thanks so much Smiter for making this wonderful place possible for us!!! You're the best!!! 

I want to say a huge thank you to you, FoolishYoungling, tricksie, Derock, Nate River, KnS and GoNeKrAzY for all your hard work here.  I could not have kept this site going for so long without your invaluable support!

Thank you to Hokuten, Nick Soapdish, Sakura Blossoms, Yoko, Eagle8819, sharingank, alphabet, and Shinyu, for all your support in the past as well!  You guys may be absent/lurking, but I will always appreciate everything you did.

I will never forget you guys.  Especially Hokuten and Blayze who started my journey into NaruSaku. 

Today, Heaven & Earth is 11 years old! 

A lot has happened in the past year, starting with the shocking manner in which the Naruto manga ended.  The entire Naruto fandom pretty much imploded when the controversial ending was published, and the New Era Project was revealed.

Back then, I must admit I was extremely uncertain of how things would turn out for H&E and the NaruSaku fandom.  While there were touching messages of support from other fandoms, many NaruSaku fans still needed time to process their feelings over the ending.  After all, many of us did follow the manga closely for years.

But now?  It has been incredible to see the NaruSaku fans band together and come out stronger!  Many of us still have a love for the way the manga used to be, especially the way the characters used to be.  Back then, they were touching, funny, exciting and inspirational.  It's been inspiring to see fans try to carry on the old spirit of Naruto in their new fanfics and fanart! 

Thank you, guys, for rekindling my love in the manga.  Whatever happens to the Naruto franchise, I will always be a NaruSaku fan.

So, thank you to everyone for coming here, and to everyone in the NaruSaku fandom for being awesome and inspiring! 

Great posts, I agree with a lot of the comments posted here. 

 

They could have done without the reincarnation of Ashura part, since even if Minato was a Hokage, Naruto was more akin to Kushina in his development.

Yeah, that felt unnecessary.  Why did Naruto and Sasuke have to be the reincarnations of brothers long dead?  Kishimoto was really trying to hammer home the "brotherly bond" between Naruto and Sasuke, but there was no need to bring in the reincarnation aspect.  Wasn't it enough that Naruto and Sasuke were childhood friends?

I loved the Pein Arc and the Kushina chapters, and I agree that the quality of the story declined in the last couple of years or so.  Kishimoto had obviously been feeling burnt out and he just wanted to end Naruto so that he could move on to new stories.

Hmm, I'm at the point where I accept that Naruto has ended, and that Kishimoto/Pierrot/Jump have made their decision.  But I also cannot accept the way it was ended, mainly because it threw out 15 years of development and made the main characters go OOC.  Sure, Naruto became Hokage, but he's also not the Naruto we knew and loved.  Sakura, well, she had her development reset.  And, as far as I know, there's still no explanation for how Sasuke and Sakura got together.

It also doesn't help that Studio Pierrot keeps trying to retcon the manga in order to justify the New Era Project.  It's a real mess these days.

I'll always fondly remember Part One and Shippuden, and the way the characters were.  It's just sad to see what it has become in the end.  That's the reason I no longer follow Kishimoto;  he just got rid of his hard work and basically lied to the fans about NaruSaku being a "red herring" (contradicting his earlier interviews and 15 years of manga/databook/interview material).  I just can't support a guy who treats his own story and fans in that manner.

But, at least we have fanon!  It's been incredible to see how the NaruSaku community has banded together to create their own alternative universe, and some of the art and stories are great. 

Naruto still lives on in its fans.

And we are back online!

Welcome back, everyone. 

I'm sorry this took so long, but there were problems with transferring the files.  It turned out that the FTP program I was using, FileZilla, had somehow mangled some files.  That was why we kept getting errors in the code.  Luckily, because I was paranoid about H&E's safety, I had a 2nd backup copy of H&E with intact files.  I threw out FileZilla and replaced it with a more reliable FTP program, and uploaded everything again.  That took hours, hence the long delay.

I hope that everything is working fine for you all!  If there are any weird bugs or if anything important is missing, please let me know.

For now, we'll just let the dust settle for a week, then I'll look into improving H&E with new features. 

Enjoy! 

I'm going to have a nice long sleep tonight, lol...

Will the site address change or it will remain the same? Also thanks for the heads up, Smiter-san

It will remain the same, it just may take a little time for narusaku.com to point to the new server.    Hopefully, it will be done by Friday, if everything goes according to plan!

We're moving to a bigger server, and hopefully it will also be quick!

Just to remind you guys again, I will close H&E tomorrow morning to back up everything!  I'm sorry for the downtime, but it really is the best and safest way to make sure everything gets transferred without any problems.

If all goes to plan, everyone will be able to post in H&E again at the usual address of http://www.narusaku.com by Friday/Saturday. 

Thanks for all the messages of support, guys!

So we have to sign up again on the forum, I assume. Well how are we going to spread the word of this change to those who haven't been on for awhile?

No, there is no need to sign up again on the forum.  Everything has been backed up, and it will all be transferred to the new web host.  This means that you can just log in as normal when H&E is reopened. 

I take it this has no affect on the look of the site correct?

 

Sorry if it's a stupid question.

It should not affect the look of the site.    Everything will be transferred over, but I will also be patching the forum software to the latest version so it is possible there may be some bugs/changes in the forum skin I will need to fix.

Now, some more news.  Like I mentioned earlier, I was able to save everything to my PC, so we should be good.    But I do plan to close H&E on Wednesday morning so that I can (hopefully) run a final backup to make sure every single new post is saved.  Then it will all be transferred to the new web host and tested, and hopefully I will be able to re-open it by this Friday/Saturday.  It just depends on if any bugs pop up, and how long it takes the narusaku.com domain to point to the new server!

UPDATE: The backup was successful, and I will be closing H&E on Wednesday morning (UK time) to make sure everything is saved.

If all goes to plan, H&E will be reopened by Friday/Saturday this week!

------

This is to give you all a heads up, so you know exactly what is happening.

Our webhost has decided to close its doors and shut down operations.  This means that H&E will have to quickly find a new host in order to stay online.

Unfortunately, there was no warning until they sent out the e-mail notice, and they have already removed some access to the servers.  Right now, I am backing up everything as quickly as I can, and hopefully we will be able to transfer everything to a new server.

I've already got a new server lined up, and I plan to make the move as quickly as possible this week.  It's possible that H&E may be offline for a day or two while we wait for the domain name to point to the right place.

I'm sorry about this sudden drama, but it's out of my control, and I will do my best to make sure that we are back up and running as soon as possible!

Hang in there, everyone.

I'm glad to hear that he's walking away from Naruto now.  It's a real shame that he butchered his own story and threw nearly 15 years of his hard work out of the window with that ending, but at least we can all now find closure and move on.  Hopefully, the Boruto movie will also be the last we see of the New Era Project.

We do have an awesome NS community, so here's to fanon!  Better than canon!