My problem with this is how just totally wrong it is. Not just opinion, but factually wrong.
I have so many interviews where Kishimoto expressing how Hinata was never in his headlights; how surprised he was that Hinata was popular and tried to make Sakura more popular by way of making her....more pretty? Whatever. He even said he avoided writing any kind of romance cause he was bad at it.
Point is, all the interviews have him talking about how SAKURA was the love interest, was the main heroine, and more....how he tried to push her.
It was only recently when Naruto the Last was released did he start saying Hinata was the main heroine, how NH was planned from the beginning, and how he pushed them together. It is not a coincidence an d even now he is still on the fence in interviews. It is everyone ELSE putting words in his mouth while Kishimoto remains ambiguous. It is almost like he doesn't know anything. Almost like someone else had to write it.
I never got the try to make Sakura more pretty to make her more liked by Kishimoto. Did he really not know why Sakura was disliked by certain fans and was misinformed why some disliked her by the editors and SP staff or does he really have that shallow view of women and what makes them popular? Because if he did know the reasons some fans disliked her was because:
- Her feelings for Sasuke as shallow and don't get why she would still love him after everything that he has personally done to her.
- She didn't much fighting or display of her abilities after her fight against Sasori and only got small action scenes afterwards, like when she took out pain's centipede summon.
- After the New team 7 arc her role became rather small in the following arcs and didn't get a major part again until the kage summit arc
- They are diehard NH shippers and view her as a threat to their ship, so they bash and hate her.
He could of solved these issues by:
- Get her to move on from her feelings for Sasuke and clearly show it, by ether show her questioning why she would still be in with him ay this point given what he has done or show more clearly that she is falling in love with Naruto.
- Give her more solo one on fights or even proper teams ups, like having her fight Sasuke in the Kage summit arc, take part in the battle against the seven swordsmen like in storm 3 rather than just heal wounded soldiers and play a more active role in Team 7's fights against Obito, Madara & Kaguya. Heck kishimoto wanted to make her more popular he should of looked at 3rd databook were it showed her fight against sasori was ranked 3rd best, only sasuke vs deidara and sasuke vs itachi was scored higher. This shows that enough would enjoy she her in action more.
- Have her involved more in arcs like the first half in the war and possibly show her developing her abilities and learning a bit more about stuff in the plot such as the history of the senju, Uzumaki & Uchiha clans, the white zetsus, learn why sasuke joined the akatsuki and get more involed with the jinjurki plotline and how she can help naruto as examples.
- If they hate her because she is a threat to their ship, there is no really helping them. He is just going to have to ignore them and focus on developing why Narusaku will happen and why NH & SS won't work and try to avoid any strong teases that these ships will happen at all.
I do wonder if one day Kishimoto will ever come clean of what happened with the ending of Naruto, though that may only happen if Boruto ever finishes and that it becomes clear to shonen jump that it's just not profitable to keep the NH/Boruto canon going