Bail o' Lies

The Hinata Paradox Syndrome: This occurs when a creator dislikes or feels apathetic toward a character, to the point they lose all interest in writing them. Consequently, the character is only brought into the story for strictly necessary scenes that require them and are quickly written out once their task is done. However, because they only appear to perform crucial actions, this creates a false impression in some readers' minds that the character must be highly important.

I created a term. This is what led to Hinata being made the Heroine at the end of Naruto. As well as why Sakura is so well received in Boruto.

Have a migraine due to that chapter make better opening post later, and fix the posts below.

There are as many mistakes in the Boruto manga as there are stars in the night sky.

Such that it is difficult to notice, find, explain, and categorize them all. So at the moment I have limited to 6 general topics to focus on those for the moment:

1) Art, though I don't have much of understanding of it, Ikemoto work as an assistant that work on the background and Kishimoto trust to run the sequel when he refused to make it.

2) Story as something I can understand so I can notices the issues of.

3) Plot Devices that I have a problem with.

4) Combat, as this is a shounen battle manga.

5) One of the highlights when people talk about Naruto is, its characters. Which the Boruto manga inherited.

6) Relationships because two relationships/pairings that define the manga is Boruto and Sarada, that should be the core of the story, as her goal is to become Hokage while he wants to become her enforcer, but this is completely neglected to focus on the Bond of Bros between Boruto and Kawaki.

But before that lets talk about how Boruto came about, and to do that we have to talk about Naruto and its ending.

Now, Naruto was started in 1999 by a young energetic talented but inexperienced mangaka named Masashi Kishimoto. However, he had incredible luck in two ways his First Editor Kosuke Yahagi, and a content drought in animation during the mid 2000's. Most Weekly Shounen Jump Editors are only on a manga for about two years, even if they are the ones to approve the manga's publication. Yahagi who approved the publication of Naruto stayed on the manga for an impressive 10 years; from the development of Naruto to until right before the start of the Pain Arc. This gave him deep understanding of Naruto that most manga editors don't have, as he was there from the beginning. Dictating the story's direction at first to young inexperience mangaka, but slowly switching to guiding, that editors are suppose to do, once Kishimoto found his footing. This helped Naruto become the success it became, but this relationship left Kishimoto with a trust in editors most mangaka know not to have. Second, while Naruto was well received and popular in Japan, it was always second to One Piece domestically. However, when it hit the international market there was a content drought in animation. A lot of popular animated shows had ended and new ones hadn't start up yet. Not only that but its anime competition had problem when they went international. One Piece was given to 4Kids where it was butchered to fit their standards. While Bleach due to it being about death was relegated to Adult Swim. So because it had no real competition when it started internationally. It became a popular, well received international success considered the best animated show of its time. To such an extent that it would not be surprising during some years of its run it was the most successful manga/anime IP ever, for a time.

However, that led to its own problems as Toonami aired only part one before it was cancelled. Which disrupted the most vocal international viewers, Americans, watching of Naruto. Which affected how they see the story. As they watched part one, which had very little filler, until after The Sasuke Retrieval Arc. When it had its giant 2 to 3 years of filler before it started part two. So they wanted to continue watching onto Part Two, they then had to hunt for it either on other stations or online. However, this disrupt the connection the viewers had with the story, not help that filler arcs were more intermixed in part two. This created in Naruto's American Viewership a disconnect with the two parts. Similar to how they see Dragon Ball as an unimportant prequel to Dragon Ball Z, instead of the same story. They see Part One of Naruto as the true definitive story of Naruto and Part Two as just filler. So what was focused on, or more importantly what they perceived to be focus of the story, in part one particularly in the Chunin Exam when viewership was at its highest: hard work, pain of loneness, defying fate, loser nobody dreaming to be Hokage, following your dreams, and the Hyuuga clan. Were vastly more important than what was focused on in Part Two: Restoring Team 7, His Promise of A Lifetime, Bonds, His budding relationship with Sakura, Ending the Cycle of Hatred, Naruto being seen as a weapon and his desire to be recognize as human, and the Uchiha clan. All of that is seen as unimportant filler. That is part of the reason why they are so obsessed with Hinata as the heroine, because if you saw the Chunin Exam. Just the Chunin Exam itself, not even the entire arc, as the whole story of Naruto. Then it should be no surprise they wanted Hinata as the Heroine and some even declare they saw her as the true main character of Naruto.

Since I keep expanding this, let's talk about the Chunin Exam Arc. Again, if you looked just at the Chunin Exam. Right before the first exam starts, we are introduced to this nice shy quite girl, Hinata, who is sat right next to Naruto. She is so nice and kind that she was willing to let Naruto cheat off her paper. Even though he refuses because he remembers the examiners are watching. But she doesn't know that, so she just thinks he is being noble. Sakura meanwhile was planning on quitting the exam even though it would anger Sasuke to protect Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage, as the Examiner had threatened that if one fails the final question they will never make it to chunin and Naruto hasn't been able to answer a single question so far. They don't interact during the second part of the exam, The Forest of Death. Instead, we see Sakura chastise Sasuke for being a coward while praising Naruto fighting Orochimaru without fear, and then protecting both her teammates while they were knocked out. Then at the preliminaries for the 3 part of the exam. She silently supports Naruto, and recalls how much she admires him, while he fights her teammate Kiba. Sakura meanwhile is openly cheering for Naruto. Just like he did for her fight with Ino, even helping her resist Ino possessing her. Then, when it her turn to fight her Cousin Neji, who is so much more gifted than her, she wants to quit, but Naruto cheers her on, so she fights. When she loses Naruto vows to avenge her lost against her opponent Neji. They talk before the match and he compliments her. Since Neji is his last opponent he faces in the Chunin Exam, this must be the most important fight, right? If you think the Chunin Exam arc is literally only the Chunin Exam. They talk about being bound by fate and defying it. Naruto avenges Hinata. Since this clearly is the end of the Chunin Exam and nothing important happens afterwards. Hinata is therefore the most important female character. She deserves Naruto. She deserves to be the Heroine. No, she deserves to be the true main character. The manga should be renamed to HINATA the second she was introduced. She deserves it. She is entitled to it, in her fans mind at least.

However, if you look at the Chunin Exam as a whole. Naruto starts off being punched for claiming Sakura is his girlfriend to a bunch of kids, he is embarrassed by opponents in the upcoming Chunin Exam while making Sasuke shine, and the biggest threat of the exam Gaara makes it clear there is no point in Naruto telling him his name because he is so beneath him. By the end of the arc Naruto is fighting Gaara to save Sakura with people around him assuming she is his girlfriend by how fiercely he is fighting for her, while he is to busy to respond because he is trying to rescue her, Sasuke has been shoved to the wayside forced to watch Naruto fight someone he can't handle then afterwards tell Sakura Naruto was the one who rescued her, Gaara who dismissed him before is terrified by the end that after a speech he changes his world view, and Sakura gives Naruto an admiring look after hearing what he did for her. Sakura starts off as spoiled focused only her desire to date Sasuke, is forced to realize she must take being a ninja seriously to protect the people she cares about, is frightened by Sasuke once he uses the curse seal which is the start of her losing faith in him, makes peace with Ino, and start to look at Naruto and care about him. Sasuke got a taste of power and started down the path of darkness. As for Neji, Hinata, and the Hyuuga clan yes they were important for the arc, but they stopped being mention or involved in the story much afterwards.

Please note. That Dragon Ball IP was dormant for most of the Naruto's run. Even if, it was more successful as well as profitable overall, it wasn't really doing anything during Naruto's prime. It was Toriyama's disgust at DragonBall Evolution that he decided to involve himself again in Dragon Ball, revitalizing the franchise after Naruto ended. 

Huh. I decided to ask the AI if they knew all Kishimoto's editors. But they say there were only three...wait now it gives me four. Though note that the AI keeps giving me other editors. Apparently the 15 editors I have always said were the problem, as Yahagi worked with Kishimoto for the first ten years, then supposedly the next 5-6 were about 14 editors. Since the normal tenure is 2 years, that means there had to been constantly fights with editors being let go only for a new one to come in and all last on average less than 6 months. According to it, those were the assistants or sub editors. It was always a pain to find info about this and I was disinclined to buy the manga volumes again after the ending to check. Also, apparently, it likely wouldn't have help because their translators had a problem mistranslating the terms. Viz media was also notorious for taking liberties and changing meaning in their translations of Naruto. I think the Gemini ai started to translate Japanese sources finally. As I could never find this info online before, beyond hearsay...Ah I just remembered, how Twitter was doing the same recently and the Japanese Twitter hated it because they now have to deal with Westerners and are constantly being harassed.

Kosuke Yahagi (1999 – 2008 / Chapters 1 – 402)

Seikimatsu Leader Den Takeshi!

Hunter X Hunter 

Current Editor-in-Chief of Jump Square

Yuka Takemiya (2008 – 2010 / Chapters 403 – Early 500s)

Jump Festa Manager 

Yuki Honda (2010 – 2012 / Mid-500s)

Current Vice Chief of Weekly Shounen Jump 

Haikyu!!

Dr. STONE

Assassination Classroom

Undead Unluck

Jo Otsuki (2012 – 2014 / Climax to Chapter 700)

Naruto: The Last Movie

Nisekoi: False Love 

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

Always stick to what you know, even if its hearsay, until you can find actual information. Then be willing to change your position after careful consideration of the new information. 

Even the editors I am using for this post might still be wrong. So it best to check as this is still hearsay.

So after his time with Yahagi, Kishimoto had great trust in Editors. So when the new editor Yuka Takemiya came in he trusted her. Old rumors said that the new editor was such a huge fan Hinata and demanded she become the new heroine. That still might be the case, but given that everything the AI said about her is. She is a trans-multimedia brand manager that focuses less on the manga and more on marketing the brand/IP as a whole. She probably talked to the anime staff, who were always huge supporters of Hinata, and was convinced that Hinata must be a popular character that needs to be the heroine to increase sales. She is apparently the one that would never stop bugging him about Hinata to the point he finally publicly complained about it at Jump Festa 2010. Of course her actions backfired. 

So just imagine Kishimoto had a traditional editor that focused on the story for ten years. Then having to go to this, a girl from marketing, likely always in a power suit talking about her various marketing degrees, that just comes in, probably doesn't ever look at the manga, just starts making changes to everything the second she comes in that she demand everyone conform to, constantly coming up with new ideas on her own that must be adopted while demanding no resistance, speaks using strange corporate buzz words, and constantly shows up with folders filled with spreadsheets, flowcharts, and data points. If you have ever worked at a company...it is no surprise Naruto became such a mess after Yahagi left.

Ok. After learning about her. We are taking a look at the other two editors, now that I can finally get info on them before continuing. So I, and therefore you, can see the exact damage they caused.

Hiroyuki "Yuki" Honda is apparently known as a hit-chaser. He just constantly went for big hype moments to boost sales. Going from one hype moment to the next, the bigger the better. He is the reason Naruto lost its tactical fighting style and degraded to Dragon Ball Z rip offs. He was in charge of most of the War Arc.

Jo Otsuki is apparently the editor they bring in to finish a manga. So once Kishimoto said he wanted to end the manga he was brought in, so it would be finished in a way that wouldn't negatively affect the brand. So his job was to make sure Kishimoto ended the manga at Chapter 700, once Corporate decided it would end there, and get the story ready for the sequel Boruto. He is the one who ordered Kaguya's creation to tie the Corporate Planned Heroine to the plot and to the planned villains for the sequel. Also, he was the lead coordinator for The Last Naruto Movie; he may have even been the one to ordered it to be about nH. Granted, from everything I recall, it was the anime staff that wanted to make it a Hinata movie. So, even if it was ordered, which I don't think it was the case, its not like there was much pressure needed.

Wait a minute...Otsuki...Otsutsuki. Was the Otsutsuki clan named after him!? The AI says, no. However, we are dealing with a mangaka whose planned undercover named for Obito was Otobi before Yahagi ordered him to drop the O to make it less obvious.

I think I preferred the 15 editors chaos to this, because its clear how Naruto fell. After Yahagi, an actual editor, left Kishimoto got some marketing girl focused more on charts, to a "make explosion even bigger" hype man, and finally Mr. "Wrap It Up How Corporate Wants It."

So Kishimoto resisted at first, even getting the other mangaka to help him, because it was obviously a bad idea to replace The Heroine that has been developing a bond with the Hero for ten years. For a minor character that barely got any screen time. But he was gradually worn down over the next 6 years. Also if it was Corporate's desire because they been told by a data sheet that Hinata would give them more profits. Then it doesn't really matter what Kishimoto wants. Kishimoto apparently said in interviews he held out ending NS for so long; he didn't even see The Last as The Love Story of nH but The Funeral of NS. Now, what worn him down beside the 6 years of harassment on a 15 year long manga was the death of his father, early in 2014, and the realization he wasn't spending enough time with his family. His wife had to raise their children on her own, while he was a stranger to them, and he could never take his wife out on their honeymoon or a vacation despite being married for 10 years by that point. So his desire to end it so he could spend more time with his family and justified it with, "it is what the fans wants, and if the anime staff, Otsuki, and Ikemoto were willing to do the work to make nH/SS work. Let them."

Please note. That he already was planning on ending the series, which is why Otsuki became his last editor on Naruto. It was a mixture of Corporate Desires, his own desire to end the manga, his issues in his personal life, 6 years being told that "this is what the fans want" by the anime staff his editors & some of his assistants, and Mikio Ikemoto supporting nH/SS because he was the one that would be doing the sequel. All of that was what decided the end pairing as well as convince a reluctant Kishimoto to go along with it. He still did chapter 693 where Sasuke laid out why the character doesn't like the pairing.

Corporate didn't want Naruto to end. Even 12 years later after it ended, it is still the biggest anime IP for Tv Tokyo due to licensing. The Naruto Ninja Storm games were the Crown Jewels of Bandai Namco before Elden Ring took off. And once Naruto is gone, what manga could Shueisha replace it internationally at the time? It was the King of International Sales and walking money printing cash chow. They did not want it to end and if it ended they wanted a sequel that would make them the same money. If they are told they will make the most money with nH/SS, then that is what they want.

Of course, before Kishimoto left he did write the Start of Boruto. As Corporate needed to show he was involved in its making and wasn't completely detached from the sequel. Which is why he was also made a supervisor on the manga. How he wrote the Start of Boruto brought problems that damaged the IP, even if he didn't intend it. The appeal of nH/SS is that they are suppose to be the perfect parings. Sasuke is the perfect dreamy bad boy only I can fix, with Sakura being an insert into that fantasy for its supporters. Hinata was suppose to be the perfect dream girl for guys who wanted revenge against girls that friend-zoned them. Now granted, he likely just wrote them, as how he logically saw them, and how they would act within the story. But, because they were last minute pairings that don't have any real connection or bond in the story. Well that means they are logically, not perfect.  He made Sasuke leave the village to wander around, never visit his family for 12 years, and while he might care about Sarada because she is his daughter. He cares more about his student Boruto than them. Naruto is utterly miserable married to Hinata and his brats are spoiled rotten. This destroyed the primary appeal of those pairings. Corporate couldn't stop it before the damage was done because all they knew is, they had to have these pairings for them to make money. They didn't really understand the appeal and by the time they realized that the damage was happening it was too late. Those issues became the foundation of Boruto. Not helped that the pairings were only allies because their goals aligned. If NS happened than neither of their pairings could happen. But if either nH or SS than it was likely the other could happen as well. But they don't like each other for a fundamental reason. SS self insert into Sakura, nH fans hated Sakura for her being a friend-zoner, they see Hinata as a better woman than Sakura therefore a better woman than a fan that see herself in Sakura, and that she is lesser than their dream girl. So of course, they now fight over which of them is better and that chases off the fans that want a good manga. That hadn't already left due to the ending.

Now, we can finally get to Boruto and Ikemoto. Ikemoto clearly took the job because he thought, it would be easy. There was zero risk of it being cancelled, because it was just suppose to continue on for years, so they could milk the IP. Kishimoto to make sure Ikemoto wasn't overworked, made it a monthly manga instead of a weekly. However, there is clearly part of Ikemoto, that despite taking on Boruto for a safe paycheck, wants to do his own manga. Also he clearly sees Kishimoto as just lucky, that he is better than Kishi, and he can do better than him. That smug arrogant slothfulness could only work if the IP is healthy enough for one to coast off the brand. Even then, that's not a good idea. Naruto however, had structural issues that needed addressing that the ending made worse.

Not helped that this slow approach that just assumed Boruto would be successful ignored up and comers like My Hero Academia. Around 2016, streaming anime really took off and restored international interest in anime. Allowing anime that normally wouldn't be even known to dedicated anime fans, to hit the mainstream. Look at One Piece. Which in an interview around the time of the ending of Naruto, in 2015, Oda admitted that he had long accepted that his story didn't seem to have international appeal compared to Kishimoto's Naruto. It was finally able to achieve international success, that it was denied a decade before, allowing it to surpass Naruto because of streaming, global theatrical releases of its movies, and the Live Action adaptation. So, by the time Boruto anime even started, in 2017, it was already replaced. Worse Boruto was facing something Naruto never faced, competition. 

Mind you, while Naruto never faced competition internationally, it was still number 2 in Japan behind only its rival One Piece. So, even if it was released into the Era of Anime Streaming or had competition when it originally aired. It would have been able to hold its own. It wouldn't be the biggest anime ever, but it would have held its own. Boruto cannot. Hell, the changes to seasonal anime probably would have helped it as that would have given SP less time to focus on Hinata, no weekly anime putting stress on the manga, and not being the sole international money maker would remove a lot of demand from it.

Despite the Corporate's disappointment in Boruto for a time new successful IPs that were able to surpass it constantly with little effort manage to distract and appease them. So, they were content to leave Boruto on the backburner while they profited from their new money makers. Of course that only lasted as long as one of those IP were running. A change from the Big three era to the current era is that mangaka don't want to spent over a decade on a constantly expanding story. So they often single out the big bad that needs to be defeated to end the story early on and work their story towards that fight. So they could end the story logically when they wanted it. When that happened Corporate would return their gaze to Boruto and find only disappointment. An IP that used to produce a hit movie every year. Hasn't made one in over a decade because its biggest hit wouldn't even register as a success now a days. An anime that is more filler, about 75%, than plot; that even makes Naruto's infamous filler arcs, about 41%, seem modest. No major games in over a decade. Naruto that used to average 3.1 million per volume, while part one of Boruto average around 100,000, and then its part two 50,000.

Kishimoto was brought back after Samurai 8 flopped. However, he grew to hate other people interfering with a mangaka due to his own experience. Apparently, after the manga ended he finally looked into the fanbase to see why they wanted the ending the way they did; instead of just relying on the people around him. He was not happy with what he found. He already understood SS was, "the dreamy bad boy only I can fix," which he found cliche and always hated the pairing. But, he finally realize that people wanted Hinata, if for nothing else her big breast. Sacrificing his health, his mind, his time with his family, his story, and his reputation for that would not make anyone happy. Just put yourself in his shoes for a moment. You have been working on a manga for ten years (1 year pre production 9 writing and drawing) as far as you know its a huge international success and everyone loves your characters. A new editor comes in and says you have to change out your heroine because she is too hated and replace her with a side character you forget about most of the time because she is so minor in the story. As she is apparently too popular to be a side character. You ask, "how Sakura is hated and how is Hinata so popular?" They can't give you a straight answer. You spend 6 years trying to fix the apparent flaw your heroine apparently has, so you don't have to upend your story. Every time you try something, the people around you simply say, "it won't work". You ask, "what makes her hated by the fans and how can you fix it?" They reply vaguely, at best they show you foreign Youtubers. As everyone knows Sakura wasn't hated domestically or you would have heard it before. So you listen to these guys videos, to try to figure out why they hate Sakura. You watch tens, dozens hundreds maybe even thousands of these videos about why your heroine is hated and why they like this side character, but you can never figure it out. That's because if they said the truth on one of their online videos, they would be called a pig. They rely on audience presumptions, that the viewer already knows the issues before they even think about watching the video. So, they never have to say it, as people watching should already just know. Which doesn't help trying to fix the issue when you still have churn out a chapter every week. So when the manga finally ends with the pairings they forced you to have. You go online to see why people liked Hinata and hated Sakura. You find what the people around you wouldn't tell you, it was the size of their breasts. Sakura was so hated because her bust was modest while Hinata was popular because hers were large. It a bit more complicated and nuanced than that, fans didn't like that she didn't get into fights often enough, she didn't seem to do anything, that she hit Naruto, that she was still pining after Sasuke instead of moving on to Naruto, but when you boil it down. It really just comes to how big their chest are. So he couldn't fix the "real problem" by the time his new editors were bringing it up. To fix it, he would had to have known before the start of part two. So he could to make Sakura's breast so large, that she'd knocked Naruto out with them instead of her fist. And all he needed to do to make sure Hinata remained a side character, was make her flat chested; to the point when people looked at her, they thought of a cutting board. Granted maybe not that extreme, but at least enough that when the anime animated Sakura they don't remove her figure entirely and treat her body like it is a straight line. Remember that when Ikemoto drew Hinata with a modest bust in the Boruto manga, her fans went apoplectic. Could you bring yourself to care afterwards beyond getting your paycheck? Now also think of this. While he was searching online to figure out why they hated Sakura and love Hinata. What was happening to the Naruto-Boruto IP? It was suffering a backlash due to the pairing changes. Almost immediately after chapter 700 large portions of the audience spoke up wondering why did Naruto ended that way it did and made clear. They didn't like the Ending. They asked questions and the answers they got did not please them. They made their displeasure known, and it became clear most of the audience did not hate Sakura. Some loved her, most liked or were fine with her; at worse she was tolerated. They only people that hated her were the Anime Staff and the international fans that have been pirating the story for years. They were always really anime watcher that follow the story how anime told it, and only read the manga for spoilers. They openly bragged that they pirate your story and even though you made the ending for them. They feel no inclination nor obligation to start financially supporting it. Also, it becomes pretty clear that the people that are leaving because they were unsatisfied with the ending were the fans that actually paid for it. As quickly sales go down. The Naruto volumes average 3.1 million, on their first week it was rare for a volume not to sell a million copies. The last volume 72 sold about 800,000 on its first week despite being the last volume, and pretty much volume sales have been declining ever since. Would you be working yourself to death to fix something for corporate when it was their fault, and if they had just left you alone in the first place they would have gotten what they really wanted? Also, he felt he owned Ikemoto for taking over the sequel. So he supports and gives advice if Ikemoto ask, but did not take control to turn it around. So him being brought in changed very little.

They ended the anime as the staff were sick of making endless filler. The irony is that it was their fault they were in such a situation.

So they ordered the end of part one and moved the manga into part two to shake up the story. It didn't help. As there is nothing that can really turn Boruto around.