A Storming Thought

     One of the more prominent criticisms of Naruto is its female characters. The criticisms vary depending on the person. There are those that hate them and deem them useless or annoying. Others like them but feel they were neglected by the author and denied their full potential. This combined with the infamous quotes from Kishimoto like, “I’m not good with female characters…” gives the impression that the female characters are badly written. I would like to offer a different perspective. The female characters of Naruto are not poorly written but constructed within the bounds of traditional feminine behavior, roles, and actions. They are compelling characters with interesting personalities and conflicts but all of these aspects are within a feminine sphere of traits. This is also true of the majority of male characters as well. They also behave within a traditionally masculine sphere of traits with the exception of Naruto but I’ll get to that later. The reason I want to...

         I think that it’s safe to say that the success and cultural position that the series, Naruto, has earned is undisputed. As the third highest-selling manga ever and with an incredibly popular anime, Naruto is well cemented within popular culture even outside of anime fandoms. References can be found all over the place. Despite the clear popularity and cultural importance, Naruto is often thought of as a long-winded series that abandoned its original themes and devolved into magic eyes, nonsensical power-ups, and overly sentimental speeches about friendship.            My goal in this essay is not to convince you that Naruto is the greatest anime or manga. Or that it’s a perfect story without flaws. My goal is to convince you that the series stuck to and fulfilled the themes that it laid out at the very beginning of its fifteen-year run. Naruto isn’t about an underdog kid using pure work ethic and dedication to o...