Mi

an attempt rewrite of my old post that picked up many instances which kishimoto sexualises sasuke’s character when he is being manipulated specifically. this was the post that first inspired me and, as you can see, sasuke’s sexualisation is also used to depict homoeroticism, show him as a desirable character, and even portray him as some type of heroine sometimes. this post will be long but i will not risk to put it under a read more and lose it forever k.

beginning with orochimaru, whose character is full of undeniably pedophilic subtext. we can say that orochimaru is an evil scientist that grooms children/teenagers, sasuke being one of them. in his case, orochimaru wishes to possess sasuke’s body in order to control the sharingan and he tries to make that happen by placing the curse seal on sasuke, something that actively triggers his trauma and anger so that he will seek orochimaru. the curse seal itself is the way orochimaru tries to manipulate sasuke and the whole context surrounding it is- shady, to say at least.

orochimaru’s first appearance is in chapter 45, but we start taking more of a look at him in chapter 47, titled “predator”.

as we can see, not only he compares sasuke to a prey and he himself to a predator and says that “he wants sasuke”, but there’s also the whole creepy and insinuating body language with his tongue, something his character does quite a lot.

the act itself of him placing the curse seal on sasuke is very telling… he literally bites his neck.

when orochimaru meets anko, he says sasuke is very beautiful, i’ve done some research on this and the original japanese text, of course orochimaru is admired by sasuke’s skills, you can see in the forrest of death chapters, but this panel specifically is also speaking of sasuke’s physical beauty, as in it’s something that matters to orochimaru as well. there is also the fact that orochimaru uses the word 美しい (utsukushii), which is not a very usual word to describe a person, it can be used poetically and to describe someone with a refined and delicate beauty. this matches with orochimaru’s way of speaking, but it also makes it more unsettling because it’s how he sees 12 year old sasuke. another thing i noticed is that in the moment orochimaru meets anko, he doesn’t show any of the creepy body language, not even once, even though he was just doing it in the previous chapter.

orochimaru again licking his lips at the sight of sasuke trying to control the curse seal.

and later we have not only orochimaru licking his lips at the thought of “painting sasuke with his own colours”, but also shuddering. quite an interesting choice of vocabulary btw, since sasuke is referred as a “blank slate” by other characters he is manipulated by. kishimoto doesn’t even need to use sasuke’s image or draw him present, but these are used in shady situations, and with characters that don’t really have the best intentions towards sasuke.

and of course there’s this very suggestive cover for the chapter named “the ritual”, in which orochimaru tried to take over sasuke’s body, the reason why he manipulated sasuke in the first place. so yeah, there’s very suggestive visual language and even plain text surrounding sasuke being manipulated, and despite orochimaru being the most obvious one, thanks to the pedophilic subtext, that’s not the only occasion that it happens in the manga.

i’ve talked about this before in some asks of my old blog, but sasuke is often put in positions more typical of heroines, such as being desired by both men and women, being sexualised, and needing to be “saved”. as the linked post already explained, kishimoto uses the legend of kushinada-hime to put sasuke in such position. what i want to talk about is the difference between sasuke’s fight with itachi and the “i will always love you” moment, in which sasuke finally speaks to itachi and finds out the truth by his own brother.

when sasuke fights itachi, he doesn’t know, but he is being manipulated by him, he is going after his revenge and doing as his brother told, with no knowledge of what happened to the uchiha. and this is the moment when kishimoto writes him as the princess/goddess/maiden that needs to be saved. a moment he’s also shirtless. it’s interesting because you might wonder he’s being saved from orochimaru’s manipulation, but only to (unknowingly) give in to itachi’s.

when sasuke wants to find out the truth by himself and talk to itachi however, kishimoto does no such thing. no shirtless or sweating sasuke in questionable positions, no metaphors to compare him as a maiden that needs to be saved, nothing to sexualise him whatsoever.

they constantly talk about itachi telling the truth to sasuke during his fight, and like i said, it seems kishimoto doesn’t see any need to sexualise sasuke here. even when you take a small detail such as itachi admitting he tried to use kotoamatsukami against his brother, again to manipulate him, you have a naked sasuke in the panel.

contrasting to itachi admitting that to sasuke himself.

i would say such an imagery in this context is interesting, because itachi is another character that refers to sasuke as a “blank slate”. nakedness = blank slate.

and the same happens when obito tells him the truth about itachi and his clan in comparison to when sasuke seeks the hokage to ask them about the uchiha and the shinobi system. when obito is talking to him, we have shirtless, sweaty and tied up sasuke, and we can say thay the panel compositions are the vert least... suggestive.

despite the fact that obito is telling sasuke what really happened, sasuke is being manipulated in this moment, it’s the first thing that happens after itachi’s death, when sasuke is at his most vulnerable, so obito can later use him as he wishes in his plans. he is not well intentioned towards sasuke either.

and this doesn’t mean obito or itachi see sasuke in a sexual way, it just means sexualisation is a resource used by kishimoto to depict something else. in these cases specifically, it’s manipulation.

and like i said, when sasuke goes after the hokages to have the answers himself, kishimoto does no such thing, even with orochimaru present, because sasuke is not being manipulated anymore.

the distinction is honestly very clear.

and by the way, there are different ways to portray sasuke’s vulnerability, such as trembling lips, a sad expression and a lowered head.