Analysis ProNaruHina and AntiNaruSaku. Revisiting Naruto manga. Part 1
I’m reading Naruto manga again and i said ‘why not? Let’s make an analysis about NaruSaku and NaruHina studying and analysing all the visual elements’. And why not? I’m having so much fun with this.
OK, i’m (obviously) a NaruHina supporter but i’ll be honest and objective. I want to demonstrate with canon material and facts why NaruSaku it’s simply ridiculous and NaruHina was the endgame practically since the beginning.
I want to expand on the development of the characters of Naruto, Hinata and Sakura, how I understood them (I think in the right way), and how they interacted and influenced each other. I think this is needed to put in context and understand the background of the situations.
So, this is is going to be looooong, but i’ll do it in parts being that i’ll analyze all the manga (only NaruHina and NaruSaku interactions).
The first thing presented in the manga is Naruto. a child who lives alone, has no parents or friends, loves ramen and wants to be hokage. The whole village insults, belittles and mistreats him, just because of the fact that the demon of the 9 Tails, The Kyubi, resides within him. Naruto still doesn’t know this but we do. He is an hyperactive child who seeks attention, crazy and mischievous. But he is completely alone.
From the beginning of the story Kishimoto shows us the loneliness of Naruto. He doesn’t know what the warmth or love of a family is. But, apparently, Iruka is the only one who feels a certain affection and empathy for Naruto, and i’d include Teuchi and Ayame too (Ramen shop).
Naruto witnessed how the rest of the children enjoyed their families. How they were loved and respected by their families and friends. He could only look from the distance and ask himself what it would be like to feel loved and belong to somewhere.
It’s not until the confrontation against Mizuki that Naruto finds out about the affection that Iruka feels for him. Naruto is reminded by Mizuki, again, his loneliness. He will never have the respect of anyone, nobody will never recognize him. And do not forget that he is the one who tells Naruto, for the first time, that he has the Kyubi inside him.
It’s a concept that Kishimoto emphasizes throughout the manga, again and again, flashback after flashback. The loneliness of Naruto. He never knew love, nor does he know what it is but he would like to know it, to desperately seek recognition from others towards him. This is the biggest conflict within Naruto character. Seek recognition and love from others.
If you don’t understand this premise of his character it’ll very difficult for you to understand the reasons behind his actions in the future or the nature of the relationship he established with Hinata and Sakura.
Iruka becomes the first person, that Naruto knows, that recognizes and loves him in the history. The first one to give Naruto a gift (remember the hitai that recognizes him as genin), but I repeat again, Naruto, in this moment, doesn’t know that a certain shy kunoichi already respected him even before Iruka, as Kishimoto confirmed us in an interview. (Masashi Kishimoto at New York Comic-con).
I would like to make an observation and detail that, maybe, was overlooked. At this point of the story, Iruka already knows or suspects Hinata’s feelings for Naruto.
Do you remember this scene from The Last?
We can assume that Iruka, as teacher, read all the answers of his students and he saw Hinata’s response, so he knew all along Hinata’s feelings for him. He knew Naruto was already recognized for someone.
This is a curious fact that i wanted to point. Anyway, let’s continue with the story.
Naruto does nothing but shout how much he wants to be hokage, but in reality that has another background, as Kishimoto has made clear up to this point. Naruto wants to feel loved, respected, admired and recognized; and for that he decides to become hokage. To become hokage would mean to have reached the maximum level of respect, for this he must have earned the respect of the people. It represents everything that he, in the bottom of his heart, wants and has always wanted. Therefore he decides to become hokage, because that would mean having achieved the maximum respect he has always wished.
Ok, with this we already have the background of Naruto character and this will help us to better understand his actions in the future.
This is the description Naruto makes about Sakura: a total babe. Simple, superficial and not very romantic. We also see the first interaction and the kind of relationship they have. And of course, we have a first look at the relationship mechanics of Team 7.
We see that Sakura is Sasuke’s number one fangirl, and he is totally indifferent to it. Of course, this annoys Naruto. Clearly, we all know that Naruto and Sasuke already had rivalry before this moment. Naruto is annoyed that Sakura is fixing all her attention on his rival and if that wasn’t enough, she treats him like a punching bag. From Sakura’s point of view, Naruto and Sasuke are two opposites poles. Sasuke is her love, and Naruto a nuisance.
But I want to emphasize that Naruto is annoyed. If he had serious feelings for Sakura the appropiate word would not be annoyed, but it would rather be hurt or heartbreaking. But these panels just convey comedy, this situation could even make you laugh. What Kishimoto is telling us through this panels is that we should not take “Naruto’s crush” seriously.
The rivalry Naruto feels towards Sasuke is palpable from this moment. Iruka himself emphasize it making this type of comments.
Naruto transformed into Sasuke because he wants to know what Sakura thinks of him. Remember that Naruto wants to feel accepted so he needs to know that Sakura also accepts him, but she doesn’t. What Sakura is saying in these panels should be heartbreaking for someone who is in love, in this case, “supposedly”, Naruto. But no, that’s not what i see here, instead Naruto (as Sasuke) makes a surprise or neutral face. Are you telling me, that the person you supposedly love say, and behind your back, that you don’t understand her, (which is true, Naruto does not understand Sakura and never will, but I’ll talk about that later) that you ruin everything, that if you’re by her side she will never find happiness, she cannot stand having him by her side at any time, his opinion doesn’t care, the only one that matters is Sasuke’s…Anyway, I think she used VERY HARD words, and Naruto, from my point of view, fits them too well.
Let’s recap: Naruto just found out that Sakura feels angry, unhappy and frustrated everytime Naruto is around her and he doesn’t seem to be, AT ALL, affected by this cruel words, yeah, cruel, but they were honest and the fact that she says this without Naruto being present (that’s what she thinks) makes them even worse because she just doesn’t say those words to hurt Naruto on purpose or because she is angry in a specific moment, no, she is expressing exactly how she feels with a cold mind and under normal circunstances. But Naruto doesn’t care, he isn’t even hurted in the least.
He doesn’t take Sakura’s feelings into account. He doesn’t take her seriously, if he did, he would respect her feelings for Sasuke, or maybe he, unconsciously, thinks that Sakura’s feelings for Sasuke are like his for her? that is, empty, shallow and superficial, and for that reason he doesn’t give them importance and doesn’t respect them?
As I mentioned, he is not seen, at all, affected after the harsh words that Sakura dedicated to him. On the contrary, he smiles and doesn’t care. This is the first demostration of Naruto himself showing that his “crush” for Sakura is empty and childish, because he doesn’t even take his own crush seriously. If you want to really make someone to fall in love with you, you don’t transform into someone else to approach that person, much less try to manipulate her feelings towards you. That is not love. That is immaturity.
Sakura confesses to Sasuke (Naruto) that he is the only one she wants to be with, she would do anything to gain his attention because she has a crush on him. And here we have a first confession, and is SasuSaku.
Naruto feels identified with Sakura, getting attention and respect is something that he wishes too, although in the case of Sakura, just to get Sasuke’s attention. And that’s what he likes about her, but…wait a minute, fighting for respect and trying to get the attention of someone…this reminds me of another person too, doesn’t it?
But this panel with Sakura and the real Sasuke is even more cruel than the previous ones.
(WARNING: SAKURA RANT) I wonder what Naruto would think of Sakura if he had heard about these words. I respect Kishimoto, but, damn…after this, how did he expect Sakura to be a loved character by the fandom? How can anyone want Naruto to be with this girl, especially, taking account his past? We have not gone beyond chapter 4 of the manga and Sakura is already, absolutly, horrible. One of the main characters, that we’re supposed to like, cannot treat so cruelly and be so insensitive to the protagonist. Even Sasuke,his rival, isn’t so cruel to Naruto. Sasuke can be grumpy and serious, but not this…
It’s not until Sasuke reproaches her her attitude that she decides to be nicer to Naruto.
We move to the part where Team 7 is presented and talk about their goals and aspirations. Observe the difference between the dreams of Naruto and Sakura. Let’s see:
Naruto likes ramen and spending time with Iruka, the only person who acknowledged him (that he knows). He reminds us again that his dream is to be hokage so that people recognizes his existence.
And then we have Sakura, whose tastes and dreams are reduced to the same person: Sasuke.
Kishimoto is clearly differentiating the type of crush Naruto has for Sakura, and Sakura’s crush for Sasuke. Naruto not only doesn’t have as a dream to conquer Sakura or nothing like that but he doesn’t even name her as a like. On the other hand, Sakura does consider Sasuke as her dream and goal to reach in her life. Kishimoto is telling us that Sakura’s crush is real and Naruto’s crush is not.
We can also see, once again, how the ‘I hate…Naruto’ from Sakura to Naruto is a comical element. Look at Naruto’s face in the image above…he doesn’t seem hurted in the least.
In the bell test, we can see Sasuke sharing the food with Naruto and then Sakura repeats his action, just because Sasuke did it. Look at Naruto’s face, he couldn’t believe that Sakura was being nice to him for once, even if it’s just to please Sasuke.
And with that i conclude Part 1.
Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5