If you think Kakashi reads porn, you’ve only watched Naruto through TikTok videos.
[An other long post because this is one of those misconceptions again that take me out.]
There is a difference between a running gag and a character flaw. And somewhere along the way, fandom decided to collapse that difference... which honestly makes me a little sad.
Yes, Kakashi reads the Icha Icha series written by Jiraiya. That is canon.
But what those books are, and how the narrative frames them, matters a lot.
So let's look at them - what they are:
They are adult romance novels.
They are text-based fiction (yes, with erotica in them, but also with plot, emotional arcs, longing, and melodrama woven into the story.) They are publicly sold and serialized.
They are treated in the Naruto universe as mildly embarrassing comedy.
They are not depicted as graphic magazines (everything's based on the reader's imagination)
They are not framed as moral corruption hidden behind a cute cover.
They are not presented as something dark or predatory (They really aren't)
The joke about the books is simple.
Kakashi reads them at the worst possible times - during missions, during conversations, in moments that demand seriousness.
The humor comes from the contrast: An elite, battle-hardened jonin calmly holding a smutty romance novel while chaos unfolds around him.
Not that he’s depraved. Not that he’s secretly sick. Not that he’s a predator.
If that were the intent, the framing would be entirely different.
Canon even reinforces how harmless they are.
When Naruto returns from training with Jiraiya after three years, he brings Kakashi the newest volume of the Icha Icha series as a gift.He also penly admits that what’s inside the book is boring. He says he doesn’t understand why Kakashi likes it. But he gives it to him anyway, because he knows Kakashi enjoys reading them.
And what's also important is that:
He isn’t disgusted. He isn’t scandalized. He isn’t disturbed by the content - and he clearly knows it to some extent.
If these books were meant to signal predatory behavior, the narrative would not treat them this way. Naruto, the teenage protagonist, would not casually hand one over with mild annoyance and a shrug.
The story frames Kakashi's reading habits as a character quirk. Nothing less, nothing more.
And from the Kakashi retsuren novels we also get to know that he genuinely enjoys reading in general... these books just happen to be his favorites.
Then there’s how Kakashi relates to women based purely on what we actually see in the canon materials.
(Yes, i do consider the novels canon as Kishimoto supervised them.)
Not just formally as Hokage, but genuinely. He listens to her. He trusts her judgment. There is no condescension in how he speaks to her.
He is consistently kind to Sakura.
He mentors her seriously. He protects her. He acknowledges her growth. He takes her potential seriously - not as "the girl on the team," but as a capable fighter and medic.
What Kakashi carries for Rin lasts a lifetime. It shapes him in his youth, haunts him for years, and follows him into adulthood.
Even after a long while, even when his trauma becomes integrated and quieter - he still remembers her, but now from a place of quiet acceptance.
He never makes sexual comments toward them.
He never disrespects women because they are women.
He never treats women as inherently weaker or lesser.
There is no canon moment where Kakashi belittles a woman’s capability simply because she is female. There is no casual sexism. No entitlement. Nothing.
His “Icha Icha” gag never spills into how he interacts with actual women in his life. The boundary is absolute there.
And when you move into post-war canon - Kakashi Hiden - the direction becomes even clearer.
His romantic interest there is not naive. He doesn't fall for a young and easily influenced women or someone who would be dazzled by his power.
He quietly falls to a mature woman, who is politically competent, emotionally complex, carries her own trauma and strong in her own right.
If Kakashi were written as a shallow pervert archetype, that would not be the narrative choice in the novel either.
Instead, he is drawn to someone who mirrors him in depth and resilience, to an equal in age, experience, and strength.
That is why reducing Kakashi Hatake to a “funny porn addict” ignores the framing, the consistency of his behavior, and the emotional depth of his character.
If we’re going to critique characters, let’s critique what is actually there.
Because canon Kakashi is many things: mildly detached, grieving, guarded, sarcastic, deeply loyal, profoundly shaped by trauma.
That’s a ridiculously wrong fandom take.
And if his only "perversion" is reading smutty romance novels publicly without harming anyone, without disrespecting anyone, without objectifying the women in his life? Then that says more about how fandom chooses to frame him than about how he is actually written.
Especially when you consider who Kakashi is early in the series.
He is carrying unresolved trauma. He is living with active survivor’s guilt. He is emotionally isolated because he avoids connection out of fear of loss.
It is not unreasonable to read his attachment to those romance novels as escapism - as longing filtered through distance. Stories about connection, intimacy, and emotional closeness consumed safely on a page.
For someone struggling with intimacy because of complex PTSD, that interpretation makes far more narrative sense than the caricature people reduce him to.
You can dislike the gag. That's fair. You can critique Kishimoto’s humor.
But turning Kakashi into a meme about porn addiction isn’t all right.
It’s a wild fan take that collapses nuance for the sake of exaggeration.
And Kakashi - as he is written - deserves much better than that.
Sorry again for posting such a long take on this one, but my nerves catch on fire when i hear someone casually calls him a pervert because they were too lazy to actually get to know the story and the narrative around the character.
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