Sakura’s characterization in Naruto is undoubtedly Masashi Kishimoto’s Achilles’ heel. The accolades and the success sing praises of the mangaka’s genius, but his portrayal of female characters is arguably the worst among the Big Three anime. There have been numerous discussions about the female characters in Naruto and how they pale in comparison to their male counterparts.
Sakura is always the center of such heated discussions as one of the main characters. While Kishimoto’s version of the character is far from perfect, it’s not as flawed or unlikable as Studio Pierrot made it out to be in the anime. From the beginning, Sakura starts out on a rough note in the anime, as fans explained during a discussion.
Fans highlight how Sakura was sidelined from the get-go
At the beginning of Naruto, Sakura was introduced as one of the main characters. Her strength was her incredible learning ability initially, and as the story progressed, she trained hard to become physically strong. Moreover, she even learned Medical Ninjutsu to help during battles.
Even though her journey was incredible, the execution was extremely poor as she was often overshadowed by Naruto and Sasuke. A Reddit discussion pointed out the various aspects that weighed her down as a character and even die-hard Sakura fans chimed in with their opinions.
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Sakura was primarily hated for her lack of development and importance in the story. Her character arc was reduced to her affection for Sasuke or her interactions with Naruto. Both these aspects weren’t handled well and presented her character in a negative light. Sakura now defines bad female characters for anime fans.
This is one aspect where Naruto will never be able to compare with One Piece. Even though the female characters in One Piece have one major flaw, they have great character arcs. Even side characters like Big Mom and Boa Hancock are among the strongest.
Robin and Nami, who are central characters have a parallel growth with the other characters, unlike how Sakura gets sidelined for Naruto and Sasuke to flourish. While Masashi Kishimoto gets endlessly criticized for his treatment of Sakura, most of the moments that put her at the receiving end of intense backlash were anime-exclusive.
Studio Pierrot’s version of Sakura is a huge reason behind the hate parade
The anime version of Sakura and the manga counterpart were extremely different. In the manga, Sakura was a better friend to Naruto and punched him a lot less. So, the punches fulfilled the comedic purposes they were intended for in the manga. Whereas her repeatedly punching Naruto got overbearing after a point in the anime.
Moreover, she was always concerned about Naruto in the manga, whether it was during the first few fights they fought as a team or when Sasuke left the village. Studio Pierrot removed such scenes from the anime, showing her to be somewhat indifferent towards Naruto. These anime original additions and omissions made her one of the most hated anime characters.
Naruto is available to stream on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
