Sunday 26 November, 2006
...why Naruto is awsome
I was going to go to Jesse's yoga this afternoon, but it was snowing outside (yeah!) and just when we were about to finish our phone call with Chu we got into a deep philosophical discussion about why Naruto is awesome.
We call these "Why Naruto fillers suck, but we love the show anyway" meetings. You see at the moment, and for the past year and a half or so, Naruto anime has been consisting what's called fillers: the anime ran out of original manga material, so while waiting for more manga to be written by Kishimoto Studio Pierrot who animates Naruto has come up with their own storylines. And they suck, they suck so much it hurts to just think about it. There is absolutely no point to these episodes - they take place in a very limited time frame, and because Kishimoto has already defined what's going to happen later in the story they can't really do any character or story development. Best episodes are passable at best, and worst ones make you wish you'd die in a fire... we're now running at 70+ episodes of fillers.
Luckily, this is changing in the spring. Kishimoto finally revealed in this week's Shounen Jump magazine that this spring would see a new Naruto series, titled Naruto: Shippuu-den or Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles as it's already known by the fans, and this series is indeed coming back to the manga storyline which takes place almost three years after the original series (hence the picture on the right - old Naruto and the new time-jump Naruto, scan from this week's Shounen Jump). This is the best news of the week, hell, best news of the month. Kishimoto's original manga is so stupendously good, and my eyes bleed every time time I "have" to watch the crap that they call Naruto right now...
Thing is, Naruto is my number one fandom at the moment. This series works in so many levels, and I'm just going to leave out the most obvious one which people always see the first, the action and the ninja battles. Sure, it's one of it's appeals, but the emotional content is so much more important. There are some main themes that are so important to me that the series handles so delicately - my personal favourite being loyalty. Especially Naruto's desperate loyalty towards his friend Sasuke and the apparent futility of it, it resonates with me because I recognize in emotional level many things in that relationship in my own life. There are numerous stories about personal bravery and learning to trust people, like how Neji who finds that life is what you make it, or Rock Lee who believes that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. Chu had a lovely allegory about Naruto being a story about healing, and that too is in the very heart of the series - how people who've had bad cards dealt in the beginning can overcome them, and that it's never too late to heal. About how you don't have to be alone, how important other people are in your life.
Very important themes, and very important stories.
Posted by kolibri at 26 November 16:15, 2006Surprisingly, besides healing, one of the themes that resonates with me the most is the "sins of the fathers", ie. parents and children, and the damage that can be inflicted.
In Naruto, not much is said about the "normal" families and their "normal" offspring (such as Ino-Shika-Cho, Kiba or Sakura). In the center of the story (at least so far) are the broken ones:
there's Naruto who grew up without parents, the Hyuuga clan with their rivalries and predestined positions, Sasuke and the Uchiha clan tragedy, even Kakashi... and then there's the most horrifying and heartbreaking example of Gaara.
In these cases, parents seem compelled to pass on the worst in their heritage to their children, for their childrens' loss. When parents lack the wisdom, foresight, courage, love, leniency - whatever is needed in any given case - their children pay the price manyfold. And the vicious circle goes on. One could argue that as results of their own upbringing the parents don't have much choice - but surely there's something that can be done to make the change?
--
In my mind, both healing and sins of the fathers are part of a more complex weave of breaking free from the past and finding your own truth.
Very central in Naruto.
Very important, very fitting.
# 2 - kolibri
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(on December 1, 2006 11:50 AM): Ah, so well put. There's a reason my new iPod has "my way of the ninja" engraved to it (...and is called "Hinata" but that's another matter ;).
I would like to add another worthy theme, which is courage. Again, very much intertwined into healing and sins of the fathers - courage to look at your life and make it what you want it to be. For Naruto it's being true to yourself and sticking by your own convictions, no matter the outside pressure. One of my favorites is Tsunade whose story is probably one of the most realistic ones - she needs to stop living in the past and face what mess her life is, own up, and take responsibility again which she hasn't done in years. Painful and so courageous. I've already mentioned Neji and Rock Lee. One of my least favorite characters, Sakura, is also a fine example - in her case she's lead a sheltered life and doesn't have a clue about the real world, real problems or indeed real feelings although she thinks she has. But when push comes to shove she can step up and take control, and we'll be seeing this kind of development a lot more in Naruto: HC (where she'll graduate from a useless female mask character into a real meaningful person).
# 3 - Chu (on December 12, 2006 03:47 AM):
True, true! Courage, taking responsibility, determination. The Will of Fire. Tsunade rises to the occasion beautifully, and I believe Sakura will, too.
In my mind, Hinata and Shikamaru serve as other examples, as she - although shy in real life - is fearless and determined in battle, and he has had to take on a lot of responsibility lately.
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An afterthought: one character who truly epitomises courage and responsibility (among other things!) to me is Sarutobi Hokage-sama. His way is different from the children: gentler, wiser, sadder and more mature.
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