Personally, it really isn't hard to make a good strong female character imo. How hard is it to dream up your dream girl and throw her in there with a few good powers? Are you afraid she is going to surpass the main character? Is it that she isn't like the 'typical female' you are accustomed to? I think Kishi needs to his head out of the 1960's portrayal of women and think of the 21st century. Imo, his excuse of making terrible female characters is irrelevant due to the fact that he has created Konan, Mei Terumi, Kushina and Tsunade. All perfectly strong females capable of handling their own. He made them all good, so why does he have a problem with the others ESPECIALLY his main heroine? I find it hard to believe that he says he has this problem with women when he is also married (unless his wife is the traditional 'typical Japanese woman'). I think in the back of his mind he is purposely pulling them down to make sure it stays a shonen manga, that being aimed at young boys. Though personally, if I were a boy, I would love to see some strong decent looking girl characters in there that are attractive. Wouldn't any guy? So I guess this is the problem I have with his statement regarding the female gender. It's not like ALL of his girl characters suck, so I think he is making an 'excuse' if you will in some ways to possibly hide the fact that he can be a little sexist due to the fact he grew up in those times. Most manga-ka are, but I think he needs to move on and get with the modern age personally. Probably wouldn't have so much hate mail on Sakura if he just made her like "Konan" or "Mei"