Naruto Criticism Chapter 2: Sakura Was A Neglected and Undeveloped Female Lead

[-immortal-]

Yes you are false.

Nah m not

 

[Brünhild]

From my blog series which this was the first chapter, but is the second chapter here. This why I say what is in the title. Sakura is one of the worst character in the series, IMO. Up there with Hagoromo, Kaguya, and Obito.

She's a Faux Main Character

One of the biggest problems with Sakura is that she is given the title of main character, when she is actually a side-character. As she is less fleshed than not only Naruto and Sasuke, but also side-characters. As we know nothing about her family and her parents have never appeared in the manga. But we know and have seen Ino's, Shikamaru's, Choji's, Kiba's, Shino's, and Hinata/Neji's family and parents. All who are side-characters, which should not happen if she is the female lead. Even Teten is more more developed than her in terms of career goals. Which was be a ninja like Tsunade, while Sakura states that she doesn't know. Her background is almost a complete blank-slate, that only consists of her relationship with Ino.

Yeah, she doesn't have a nice background neither her parents are known, and this is a pity, but I remember that Kishi said in an interview that he wanted to make Sakura a more human and "normal" character. That's why she doesn't have a tragic and complex background as Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi.

She is also underdeveloped battle-wise. As Naruto and Sasuke developed their skills and abilities outside of their Sanin training and surpassed their mentors. Sakura is nothing more than a Tsunade knock-off. Kishi didn't even capitalized on her genjutsu skills which was hyped in part 1. Nor did she even surpass her mentor, based on the fact that Tsunade was able to heal Shikamaru while she couldn't(she also had kyuubi chakra at the time). She's only played a major role in two battles throughout the entire series, the Sasori and Kaguya fight.

The main reason why people call Sakura useless is that she is a main character that doesn't add anything to the story. There isn't even a story arc centered around her. While even side characters like Shikamaru had an arc focused on him and Hinata is getting one soon. For a main character Sakura is shockingly pointless and is just there to be a pairing fodder.

The fact that she gets compared to characters that get little panel time like Hinata so often is evidence of her failure as a female lead. It means people even see her as an irrelevant side character just like Hinata. As a matter of fact, Kishi originally didn't want Sakura in the story but editors convince him. Sakura really is something that has been forced and shoehorned since the beginning.

I strongly believe that Hinata would have been a better choice for the female member of Team 7. She has a dojutsu similar to Kakashi's. An underdog story like Naruto. Her father paid more attention to her sibling similar to Sasuke. Had great chakra control like the rest of her clan, so can learn everything Tsunade taught Sakura. Sakura also had a talent for Genjutsu which Kurenai was a specialist on, so her and Hinata would have been perfect of opposite teams.

Well, Sakura could have been better explored as a main heroine, and I guess if she had more fights people would respect her more. This was a mistake done by Kishimoto. However, I usually don't judge a character by its label. For example, I judge Sakura's character in general, I don't consider her actions thinking "Oh, this is not how a main heroine should behave". I don't have this kind of prejudice, but if we are going to judge her as a main heroine, yeah, she is not a great main heroine. But I also think that Hinata wouldn't be a better heroine than Sakura. Since Hinata was created before Sakura, I guess Kishimoto was going to make her the main heroine, but maybe he changed his mind because he wanted to give the main heroine a strong reason to help the main hero in saving the anti-hero, since this is the main theme of Shipuuden, so he created Sakura and made her fall in love with him.

A Failure Of A Heroine

Sakura was pretty useless in battle and a damsel in distress in part 1. However, Kishi tries to make Sakura relevant in battle by having her be trained by Tsunade and promising to help Naruto bring Sasuke back instead of being on the sidelines like before. She puts up quite a fight against Sasori, even though it was revealed that the Akatsuki member threw in the towel. But she reverts back to her part 1 status in the Kage Summit Arc, where she knocks out her team (leaving them in enemy territory) to try to kill Sasuke herself and fails because she chokes, becoming a damsel in distress in the process. After which she gives up on her promise and just cries, leaving it all up to Naruto to bring Sasuke back. Kishi gave up on Sakura.

She faltered her resolve because of her love for him, in the same way Sasuke faltered his resolve to kill Naruto in the Valley of the End because of their strong friendship, since bonds in Narutoverse are something almost unbreakable. I guess Kishi's intention in this arc was to shove in our faces again that she was still in love with him.

Spoiler

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If you look at the underlined words in the image above, you'll notice that Kishi states that Sakura had slipped his mind(lol). So Kishi tries to make up for his neglect of Sakura in the War Saga by keeping Naruto alive through plumping his heart and using CPR(which was kinda pointless), but humiliates her soon after by having her tremble at thought of stabbing Madara's eye which leads to the Moon's Eye Plan being completed. This makes becomes a pattern in the War Saga.

The other moments Sakura get are logic defying, which makes her failure stand out even more. For example: Sakura should have died when she blindly charged at Madara leading her to be stabbed by his Yin/Yang rod and becoming a damsel in distress yet again. She shouldn't be able to regenerate from that with her medical ninjutsu since that thing negates ninjutsu as shown by Minato not being able to grow back his arms. But what is really contrived is her power-up and her involvement in the Kaguya fight.

I'll start with her power-up, the Yin Seal. The problem with this is that its a total asspull that makes her look inconsiderate. So she have been storing chakra for three years to make the Yin Seal. Okay Tsunade did this, but the thing here is that she hadn't be in a fight at the time of making the seal like Sakura has. So she was holding back against her fight against Sasori and when Pain attacked the village(crying out for Naruto who pain is after). There was no foreshadow to this at all and its extremely convenient that the Seal was full when the original Team 7 reunited.

There are so many other asspull powers in this manga that I don't even consider this as some asspull. Narujesus flying is one example. Maybe Sakura didn't use her seal before because she wasn't prepared or whatever lol who knows her reasons.

She then says that she caught up with Naruto and Sasuke, no longer needing them to shield her, only to be rescue by them soon after. She goes back to the sidelines again to be amazed by their Six Paths power-ups later. Thus, utterly failing to achieve her goal. This really against the idea that hard work can beat natural talent anytime...

Now there is the Kaguya fight which she got involved in the most illogical ways. First off, why would Sasuke think that Naruto would be affected by Infinite Tsukuyomi? He's seen/told first hand that genjutsu doesn't affect Jinchuuriki and there is no logical way for him to know that his Susanoo can block the genjutsu as even Black Zetsu didn't know that himself. This was just a contrived way to get the original Team 7 to save the world because they are the main characters. If Kishi had used logic Sakura would have been caught in the Genjutsu along with the rest of the world. At least her dream would have ended the pairing wars early because we would know who she truly wanted. lol

Well, she was needed because she was going to save Sasuke form the desert dimension and she also was going to heal their arms later. Kishi also wanted to add some drama and paralleslism with chapter 680, and yeah, mayber because he wanted the main characters to save the world... usual cliche.

In the fight she's mostly just a damsel in distress as usual and gets wet over Sexy Jutsu when the world is in danger, humiliating. Even her moments of shine in the fight are laughable as they make no sense at all. First there is her having enough chakra to make Obito travel through Kaguya's dimensions. The problem with this is that traveling through said dimensions eats away a large amount of Kaguya's chakra, which is basically the entire planet's population and the tailed beast, with natural energy that boosts her chakra level at least 10 fold...So how can Sakura who couldn't even replenish Shikamaru's chakra reserves have enough chakra to make Obito be able to travel through these dimensions multiply times? What an incrediblely force way to make Sakura relevant in a fight.

The reverse sexy no jutsu and Sakura's nosebleed was a comic relief in the middle of war, there's nothing humiliating about this. Her quantity of chakra was indeed a plot hole, but I won't discredit her for the achievement since this manga has a lot of plot holes.

Kishi does this again with Kaguya's defeat which has many plot holes, but I'll just talk about the Sakura one which everyone also calls BS on. Sakura is able to punch Kaguya's horn off and damage her face, making her left cheek swell up...First off this woman tanked nine tailed beast Rasenshuriken without much damage and took a punch from Six Paths Naruto in the face in chapter 682 with only a little bruise, while Sakura was useless against Spiral Zetsu. Not to mention Kaguya was using yin/yang release at the time so her ninjutsu negation ability (which affects both her truth seeking ball and body as shown by Obito) should have been active. Sakura's "super strength" is actually nin-taijutsu(when ninjutsu and taijutsu are combined) where she releases chakra from her fist on contact just like Body Flicker does with the feet which is ninjutsu. So that's another reason why Sakura's punch should have been totally useless.

These desperate and illogical attempts at making Sakura look badass instead make her look even more like a joke to many. As these feats are not accomplished by her skill but sloppy writing like Kakashi running through heavy gravity that holds down god tiers. Its just Kishi saying "look she's relevant!" after forgetting about her. So Kishi has to resort to plot holes to make Sakura relevant. That is just pathetic, IMO.

Kishi forgetting about her is pretty sad, but it's not just Sakura's actions that are full of plot holes and are a sloppy writting, as you said.

But in end Kishi takes a giant dump on her, as she ultimately fails to help Naruto bring Sasuke back like she promised. Naruto is the one that does all the heavy lifting while Sakura just cries and calls herself pathetic. Sakura got trolled.

Well, she didn't played a great hole in his redemption, it's true, but she helped Naruto chase after him and did some nice things. She was the responsible for finding information about Orochimaru, for example, in the beginning of Shipuuden, and allowed their first reunion with Sasuke after 2 years. She also saved him in chapter 685. But I guess she didn't played a major hole in his salvation because it was an issue between brothers, it only could be resolved between Indra's and Ashura's transmigrants. Naruto and Sasuke at the end had godly powers, and Sakura obviously couldn't face and stop Sasuke as Naruto did

She's Unconditional Pairing Character

This is the main reason why many readers hate her as her love for Sasuke surpasses Twilight levels of garbage.

Sakura puts her obsession for Sasuke above everyone else including friends and family, and Kishi even said that her love for him was selfish. First she breaks her friendship Ino who protected her from bullies because she also had a crush on Sasuke. When Sasuke leaves the villages Sakura wants to come with him, leaving her friends and family behind, same thing happens at the end of Shippuden.

Her rivalry with Ino was a childish thing, just like the NaruSasu rivalry (because they both were jealous of each other's power). I guess she was 8 years old when she broke her friendship with Ino because she liked Sasuke too. To be honest, this is a very realistic thing, I can tell you as a girl, at the school I was tired to see two girls fighting over a crush. And yeah, Sakura was being very naive when Sasuke left the village for the first time, she wanted even to join the dark side because of him. But at the second time, I don't think it was a problem, because he wasn't going to join the dark side and his journey wouldn't last forever, it was going to be temporary, so they would come back to Konoha someday.

In Shippuden her obsession with Sasuke is even worse. As chaper 459 states that she would seek vengeance against the Cloud village if they killed Sasuke which would lead to a war. Sasuke Uchiha, whom was a missing-nin and international criminal at the time working with terrorist that plan on killing Naruto. The last time they met Sasuke tried to kill Naruto. Is this guy really worth all of that?

Naruto is even more obsessed with Sasuke than Sakura. She almost gave up on him when she tried to kill him during the Kage Summit arc, but Naruto didn't. Naruto knelt and begged the Raikage for forgiveness of Sasuke, and later even lost an arm for his friend. Naruto is a manga about bonds and to endure through harsh things, the whole point was to saving Sasuke, so if Sakura had gave up on Sasuke it would be pointless as Naruto giving up on his friend too.

This obession even clouds her mind in battle. As When Sasuke tries to kill Team 7 and declares that he will destroy the village, Sakura doesn't kill him when she gets the chance. And in the 4th Great Ninja War she thinks about Sasuke's opinion of her when they are fighting Madara to save the world, wondering if he cares. And this is the killer: Sakura heals Sasuke before even knowing he gave up on his "revolution". The last time she saw him Sasuke declared that he'll kill Naruto and Tsunade. So why is she rushing to save him? The answer is that her obession with Sasuke clouded her mind yet again.

You speak as she just healed Sasuke, and not Naruto too. Even if he had stayed with his idea of revolution, he was incapacitated and wouldn't do anything. If she had left him bleeding till death it would be cruel and totally out of her character. If a criminal is shot and there's a medic around, it's the medic's duty to attend him, even if he is a criminal, for example. It's called ethics.

This unconditional love also doesn't make any sense. She had a crush on him because he was a nice guy to her for like 5 moments in the course of less than half a year. This isn't enough to make her love for Sasuke believable and realistically it should have ended after Sasuke's actions at the hospital fight. It just makes her look like immature woman that can't get over her early adolescent crush to many people.

So, the SasuNaru bond is immature and doesn't make sense too, since Sasuke did things 10 times worse to Naruto. I will repeat again, this manga is about unbreakable bonds. Even if Sasuke has done a lot of shit to Naruto and Sakura, they'll never give up on him. They saw the good side of Sasuke and tied up a bond with him, so that's why they never stopped wanting save him, they would never allow themselves to lose a dear person, who was a broken boy that needed help to get out of the dark side, to the darkness. This story is not real life, it's a story that takes place in a world full of violence, where 12 years old children play with weapons and go to the war. If it was real life, I'm sure that if your best friend wanted to kill you, you would never look at his face again.

Kishi tries to do some damage control in the Kage Summit Arc by having Sakura say that she wants Team 7 to laugh together again. But this was never shown and it feels like Kishi is insulting the reader's intelligence. But it seems like he just flat out gave up later, as chapter 693 has Sasuke saying that there is no reason for Sakura to love him and no character gives a counter-argument to this.

Now Heroes and heroines having flaws isn't a bad thing but this isn't acknowledge as a flaw in story. As Kakashi calls her "sweet girl" for it. And according to spoilers this is what Sakura says in The Last: “I know that feeling.Once you love someone as a little girl,you can never let go of that feeling." Really? Even if they tried to kill you, your friends, and your family like Sasuke tried to do with you? If I was a woman I would be offended by this character...

Again, I answered this matter right above.

She just sends the worst moral message to readers I have ever seen in a manga. Just latch on to the pretty boy and endure abuse, because one day he'll stop and you'll finally have him to yourself. That's why Sakura is the worse character in this series in my book.

Her message fits perfectly in the manga context: bonds and never give up on your dear ones. If the message she sends is the worst moral message to the readers, so the message Naruto sends is the worst too, because Sasuke tried to kill him four times, insulted him many times, severaly injured him at the point the guy was hospitalized...but even so Naruto never gave up on him, he never intended to kill him as Sakura did, he even lost an arm for Sasuke. I know that Sakura isn't the best heroine, but she isn't the worst character. Some points of your criticism are valid, as Kishi neglecting her for some time or not giving her a big relevance in the main events of the story, but I don't agree with most of your arguments, specially the ones regarding her love for Sasuke. It may be your opinion, but saying that she is the worst character is not fair to me.

 

[Koshej]

Like I said in another thread, Sakura has nothing UNIQUE to herself (that hasn't been already attributed to Tsunade or even MORE people).
She could very well be a Zetsu clone - and it would make NO difference whatsoever.
The WORST "main character" EVER - exactly due to THAT.

 

[Natsu Shazneel]

Like I said in another thread, Sakura has nothing UNIQUE to herself (that hasn't been already attributed to Tsunade or even MORE people).
She could very well be a Zetsu clone - and it would make NO difference whatsoever.
The WORST "main character" EVER - exactly due to THAT.

So true. Lol

 

[Koshej]

I know.
Which makes the fact that so many people like her OVER Hinata, really SAD...

 

[MAN OF SIN]

Yeah, she doesn't have a nice background neither her parents are known, and this is a pity, but I remember that Kishi said in an interview that he wanted to make Sakura a more human and "normal" character. That's why she doesn't have a tragic and complex background as Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi.

She doesn't need to have a tragic backstory. But obviously had issues with her parents that could have been elaborated on.

Spoiler

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And most of the K11 don't have tragic past, yet we knew their families...

She faltered her resolve because of her love for him, in the same way Sasuke faltered his resolve to kill Naruto in the Valley of the End because of their strong friendship, since bonds in Narutoverse are something almost unbreakable. I guess Kishi's intention in this arc was to shove in our faces again that she was still in love with him.

Difference between her and Sasuke is that she was putting others in danger.

There are so many other asspull powers in this manga that I don't even consider this as some asspull. Narujesus flying is one example. Maybe Sakura didn't use her seal before because she wasn't prepared or whatever lol who knows her reasons.

Naruto flying isn't really an asspull when you look at the Juubi jins.

Well, she was needed because she was going to save Sasuke form the desert dimension and she also was going to heal their arms later. Kishi also wanted to add some drama and paralleslism with chapter 680, and yeah, mayber because he wanted the main characters to save the world... usual cliche.

I'm critizing the way he did it.

The reverse sexy no jutsu and Sakura's nosebleed was a comic relief in the middle of war, there's nothing humiliating about this. Her quantity of chakra was indeed a plot hole, but I won't discredit her for the achievement since this manga has a lot of plot holes.

It was comic relief but it still made her look pathetic, just like with Kaguya. Even Killer B resisted Sexy Justu and he isn't gay as he was checking out Yugito's tits.

Kishi forgetting about her is pretty sad, but it's not just Sakura's actions that are full of plot holes and are a sloppy writting, as you said.

I think the only reason why she was awesome in the Gaara rescue arc was because of Kishi's first editor.

Well, she didn't played a great hole in his redemption, it's true, but she helped Naruto chase after him and did some nice things. She was the responsible for finding information about Orochimaru, for example, in the beginning of Shipuuden, and allowed their first reunion with Sasuke after 2 years. She also saved him in chapter 685. But I guess she didn't played a major hole in his salvation because it was an issue between brothers, it only could be resolved between Indra's and Ashura's transmigrants. Naruto and Sasuke at the end had godly powers, and Sakura obviously couldn't face and stop Sasuke as Naruto did

Hence why I said she got trolled. Kishi humiliated her with that.

Her rivalry with Ino was a childish thing, just like the NaruSasu rivalry (because they both were jealous of each other's power). I guess she was 8 years old when she broke her friendship with Ino because she liked Sasuke too. To be honest, this is a very realistic thing, I can tell you as a girl, at the school I was tired to see two girls fighting over a crush. And yeah, Sakura was being very naive when Sasuke left the village for the first time, she wanted even to join the dark side because of him. But at the second time, I don't think it was a problem, because he wasn't going to join the dark side and his journey wouldn't last forever, it was going to be temporary, so they would come back to Konoha someday.

According to Kishi Sasuke is trying to found out more about Kaguya so Sakura was going to be with Sasuke for a very long time. Sasuke doesn't even visit the village for Naruto's wedding.

Naruto is even more obsessed with Sasuke than Sakura. She almost gave up on him when she tried to kill him during the Kage Summit arc, but Naruto didn't. Naruto knelt and begged the Raikage for forgiveness of Sasuke, and later even lost an arm for his friend. Naruto is a manga about bonds and to endure through harsh things, the whole point was to saving Sasuke, so if Sakura had gave up on Sasuke it would be pointless as Naruto giving up on his friend too.

This isn't about Naruto and I have already said in this topic that I will jump in his ass later.

You speak as she just healed Sasuke, and not Naruto too. Even if he had stayed with his idea of revolution, he was incapacitated and wouldn't do anything. If she had left him bleeding till death it would be cruel and totally out of her character. If a criminal is shot and there's a medic around, it's the medic's duty to attend him, even if he is a criminal, for example. It's called ethics.

Sasuke still could have dangerous and absorb her chakra like did with Naruto.

She is a Shinobi who has been trained to kill enemies even when they are done. Did she heal Kazuku after Naruto wrecked him?

So, the SasuNaru bond is immature and doesn't make sense too, since Sasuke did things 10 times worse to Naruto. I will repeat again, this manga is about unbreakable bonds. Even if Sasuke has done a lot of shit to Naruto and Sakura, they'll never give up on him. They saw the good side of Sasuke and tied up a bond with him, so that's why they never stopped wanting save him, they would never allow themselves to lose a dear person, who was a broken boy that needed help to get out of the dark side, to the darkness. This story is not real life, it's a story that takes place in a world full of violence, where 12 years old children play with weapons and go to the war. If it was real life, I'm sure that if your best friend wanted to kill you, you would never look at his face again.

When did I ever say that SasuNaru's bond was good? I think it's also forced.

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Even in the Narutoverse we had Hashirama and Tsunade being willing to kill their former allies.

Her message fits perfectly in the manga context: bonds and never give up on your dear ones. If the message she sends is the worst moral message to the readers, so the message Naruto sends is the worst too, because Sasuke tried to kill him four times, insulted him many times, severaly injured him at the point the guy was hospitalized...but even so Naruto never gave up on him, he never intended to kill him as Sakura did, he even lost an arm for Sasuke. I know that Sakura isn't the best heroine, but she isn't the worst character. Some points of your criticism are valid, as Kishi neglecting her for some time or not giving her a big relevance in the main events of the story, but I don't agree with most of your arguments, specially the ones regarding her love for Sasuke. It may be your opinion, but saying that she is the worst character is not fair to me.

Again, I think Naruto sucks as well.

 

[1Told]

my book said the same as yours

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[Little My]

Sakura haters still grasping at straws even after the Manga has ended. It's really sad that they can't move on, they can't bear to part from Sakura.

 

[Koshej]

I liked Sakura in Part One.
Then, I encountered the Hinata-haters who fap at Sakura, which made me look closer into Sakura's character or lack thereof.
Then, Kishi kept making her worse and worse with each appearance.
I blame Sakura's epic failure solely on Kishi.

 

[paratise]

Okay I'm done reading. Due to receiving my infractions, I have to be cautious of what I'm doing, so the only things I can say is that Kishi obviously trolled Sakura hard. I believe that Hinata was always planned to be the main heroin from the start because Hinata was one of the first female character to be drawn and if you compare this series to Mario which his older series, there's obviously strong parallelism between the two.

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It's funny how we got in this trailer,SP made Sakura complaining to Hinata being in the main heroin out of thin blue.

Spoiler

Love interest =/= main heroine.

I know.
Which makes the fact that so many people like her OVER Hinata, really SAD...

Why doe?

OT: She is pretty bad. But not useless.

 

[flay012995]

I liked Sakura in Part One.
Then, I encountered the Hinata-haters who fap at Sakura, which made me look closer into Sakura's character or lack thereof.
Then, Kishi kept making her worse and worse with each appearance.
I blame Sakura's epic failure solely on Kishi.

Well, Kishi's a jerk for this. He should have made Hinata a main character if he wanted to.

 

[Koshej]

@flay
I seriously blame Kishi for ruining Sakura - it doesn't look like "his inability to develop female characters" AT ALL.
If THAT was REAL, I'd never become such a huge Hinata-fan exactly DUE to HER CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, ya know.
I dunno what beef he had with her, but he did this ON PURPOSE 9000%.

 

[MAN OF SIN]

Sakura haters still grasping at straws even after the Manga has ended. It's really sad that they can't move on, they can't bear to part from Sakura.

There is no hate here. Just valid crictisms on why she is poorly written. This is no different than review a bad movie after it is over.

OT: She is pretty bad. But not useless.

Never really said she was useless.

 

[KingHashirama]

I don't see where she became the "main heroine"..

 

[MAN OF SIN]

I don't see where she became the "main heroine"..

According to Kishi she was.

 

[Koshej]

The same Kishi who QUOTE: "Forgot about her"???
LOOOL!!!

 

[KingHashirama]

According to Kishi she was.

"was", but not anymore.

I think you should've made the thread on Obito/Kakashi taking too much time away from other characters who could've made the series a bit better.

 

[MAN OF SIN]

"was", but not anymore.

I think you should've made the thread on Obito/Kakashi taking too much time away from other characters who could've made the series a bit better.

Yes "was". Because the main story is over.

 

[KingHashirama]

Yes "was". Because the main story is over.

Well, then Kishimoto surely didn't make her into a main heroine. X_X.

But you should make a thread on Itachi/Kakashi/Obito taking too much screen time.

 

[Natsu Shazneel]

Man of Sins I am not your dad. But do Naruto next. I am interested in knowing your point of view of why he sucks.