Why are the naruto characters so under developed?

JIRAIYA perv

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so you want the characters to have more layers .... i don't think it is possible in a series that revolves around fighting (action) otherwise it will be extremely long (silly). kishi gave us enough to know about each character (the main things) and how much we get to see depends on how important the character is in the story. most of what happens in naruto is when the characters are about to fight, in the middle of a fight or after a fight (worried about the next fight lol) and what they fight for. what you wana see could be found in another genre ..... the series is good the way it is.
 

enuzuki

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so you want the characters to have more layers .... i don't think it is possible in a series that revolves around fighting (action) otherwise it will be extremely long (silly). kishi gave us enough to know about each character (the main things) and how much we get to see depends on how important the character is in the story. most of what happens in naruto is when the characters are about to fight, in the middle of a fight or after a fight (worried about the next fight lol) and what they fight for. what you wana see could be found in another genre ..... the series is good the way it is.
o

I get that Naruto is a shonen jump Manga and they can only really be so deep, but what i want is a little more focus to the other characters, and with that the development follows...And i also know that i seem pessimistic towards Naruto on this thread, but i do love it and appreciate it for what it is, i just really wish we all could have a bit more.
 

JIRAIYA perv

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o

I get that Naruto is a shonen jump Manga and they can only really be so deep, but what i want is a little more focus to the other characters, and with that the development follows...And i also know that i seem pessimistic towards Naruto on this thread, but i do love it and appreciate it for what it is, i just really wish we all could have a bit more.

i understand where your coming from, and i can't deny you a + rep for a nice thread :p butlike i said before this series focuses only of the characters that have an impact in the story, so like another member said it focuses mainly on naruto and sasuke's development, since where they were and where they are headed is the hall show.
 
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KGB Kakuzu

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It isn't as much as one note characters as much as the character haven't been followed up at all. Take Hinata. Her shy and gentle nature is her natural nature. Because her family that was supposed to love her degraded her as trash because she had no natural talent...she had no confidence, but Naruto helped her change. Problem is...after getting beat by Neji she hasn't even appeared in the story except to use her Byakugan while looking for Sasuke, and getting one shotted (manga) by Pain. During the war the Second Division basically didn't exist just like the Fifth division (we saw litterally nothing of these two divisions fighting). Because Hinata was in the second division...we didn't see her do anything. Helping aim the Mind Body Transfer tech has been the biggest thing she has done since reassuring Naruto that he was strong just before he fought Neji :'(...

Hinata actually has a descent ammount of character to her, but she doesn't appear enough, and she doesn't show any new techniques. It is dissapointing considering she is one of my favorite characters lol.

In your example, Shikamaru has had more developement compared to many K11 members. While his background is more of a regular person. He shows constant growth up until the war. He starts off as a lazy kid. After the Chunin exams he shows his intellect and becomes a Chunin, and shows nefound leadership with the Sasuke retrieval arc. Further on we see grief in Shikimaru when Asuma is killed and we see new variations to the shadow mimic technique in that he can use it to stab people now. In the war he acts as the second in command to Gaara's division, and is seen stopping not only Kinkaku, but Obito as well (untill he is almost ghetto stomped by the Gedo Mazo). Overall, Shikamaru has actually shown growth as a person and as a Shinobi ^.^...

Basically the more screnetime a character has, the more we notice their personality growth and more techniques!
 

enuzuki

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It isn't as much as one note characters as much as the character haven't been followed up at all. Take Hinata. Her shy and gentle nature is her natural nature. Because her family that was supposed to love her degraded her as trash because she had no natural talent...she had no confidence, but Naruto helped her change. Problem is...after getting beat by Neji she hasn't even appeared in the story except to use her Byakugan while looking for Sasuke, and getting one shotted (manga) by Pain. During the war the Second Division basically didn't exist just like the Fifth division (we saw litterally nothing of these two divisions fighting). Because Hinata was in the second division...we didn't see her do anything. Helping aim the Mind Body Transfer tech has been the biggest thing she has done since reassuring Naruto that he was strong just before he fought Neji :'(...

Hinata actually has a descent ammount of character to her, but she doesn't appear enough, and she doesn't show any new techniques. It is dissapointing considering she is one of my favorite characters lol.

In your example, Shikamaru has had more developement compared to many K11 members. While his background is more of a regular person. He shows constant growth up until the war. He starts off as a lazy kid. After the Chunin exams he shows his intellect and becomes a Chunin, and shows nefound leadership with the Sasuke retrieval arc. Further on we see grief in Shikimaru when Asuma is killed and we see new variations to the shadow mimic technique in that he can use it to stab people now. In the war he acts as the second in command to Gaara's division, and is seen stopping not only Kinkaku, but Obito as well (untill he is almost ghetto stomped by the Gedo Mazo). Overall, Shikamaru has actually shown growth as a person and as a Shinobi ^.^...

Basically the more screnetime a character has, the more we notice their personality growth and more techniques!


I appreciate your unbiased input. You summed up pretty much what i was thinking, as i said to Jaraiya perve(awesome name by the way) With more screen time they would develop, i would have loved to watch them try to get over the destruction pain did, you know? The little things, that's really what makes a character.
 

MartinRico

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Shikamaru and to a lesser extent, the rest of team 10 had their own stories:Asuma's death and reanimation. Why didn't Kishi give us chapters for the rest. I was always waiting for chapters of Team Gai, but never got any. If you're going to introduce characters don't just go and throw them away.
 

enuzuki

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Shikamaru and to a lesser extent, the rest of team 10 had their own stories:Asuma's death and reanimation. Why didn't Kishi give us chapters for the rest. I was always waiting for chapters of Team Gai, but never got any. If you're going to introduce characters don't just go and throw them away.


I'm glad we see eye to eye. :D
 

fastrthnwind

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I've always wanted to say something very close to this and I agree with you. While it is good to see the main characters getting developed since the story revolves around them, it would also be good to see some of the more important minor characters see some development. more so after the time skip of course since in part 1 they were introduced and given some backstory for us to go with, making them a bit more than the average supporting character.

Shikamaru is actually the perfect example of a minor character who has received proper development and has been consistently shown throughout the manga as the lazy genius who is beginning to exhibit his full potential. Chouji and ino have also had significant growth, though not as much as shikamaru, and have recently started to show some more development after their encounter with edo asuma. I wish it could be said for the rest of the K11 , but sadly, they have yet to be given enough screen time to reflect their growth.
 
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enuzuki

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I've always wanted to say something very close to this and I agree with you. While it is good to see the main characters getting developed since the story revolves around them, it would also be good to see some of the more important minor characters see some development. more so after the time skip of course since in part 1 they were introduced and given some backstory for us to go with, making them a bit more than the average supporting character.

Shikamaru is actually the perfect example of a minor character who has received proper development and has been consistently shown throughout the manga as the lazy genius who is beginning to exhibit his full potential. Chouji and ino have also had significant growth, though not as much as shikamaru, and have recently started to show some more development after their encounter with edo asuma. I wish it could be said for the rest of the K11 , but sadly, they have yet to be given enough screen time to reflect their growth.


Well, thanks. Somehow i was sure i was going to get absolutely burned. Thankfully i wasn't, and i appreciate the input of all of the people who commented...Except for "ispeak the truth" He's kinda of a elitist jerk.
 

fastrthnwind

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Well, thanks. Somehow i was sure i was going to get absolutely burned. Thankfully i wasn't, and i appreciate the input of all of the people who commented...Except for "ispeak the truth" He's kinda of a elitist jerk.

Most people favorite characters happen to be the side characters or someone who is considered uber powerful. The people, like me, who's favorite are side characters want more development for their characters while the other people fave chars have plenty and keep getting more powerful and it makes them think that any other characters who aren't powerful irrelevant to the story. ispeak the truths happens to be the latter of course.

Btw, bet you can guess my favorite :D
 

enuzuki

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Most people favorite characters happen to be the side characters or someone who is considered uber powerful. The people, like me, who's favorite are side characters want more development for their characters while the other people fave chars have plenty and keep getting more powerful and it makes them think that any other characters who aren't powerful irrelevant to the story. ispeak the truths happens to be the latter of course.

Btw, bet you can guess my favorite :D

Hmm...It's really hard, give me a sec...Is it Neji? XD

Try guessing mine...
 

fastrthnwind

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Hmm...It's really hard, give me a sec...Is it Neji? XD

Try guessing mine...

WRONG!!! JK yea it is. xd

I'm not exactly sure about yours. I'm gonna guess that might be from K11?
 

enuzuki

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WRONG!!! JK yea it is. xd

I'm not exactly sure about yours. I'm gonna guess that might be from K11?

Well, i'll just tell you...My favorite character is...Shikamaru! He's great, he's lazy smart guy that does just enough work to get by.
 

fastrthnwind

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Well, i'll just tell you...My favorite character is...Shikamaru! He's great, he's lazy smart guy that does just enough work to get by.

I had a gut feeling at actually said shikamaru for some reason. I shoulda went with that xd

My personality is basically mirrored by Neji and I love all of his jutsus and fighting style. My favorite jutsu is, of course eight trigrams palm rotation. It's quite underrated as an absolute defense IMO.
 

Itachi Edo

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As a writer you have to have some characters that are simply flat which Kishi had to do with the K11 since he's focused this more on team 7, after Kakashi's current build up Kishi's said Sakura is next.

The purpose for the villans is to prove not everyone is truly evil, and it also on a small level creates sympthay for Sasuke.

Looks like he started to go that direction with Neji, but with such a large cast it's going to take too long to develop each of them into round characters and would compromise the story he wants to tell. Only the ones similar to team 7 (Team Hiruzen and Team Minato) were given a whole lot of development b/c of their similarites to team 7 for story purposes.
 
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