Best female written character
- Thread starter AllHailLordZeustsu
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Amazeballs
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1. Sarada: She is fairly complex, with a complete arc centered around her. While the two main protagonists (Naruto/Sasuke) are each relevant in the arc, neither overshadows Sarada's own development, and she ends up becoming her own character after meeting both of our main "guys."
2. Tsunade: She is allowed to be a badass in her own right. She represents the Will of Fire on behalf of all of the (male) Hokages who came before her, and did so proudly.
3. Sakura: Despite all of her shortcomings (many of which reflect badly on Kishi's ability to write female characters), Sakura happens to be one of the more developed female characters in Naruto. If you "read into" her character development, she can seem fairly complex. Even though she never reached the level of awesomeness that her male Team 7 counterparts achieved, this can be chalked up to the fact that she wasn't an Ashura/Indra descendant. She didn't have any Bijuu/Doujutsu, and yet she fought beside her comrades, even against Kaguya. Honestly, she's fairly impressive in combat, even if her inexplicable infatuation with Sasuke was never fully developed.
4. Kushina: She's just a fun character; seeing her made us instantly recognize where Naruto got his personality/charisma. She's tough, upbeat, and has more guts than any of the other girls in the series. It's too bad Naruto never fully inherited her badass Uzumaki genes; those chakra chains are cool!
It's too bad that Kushina was reduced to being a housewife in all of her later panels; I think Kishi just goes overboard portraying his ninjas' "off-duty" life as being too casual, and so succumbs to forcing his characters into his perceived "traditional" modern day roles. Hokage Naruto types away on a keyboard; Sakura has an apron and a feather duster; basically, the characters cease being ninjas as soon as the plot no longer requires them to act as such. I guess it's not so bad; there's nothing wrong, per se, with being exclusively a stay-at-home mom... it's just that many of us fans would prefer to see "respectable" female characters in more "dignified" roles, even "off-duty." In the end, Kushina still died so that Naruto could live, and was able to restrain the complete Kyuubi even after having the Bijuu extracted from her; that far exceeds Naruto's capabilities after having the Bijuu ripped out of him by Madara.
2. Tsunade: She is allowed to be a badass in her own right. She represents the Will of Fire on behalf of all of the (male) Hokages who came before her, and did so proudly.
3. Sakura: Despite all of her shortcomings (many of which reflect badly on Kishi's ability to write female characters), Sakura happens to be one of the more developed female characters in Naruto. If you "read into" her character development, she can seem fairly complex. Even though she never reached the level of awesomeness that her male Team 7 counterparts achieved, this can be chalked up to the fact that she wasn't an Ashura/Indra descendant. She didn't have any Bijuu/Doujutsu, and yet she fought beside her comrades, even against Kaguya. Honestly, she's fairly impressive in combat, even if her inexplicable infatuation with Sasuke was never fully developed.
4. Kushina: She's just a fun character; seeing her made us instantly recognize where Naruto got his personality/charisma. She's tough, upbeat, and has more guts than any of the other girls in the series. It's too bad Naruto never fully inherited her badass Uzumaki genes; those chakra chains are cool!
It's too bad that Kushina was reduced to being a housewife in all of her later panels; I think Kishi just goes overboard portraying his ninjas' "off-duty" life as being too casual, and so succumbs to forcing his characters into his perceived "traditional" modern day roles. Hokage Naruto types away on a keyboard; Sakura has an apron and a feather duster; basically, the characters cease being ninjas as soon as the plot no longer requires them to act as such. I guess it's not so bad; there's nothing wrong, per se, with being exclusively a stay-at-home mom... it's just that many of us fans would prefer to see "respectable" female characters in more "dignified" roles, even "off-duty." In the end, Kushina still died so that Naruto could live, and was able to restrain the complete Kyuubi even after having the Bijuu extracted from her; that far exceeds Naruto's capabilities after having the Bijuu ripped out of him by Madara.
Amazeballs
Active member
Well, many characters will be developed in relation to the main character; in my opinion, it's relevant to look at how a character manages to stand apart as a fully-realized character, independent of the main character. Most of the female characters with high panel-time are developed in relation to Naruto; Kushina is his mother, Sakura is his teammate, Tsunade is the Hokage and one who believes in Naruto; Hinata loves Naruto and seeks to emulate his Nindo; Konan changes her life path, believing Naruto to represent the hope that Yahiko/Nagato/Jiraiya believed in; the list goes on. There aren't many females in the series who aren't, to some extent, defined by the (more developed) males. Most fall under "Naruto" or "Sasuke" arcs. Sakura is split evenly, not surprisingly.
Still, one can appreciate the level of depth Kishi gives to each character; the fact that Hinata understands Naruto better than he understands himself, and can give him advice when he reaches an impasse with his own emotional roadblocks, helps show Hinata's own courage/wisdom. She's a very perceptive character; she's used to looking at others from the shadows, and therefore has a strong grasp on each person's individual character. And, largely because of her introspective nature, she admires how outgoing Naruto is; she can appreciate that it isn't always easy for him, because, like Naruto, she is an outcast.
That's just one example of how a female character, despite being developed in relation to a male character, can still be somewhat realized and well-written as her own "self." In the end, the manga isn't that complex, and it's written for teenage boys; still, it's not like Kishi hates women. He's just lazy sometimes, and has to appease the readers on a chapter-to-chaper basis.
Most fans are far happier seeing RSM Naruto use a giant Rasengan on Madara, and would consider a chapter to be boring if it contained heavy character development; this goes double if the character development happens to be for a girl, especially late into an arc. This sort of power-scaling caused Kishi to write himself into a corner, character-wise.
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