[Discussion] Kabuto and Japan's Lost Identity

mohdzarif

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I found this Reddit's post:



Copy-paste from the post:

"Manga Spoilers up to 667! I like Kabuto's character arc because it is yet another instance of Masashi Kishimoto writing his country's history into a character. Kabuto can be interpreted to represent a period of westernization and modernization in Japan in which the country lost its own identity. Let me flesh this out.

Prior to 1868, Japan was an isolationist country. At the dawn of industrialization, the emporer of Japan sought to modernize the country. If you have seen The Last Samurai, you can get a glimpse of this conflict. The movie, however, doesn't catch every detail. Everything began to change; the music, the clothing, the weapons, the language - Japan began to assimilate everything from the west into itself in order to improve the country. Here is a fun read for more information:

I see a major parallel between this era of Japan, known as the Meiji Restoration, and Kabuto's identity crisis. He has adopted Orochimaru's ways, and has sought to assimilate other's abilities and identities into his own. He is like Japan: trying to improve himself by assimilating himself with the world instead of reveling in his own identity.

The part that I really like about Kabuto's character is that, as we can see in ch. 667, he has accepted that his previous identity crisis was a wrong way to live yet he is still stuck with his body, just like Japan must deal with the everlasting consequences of sacrificing tradition for industrialization. He hasn't gone back to looking like old Kabuto, but he has decided to be himself.

I made this post to start a discussion about this. Does anyone have any thoughts?"


I somehow enjoy this kind of relation Kishi put into Naruto. What do you guys think? You guys can share other Reddit or blog post too. There was one interesting Reddit post that I read but couldn't find it anymore because I browsed it through my crappy phone's browser.
 
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Chaos.

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Funny part will be if Kishi really wasnt thinking anything like that when he made the character...maybe mix flavoured ice-cream or something(xD) and the fans just overthinking things once again!
 

Glovoc

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Wow that's fasciting, i did know that Kishi did these kind of things of relating the to irl but didnt think of it like this.
 

mohdzarif

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Funny part will be if Kishi really wasnt thinking anything like that when he made the character...maybe mix flavoured ice-cream or something(xD) and the fans just overthinking things once again!


Considering there is quite a number of correlations in Naruto with Japanese mythology especially, this might not be a coincidence.
 

Vega

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Very interesting, hadn't thought of it like that before.
 
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Oh god, this thread is like being back in a literature class.

OT: I think that guy on reddit may be reading in to things too much.
 

Kumomi

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Oh god, this thread is like being back in a literature class.

OT: I think that guy on reddit may be reading in to things too much.

Can't even give him credit for a good insight, eh? Alright then.
 

magicman420

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i never thought of this before but it makes sense, after all kishi loves to use outside influence for his manga, the NV creation stroy is extremly similar to adam and eve, the hokage faces are like mt. Rushmore, these are only a few example there are many more
 

mohdzarif

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Oh god, this thread is like being back in a literature class.

OT: I think that guy on reddit may be reading in to things too much.

I don't like literature class/lesson either, but I do appreciate what messages and lessons an author wants to convey through his work. For instance, I really 'like' Nagato's and Madara's philosophy.

And those kind of connections with history, mythology etc really made Naruto even more interesting.

i never thought of this before but it makes sense, after all kishi loves to use outside influence for his manga, the NV creation stroy is extremly similar to adam and eve, the hokage faces are like mt. Rushmore, these are only a few example there are many more

Yeah it's really nice to know these connections with real world. I appreciate them. But I don't agree of the similarities with Adam an Eve, LOL. Mt. Rushmore might be an inspiration for Kishimoto but I highly doubt it though because mt. Rushmore is not in Japan.
 
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