Naruto: 10 Major Flaws Of The Anime That Fans Choose To Ignore
The anime Naruto is incredibly loved by many people across the world, even by those that do not necessarily watch anime. As popular as it is, however, that does not mean that it's completely flawsless. Any show that has gone on as long as Naruto has is going to run into problems somewhere along the way.
Many of the flaws in Naruto are well known by fans, but there are some that are either just not talked about enough or just plainly ignored. Fans that grew up with Naruto love it dearly, so it's understandable that some red flags of the anime are ignored.
10 Ninja War Arc
The "Ninja War Arc" was the final arc of the anime, and to say it was convoluted would be an understatement. It felt drawn out and had many questionable battles. The execution of the overall arc was poor, with only a few bright moments in it. To say this sequence of events disappointed fans would be an understatement, and it left a sour taste in the mouths of many anime aficionados.
9 Animation Quality
While certain sequences in the Naruto anime are definitely well done, the same can't be said for the entirety of the series. For the most part, the quality of the animation was rather poor and left the world and characters of Naruto not looking their best.
The scenes of characters interacting with each other and normal life in the village are some examples of when the animation was not at its best. For an anime that is so incredibly long, it's understandable that the animation quality might no be the best at all times, but that can't be an excuse for how poor utterly it was at times.
8 Lack of Character Development
The writing of female characters in Naruto was nowhere near good enough. Sakura's constant infatuation with Sasuke is a big problem and takes away from her own growth and journey as a ninja.
As powerful as some of the female characters were, the viewer never truly gets to see their full use of their power, and they get constantly pushed aside for the male characters. The whole cast of female characters had so much potential in terms of great storytelling, but, in the end, just felt poorly written.
7 Power Creep
The escalation of power levels in Naruto is huge and can be seen with how incredibly strong Naruto and Sasuke become. This level of power within the show turns it into a completely different story from the one the viewer begins with; rather than a gripping story about a warrior in training, the series is bogged down with unnecessarily lengthy battle sequences The result of this power creep is big, flashy fights instead of what fans got early on which were well-written, strategic battles.
6 Sasuke And Naruto
The relationship between Sasuke and Naruto was developed throughout the anime, but it was toxic at best. Their friendship was solely based on Naruto's jealousy of Sasuke and continuously trying to show he was stronger.
The pair really only had two things in common: their tragic history and being a part of Team 7 under Kakashi. They may have had respect for each other, but they were never friends. This causes problems for the plotline of Naruto promising to bring Sasuke back because the viewer is left questioning why exactly he is doing this.
5 Thematic Shift
The anime begins with a group of children learning to become ninjas, but it then shifts to them as teenage students. Although this was always going to happen, it did take away from what initially made Naruto special. Themes like growing up, working hard, and mastering their potential fell away in favor of lore, growing the cast, and individual abilities that were either passed down through the clan or the bloodline.
4 Flashbacks
The use of flashbacks is not a new thing, and, when used correctly, can be great for character development and story progression. Although some of the flashbacks in Naruto do help with character development, most of them slow the story down completely.
Not only do the flashbacks slow the anime down, but they are also repeated a lot. Flashbacks are more often than not showing the viewer something they already know or it doesn't help the progress of the story or character at all.
3 Side Cast
The cast of Naruto was a big and colorful one, with many different wonderful characters. As great as these characters were, the spotlight was never on them enough.
Many of them fell to the wayside after extensive character development, and others didn't get the necessary development as a character at all. With such a large cast this was a glaring mistake in Naruto, one that could have been fixed with slightly better writing.
2 Sasuke
Sasuke was a major character in Naruto, and a lot of the anime revolved around him. After achieving his initial goal of defeating his brother, Sasuke set his sights on "The Hidden Leaf Village."
As much as the viewer could try and understand his reasoning behind doing this, it still felt a bit stretched. By going after his own home, not only did it render everything his brother did meaningless, but it also caused him to commit many crimes—crimes that he would never truly be punished for, which was another often-overlooked flaw.
1 Naruto
The main character and heart of the anime, as a character, Naruto is unbelievably loved, but that shouldn't take away from his flaws—flaws, specifically, with the way he was written. His ninja ideology has many holes in it, and there are many times where he pushes them onto others, and they seem to just bend to it, even though they have their own strong ideological principles. Characters will always be flawed, but warping the story to hide these flaws only makes them more obvious.
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