u/LinksTheBased

Here's all I can think of at the top of my head:

-They both have a crush on someone from the main cast (damning, I know)

-They're strong (physically and mentally) and crazy determined and smart

-Kid Sarada and Sakura kinda have similar outfits

-That's it.

I honestly see her as much more aligned with Sasuke and Naruto, though still 100% her own character.

Her arc throughout the entire manga was her deluding herself over feelings which developed over the course of time. She thought, because her goal was so massive and unreachable, she couldn't focus on anything else in her life, therefore eventually when she did find herself to personally start caring for Boruto, she was wondering if she was even worthy of becoming Hokage, not being able to do anything to help him during the many calamities which took place in the manga. This thinking that she was weak then eventually spiraled into her not becoming as strong as she could, and that's shown and represented in the form of Mangekyo Sharingan. If she never were to embrace her feelings, she could never become Hokage, which is ironic, because the goal of becoming Hokage was the factor making her repress her feelings. Only once Yodo died, did she realize she needed to stop the denial about her own life and feelings, as she realized that was the thing stopping her from being able to prevent these calamities, which lead her to both literally and narratively stop Ryu, the thing representing Shinju, the biggest calamity the ninja world, and Sarada, has faced this far. And after the arc, now that Sarada has changed, can she fully embrace Eida as well, literally and figuratively. There was no fear anymore, no more secrets, just like with Sumire, Sarada had become fixing her own personal life bit by bit before trying to become Hokage, which ironically leads her to becoming Hokage.

Now mind you, this is BARELY subtext. This is explained very clearly throughout multiple volumes of the manga. That's why I don't get the criticism that Sarada shouldn't be focusing on fixing her personal relationships when her dad is trapped, even though fixing her own life is what will eventually lead to her achieving much larger goals, such as freeing Sasuke and becoming the Hokage and protecting Boruto.

As far as I know...Sakura had...well, none of this. Her goals were never huge. Her ambitions outside of Naruto and Sasuke aren't really known. Her character arc is overcoming her dependency of Naruto and Sasuke to stand up for herself. Sarada was never reliant on Boruto or Kawaki, she always stood on her own two feet and pulled her weight. You cannot compare their character arcs, not only because Sarada's is so much more layered, but also because they're entirely different. Even when talking strictly romance, Sakura always had feelings for Sasuke as far as we know, whereas Sarada's feelings organically grew over the course of the series due to the shared experiences and her compassion for Boruto, just like in real life.

Sarada is defiant to the system and is overcoming her own personal fights to achieve something much greater due to her overwhelming compassion for others just like Naruto

Sarada is also willing to throw her life goals away by not being complicit to Shikamaru and being unable to climb up the ranks. This is much more like how Sasuke was throwing his life away for Itachi and doing justice for him (although Sasuke's feelings for Itachi were never seen as a bad thing or something that made Sasuke's character simple, yet for Sarada the same standard makes her a simple character whose entire arc revolves around Boruto (not true btw))

Sarada has feelings and conflict due to them, kinda like Sakura...or any other character in Naruto to be honest, it's not really uncommon.

Like surely you can see she's not particularly similar to Sakura compared to NaruSasu, right?

But of course, if you may educate me on how Sarada is basically the same character as Sakura, I'd much appreciate that, to learn new perspectives and stuff

Anyways, thanks for reading this far and I hope you have a splendid day! ;D

Say what you want about Ikemoto's art but DAMN these finishers are drawn with IMPACT. Well, with the exception of Borushiki's Rasengan, which is ironically why I love it and how it stands out among the rest, making the moment itself all the more memorable. We get no shot of Boro screaming in terror inside the Rasengan or his reaction to his inevitable doom, it just...well, happens. It implies such speed and power that Boro couldn't even process his existence disappearing before the eyes of Team 7. Borushiki just says Rasengan and he's gone. I love that. Not to say the others are bad, obviously they aren't, they're all phenomenal, and we get that scream of horror we never get in Naruto, but Borushiki's is just that much more memorable.

Speaking of Naruto, Boruto accomplishes to just...make Rasengan feel so much more powerful, right? Like, nobody ever really got taken out by a Rasengan in Naruto. Kabuto? Kinda but it's more so because of Tsunade's help. Obito? He was still standing after taking Minato's Rasengan. Minato marking Obito was probably the more deadly move he did. Kurama took like 50 massive Rasengans from all of Naruto's clones but I just cannot see that happening in Boruto. Maybe it's just because Boruto is keeping it far more grounded than Naruto, but that ironically makes the Boruto Rasengans feel that much more dangerous. Idk, might just be me.

Also another thing I've noticed is that all of these Rasengans required actual multi layered planning to actually land them, which makes sense in a story about ninjas. Like, Rasengan is this giant ball emitting light, of course it's not gonna be easy to land on a powerful enemy, and I just love that kind of strategy that we rarely saw in Naruto as well. Well, the exception being Borushiki of course, which also makes that Rasengan specifically seem all the more powerful. Like yeah, he doesn't need to abide by those usual rules when hitting the Rasengan, he can just...do it, and that's terrifying. Borushiki's moment can't just be limited to itself, its impact came from all of the previous and later context within the story...that's just brilliant, and I've never thought of that before.

Thanks for reading this far! ;D have a blessed day

For context, I'm a massive fan of the manga and I did watch the majority of this anime but I never finished it...so I decided to start again!

My expectations coming in were pretty high since the manga was so good, and I have to say, this first episode didn't disappoint me. It was great!

Man, I don't even know where to begin...well, for starters, I really loved Boruto's and Denki's characters in this episode. Their relationship, dynamics, parallels and conflicts were very touching, which I found impressive seeing how the episode only lasted that 20 minutes. See Boruto is all about self liberation, particularly self liberation from other's people's expectations and your lineage. He doesn't think Denki, who has lived his life submitting to others, whether it is his father or his bullies, should allow that to continue. He influences Denki to take control of his own life, to do what's really calling for him. Well Denki takes this advice, just a little too far. Denki, being influenced by some mysterious and menacing force almost murders the aforementioned bullies using his immense wealth and intelligence, yet Boruto comes to stop him. See Boruto isn't just trying to maximize one's autonomy, but also justice. Boruto is a very just guy, previously helping Denki escape the bullies and now coming to rescue the bullies, and to an extend, Denki. He snaps Denki out of it, comes up with a plan to stop the train collision and recruits the bullies to be on their side now too. It eventually leads up to Boruto crashing the train to the Hokage's stone face, showing another important aspect of Boruto's character: the lack of care for institutions and outside influence. See Boruto throughout this episode also expressed his lack of care for the academia, so by crashing into what symbolizes the highest power in the village, he defies what everyone expected from him, even his own father. The episode ends with Denki joining the academy, not due to outside influence, but due to inner desire to learn and become better, from which Boruto shows gratitude for.

The characterization of both characters is immensely fascinating, I love it. There's a lot more you can honestly analyze and draw parallels between the families from which they come from, but honestly that's not really the point of this post. It's just about my enjoyment of the episode.

There's also a plethora of stuff I loved about this episode. The animation, the OST, the opening, the pacing, all the little details which make the world feel alive and lived in, the Jogan foreshadowing, the Kawaki flashforward, it honestly sets the tone and sets up the rest of the series perfectly.

Overall, this is a high A-tier level episode, because I'm 100% sure there will be much better episodes to come. Also, for an anime original episode, this really took me by surprise.

Thanks for reading this far ;D. I'll update when I watch the next episode.

Link to the tierlist

So the deal essentially is:

Obito helps Itachi kill the clan and in exchange Obito...can't do anything to Konoha?

To Madara, this could make some sense (although questionable if Madara would be that petty to sacrifice his ultimate plan to get revenge), but this is Obito we're talking about. Obito doesn't hate the clan at all, he has to work for Itachi and in exchange he can't attack the village.

So my question is...what does Obito benefit from this at all? This seems to have nothing but downsides. Mind you, this deal included nothing of Itachi joining the Akatsuki.

And then once Itachi actually joins Akatsuki, does Obito do anything about it? No, he makes no plans of killing Itachi in his sleep using Kisame, he just sits around for a decade and does nothing while letting Itachi be a double agent.

It's also not like Obito got Itachi's loyalty or trust here...Itachi was planning on killing Obito any chance he got and learning as much of his secrets as possible.

Look, I know Madara probably didn't teach Obito critical thinking since he wanted Obito to follow his silly ideology to death, so Obito might have the mental capacity of a 12-year-old, but surely even at that age you'd recognize something isn't adding up. Like without that deal, surely Obito could've kidnapped Naruto when he was a kid and then the strongest Biiju would've been captured already, but instead he chose to let Itachi boss him around.

And it's not like Itachi was so strong Obito couldn't refuse, Itachi did literally nothing to Obito as well while he was in the Akatsuki, instead relying his entire plan on Obito getting caught off guard by Amaterasu and not having any way out of it. If Itachi could've killed Obito, he would've killed Obito.

So all around it just seems like the strangest thing for Obito, with Itachi taking all the benefits.

Did Kishimoto ever explain this?

Originally from r/Naruto but the filters removed the post so I'm posting here

Mamushi's look matches his personality and themes PERFECTLY!!! You CANNOT make a character more chopped and creepy and alien looking like this. He's exactly this short OLD creep who is balding and CANNOT dress for the life of him. He also looks like he absolutely SMELLS, like STINKS 100% percent. He does not shower and he does not care at all how he looks.

His lack of care for anything is honestly so well captured as well. Like you'll take on look at this guy and be like "oh yeah, nobody likes this guy and he probably does nothing all day except perv on women". Even amongst Shinju, he barely talks to them, if at all and only cares for himself and Eida. And he doesn't even care about Eida like how most people care about Eida, he cares about her in an obsessive and controlling way, wanting to literally and figuratively devour her for himself, which is such a striking contrast with Eida's and Bug's dynamic.

Most people who haven't read any of Boruto absolutely clown on his design, and that's how you know Ikemoto succeeded in his goal for Mamushi. He doesn't look good, or human, or even threatening most of the time. He looks like an ugly, old, weak predator, which he is. Individually, he's not threatening, but if you encounter hundreds of Mamushi's flying at you with the obsession and desperation he has towards Eida, that's terrifying.

Also I know Ikemoto is often criticized for his lack of facial expressions, but damn did he not hold back with Mamushi. It doesn't matter if he smiles or if he's angry, he's just as creepy looking both ways. Both give off the vibe that he's such a frail and unstable individual that could snap at any moment, and also again, it looks hideous.

Mamushi is one of my personal favorite Boruto villains thus far and I absolutely cannot understand people who claim his design is bad or that he has no personality. Like really, did we read the same manga? Anyways, thanks for reading this far, I just had to get this off my chest since my Goat is slandered so much ;D

Beginning and end? Excellent. The majority of the arc? Fighting Orochimaru goons who have little character and personality. We learn nothing of Sound 4 yet we fight them for multiple volumes. Sound 4 and the main cast has no internal conflicts against each other, it's purely external, and we don't even know why Sound 4 are so devoted. Even Zaku had a (brief) backstory for how Orochimaru got to him, but we never get anything like that here.

As far as the cast's development goes when they fight said goons, they don't really develop. Kiba, Neji, Choji all just go "Argh!!! I'm not giving up! I'm so resolved and ready to sacrifice myself!" which is just not really a change in them and worst of all not particularly interesting. Sasuke's development happened mostly before the arc as well, same for Naruto's.

Who actually developed here significantly? Shikamaru...? We have a way better arc for Shikamaru's development later in the line, so in comparison to that, this arc is still disappointing.

Also the way Sakon and Tayuya weren't even defeated by the squad was corny. Kiba and Shikamaru didn't do anything to deserve those people on their sides, it doesn't feel like an earned victory for them at all. Kiba and Kankuro especially have never even interacted. Also, you have to admit, it's so conveeenient that they happen to show up just in the nick of time!!! How convenient plot armor.

And let's not even talk about plot armor, nobody in the squad died! Choji literally took the "this pill will kill me" pill and he survived, undermining the entire point of the scene! Same with Neji, taking an arrow to the heart, but at least that leaves it somewhat ambiguous. There's just no reason for Choji to survive.

Oh, and since we're on the plot armor talk, Kimimaro also just so happened to die at the exact moment he was supposed to. Is it understandable? Yes. Is it also veeeeery convenient for our characters? Also yes, and that's usually how good writing doesn't work. The odds are supposed to be against the hero cast, but it feels like luck is on their side constantly.

Compare Sound 4 and the internal conflicts with other Part 1 villains and arcs

Zabuza, Haku, Gaara, Neji, Orochimaru, Kabuto, etc. We learn a lot about these characters, they have sound motivations, goals and backstories (at least most of them, I'd say Kabuto is the worst in this department, but he's still much more of a character than any Sound 4 member) and they're thematically very important.

Can I also just say Kimimaro is just the same character as Haku, but worse? Like 1-to-1 from the Kekkei Genkai, clan massacre backstory, devotion to their leader, etc etc. Kimimaro just has way less to say thematically and to the characters compared to Haku. Did Naruto and Kimimaro have some inner conflict? No, it was just "Bring Sasuke back!!!" vs "I must obey my master!!!".

Lee and Gaara have no relation to Kimimaro either. I guess Gaara and Lee have a moment of "You were my enemy...now we're working together...wow" but that's not really deep or interesting either and that development for Gaara happened before this arc as well.

So yeah, overall, I really like the set-up and the payoff. but most of this arc was unfortunately badly written filler.

Land Of Waves has 2 major fights that continue for multiple chapters.

Konoha Crush also has 2 major fights that continue for multiple chapters.

Search for Tsunade has 1 major fight that continues for multiple chapters.

Point is, in most cases, having 1 or 2 actually well written, set up and thematical fights is far superior to having 10 filler fights with barely any writing. Though Chunin Exams is also very beloved, it suffers from the same problem. You can put all the filler fights together, which make up a good chunk of the arc (though not nearly as much comparatively to Search For Sasuke), and they'd still not be nearly as interesting or captivating as the climax of Land Of Waves, Konoha Crush or Search For Tsunade.

It's pretty funny how in Shippuden's climax arc, the War Arc, the same problem arrives, yet only those filler fights are criticized for the lack of writing and not Search For Sasuke. Why the double standard? I'd actually say most of those fights had more writing than any Sound 5 fight.

Anyways, that's all, I'm just disappointed all things considered. Thanks for reading this far though and have a great day! ;D

This is a repost from r/Naruto but it for some reason was removed by Reddit’s filters. Hopefully it works here though!

So let's say there's a character who's really strong because of his Sharigan, so he has to activate it to be strong. Let's say that character goes against someone very fast, and not just fast, some teleporter. Man, they'd surely be able to take advantage of this blatant weakness in a fight if you ask me.

Firstly, we need to establish that these feats from Kushina come from when she was post giving birth and post Biiju extraction, so she's MASSIVELY and I cannot stretch this enough MASSIVELY weakened here.

Secondly, let's get to the actual feats. She can completely blitz and overpower Kurama with her chains, and not only that, she can kill Kurama, straight up, she's that powerful. And again, while MASSIVELY weakened here.

Well, how does this prove Kushina>Hashirama and Madara? Isn't Kurama just a pet to them? Someone completely irrelevant in terms of power compared to the founders? Well, not quite.

Firstly, Madara's strongest Jutsu, the perfect Susanoo, is merely stated to rival Biiju, so with the highest possible interpretation it can rival the strongest Biiju, Kurama.

Secondly, Hashirama is also stated to rival Kurama, more specifically his Wood Golem, which is stated to be able to fight equally against Kurama.

Thirdly, to seal this case, Perfect Susanoo and Wood Golem fight against each other for a whiiiiile without a definitive winner or even any results being made. If we accept the Hashirama~Madara meta, this should mean the Wood Golem is Hashirama's strongest Jutsu, as Perfect Susanoo is Madara's, which makes sense as that was the Jutsu Hashirama chose to fight Kurama with.

Well, what about the Buddha statue, which defeated Perfect Susanoo and Kurama put together? Well, two very important things are worth noting here with it

Firstly, Buddha statue is so powerful it literally can't handle its power, its hands getting destroyed on impact, so it's really much more relative to Susanoo Kurama than above it since they both got bodied

But most importantly and secondly, it's stated that for Hashirama to get it, he needs to take the nature energy which fills up the atmosphere into his body, which requires time. To say Hashirama scales to his Buddha statue is to say Six Paths Naruto scales to Ashura Avatar Naruto. Like, yes, Naruto can use it at will, but it clearly requires time and preparation, which is probably why Hashirama used Wood Golem to fight Madara and Kurama to begin with.

However, these are...very generous interpretations for Hashirama and Madara. Hashirama's entire gimmick, wood style, is specifically made to counter the Biiju, with Buddha statue being stated to have been made to oppose tailed beasts. So despite Hashirama having this intrinsic trait of countering Kurama, they still fought equally. This is also with the high assumption that Perfect Susanoo "rivalling Biiju" must mean Kurama, when it doesn't have to. If anything, Kurama being equal even with that disadvantage would make it seem that Perfect Susanoo is below Kurama, but that's besides the point.

Madara gets blitzed, overpowered and killed, even if he starts in perfect Susanoo.

Hashirama gets blitzed, overpowered and killed, even if he starts in wood golem.

The only way Hashirama even stands a chance is with prep time Buddha statue, but that's only to rival a massively weakened Kushina. A fully powered Kushina most likely still mogs that Hashirama.

Anyways, thanks for reading this far! ;D. This is what I believe to be the best case for Kushina.

Also I saw someone say that Kushina's chains specifically counter Biiju, but I literally found nothing to support this, so I'll dismiss it for now. Her chains should work just as well against Wood Golem and Perfect Susanoo.

This mf is evil! I get that Hashirama would want to be all buddy buddies if Madara didn't enjoy murdering people so much. He's stepping on corpses! This man has no dignity or respect for the dead! Against the Gokage, he clearly seems much more bothered by having to use the Perfect Susanoo twice than having to kill world leaders whom people love and look up to. He's a total psycho! It would've been much more interesting if he would actually try to be noble, like Nagato. Nagato at no point laughed when invading the leaf village, you could clearly see he didn't particularly enjoy it, but for some reason Madara had to be the equivalent of The Joker in Naruto. And, you know, no problems with that, but then he completely switches characters in his final encounter.

Also the series seemingly tried to make this a dilemma of who's right and wrong with the whole Infinite Tsukuyomi thing, but it's kinda hard to side with Madara here since he's acting like a total maniac who has no regard for others.

Kishimoto really just ended chapter 635 in a sudden detailed page of Obito and Kakashi dealing fatal wounds to each other just for the next chapter's first 2 pages to completely make it meaningless. This is Chainsaw Man levels of bad cliffhangers. Why were Kakashi and Obito in a Genjutsu battle anyway? They both have Sharingans and neither is shows to fight like this before. Imagine having to wait for a whole week just for that to be the conclusion.

Mine is personally this from chapter 80. Like damn she was going through it! This artwork really just encapsulates the sense of desperation and defeat she was going through, especially taking into account how she's been sitting there for multiple pages by this point. She just seems so utterly lonely and overpowered by her environment, which really ties into how no one can truly understand what she's going through right now, which is also very fitting because in the next sequence of panels Sasuke, the person who she manages to convince of her pain, appears to comfort her. Despite all this I've never seen discussion around it before. But what do y'all think?

※パラメータは、その忍のこれまでの戦歴による推測であり、 また能力は常に変化するものである。= These parameters are estimates based on the shinobi's combat record to date, and a shinobi's abilities are constantly changing.

They aren't concrete facts, they're educational guesses with lacking knowledge. We don't know who does these guesses or how reliable they actually are, yet people take them as words from god. As far as we know, it's as reliable as the average Redditor's opinion here.

If you actually do follow these stats, you will run into a number of contradictions in the series, which only makes this the most consistent interpretation.

Firstly, they got Isshiki's design wrong. Manga, anime and even games don't have that weird gold stripe thing on his jacket. It's literally fanart that you find when you search "Isshiki png". The Boruto png is also very easily findable with a simple google search. The creator of this fake scan is so lazy they just put the first png that Google showed.

Not only that, the background deisng looks very lazy and not at all official? same with the text, it's just nonsensical. Why is there a random description of Kaguya destroying Isshiki's defenses with her piercing attack's power when that's not at all what the episode said and as a promotional piece doesn't promote the episode at all?

Not to mention every time I ask for a source they just say "V-jump" without any elaboration. V-Jump magazine releases monthly, and none of the dates fit the episode 214 date in Japan.

Until no further evidence supporting this being real, this has absolutely 0 weight in a debate. If it was this easy to get something passed as real evidence, I could literally make far more believable pieces.

2 main big issues, the way it happened and the way it went

On Naruto's end, it makes sense why he's there. Karin found out they are using ninja dogs to track Sasuke by sensing their Chakra, so she makes Jugo use a bird (because Jugo can talk to animals for some reason) to transport Sasuke's used clothing somewhere else. Cool. That's smart. Takes advantage of already established powers and facts and is 100% in character.

Then we get to Itachi. Itachi can't possibly know they're using scent to track Sasuke, he's not a sensory type as he confirmed against Kabuto. He also can't possibly know where Sasuke's piece of clothing is as he has no way of tracking that. So...how is he here again? I mean the motive for being there makes sense and is revealed later, but there was 0 buildup of Itachi stalking Sasuke or Naruto and it wasn't revealed later what he did to find Naruto.

As a matter of fact, in chapter 364 (for context, Itachi meets Naruto in 365, so this was literally a chapter before the encounter), Itachi is seen with Kisame after they had captured the 4-tails, so he couldn't have possibly been stalking Sasuke or Naruto. Itachi in that encounter also somehow knows Sasuke isn't dead? Which also makes 0 sense. This all happening without any build-up or explanation just makes Itachi seem omniscient for no reason at all.

But the Itachi glaze doesn't stop there on Kishimoto's part. How the interaction actually went is even worse if you ask me. Naruto, after acknowledging he's going to need clones to counter Genjutsu, decides the best course of action to deal with Itachi, is to attack him head-on with 0 backup while screaming at the top of his lungs, which allows Itachi to easily Genjutsu him. Question, what was the plan here exactly? This is the highest stakes battle from his perspective that he's ever been in, and he decides to use 0 strategizing.

Just a reminder, an arc earlier, when Naruto fought against Kakuzu (someone who can't one shot Naruto if he used the same strategy as against Naruto), Naruto actually used clones as a diversion to assess Kakuzu's abilities and think of a countermeasure for them. Naruto actually knowing Itachi's abilities and how to counter them should 100% mean he's going to use the clones. But does he do that? No, for 0 reason given.

Not only it is incredibly out of character, it just makes it so that the premise of the climax of the interaction is horribly written. It doesn't make Itachi seem strong, it makes Naruto seem stupid for absolutely 0 reason.

For such a key moment in the already fairly weak arc, this sucks. Arguably the worst moment in the entire series.

My answer: I think he solos Shippuden tbh. He's called the "Ultimate Warrior" amongst every dragon with the most destructive power. This would easily put him above Tyranno and Meno, who are Adult Sasuke rivals, but what do y'all guys think?