Ever since I started writing these posts at the beginning of May, I’ve wanted to write about Naruto. Naruto isn’t the worst series on the planet by any means, but recommending it and having that recommendation taken seriously are both a bit difficult due to its notoriety for being long as all hell and carrying the label of entry-level weeb material. Nevertheless, I’m of the opinion that any series regardless of popularity is worth a try. You never know what might hook you in and make you a lifelong fan unless you try. I could frame this post in any number of ways, but I have a very specific one in mind. Today we’re going to discuss why Naruto is worth your time, and we’re going to do that by focusing on Naruto’s rival Sasuke.
Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto is the tale of a boy named Naruto Uzumaki, as the title implies. Naruto is born the son of the Fourth Hokage, the leader of their ninja village, in the midst of an attack by a monstrous nine-tailed fox. The fox lays waste to everything during its rampage and as a last-ditch effort, the Hokage manages to seal with fox within his newborn son. Both of Naruto’s parents die during this attack, leaving Naruto orphaned. As Naruto grows up, he is despised by his village as the literal embodiment of a tragedy and feared for harboring a demon. This causes Naruto to grow up with a chip on his shoulder as he strides to one day become Hokage by being the strongest ninja in the village so everybody has no choice but to respect him. After displaying a link to the power of the beast within him, Naruto graduates from the village’s ninja academy and becomes an official ninja in a team with the brutish yet caring girl he has a crush on and the brooding bad boy she, in turn, has a crush on.
Naruto as a character embodies a lot of typical shonen battle manga tropes such as being kind of an idiot, valuing friendship above most else, having a unique backstory that lends itself to quick and powerful strength boosts as needed, and being positioned as the ultimate underdog at the beginning of the series to allow for the most growth possible. Despite having one of the most powerful entities on the planet sealed within him, Naruto is introduced as the class dunce who is not even able to pass the academy’s graduation test on his own merit. Naruto is given a very limited social network to be there for him emotionally with most of his support coming from his teacher and the man who runs his favorite ramen shop. Everything about Naruto positions him at the absolute rock bottom of society, helping to justify his vindictive view of the world with his sole goal to prove society wrong.
The catch with Naruto’s goal from a writing perspective is that it is very passive and gradual. Becoming Hokage is similar to becoming the Pirate King in One Piece where the journey has to justify the end result. Naruto not only has to prove his strength to his fellow villagers but he has to prove to the audience that he is a man worthy of leading the innumerable residents of the village who are revealed to be ordinary friendly people who were afraid of Naruto because they refused to give him a chance. These characters are humanized to Naruto to help soften his opinion of the world and also to the audience to show that being Hokage is just as much about gaining respect as it is about gaining power.
On the opposite side of the spectrum exists Naruto’s teammate, the cool yet deadly serious Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke is given a similar background to Naruto where he was orphaned due to a tragedy but represents his inverse in a lot of ways. While Naruto is hated and feared, Sasuke is shown to be the center of attention in a very positive light that accents his coolness. Girls want to be with him as they constantly fawn over his attractiveness and shower him with attention, and boys look down on him with petty jealousy instead of genuine malice. And yet Sasuke ignores all of this, much to the annoyance of the love-starved Naruto.
Sasuke’s backstory is given a much more personal tone than Naruto’s with Sasuke’s brother murdering the Uchiha clan and only leaving Sasuke alive before leaving the village and becoming one of the most wanted criminals in the land. As such, Sasuke’s goal is to find and kill his brother to avenge his family. Sasuke puts in a lot of work towards being able to achieve his goal despite only being twelve years old and is regarded as somewhat of a genius due to his skill level being high above what is expected of his age and rank. This helps to show just how serious Sasuke is about hunting down his brother while also highlighting Naruto’s aloof ineptness by comparison.
The major difference in motivations between Naruto and Sasuke is that Sasuke’s desire to kill his brother has an end point. If Sasuke were to kill his brother then his initial story would be over and any additional stories would either involve the fallout or be unrelated to that. Compare this to Naruto’s goal of being Hokage where he would assume a leadership role that requires constant upkeep to continuously prove that he is worthy of that role. Naruto’s goal does not have an endpoint. Naruto is not aiming to be Hokage for a year or five years or ten before retiring; He wants to hold the position indefinitely, which means he must constantly prove himself. This is much less flexible than Sasuke’s motivation which could be written to end or continue depending on what the overall story needs.
Sasuke having much more personal, intimate details surrounding his history make him out to be a much more compelling character than Naruto. As stated before, Naruto’s journey to become Hokage is defined by the journey itself rather than the final result as Naruto has to prove his worth. The issue with this is that the concept of proving Naruto’s worth is so flexible that it can consist of absolutely anything as long as it makes Naruto stronger and paints him in a positive light to his peers. This is illustrated very well early in the series as Naruto and his team are given tasks involving walking dogs and picking up garbage, as are the traditional beginnings on the path to being a model ninja. Naruto himself even points out how boring this is in-series, but this could be seen as the planned path to becoming Hokage. Rising through the ninja ranks is dependent on completing assigned tasks regardless of how mundane they are even though Naruto thought the progression was just to get strong and be Hokage.
Once again, compare this with Sasuke. Sasuke views his own goal with similar simplicity: Get strong and kill his brother. In Sasuke’s case, this course of action can be that simple. Sasuke can take whatever steps he wants to get stronger because those steps do not matter and all lead to the same goal. Naruto does not get this luxury, even when his journey takes him off of the conventional road of growth. Naruto is not given the privilege of achieving his goal by any means necessary because he must always be on the side of good.
Naruto and Sasuke are presented as obstacles on each others’ journeys throughout the series, albeit in very different ways. Each sees the other as the self-imposed ultimate hurdle to overcome. Sasuke’s path to power requires him to prove himself stronger than Naruto, who is incompetent but blessed with the potential for raw strength like no other. Naruto’s path requires him to gain Sasuke’s approval as a friend, which sounds much lamer by comparison but is a pivotal bond within the series.
There are strong cases for why Naruto wants to be friends and why Sasuke does not see Naruto as a friend. From Naruto’s perspective, Sasuke was one of his first friends and helped to change his life for the better. Whether intentionally or not, Naruto grew fond of Sasuke and Naruto is not the type of person to let his friends suffer alone. Naruto wants to give the type of support that he wishes he had received when he was at his lowest. The issue is that Sasuke wants to suffer alone and does not want the kind of support that Naruto offers. Naruto is unable to stray from the side of good, but Sasuke is and needs to.
Naruto embodies the typical shonen battle manga protagonist spirit that values reasoning over fighting and justice over punishment. What makes Sasuke such a compelling character is that he fundamentally goes against these values. Sasuke’s entire character is built on breaking one of the core rules of shonen battle manga: Killing is a last resort. Death is generally reserved for special circumstances, and even within the series of Naruto there are certain plot elements to help preserve that spirit even when people die. In Sasuke’s case, his character is built on opposite fundamentals where killing is not just the first choice but the only choice. Sasuke is written as the type of character who will not be satisfied by anything less than the death of his mortal enemy by his hand, and this is a constant throughout his story.
Not only is Sasuke put in a contrary position to typical heroes, but he is given the most focus in the narrative behind the titular character. Sasuke is a strong deuteragonist and is given frequent attention that positions him as the protagonist of his own story instead of a side character completing another branch of Naruto’s story. Giving Sasuke his own focus in ways unrelated to Naruto helps to legitimize his story and his role as Naruto’s rival. Sasuke’s character is treated with respect, telling the audience that he is important and should be considered an important, vital part of the story as a whole.
Secondary characters with strong character arcs are wonderful tools for when protagonists frequently hit walls with their own arcs. Naruto may be the main character of the series but there are times when his character feels stagnant and unable to progress forward since his goal is so vague that events that could be considered milestones are few and far between. This is the perfect type of character growth to be supplemented by a Sasuke whose progression is measured by the people he beats and the strength he gains.
Sasuke’s role in Naruto is ultimately the same as Arata Kagami’s in Kamen Rider Kabuto where they are given the bulk of the obvious growth in order to allow their protagonists to grow in more subtle, gradual ways. Sasuke is such an integral part of Naruto that his role winds up feeling much more interesting than Naruto’s and it’s worth reading the whole series just for his character arc. Naruto is available on that Shonen Jump app which I swear I’m done shilling for the month of May. $1.99 though. You know the deal.
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