Why All the Hate on Naruto?
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No, no, you were right at the beginning - Naruto is just the cool thing to hate.
Actually, let me take it a step further - it's actually the anime community's guilty pleasure.
People will complain or hate on it A LOT, but the fact is, when you go to any con these same people will still cheer louder when a Kakashi cosplayer comes up on stage than for anyone else.
So yeah, everyone hates on it but then everyone secretly loves it too.
The faults you listed (annoying as they are) are just as bad in Bleach, which hasn't garnered nearly as much hate for it (in fact it's gotten so bad in Bleach that they've been making very overt jokes about it since the Ulquiora fight).
For my own position, I quite enjoyed Naruto, though I don't consider myself a huge fan and I'm nowhere near up to date.
Actually, let me take it a step further - it's actually the anime community's guilty pleasure.
People will complain or hate on it A LOT, but the fact is, when you go to any con these same people will still cheer louder when a Kakashi cosplayer comes up on stage than for anyone else.
So yeah, everyone hates on it but then everyone secretly loves it too.
The faults you listed (annoying as they are) are just as bad in Bleach, which hasn't garnered nearly as much hate for it (in fact it's gotten so bad in Bleach that they've been making very overt jokes about it since the Ulquiora fight).
For my own position, I quite enjoyed Naruto, though I don't consider myself a huge fan and I'm nowhere near up to date.
I don't bother with the anime anymore (got tired of the pacing and fillers) but I read the manga. It wasn't anywhere close to my favorite but it was alright, up until that last year or two that is. Ergh, especially at the current arc.
Bleach is 5 times as bad in my opinion, so at least there's that...
Bleach is 5 times as bad in my opinion, so at least there's that...
Naruto in general, or Naruto the anime? For the anime, I think most complaints stem from the large amount of filler that it's become notorious for. I'm not saying filler is necessarily a bad thing, far from it in fact. When it's used right, filler can help flesh out protagonists and side characters, or just explain in detail aspects of the fictional world that were previously just lightly touched upon. It's also a good way to insert some light hearted humor or self referential, fourth wall breaking dialogue. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the main narrative and entertain a few "what if"s before diving back into the mess again. In Naruto's case, the part before Shippuuden alone had enough filler to take up over a year (80 weeks) of run time, most of which I'd argue was considerably lackluster in quality (even by filler standards).
For Naruto in general, though, well I'd say it's more or less judged on account of its fan base more so than the actual quality of the series itself. While a fervent or militant fan base is certainly not a new thing in geek culture, the size and general volatility of Naruto's more vocal fans certainly makes it the most visible in the anime/manga scene. The sheer amount of horrible fanfiction, fanart, cosplay, forum posts, blatant weeabooism, and other displays of fan ineptitude that the series has built up over the years is enough to fill out entire web pages and websites with their exploits (Naruto fan backlash and flame wars only adding fuel to the fire) as well as coin the phrase "narutard". The actions of the persistent few have essentially tarnished the reputation of the fan base as a whole. It's gotten to the point where even people who're completely unfamiliar with the series can bash on it and it's fan base for internet cred, also encouraging casual fans of the series to distance themselves from it publicly for fear of being caught up in the backlash. In short, Naruto is the "Final Fantasy VII" of the anime/manga community.
For Naruto in general, though, well I'd say it's more or less judged on account of its fan base more so than the actual quality of the series itself. While a fervent or militant fan base is certainly not a new thing in geek culture, the size and general volatility of Naruto's more vocal fans certainly makes it the most visible in the anime/manga scene. The sheer amount of horrible fanfiction, fanart, cosplay, forum posts, blatant weeabooism, and other displays of fan ineptitude that the series has built up over the years is enough to fill out entire web pages and websites with their exploits (Naruto fan backlash and flame wars only adding fuel to the fire) as well as coin the phrase "narutard". The actions of the persistent few have essentially tarnished the reputation of the fan base as a whole. It's gotten to the point where even people who're completely unfamiliar with the series can bash on it and it's fan base for internet cred, also encouraging casual fans of the series to distance themselves from it publicly for fear of being caught up in the backlash. In short, Naruto is the "Final Fantasy VII" of the anime/manga community.
I liked it when the story was actually going somewhere, with Orochimaru's plot and Naruto being trained by Jiria-uh the dude with the white hair.
But after that, it was just villain begets villain begets villain begets villain... begets villain.
And when watching an anime or reading a manga becomes a chore, you should probably stop doing it.
But after that, it was just villain begets villain begets villain begets villain... begets villain.
And when watching an anime or reading a manga becomes a chore, you should probably stop doing it.
For me it's the "filler" thing, allready said a bajillion times before. I, sadly, don't have a lot of time anymore, and I don't have the time to watch as much anime/tv/movie as I used to. This has translated to me only doing what I know for a fact is going to be awesome. If I expect the next 5 episodes are filler, I lose interest really fast. Same for Bleach, another series I really like, but just takes to fricking long to get on with the story. Same reason why I plan on not getting Skyrim, as much as it pains me, I just don't have the time...
I can't wait for my retirement, I'll finally be able to do some timeconsuming stuff... That'll by then be 50 years old...
As to why "people", in the general sense of the word, don't like it, it's fanboy-ism, it's general need to hate something, it's ignorance, it's so many things that don't really have a good reason. The anonimity of the internet allows people to just blurt out their opinion and to change a general "I don't like X" to a "OMG!!1!!11 X really suxxorzzz! Every1 who lieks is nub!" (exaggeration necesarry). You only have to view Youtubecomments for one of those "love or hate" series. Or any console exclusive videogame video. People actually go out of their way just to spew their bile on unsuspecting people. I find that devotion to hating rather strange. It's certainly something to think about when you're bored.
I can't wait for my retirement, I'll finally be able to do some timeconsuming stuff... That'll by then be 50 years old...
As to why "people", in the general sense of the word, don't like it, it's fanboy-ism, it's general need to hate something, it's ignorance, it's so many things that don't really have a good reason. The anonimity of the internet allows people to just blurt out their opinion and to change a general "I don't like X" to a "OMG!!1!!11 X really suxxorzzz! Every1 who lieks is nub!" (exaggeration necesarry). You only have to view Youtubecomments for one of those "love or hate" series. Or any console exclusive videogame video. People actually go out of their way just to spew their bile on unsuspecting people. I find that devotion to hating rather strange. It's certainly something to think about when you're bored.
I'd say this is true for every 100+ episode shounen anime in general. Full of cliches, fillers, the "story" proceeds at snail pace (ONE BATTLE takes longer than 4 episodes, and it wasn't even a filler arc!), longer series' have poorer development values and the content just isn't up the par either (I WILL NOW ENTER INTO INNER MONOLOGUE ABOUT MY TRAGIC CHILDHOOD FOR 2 EPISODES). And as was mentioned, the studios just try too hard to squeeze content out of the manga (1 volume vs. 10-20 episodes of anime).
I watched Naruto (years ago, it's actually what got me into anime, surprisingly) to 120ish episode before stopping and wholly quit watching long running shounen shows after D.Gray-Man's lack of ending. I don't think Naruto is the most horribad anime (the prize goes to Narutaru), but it's definetely (along with Bleach/1Piece/DBZ/Conan etc. other shounen shows) aimed towards younger audience who wait for their weekly meal of "badass teenage ninjas/death gods/pirates/supermen/detectives".
This isn't nearly as true as you think. Many good shows and games are able to convey character development/motives/realizations/face heel turns without excessive amounts of inner monologue, it's just particularly true for shounen genre.
I watched Naruto (years ago, it's actually what got me into anime, surprisingly) to 120ish episode before stopping and wholly quit watching long running shounen shows after D.Gray-Man's lack of ending. I don't think Naruto is the most horribad anime (the prize goes to Narutaru), but it's definetely (along with Bleach/1Piece/DBZ/Conan etc. other shounen shows) aimed towards younger audience who wait for their weekly meal of "badass teenage ninjas/death gods/pirates/supermen/detectives".
That jump between the first generation of naruto and naruto shippuden. Are you seriously telling me that in the two years he went training with one of the greatest ninjas of that time... He didn't learn a single new skill?
You'd expect him to come back knowing epic moves and skills, but nope. He comes back from his two year vacation, only to find himself behind everyone else, and he's even more annoying.
You'd expect him to come back knowing epic moves and skills, but nope. He comes back from his two year vacation, only to find himself behind everyone else, and he's even more annoying.
appart from the really fucken shit,dumb and just rediculious fillers the anime is seriously one of the best made out there atm it focuses on secondary characters sometimes moreso then naruto and all are unique in there own fighting capabilities, and more importantly its one of those stories that motivates never to give up.
My main gripe with it is that it doesn't seem to have a end in sight(Not saying that a show with 300+ episodes or something like that is bad I just feel like anime should have a end). I like to see that the show is winding down,like in Deathnote or Code Geass.
There are times when the series becomes so damn in love with its own angsty crap that I find myself skipping whole filler arcs. Filler is one thing, but when it isn't even very good filler, it just comes across as being more about padding.
Good filler: Bleach and One Piece. Maintained the spirit and status quo of the main stories while exploring interesting scenarios, some being downright sci-fi and silly "what if?" stories (the zanpakuto rebellion arc in Bleach comes to mind very quickly). If a portion of the main story can recall something from a filler arc, so much the better (big bad from the Bount filler arc appears in a spirit-quest vision some 100 episodes later). I actually want to watch the filler in Bleach and One Piece
Bad filler: Naruto. Compelling me to skip a dozen or more episodes is never a good thing. The characters introduced in the filler are generally one-dimensional, and no, the predictable no-twist tragic back-story doesn't count. And you never, ever see them again. No, you never see filler characters in One Piece after their 10 episodes of fame are up, but at least while you DO see them, you care about them. When I'm watching Naruto filler, I find myself thinking about how just nuking every-damn-one would make life blessedly simpler.
Problem 2: Filler inside the episodes. Flashbacks. All too frequently, we'll see someone, usually Naruto himself, sitting and staring off into space looking for all the world like he's never been happy for a nanosecond in his entire life. After looking at Negative-Naruto for a solid 5-10 seconds, we cut to a sepia-toned flashback of something that happened in the previous episode, and we'll watch that flashback for a good three or four minutes. Sometimes longer. Considering that after cutting out the themes there's maybe 19 minutes or so of show, 4 minutes is a rather large chunk of time. No joke, there were times when I would skip ALL the flashbacks in a single episode, and end up watching about 5 minutes of real content.
Worse than THAT is that, inside of a single arc, we'll sometimes see the SAME flashback repeated two or three times in the space of 5 episodes. This is either laziness to the point of hackery, or the producers thinking that the viewing audience has the memory retention of a particularly dull rock.
Problem 3: Nobody seems to know how to have fun. Except for maybe a small handful of GOOD filler episodes (read: self-contained episodes, not arcs) the humor is, well, lack-luster. I'm fine with an anime that takes itself seriously, but at some point, all the depression and sorrow and soulless indifference just becomes detrimental. Except Naruto isn't supposed to be that bad to begin with. Call it cerebus syndrome if you want, but DAYUM, I sometimes get uncomfortable with how friggin' depressing it can be, and there's no relief in sight.
Problem 4: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are better ninjas. I'm'a just leave that big open can of worms for someone else to have fun with.
And yet, I still watch it. Because at least the action is really damn cool. Hell, the third Shippuden movie is downright awesome because of said action. So, do I hate Naruto? Well, only half the time, I guess, and the other half makes up for it.
Good filler: Bleach and One Piece. Maintained the spirit and status quo of the main stories while exploring interesting scenarios, some being downright sci-fi and silly "what if?" stories (the zanpakuto rebellion arc in Bleach comes to mind very quickly). If a portion of the main story can recall something from a filler arc, so much the better (big bad from the Bount filler arc appears in a spirit-quest vision some 100 episodes later). I actually want to watch the filler in Bleach and One Piece
Bad filler: Naruto. Compelling me to skip a dozen or more episodes is never a good thing. The characters introduced in the filler are generally one-dimensional, and no, the predictable no-twist tragic back-story doesn't count. And you never, ever see them again. No, you never see filler characters in One Piece after their 10 episodes of fame are up, but at least while you DO see them, you care about them. When I'm watching Naruto filler, I find myself thinking about how just nuking every-damn-one would make life blessedly simpler.
Problem 2: Filler inside the episodes. Flashbacks. All too frequently, we'll see someone, usually Naruto himself, sitting and staring off into space looking for all the world like he's never been happy for a nanosecond in his entire life. After looking at Negative-Naruto for a solid 5-10 seconds, we cut to a sepia-toned flashback of something that happened in the previous episode, and we'll watch that flashback for a good three or four minutes. Sometimes longer. Considering that after cutting out the themes there's maybe 19 minutes or so of show, 4 minutes is a rather large chunk of time. No joke, there were times when I would skip ALL the flashbacks in a single episode, and end up watching about 5 minutes of real content.
Worse than THAT is that, inside of a single arc, we'll sometimes see the SAME flashback repeated two or three times in the space of 5 episodes. This is either laziness to the point of hackery, or the producers thinking that the viewing audience has the memory retention of a particularly dull rock.
Problem 3: Nobody seems to know how to have fun. Except for maybe a small handful of GOOD filler episodes (read: self-contained episodes, not arcs) the humor is, well, lack-luster. I'm fine with an anime that takes itself seriously, but at some point, all the depression and sorrow and soulless indifference just becomes detrimental. Except Naruto isn't supposed to be that bad to begin with. Call it cerebus syndrome if you want, but DAYUM, I sometimes get uncomfortable with how friggin' depressing it can be, and there's no relief in sight.
Problem 4: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are better ninjas. I'm'a just leave that big open can of worms for someone else to have fun with.
And yet, I still watch it. Because at least the action is really damn cool. Hell, the third Shippuden movie is downright awesome because of said action. So, do I hate Naruto? Well, only half the time, I guess, and the other half makes up for it.
just assume that a show can get up to a certain quality and not further.
just assume that you spread this finite amount of quality over a brazillion episodes without any story or originality left.
Every show thats running over more than 30 episodes gets worse with every new one, its repetitive and gets artificially stretched to spread that little originality the authors can come up with over as many episodes as possible.
The product we are left with is a mindless storyless fighting sequence filled and stretched by dumb dialogs which basically is a 30 minute commercial= on the same level as every childs cartoon.
just assume that you spread this finite amount of quality over a brazillion episodes without any story or originality left.
Every show thats running over more than 30 episodes gets worse with every new one, its repetitive and gets artificially stretched to spread that little originality the authors can come up with over as many episodes as possible.
The product we are left with is a mindless storyless fighting sequence filled and stretched by dumb dialogs which basically is a 30 minute commercial= on the same level as every childs cartoon.
I started watching the anime right on release and fell in love with it. I kept up with it until mid-shippudden. The frequent changes in the main story made me lose interest. It seems like the writers have forgotten what the show is about. NARUTO. Specifically him becoming Hokage.. not some war between ninjas. Sure that could be an interesting story in the future, but i want to see Naruto achieve his original goal first. Make the ninja war a continuation of the first. Similar to Dragon Ball Z & GT
I don't know why people ***** about flashbacks. They're a fucking necessary part of most overarching story lines like there are specifically in anime. If there wasn't a flashback, and I missed that episode, everyone else might get it, but I won't. It may be treating you like a child but tbh I don't hate on Dexter because there's a 5 minute "previously... on Dexter" bit at the beginning.
I like Naruto, yes the flashbacks are ridiculous, yes there's a lot of filler... but it's still fuckloads better than any given Dragonball, Z or GT episode. And that's coming from somebody with a Vegeta avatar.
I like Naruto, yes the flashbacks are ridiculous, yes there's a lot of filler... but it's still fuckloads better than any given Dragonball, Z or GT episode. And that's coming from somebody with a Vegeta avatar.
Ugh... To be honest, I'm not sure if I hate Naruto more then I hate myself for watching it for so bloody long and putting up with all the fillers.
I held off, I said "it has to get good at some point" I kept going and going, until at one point I got fed up with waiting to see when the "REAL" plot was going to continue and decided to read the manga, which actually helped me resist the awfulness of the anime. "The manga was good" I said, but "I really want to see this happen in the anime", it's one thing to look at a battle in still pictures and another to see it animated, so I kept going.
But things were only getting worse, the quality of the animation was going down and the writing was getting worse, the dialogue was getting way too corny even for anime standards much less Naruto standards, the jokes were getting repetitive, the characters were practically ignoring all their buildup and becoming one dimensional, basically everything was grotesquely horrible.
And then came Shippuden... oh... my... God... Thankfully the story picked off, the manga was again in charge of the plot, so it was good step in the right direction... BUT GOD DAMN the animation was horrible, aside from a few good fight scenes, IT WAS A$$(I'm sorry I sincerely could not come up with a better word to describe it)! but still it was the plot from the manga so I kept going, thinking that this is the best I could hope for, and it can't get much worse... I could kick myself for thinking that.
Once again, filler, FILLER!!! wtf... just wha the... fgh.. scr... UGHHHHHHHHHHH.
AAAAAAAAANND!!! the writing was EVEN WORSE! forget corny jokes, these were unfunny abominations, forget characters BECOMING one dimensional, they WERE one dimensional, forget stupid dialogue, it was retarded dialogue, forget unimportant, unrelated, unnecessary, unimaginative subplots, because the only way any writing could ever stink more then Naruto filler writing would be by using skunk secretion in staid of ink.
If you think the filler does not discredit the rest of the anime, then you are WRONG, the entire anime itself was diminishing in quality, and don't tell me I'm wrong, I went back and watched the first couple of seasons and Shippuden(minus the filler) was nowhere near that good (animation, voice acting, atmosphere, buildup, character development, battles... and so on).
I was tired, drained, my hopes shattered.
I couldn't take it anymore.
I loved Naruto, I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved the battles. That's why I feel betrayed, my love and trust was misplaced, it went on unrewarded, ignored. That's why, I believe I'm well within my right to hate, despise, utterly LOATHE Naruto and everybody in charge of it's production, distribution and profit. I hope they all feel the backlash in full force.
It should have just died, or at least put on hold until more material(manga) was available, but no, "who cares if it's not as good, keep making episodes, keep making money, WE WANT MORE MONEY!", if you for one second don't think this is true then go ahead and carve an "N" on your forehead because NAIVE is your middle name.
That's why I hate Naruto.
PS: I watched the fansubs, so I can't complain about the so called horrible English voice adaptation and censoring. I still read the manga if only because I owe it to myself and the memory of what was once a great show to see how it ends(if it ever will). And yes, I am a huge anime fan and love Japanese animation and believe it or not even the humor.
I held off, I said "it has to get good at some point" I kept going and going, until at one point I got fed up with waiting to see when the "REAL" plot was going to continue and decided to read the manga, which actually helped me resist the awfulness of the anime. "The manga was good" I said, but "I really want to see this happen in the anime", it's one thing to look at a battle in still pictures and another to see it animated, so I kept going.
But things were only getting worse, the quality of the animation was going down and the writing was getting worse, the dialogue was getting way too corny even for anime standards much less Naruto standards, the jokes were getting repetitive, the characters were practically ignoring all their buildup and becoming one dimensional, basically everything was grotesquely horrible.
And then came Shippuden... oh... my... God... Thankfully the story picked off, the manga was again in charge of the plot, so it was good step in the right direction... BUT GOD DAMN the animation was horrible, aside from a few good fight scenes, IT WAS A$$(I'm sorry I sincerely could not come up with a better word to describe it)! but still it was the plot from the manga so I kept going, thinking that this is the best I could hope for, and it can't get much worse... I could kick myself for thinking that.
Once again, filler, FILLER!!! wtf... just wha the... fgh.. scr... UGHHHHHHHHHHH.
AAAAAAAAANND!!! the writing was EVEN WORSE! forget corny jokes, these were unfunny abominations, forget characters BECOMING one dimensional, they WERE one dimensional, forget stupid dialogue, it was retarded dialogue, forget unimportant, unrelated, unnecessary, unimaginative subplots, because the only way any writing could ever stink more then Naruto filler writing would be by using skunk secretion in staid of ink.
If you think the filler does not discredit the rest of the anime, then you are WRONG, the entire anime itself was diminishing in quality, and don't tell me I'm wrong, I went back and watched the first couple of seasons and Shippuden(minus the filler) was nowhere near that good (animation, voice acting, atmosphere, buildup, character development, battles... and so on).
I was tired, drained, my hopes shattered.
I couldn't take it anymore.
I loved Naruto, I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved the battles. That's why I feel betrayed, my love and trust was misplaced, it went on unrewarded, ignored. That's why, I believe I'm well within my right to hate, despise, utterly LOATHE Naruto and everybody in charge of it's production, distribution and profit. I hope they all feel the backlash in full force.
It should have just died, or at least put on hold until more material(manga) was available, but no, "who cares if it's not as good, keep making episodes, keep making money, WE WANT MORE MONEY!", if you for one second don't think this is true then go ahead and carve an "N" on your forehead because NAIVE is your middle name.
That's why I hate Naruto.
PS: I watched the fansubs, so I can't complain about the so called horrible English voice adaptation and censoring. I still read the manga if only because I owe it to myself and the memory of what was once a great show to see how it ends(if it ever will). And yes, I am a huge anime fan and love Japanese animation and believe it or not even the humor.
Personally, although its a recent development, I'm a big fan of Naruto. I'm just past episode 130 of the original series and although I thought Sasuke's flashbacks dragged on a bit too long I still enjoyed it. And Naruto Abridged (MasakoX and Vegeta3986) has to be one of the funniest anime parodies on the internet as far as I'm concerned.
How far are you into shitpooden? Because I'm pretty sure he was training for the sole purpose of fighting a certain Uchiha (Not Sasuke). Then the show started introducing new theories behind how to control and mold le chakra for even more destructive powahs thanks to nature elements.krazymouse said:
Naruto ain't supposed to be uber strong like Goku, but he does put a lot of effort to become stronger ... well then again DBZ had the hyperbolic time chamber where they could train for years and only a few days has passed in the real world.
