I came sniffing here for more material on my own little essay about how Kishimoto can't write a female decent character to save his ass and how he needs to go take lessons from Kubo Tite about characterization.
I'd love to know your opinions on both Hinata's attempts to save Naruto from Pain and Sakura's recent emotional breakdown infront of Killerbee's friends. I think that Kishimoto's been reading golden age DC comics too much, honestly - and here's why.
Hinata. I've never wanted to like a character more but still find myself unable to. Kishimoto created a fantastic starting point for her. She was a genuinely smart and talented girl, but had so many outwardly-induced self-esteem issues to over come. Years ago, I honestly anticipated her eventual growth and watch her bloom into a very strong and capable fighter. And she did...sometimes. In that filler with the bugs. It was a huge let down after such events like her fight against Neji in the Chuunin exams. It wasnt that she lost, it was that we saw her, for the first time, show determination and strength. It was a huge moment of self-revelation for her...and nothing came of it. Her heroic struggle and moment of triumph was only to set her up to fall again. To fall and serve as determination for Naruto to kick Neji's ass in retaliation.
A lot of people are holding up her recent defense of Naruto against Pain as a similar moment. This was not a moment of character development because we see the exact thing happen all over again. Moment of courage that should've been a defining moment in her growth was nothing more than a plot point to make Naruto get pissed off and power up again.
Yet people still say that her confession is what counts in that scene. I call bullshit. Confessions to crimes made under duress don't count and neither do love confessions. Hinata thought she was going to die, she was essentially throwing her life away to, yet again, fuel Naruto's anger. That is not character growth. Character growth should always occur strictly for the sake of the evolution of that character, not as a motivator for another.
Now Sakura. I really did not like her pre-Shippuden, but I could also see a character that was trying to be written a certain way, but was being done so wrong. Because Kishimoto writes his shounen stereotypes to the letter, Sakura's growth was inevitable. She came under Tsunade's wing and blossomed not only as a medic ninja, but as a capable melee fighter with tremendous capacity for destruction on top of genjutsu talents (which, BTW, Kishimoto has seemingly forgotten completely).
Yet, it all falls stale. Naruto regularly incorporates his kagebushin into his regular fighting style. Its one of his most basic maneuvers. Yet, we rarely see Sakura actively use her strength unless its directly called upon by others. Aside from greater proficiency with basic combat, we have not seen a growth in her fighting style to this date.
At least I was comforted with the fact that she seemed to have gained some sense of maturity in her feelings towards Sasuke. She seemed a lot more rational, or at least calm in dealing with it. Then we had one of our most recent chapters, where teammates of Killerbee ask Team Seven what Sasuke means to them... and Sakura breaks down. For no reason. Its utterly baffling to witness, and it seems like nothing more than a reason for Naruto to go take a heroic beating for his friend. Ugh.
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I'd love to know your opinions on both Hinata's attempts to save Naruto from Pain and Sakura's recent emotional breakdown infront of Killerbee's friends. I think that Kishimoto's been reading golden age DC comics too much, honestly - and here's why.
Hinata. I've never wanted to like a character more but still find myself unable to. Kishimoto created a fantastic starting point for her. She was a genuinely smart and talented girl, but had so many outwardly-induced self-esteem issues to over come. Years ago, I honestly anticipated her eventual growth and watch her bloom into a very strong and capable fighter. And she did...sometimes. In that filler with the bugs. It was a huge let down after such events like her fight against Neji in the Chuunin exams. It wasnt that she lost, it was that we saw her, for the first time, show determination and strength. It was a huge moment of self-revelation for her...and nothing came of it. Her heroic struggle and moment of triumph was only to set her up to fall again. To fall and serve as determination for Naruto to kick Neji's ass in retaliation.
A lot of people are holding up her recent defense of Naruto against Pain as a similar moment. This was not a moment of character development because we see the exact thing happen all over again. Moment of courage that should've been a defining moment in her growth was nothing more than a plot point to make Naruto get pissed off and power up again.
Yet people still say that her confession is what counts in that scene. I call bullshit. Confessions to crimes made under duress don't count and neither do love confessions. Hinata thought she was going to die, she was essentially throwing her life away to, yet again, fuel Naruto's anger. That is not character growth. Character growth should always occur strictly for the sake of the evolution of that character, not as a motivator for another.
Now Sakura. I really did not like her pre-Shippuden, but I could also see a character that was trying to be written a certain way, but was being done so wrong. Because Kishimoto writes his shounen stereotypes to the letter, Sakura's growth was inevitable. She came under Tsunade's wing and blossomed not only as a medic ninja, but as a capable melee fighter with tremendous capacity for destruction on top of genjutsu talents (which, BTW, Kishimoto has seemingly forgotten completely).
Yet, it all falls stale. Naruto regularly incorporates his kagebushin into his regular fighting style. Its one of his most basic maneuvers. Yet, we rarely see Sakura actively use her strength unless its directly called upon by others. Aside from greater proficiency with basic combat, we have not seen a growth in her fighting style to this date.
At least I was comforted with the fact that she seemed to have gained some sense of maturity in her feelings towards Sasuke. She seemed a lot more rational, or at least calm in dealing with it. Then we had one of our most recent chapters, where teammates of Killerbee ask Team Seven what Sasuke means to them... and Sakura breaks down. For no reason. Its utterly baffling to witness, and it seems like nothing more than a reason for Naruto to go take a heroic beating for his friend. Ugh.