1000th comment post request: An attempt at understanding Narutards.
June 5th, 2007 by Shirukii
Inspired (read: plagiarize) by Impz, I decided to let the 1000th commenter request a post as long as the topic was something I have a bit of background in. The 1000th commenter turned out to be Hinano, and her request?
“Can I request a post on Naruto and how retarded most of its fans are? :D :D”
Jokingly or not, I thought it would be interesting to try and write about Naruto, seeing as I’ve never done it before and it’s one of those shows that I loathe, but keep watching anyways. So, here goes, I apologize in advance for any brain cells that might be lost in the process of reading this editorial.
Naruto, a series that has become largely synonymous with anime itself. Starting off as a manga by Masashi Kishimoto serialized in Shounen Jump, the Naruto franchise has exploded into every medium imaginable: an animated adaptation, movies, plushies, keychains, action figures, playing cards, posters, etc etc. If there’s a form of Naruto merchandise that doesn’t exist, I’d love to see it.
Behind the plethora of merchandise lies a loyal fanbase that have come to be collectively known as ‘Narutards’. The term is a combination of the words “Naruto” and “retard”, it was originally an insult directed at those who blindly worshiped every aspect of the show, but somehow these people came to accept the term and now use it with no shame.
Now there is an important distinction to be made between Narutards and people who simply watch Naruto, for they are worlds apart. I myself am part of the latter group, those who watch Naruto and judge it objectively. To illustrate my point, let’s compare how each group might critique the Naruto anime:
Naruto through my eyes: The good, the bad and the ugly…
Naruto started off as a great series with the potential for a kickass storyline and deep character relationships, even from a shounen standpoint. The early arcs were amazing, from the establishment of team Kakashi to the tear jerking end of the Zabuza arc to Sasuke abandoning Konoha, the golden days of Naruto had awesome character development and a simple yet engaging plot, all backed by often epic fight sequences.
But sadly, it was not meant to last. The loss of Sasuke was perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come. Enter the filler arcs. A period of nearly two years where the Naruto anime deviated from the main storyline in an attempt to let the manga gain some ground. The result was disastrous, I can’t attest to the depths of its horrors since I had the sense to bail at ‘The Curry of Life’, but ask around and you’re sure to find someone who can tell you exactly how terrible it was.
And then earlier this year that light at the end of the tunnel was reached and Naruto Shippuuden, the end of the fillers, began. My previous excitement for Naruto was revived…only to die off about ten minutes into the first episode. Naruto’s rebirth was marked by poor animation quality and pacing equivalent to the drying of paint.
So I’m left to wonder if there’s any salvation for Naruto, but with little else to do I faithfully download the weekly episodes in hope that it will return to its former glory, only to be disappointed with the all too familiar scene of Gaara having shukaku drained from his every orifice, a scene that we’ll probably be seeing for the next 20 odd episodes.
From the Narutard standpoint…
Now I actually tried to get a coherently written review from a few Narutards I know, but two of them linked me to SasuXNaru yaoi fanfics, explaining that they were reason enough to love the series and the other began to fantasize about what it would be like to have the sharingan in real life. *facepalm*
* * *
I realize that ninjas, kunais, swords, etc. are cool and all, but there comes a point where you have to grow up and look beyond surface gimmicks. Like any form of entertainment, there has to be substance, and that’s what Narutards fail to understand. Lack of continuous plot and coherent character development? Who needs that when you can have hot bishounen that can breathe fire instead!
The problem with Narutards is often more fundamental than them being mindless and unrelenting fanboys. In my opinion it comes down to exposure, most Narutards just haven’t seen any decent anime for a means of comparison. The average Narutard you see walking down the street with a forehead protector is not representative of the type of anime fan that most of the readers here are. Most of the Narutards I know personally either watch off of Youtube or the TV dubs, both of these mediums are pretty much taboo to the educated anime fan with access to torrents and knowledge of sites like Tokyo Toshokan or Baka Updates.
The result? Thousands upon thousands of mindless retards who refuse to acknowledge anything better than Naruto exists (except maybe Bleach). This pisses me off because it’s these people who can’t keep their mouths shut and end up running down the street screaming “RASENGAN!”. The problem is that they’re screwing over the rest of us, the general public is usually absolute in their preconceptions, such is why we have stereotypes. When anime is mentioned to the oblivious I usually get one of two reactions: i. What?! You watch that animated porn shit? or ii. Oh, you mean those cartoons about ninjas and stuff?
Setting aside the people who think anime=hentai, because those people just can’t be convinced otherwise, where do you even begin to deal with the latter. You would think that it’s a simple matter of explaining to the person that anime cannot be thrown into any one single genre, rather it is a form of entertainment as diverse as normal television shows. But thanks to idiotic Naruto fanboys it’s often impossible to convince someone that an anime can be just as sad, funny, touching, or thought provoking as any show featuring real life actors.
So what can we do to combat this epidemic? In all seriousness, nothing. I’ve been to Anime North three times over the past four years and to this day the majority of cosplay is still Naruto characters, it’s inexplicable. Don’t get me wrong, some of these cosplays are great and deserve praise, but for every good Sakura there’s a mob of clones following close behind that deserve to be cleansed from the human gene pool.
Not being much of a Naruto fan myself, I can’t provide any logical reason as to how the series grew to it’s current popularity and why the number of Narutards continues to increase.
Perhaps if those who know better round up their local Narutards and introduce them to some quality anime…actually, no, screw it, that’s way too optimistic. We’re fucked.
The only thing left to do is hide in the pockets of the internet that they have yet to discover. The anime blogging community is a decent refuge, there are many like minded Naruto fans with the ability to think objectively and know that there exists a metaphorical mountain of anime that is far superior to Naruto. For the more adventurous, there’s also 4chan, where Naruto threads are more than likely to be hit instantly with innumerable amounts of “SHIT SUCKS!” replies and buried to deletion within the hour.
I can only hope that the Narutard phenomenon will soon die down, but with no end to the manga in sight and numerous con reports showing that Naruto’s popularity still rages on, I’m not holding my breath. And even if it does die off, I’m scared that something even worse may take it’s place. (Lesser of evils ftw?)
And so concludes what ended up being more of a rant rather than an editorial, but in my defense, it’s 3:00 in the morning and I had to go download and watch the Curry of Life arc to find a suitable screenshot and remind myself why I hated the fillers so much, so my ranting is well justified.
To any Narutards who happen on this blog and think my views are unjustified, remember that they are just opinions, NOT FACTS, I’m entitled to mine as you are entitled to yours. If you can’t deal with that, feel free to GTFO of my internets <3
~ Shirukii ~
25 Responses to “1000th comment post request: An attempt at understanding Narutards.”
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Amen…
I consider the Naruto phenomenon akin to the DBZ franchise that reigned supreme in the 90’s. What once started off as a pretty good show becomes a marketing, merchandising WWE-esque bore-athon that milks its fans of all the money and mortality it can.
It seems like crap shounen shows like these are too well entrenched and will never truly die.
Kind of like cockroaches, when every nation has a nuclear weapons program and decides to wipe each off the face of the earth, only the cockroaches and Narutards will be left because there are so damn many of them!
And then God help us all…
Boys like it for the aforementioned reasons. Girls like it because it has girls that like boys.
Amen
I have seen it personally, narutards sprouting up everywhere. But I agree that it has been dying out though, I see less naruto cosplay and more of other animes which I am glad to see. Naruto is not bad since it picked up on the main storyline at least.
lol, great write up. xD
At first when I watched Naruto, I enjoyed it and I thought it would get interesting later. Though over time it just became another anime that I watch. In the past during convention time I always seen a Naruto cosplay but they aren’t as bad as all the Final Fantasy cosplayers (GAH, so many Yuna’s!!). Although now the whole Naruto facade is dying down, most likely due to the 2 years of fillers episodes.
It should be picking back up now that Shippuuden’s an anime.
Great post, I praise you for doing well with it, you covered all the major points of how fans like us are overshadowed by the retards who bicker on forums all day about why X is totally OTP with Y and how *insert name here* sucks and you’re all noobs for thinking otherwise.
Sasunaru. I go brain dead over Sasunaru.
I dropped the anime a long time ago, and I can’t watch Shippuuden without skipping (esp. all the sucking Gaara parts and the talks that just regurgitate things we already know). The manga is definitely better. I read Naruto for the BL moments and the fight scenes. The fight scenes are pretty good (in the manga), but Naruto is far from the best.
I agree that it’s pretty hopeless to try to convert Narutards. Frankly, I don’t much relish the idea of being crucified and la-la-la-ed for even suggesting that there might be something better than Naruto out there. And even if they would listen, I doubt that those who worship Naruto would be able to recognize quality when they see it. They can only lift the veil themselves.
Why is Naruto so popular????
The simple answer is that the North American (televised) market is almost strictly shounen/bishoujo….Think about it…..Naruto, Inuyasha, Bleach, Sailor Moon in the mid 90’s…(N.A. fans didn’t even get to see the “Stars” arc which had the most depth and humour)
To add a little variety, NA markets have given “Game-based” anime a solid base as well ex. Yu-gi-oh….(which I have to admit isn’t bad in its first couple arcs), Pokemon, Duel Monsters, etc.
All of these shows are basically aired with two ideas in mind: a) to sell merchandise and b) select shows that are easy to fit in the Saturday morning/prime-time slots…..there are very few animes that are directed to people over the age of 13…..and those are usually aired after 10pm
That’s not to say I don’t like shounen, the Inuyasha movies for example are tres entertaining……but as Shirukii said it’s all about exposure ;)
Whenever a discussion about anime comes up–especially about breaking into the North American market– I always remember the words of Todd MacFarlane that he put on the Spawn DVDs
I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something like “The Japanese style is very similar to Hollywood, in that they will explore different aspects of story telling, but instead of putting it on film, they will animate it”
OK so I know the HBO Spawn series isn’t from Japan, but it is still one of THE best series using the anime genre…My point is that I wish fans of televised series could keep this in mind and look objectively at what is being pushed in the North American markets….and ask to see something different! :)
Whew, I was kind of wondering how this post would be received, I was worried it might come off as a little forced.
Anyways, everyone seems to agree that shounen is made such that it will sell as much merchandise to the widest audience. Even character development in series like Bleach and Naruto is largely based on character polls (probably why Hinata disappeared from the manga for like…a year).
Barring some sort of revolution in anime, this probably isn’t going to change anytime soon. The genre that will continue to get the most attention is shounen, as it’s the one with the widest appeal. Of course there’s MUCH better out there, but imagine trying to market something like AIR or KGNE to the general public. The target audience for prime time anime isn’t interested in touching love stories or amazingly scripted romance/dramas, they want to see swords, special attacks and shit blowing up.
So while I don’t necessarily fault Narutard-level anime fans, because they often don’t know better and probably wouldn’t be interested even if shown a library of better anime, the fact remains that they’re what’s holding the majority of the anime we love from reaching North American mainstream. Until it becomes widely accepted that anime is more than just typical Saturday morning cartoons with ninjas, sword wielding death gods and flexible pirates, shounen will reign supreme. =(
For myself, Naruto is akin to DBZ; You know there will eventually be an ending, but it will probably be an eternity.
It gets ridiculous for the manga as well…when full chapters are dedicated to memory recaps or recycled images/scenes with minor edits and then ends. In my opinion, Naruto started out good but is quickly dropping into the “why bother anymore” status. I am caught up in Naruto and can honestly say that if anyone is interested, you could skip volumes/episodes and you wont miss very much.
Bleach and One Piece I go a little easier on but they are getting borderline. Bloated animes loses my attention fairly quickly… I still watch most of them to keep up to date in case things change. I dont mind cliches if they are part of a great story and well placed but some of the stuff from those animes can be irritating.
As for North American markets… it definately does not help when serious situations are edited out, voice acting sucks, ratings/family guides/merchandise get involved. It’s all about the money… I feel bad for the anime fans out there limited to this material.
Oh yeah, the Naruto movie trailer is showing at many theatres in California if anyone has seen it. It made me cringe when I saw it…”believe it!”
Look, the bottom line for shonen anime is that it’s all about money. Initially, most animes of this genre start of pretty good. Lets take Pokemon for example. The first and second season was pretty good. The bad guys were bad, the battles were interesting, and the episodes were fresh. Once it started gaining reputation, aka thrid season onwards, the bad guys started becoming the joke of the underworld, the battles were basically older one with different pokemon involved, and the episodes become pretty much an eternal loop. And then there’s the fact that north american dubs tend to edit out everyhting that they don’t like, or they deem “boring”, which is pretty much anything with firearms, character development and story progression. And lets not touch on the sucky voice acting, or the large amount of advertisment in the papers, or the large amounts of edits.
Of course, once the anime stopped airing, this will die off soon after. I mean, look at DBZ. How many people do you know who is actually still collecting the action figure? But…it will take so long, those with enough money would put ourselves in cyrogenetic sleep just to see the end of it.
Thank God the DBZ fad died down, Dragonball was awesome, but everything in DBZ past the Frieza arc (lol, are we still on Namek) was terrible. That series put me off so much that I actually stopped watching anime for about half a year because it was so traumatizing T_T
hahah, lol! dude that’s so true ^____^;;; nice article mate, i recognized myself for a moment there. with naruto being the first animeseries i actually followed (or can i include pokemon and superpig too?) i indeed thought that it was the best of the best and thought it couldn’t get any better! while friends told “bleach” was the “ultimate shit” compared to naruto i told them naahhh the orange-hair-dude looks JUST like a matured naruto with orange hair! bleach is just a copycat! but then when i seriously started following the bleach series i actually got something to compare naruto with and naruto looked so childish and stuff.
but now when i read your article i somehow get the impression that you look at bleach the same way you look at naruto T____T;;; nowadays i follow lots of other animeseries as well (bokurano, darker than black, claymore, deathnote, dgrayman, Shijou Saikyo no Deshi KENICHI etc.) and i still think bleach is good :$ hehe does that make me a bleachtard? T___T;;
but what do you think of bleach? seriously? ^__^;;
I actually don’t mind Bleach as much as Naruto, the plot is much less random and even though it has the same problem of having no end in sight, at least the individual arcs have a sense of continuity to them and when they’re done you get a sense of closure.
But it’s still a shounen and therefore has a lot of inherent flaws. One of the most annoying things in Bleach is NO ONE DIES! No matter how dead you might think someone is, someone is bound to save them, even more so now because of Orihime’s ultimate hax.
But I do watch and enjoy Bleach, it’s my guilty pleasure shounen fix =D
nice. very intelligent, too.
I don’t really pay attention to fanbases, because I don’t like to mingle with other anime fans all that much, but I liked Naruto up until the end of the Chunin Exam arc. The entire show peaked there and everything after has been disappointing in comparison.
It’s still a fairly decent shonen program, ignoring the massive filler, but not as good as it was back during the Chunin Exam.
Very strong article here.
I guess I must admit that almost all your arguments are true. (don’t know about the NA-market, but the situation here isn’t much better)
Naruto was about the 15th anime I started watching and the initial plot is indeed very strong. I don’t know why I actually bothered to watch the filler (going through 85 filler episodes in two weeks feels like hell) but I also felt some dissapointment with the launch of the new season.
I guess they shounen-virus is getting in the way of a serious new start. I never noticed the recap-shots as much untill now, Gaara having his Ichibi sucked out feels like a very disturbing doomsday icon…
Lately, I’ve been hesitant over every series marked shonen, and it looks like in most cases my doubts are true. I should really stick to a bit more serious seinen material.
Anyways, again, a very nice rant. ^_^
Producers should have just made a slice-of-life action series about Kakashi and Jiraya [and called it The Odd Couple].
Nice read ^^
Note on series too long: I’d be thrilled if writers could perfect the art of writing wherein the story has many closure points, can be ended cleanly at various lengths without any further material, and still come out decent no matter what length is experienced. I suppose that is the use of arcs, but I’m thinking of a more defined stopping point.
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LOL i remember when i used to watch naruto EVERY WEEK from DAY1!!! and i LOVED it .. up till the naruto sasuke fight… then it got stupid even though i still watched every episode every week with faith tht shippuuden will be as good as the first series… the first bit was gd… but now…. im watching half episodes of recap of the last episode then the other half is just dodging kunais or poisen needles LOL SO POINTLESS….but WHY DONT I STOP?!?!?
I satumbled upon this blog and it is a good read Thank you. I wanted to add my 2 cents to this dicussion. (since some of you don’t know how the narutard movement started and wy the series attracts new followers ever day)
I do not believe that the narutard phenamenon will die down anytime soon and given the new show I say it will garner even more followers, and I *dare* to say that the show is very good at its core elements and that is why it has such appeal. Just like DBZ it focuses on classical themes of good vs evil, gaining somethign through training and hard work vs taking short cuts or other means, redemption, loss, learning and fatherhood. Themes thave existed throughout the ages and are always good lessons to portray in any story.
Naruto much like DBZ underneath the bs deals with some serious issues such as rejection, loss, death, betrayel, revenge, responsibility, and friendship. In today’s ADD pop culture there isn’t much for the youth to turn to. It is through the long story arcs and the frienships and obstacles that the characters grow and people who watch the show grow with that. That is their universal appeal and what makes them good.
I have completely the opposite opinion as many here. I have watched almost every fansub of anime released in the last 6+ years everything from Love Hina, and Bleach to Kimi no Guzo Ein and Lost exile and 90% of them are garbage with the exception of maybe the ones I listed).
Most relay on the same simplistic japanese cookie cutter stereotypes be it the magical girl or the harem thing or the giant robot thing or the I can see ghosts thing.
I mean why do I want to watch some 15 year old acting ackward around girls for the umpteen time? or why would I be interested in 15 year old girls with oversized guns and powersuits acting like assassins? or excessive lame panty shot fan service that has zero purpose.
Most of the rest of anime gets bugged down in over metaphysical borderline and philosophical delusions and discussions by the main characters that regular people can’t relate to. Other times its overflowing with metrosexual or endrogenous charactes that are borderline gay or has stories acting in ways that no american can relate to.
With the excpetion of such shows as School Days where by episode 5 we have characters actually sleeping with each other most of the other stuff is watching people act ackwardly toward each other where it today’s society you go “WTF is their problem? Are they retarded?” I was reading the Suzuka and a bunch of others and I almost threw up in my mouth. I mean how simplistic and lame are the stories?
Naruto at least comes of as wholey unique in its atmosphere, style, longetivity, and emotional spectrum throughout which the characters go through. It does not fall into the lame cliches lsited above. Everyone who watches that show finds something to like about it or something that remainds them of themselves. More improtantly everyone can relate to it in some way as it has UNIVERSAL appeal jsut liek DBZ did. Bleach in many ways is the same. Its one’s mans quest to prove himself.
you guys do not understand the appeal of Naruto and DBZ and dismiss it as crap because of fillers and simlistic stories, yet its simplicity is what draws such huge followers. Just like Star Wars DBZ was a story about redemption, and just like star wars the themes were simple yet in your face. Why do you think Star Wars has such a huge following or why so many people flocked to the new movies? Everyone know how it was going to end but everyone wanted to see how it would play out. Same with the fighting in DBZ. Everyone knows how they will turn out its how they get there that is interesting.
What is important in Naruto is the journey not the destination.
I do agree that the filler episodes almost ruined Naruto but the new series is much better and by episode 21 the overall mood and quality of the naimation ahs greately improved. Its actually interesting to watch.
A week ago I was at a videogame store and this high school kid walks in dressed up as Suske to pick up the lastest Naruto Fighting game that was recently released on the PS2. He was so excited, and went on to explain all the characters and how he got his head protector to the store clerk. I initially chuckled at his getup and though “what a retard, its not halloween”, but within a minute realized that I have no right to criticize that guy.
“He” is into something that he “loves” and that is something to be admired. Its not often that a movie, a book, or a game makes believe or gives them soemthign to follow. Everyone is looking for something. For you it might be a girl for someone else its some sort of purpose in life. For others like the narutards its the very thing that the main character embodies whether its his determination to keep going despite being rejected in battle, love and life or his inestinguishable will to protect the ones he loves. Not everyone today has the courage to act so they are draws to things and people which embody the characteristics they most desire.
Sorry to burst your collective bubbles but 90% of the rest of the anime world falls short in this regard, of being able to make anyone relate to the characters.
Narutardom will grow and when it finally goes a new one will take its place because people are looking for heroes and something to believe in and that is what the show provides.
my apologies for the poor garammer/spelling above…(not sure how to edit my comment and fix them)
one note I wanted to add is that people are interested in other things liek romance and love triangles but because of the way the characters ususally behave on these shows, the locations, and the differences in the school systems as well as honorifics, and behaivors its is much more difficult to market such a show to the general public.
Only shows set in fantasy universes or historical past are usually more appealing as they are easier to translate and be universally accepted…and universally translated usually means profits for whoever brings them over.
Wow, I usually don’t reply to backlogged comments, but Diglyd brought up a lot of interesting points, some which I agree with and some which I don’t.
I agree that at its core, Naruto does deal with many issues that many can identify with. But in all seriousness, they’re secondary elements of the show. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places, but I have never seen any Naruto discussions along the lines of “Sasuke’s abandonment of Konoha and the resulting blow to the psychological framework of Naruto and Sakura” or “Gaara, the perception of jinchuuriki and whether or not he has been accepted by the Village of Sand’s general populous” Rather, most Naruto discussions I see are more along the lines of “Which Akatsuki member is the strongest” or “Tobi is Obito, shanhax, etc etc”.
The target audience for Naruto, is late childhood/early adolescent kids. They’re not going to be racking their brains over the philophical and ethical issues brought up by the series. They’re watching for the ninjas and what they think is an immersive and interesting plot.
>> I mean why do I want to watch some 15 year old acting ackward around girls for the umpteen time? or why would I be interested in 15 year old girls with oversized guns and powersuits acting like assassins? or excessive lame panty shot fan service that has zero purpose.
Very true, but I watch them anyways for the lulz XD
>> What is important in Naruto is the journey not the destination.
The problem I have with this statement is that Naruto doesn’t even have a destination. There is no obvious overlying goal in Naruto. You could argue it’s some sort of slice of life about a ninja and his adventures, but it’s shounen, not slice of life.
The result is arc after arc, fight after fight of the same crap. During the first training arc when everyone was still training, when Kakashi got hit by a bunch of kunai and it ended up being a bunshin, I was like “OSHI- I thought they had him” But now, whenever someone gets hit with something that could potentially harm them, I’m sitting there thinking “Fuck, it’s probably a clone”
Kishimoto has no idea what he’s writing anymore, no person can plan storylines 8 years in advance. At this point he’s just pulling things out of thin air and it’s getting tiring.
Yes the Narutard phenomenon will go on, I don’t doubt that. But my original point and Hinano’s original request still stand, Naruto is well past its prime and the majority of its fans, despite being dedicated, can’t see that.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to love something with a passion, but you have to realize when that something is just not worth it anymore. It’s like insisting on learning Visual Basic when literally every other programming language out there is superior. Or if you want to make an example out of love, it’s like staying with an abusive husband because you still harbor feelings for him.
All that having been said, thanks for the response, you have some great opinions. And don’t worry about grammar/spelling mistakes, it was easy to understand and that’s all that matters.
And on a closing note:
>> I was reading the Suzuka and a bunch of others and I almost threw up in my mouth.
NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE may argue with this. Suzuka is made of infinite fail and I only read it so I can troll it on 4chan lol.
Pre-note: I’m currently suffering from what seems to be an imminent cold/virus, so I didn’t take the time to read what others have posted. In fact, the entry itself was only skimmed. If I say anything that’s been said before, or incorrectly interpret something, please forgive me.
I definitely agree with you that the Narutards (not to be confused with Naruto fans) are the crux of the issue. Naruto is not such an amazing anime series that it deserves the fanatical following it has. That’s purely objective, though.
As for fillers, you know, maybe some people like them. I can name plenty of animes that could be considered nothing but filler, even to the extent where they lack a coherent storyline at all. But people love them. I myself, love some of them. So, Naruto is definitely not alone.
When I stepped back, I could not find a reason for my insatiable dislike towards Naruto aside from its followers. (Which, in itself, is hardly a valid reason.) It’s just like any other anime that’s so-so. If you don’t like it, just don’t watch it. There’s no problems unless someone insists on forcing it down your throat.
Like you said, Narutards are not a clear representation of the anime community. Even remotely. Yet, they account for such a large percentage, that it infuriates the rest of us.
Right, headache. Tylenol + Sleep time.