MadameKruemel

My ideal Naruto ending would include something like the following:
The Ninja war is over (although I don’t really like that chapter anyway except the Tobi/Madara/Kaguya part because I find it boring seeing every beaten enemy rising again in old freshness. Kishimoto probably ran out of opponents.) But be that as it may, the war is over and we are looking to the future a year or so. It is time for a new Hokage but who? If you ask me I would go for either Shikamaru or Konohamaru. Shikamaru because he’s just the right type for the job and Konohamaru because I enjoy surprises and wouldn’t a very young Hokage be a surprise? Some of you may find this proposal rather strange and not much fitting, but just imagine “what if”. Sure, Naruto is canon for Kishimoto, but I think Konohamaru as Hokage would be exciting. He matured when his grandfather and uncle died and outgrew childhood a while ago. He is much stronger now and his values are those of a Hokage. Plus he strives to be the Hokage and to steadily improve. He is determined as hell. Why not giving him the chance? Why shall it only be Naruto? Let Konohamaru be a little clueless and goofy now and then, that’s OK, give him counsellors and friends to support him just like every Hokage has at least one. How about Ebisu? So far no Hokage has fallen from the sky. In real history some young folks aka children managed to fill out responsibly positions as well. In fact being Hokage looks more like organizing and doing paperwork, taking part in Kage meetings and making a few decisions. I have doubts as to Konohamaru precipitating Konoha into ruin. There are too many advisors, Konohamaru has his heart in the right place, common sense, a spirit of justice and knows the difference between right and wrong. And even as a Kage Konohamaru still can learn, the possibility is always given. It is not as if the Hokage is almighty, invincible and a superbrain. Is it really necessary that a Hokage has to master an Ultra-Mega-Giga technique, inherits an unbelievable amount of monstrous chakra and can transform into a super mode first to make people accept him as village leader? This is bollocks. Maybe some shinobi will never be stronger than others, no matter how hard they work. In many cases talent is innate. So is the post of Hokage an elitist one which only the best of the best are reserved to occupy? And everyone not going Sayajin power is supposed to piss off? But maybe Konohamaru IS a prodigy with his promising genes.  The fact that he learned to use the Rasengan in a short amount of time speaks volumes and his superb bloodline is an undisputable fact. Unfortunately and ultimately Konohamaru merely became a teacher and coincidentally Bolt’s teacher. There are too many marked paths which are walked. Old schemes sold as new ones and it bugs me.

NOW for Naruto. He would’ve been best as Jiraiyas successor and a hermit. Think of him as the godlike person he is. He focuses on his powers, trying to keep all strength in the world balanced. With the help of his toad fellows and Kurama. He would be pretty important because he could intervene at any time if need be. He would watch Konoha village, visiting it every now and then. Maybe he would even train some hot-headed spring chicken.
Imagine him training under an enormous waterfall again, fighting in front of epic landscapes, mountains and forests. Even developing brand new techniques! And wouldn’t he just look damn cool in Ero Sennin style? Admit it. I think it would suit him well. Remember his Ninja ID picture? The one with the Kabuki make-up?
He would have his own priorities. Nothing precasted. I would really welcome it if he emulates such an important person in his life. The story would be more consistent and meaningful.  Jiraiya wouldn’t have been forgotten so easily because nowadays nobody says anything about him. He is not mentioned anymore. What a pity. Naruto should make his former master proud and stand up to him. This would be awesome and Shonen at its best. Moreover Naruto’s abilities sadly are all given away with the post as Hokage who doesn’t deliver much physical performance. As if an athlete goes through years and years of training and hardship only to end up with an office job. Satisfied? Protecting the village you say? That’s his task? Well normally not only a one-man team protects the village if the village really is family. There are many defenders like the Anbu (if they still exist) or talented Shinobi of his generation plus some old hands. One would think times a Kage had to sacrifice himself for a village are long gone. Besides in my version Naruto and Sasuke would still be around to help out. There is nothing to lose. Especially because the Shinobi world seems to have maintained peace so what could go wrong? Konohamaru as Hokage could approach the challenges he faces step by step and Shikamaru anyway.

As far as I’m concerned Sasuke can stay a loner wandering around as usual, I wouldn’t want him any other way. It is alright. Maybe Kishimoto could give him back part of his duck butt hair, maybe not.  But please without wife and child. They’re slowing him down, binding him what he obviously hates and forcing him into duties he does not feel up to and matters that are of no interest to him. Like pretty much his whole family. I wish Kishimoto had rather taken the Sannin theme into consideration. It would have given Sakura the final boost to being the great female champion. This would have made the three main protagonists Jesus. No pairings, but undistorted badass-ery. Instead Kishimoto let her run into the ground taking all coolness and independency away from her. Could he be a chauvinistic sexist?

A side character like Chouji looks good with a child. It would already be enough if only Chouji would be Dad so far especially because he was one of the least popular guys when it came to girls. This would really push him and make the father-thing special. And we don’t even need to know who the mother is. Keep it a secret and fans will be delighted to speculate. Make only one person a parent so the parent-thing doesn’t lose its charm and who know what the future brings. But a future not pictured and written down. Fans have fantasies and Kishimoto can finally relax and put the pencil aside.

Aside from the pairings the rest of the characters is more or less okay, Shino as teacher etc . But the whole Naruto Shippuuden and its ending should focus more on the Shonen thing, not suddenly switching to soap opera. The original Naruto series was so bloody cool. I can’t understand how it came to change in its very core. It’s not about frills and furbelows  that doesn’t suit my book it is way more basic. Well except for Naruto actually being Hokage but we don’t know how exactly this came to happen. Instead of showing us Kishimoto does a time jump and we are presented with a fair accompli. OOC. Spare us the family stories and make the action main focus. Exactly what dyed-in-the-wool fans since the very beginning find interesting. Not only shippers. Is this Naruto or Fruits Basket? I am convinced the critics like myself all agree that the ending is not sufficient for the series we used to enjoy. Sorry, but f*** the girls who hunt down the guys with their overflowing feelings. Sakura, Hinata, Ino, everyone. This Manga is about ambitioned main characters with goals who should be allowed to do it THEIR way not acting according to other’s wishes. If this would be the case a Monkey D. Luffy would surely retire from becoming pirate king marrying Hancock on the spot. Sheesh. I dare to say that some of the points I mentioned would mean character development, but I don’t intend to put a spoke in a great artist’s wheel. Unfortunately I assume Kishimoto draws by far better than he writes. 

So as a fan since 15 years I finally decided to add my two cents to the Naruto ending as well. I know it is a heated discussion and a touchy topic and I wish I could just be satisfied with the ending but I am not. Although actually I really hate shitstorms but unfortunately I have to join in the discussion. Please consider it not as an accusation against fans who love the ending, I don’t want to bash you. It’s all about what Kishimoto did to the story I used to love. It’s a personal issue, no one is supposed to share my opinion. I rather want to know if there are other fans like myself. Please don’t feel attacked. Bear with me if my wording may be a little aroused here and there, but it is solely with regard to fictious persons so they can’t feel affected by it.
As I finished reading the last chapter of Naruto Shippuuden I was kind of flabbergasted. I don’t bear a grudge against Masashi Kishimoto but the final résumé left me pretty clueless for within these last pages the manga has changed beyond recognition. After all those flashbacks, the neverending story, the Gaidens, Shippuudens, the cliffhangers, twists and last but not least quite a lot of filler stuff Kishimoto finally came up with a sudden conclusion to finish it all off. In my opinion the Naruto Manga luckily never focused on romance as a main theme, but rather integrating it in a comedic, entertaining way. It was mainly about Shinobi, dreams, adventures, action, fun and the serious sides of life all at once. In the end it all seems reduced to kitsch. It’s a mystery to me. I mean come on, Hinata’s affection for Naruto has been clearly one-sided from the beginning. I never felt Naruto was in some way attracted to her or paid any further attention to her. He usually spoke to her in a polite and sometimes formal way and thought of her as a nice girl and comrade, this is true. But now it is like Naruto “took her because she was available and willing” and he wasn’t able to get Sakura. IF he still happened to be into her. Naruto must have cared for Sakura much, at least so much that he accepted her love for Sasuke, letting her go. As if he simply wants the best for her. I don’t believe in Naruto having a crush on Sakura in a competitive way. This would be ridiculous. Especially because Sasuke never showed any interest in her. Would that make sense in any way? I tend to avoid the Sasuke/Sakura relationship here in general for it is abusive and many things but not love so I won’t go into details on that one. Hinata is a pretty girl and I don’t dislike her but I couldn’t feel the vibes between her and Naruto at any time. The “Naruto: The Last” movie tries to enforce a love story between them two to desperately explain the sudden incidents. I would never have thought it possible that Kishimoto would sum the story up in such a clumsy way. Quote from a fan who takes the same view: “People seem to think if a girl has feelings for a guy, the guy must reciprocate, it must happen. A rejection is simply not acceptable. They think love is all about the girl’s feelings, men’s feelings don’t count. Once a girl set her eyes on a guy, all that’s left for him to do is feeling guilty, and obligated to accept the girl.” Otherwise he’s the ultimate douchebag. In the movie folks literally talk Naruto into Hinata. It’s like they’re trying to remind Naruto of something that never happened while he feels amnesic.  
“Yes, you were a nice guy back then when you were little, helped her out, gave her a hand from time to time, don’t you remember? You certainly gotta propose to her now, bakayaro. You and her are very close.  It’s obvious you are made for each other, blockhead.” It’s a lot like the common principle of Baptist families in the US. Same age, halfway fits, they don’t detest each other, let’s couple them. What does not fit is made to fit.
Crazy to think of Narutos friends cheering him on in marriage bed on the finishing straight. And if this really happens to be their logic then all the Shinobi, homo and hetero, sharing any in-depth story should marry each other. Like Kakashi and Gai, Kakashi and Obito, Shikamaru and Chouji, Sakura and Ino, Iruka and Naruto, Naruto and Gaara and naturally Sasuke and Naruto. The list goes on and on.
My personal guess is that they implicitly intended to couple Naruto so he won’t go emo when Sakura or any other girl wouldn’t respond to his love. As if he still was a jackass. Instead he is turned into a Prince Charming and a hopeless romantic who appears infinitely far to me here. Needless to say that a character may and must grow up and undergo a change when it comes to adulthood but not at a whole character’s cost.

I came across some pictures of the main characters and their future children only a few days before I read the final chapter and thought of them as fan-art for they are so absurd like right out of a trashy novel.  But those pictures turned out to be very real. Sure everyone asks themselves questions like: Who might end up with someone from the series? Or: Will Naruto really turn out to be Hokage? Eventually it turned out everyone would end up with everybody from the village and Kishimoto out of dullness oriented himself by random fandoms. In whatever mind-boggling pairing. With chapter 700 Kishimoto clearly emulates his idol Akira Toriyama who also makes everyone a big cheerful family with loads of offspring. According to the motto “ Every Jack has his Jill”. And the children? Hey, baby’s boom after war.
First shadowy and kind of thrilling Kishimoto wouldn’t reveal much about matters of love. Maybe there won’t be any lovers. Maybe everything turns out differently. Maybe just one couple. But who? He gave us small hints, inconspicuously and barely interpretable. And will we by any chance witness the uprise of a new Hokage? Maybe Konohamaru? There were several candidates after all and nothing is impossible. Especially with a little character development. If Naruto manages to grow up why shouldn’t Konohamaru? Naruto had been branded as the big kid and a jester all along. Maybe Konohamaru would’ve got his act together even sooner.
Sure, for example every fan at some stage may have wondered how Kakashi will look like under that mask, some explicitly asked for his face, others wondered, but preferred not to know because they liked him like that. In fact sometimes it’s  better to leave room for own interpretations or imaginations. Kishimoto hardly left any leeway here. Everyone’s future is set in stone. I guess for fans who need it chewed for or some shippers this ending served the purpose. It also worked well for my best friend.
Honestly I expected for Kishimoto to come up with a more subtle ending that would live up to the whole series. In fact all the characters I used to know are mere shells of their former self. Referring to our well-known protagonists some look okay, some should best be sent to a fashion adviser (Gaara = pimp). But that’s complaining about first world problems. Personally I don’t really reject Naruto’s new hairstyle which made its first appearance in “The Last”. It is unusual, yes, but it is also interesting and fresh. But I would have been open for every other option as well like maybe sort of a Minato-or Jiraiya memorial-hairdo. But in the new running series with Bolt being 12 Naruto looks leached out and tired as hell. And old old old. And I hate seeing him like that because there is nothing left from the old enthusiastic Naruto Uzumaki what really bothers me.

Speaking of this as for our newly introduced heros in Chapter 700 their design is plain and predictable. Let’s mix up the father’s hair cut with the mother’s hair color, the uncle’s nose with the cousin’s dimples and voilà! Well, but in the Uzumaki case there are only very slight changes. The father passes the blond hair on to the son as well as the whiskers and the eyes. There is nothing from Hinata in Bolt. His mother could’ve been any Kunoichi or female citizen from Konoha village. Only new feature is Himawari having the whiskers and blue eyes. Bravo. I hope Bolt’s kid will look cooler some day, not like a second Bolt born out of parts of his grandfather.
Gosh, there is potential. Make Himawari blond or if need be let her stay black-haired, let her have the whiskers and Naruto’s eyes, make Bolt any other hair color than blond, give him the Byakugan and take away the damn whiskers so that he won’t look like a Naruto knockoff or cosplayer. Maybe you can find something new to put on his cheeks so that the feature will not get lost. YOU’RE the inventive mind. But aren’t you fricking bored of drawing characters exactly identical, even cloning them? Plus giving them the same traits and habits. Give us a bit more innovation, please. I mean, a Naruto 2.0? What for? Why not coming up with a fresh idea instead of recycling the old ones? For a Mangaka worth his money Kishimoto sadly does a shiftless job, only stressing the circle closes. From generation to generation. No, I don’t want Kishimoto to desperately reverse it all to avoid repetitions. You don’t have to make a Shikadai extra hyper and silly because his father used to be lazy and intelligent just to show us you can also do the opposite.
In fact the only kid I really like IS Shikadai. I appreciate his concept the most because he simply looks good. Like proven good. Nothing new, but not any worse either. You will think it’s double standards that I like a second Shikamaru but not a second Naruto, but to begin with, in principle every Nara boy looks the same. Shikamaru looks like Shikaku, Shikadai looks like Shikamaru. You have to deal with it. It’s not really groundbreaking but it seems an inevitable fact. And really soon I will address the issue “hair”.
Ino’s child looks like he feels sick to his stomach. In connection with his hair color it only gets worse. He is a nightmare in color and sorry, but something that should have never been born, something just not “right”. Apart from that Ino’s husband never was attracted by her. He only made love to her to carry on his gene pool. An unavoidable must-do because all the others do so. Choujis daughter appears a Missy Elliott in her best years (no offense Miss Elliott) what is ludicrous and absolutely unfitting.  Particularly because I don’t get how her parent’s relationship started after all. A child like that from Octopops alright, but Chouji? Her behavior seems not congruent to neither her father or mother. Kiba and Shino okay, they don’t seem to have any kids so they’re off the hook. For Tenten I am not sure and either Lee managed to do the sex on a girl (hopefully not Tenten) or he is able to reproduce himself asexually. Or maybe he like adopted a foreign kid just like he himself was taken under Gai’s wing who could also be his father due to their strong resemblance. The Uchiha daugther looks like Karin, there must not be any doubt on our minds.
Hair. Bolt’s Sayajin-blow-dry hairstyle may have to do with Kishimoto’s fable for the Dragon Ball-Saga, but doesn’t fit into Kishimoto’s drawing style which used to be edgy and spikey. It reminds me of a weird flower-plant-thingy, fluffy and with one oddly sticking out strand like the stalk of an apple. I cannot really describe it, it is somehow similar to a poodle’s fur. I can’t take Bolt seriously with this kind of look. Not sure what I’m dealing with. Is it an explosion, a bee hive fixed with twenty bottles of hairspray, a wannabee rockstar, disco dude or a good old pompadour. It just makes him look like a prick and a goof at the same time. That’s the thing I hate most about Bolt. The snobbish-looking bird’s nest on top of his head.  I can barely believe that Kishimoto doodled something like that and was pleased with it. It’s just Naruto with a wig. And I despise Bolts jerky manner. This guy is plainly unappealing. I bet he would have picked on young Naruto as well if they were the same generation. Just like one of those bullies. On the one hand he is vain about being an Uzumaki, high and mighty, a prodigy with superior skills who never needed to work his balls off to succeed.  On the other hand he won’t miss any opportunity calling his father a shitty dad although he has no inkling of hardship and is incredibly unthankful. He is a spoiled punk with airs and graces and an anti-social selfish case of ADHS because there is no reason for him to run riot like his dad when he was young. Bolt is born privileged and he’s not appreciating it. I already see coming how the brat is bugging everyone in his class with show-off behavior. Naruto is busy with being Hokage and therefore surely not the best Dad, no, but I venture to suggest that it’s not as if he goes around beating the crap out of Bolt daily. Except I don’t know Naruto any longer which is not excluded. I expected him a cooler adult too, I know, he failed. I think it is not Naruto’s fault alone but Hinata’s too. As a housewife and so-called strong kunoichi she should at least be able to educate her kids in an appropriate way.  What can we learn from this? Maybe Hinata wasn’t ready to bring a child into the world yet and Naruto probably would have been better off without any children. Then he would be able to carry out the long-desired Hokage thing without being hated by a rude titch, unfortunately his own flesh and blood. But Hinata most likely yearned for him to finally impregnate her to complete the victory.
Really if Bolt wouldn’t be like Bolt I probably would continue following the whole thing for a while but this squirt manages to spoil it. Kishimoto really has done me a great disservice with it. And this bothers me because I find the character Naruto so important. I can handle Sai and Ino’s butt-ugly son because they are not that important to me but Naruto is. Bolt is not good enough for Naruto. Really, no one deserves a son or brother like Bolt who is calling his parent’s attention permanently and bitching around. I clearly prefer Himawari here. And so it’s not a surprise Naruto looks the way he looks now. Sure, until now I have a few Manga chapters and a teaser trailer to base this all on so I may be too hasty but I really try to like Bolt and it’s not working. And Bolt really masters both the Rasengan and Chidori in stride? Whey, stunning. Combine it and go name it the Chidogan or Rasori. Why not becoming Hokage right away, beating his dad to a pulp? Right, Bolt hates the Hokage thing. Bolt’s lame in general…at least introduce some new techniques please.

So everything is about to change and the old violent Shinobi world lies in the past, but Bolt plays the snotnose without being an abandoned orphan or having any other good reason and Sasuke is a bad parent too, originally also an orphan due to tragic circumstances. Shouldn’t Sasuke and Naruto be more caring with their kids now to spare them their own difficult childhood because THEY know what is important in life? And besides, isn’t being a Shinobi violent in the core? I mean, in feudal times their right to exist was based on them putting people to death. How can you gloss that over? What’s on the Ninja agenda of today’s Konoha? Carpentry? 

Some artists like the easy way to happen, the procreation, but to me it’s yesterday’s chip paper. Overall it is given the impression that all is good and solid. For my taste Kishimoto kept it way too simple, limiting the goals of profound characters to bold values like “my job, my wife, my kids, my house”. Duh. In a great Shonen about badass assassins?  Not surprising that the ending very much resembles the ordinary outcome of Harry Potter. I can imagine how Kishimoto was inspired by it because he read the books and was very impressed. I will accept it because nothing else remains to be done. I can still dismiss that last chapter and stick to teenage Naruto instead.  I just think it is very sad that overall the whole series lacks one independent and strong female role in Naruto’s generation with all the girls being no better than a neat attachment for the guys, cleaning, baking, bearing and babysitting. Some questions or matters remain unanswered while others are exploited. Do Naruto and Karin ever realize they are related? What about Team Hebi in the first place? But hey, there’s the Mini series continuing the epic, following the kids in becoming full-fledged Shinobi. So the original Manga was not the real deal and whoever doesn’t want to read the new one and therefore isn’t up to date wasted his or her time by then. With all the unanswered questions will be dealt with in the new Manga, at least for those who feel appealed to read it.

In the end it’s all up to the artist for Naruto is Kishimoto’s legal brainchild and he can do as he pleases with his own characters. This is undoubtedly true. I don’t think petitions will do. It’s just that for me (someone who buys his work and like… finances him) that denouement only works poorly. If Kishimoto had did it in a clever way he would have found a solution where it’s up to the individual to how the story might move on. An exciting finish, an open end. With insinuations, fine by me. No one would be badly disappointed or harassing the author because anything goes. I’m not a shipper, my problem is the protagonists out of character, forced into a long overdue ending. Although the whole thing is littered with logical mistakes in a world Kishimoto himself has set the rules. For example how can it be that none of Narutos children inherits the Byakugan when it is a dominant trait? Really, don’t make Bolt or Himawari develop the Byakugan because it is ridiculous to let it evolve out of a normal eye. It is said Kishimoto is trolling fans on purpose, only being after the money, not a grand finale. Be that as it may, but Kishimoto managed to get the thing completed in a loveless, unsatisfying way, putting no effort in it. Probably he’s a serious case of burnout by now, fucked up by deadlines. And there is a bunch of editors to him, interrupting his thoughts and ideas and poaching on his territory.  Feels not like a 100% Masashi Kishimoto. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Including Studio Pierrot. Probably the Manga would've been in better hands at Studio Gonzo or Manglobe. Perhaps the franchise simply fell victim to marketing and commerce for getting everything out of the series by launching new characters the majority strives to follow furthermore.  “Bleeding the cash-cow dry” like another fan stated. I am not frantic and I am not foaming with rage, I only spoke my mind because I already follow the Manga and Anime for such a long time so it would be a lie to claim it doesn’t affect me. I suspect Kishimoto to not have any clue what he’s doing anymore. He is like arbitrarily rolling the dice on his decisions. If we are to believe the interviews, later on some arguments sprang to his mind which would be in favor for a different ending. Sounds like pure disinterest and neglect to me. As if he could care less. Maybe he should have read the entire Manga series one last time to reflect which ending actually makes sense. Anyhow would be interesting to hear your personal point of view on it.