Themes
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Unrequited love
Sakura has had a crush on Sasuke since she started at the Ninja Academy. However, no matter how many times she tried to get Sasuke’s attention, it didn’t work. Instead, Sasuke was always cold towards her when she was trying to get his attention.
Naruto has a crush on Sakura, but Sakura likes Sasuke. Yet, despite knowing this, he makes a promise to Sakura that he will bring back Sasuke since Sasuke went to join forces with the villain, Orochimaru.
Rock Lee also has a crush on Sakura, but Sakura likes Sasuke.
Hinata has a crush on Naruto, but Naruto seems clueless, even though there are certain hints that she likes him. For instance, Hinata’s face would always be red or blush whenever she was around Naruto. She would even give him food.
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Friendship
Friendship is evident when the genin are split into teams, namely:
Team 7, consisting of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Their teacher was Kakashi Hatake.
Team 8, consisting of Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. Their teacher was Kurenai Yuhi.
Team 3, consisting of Rock Lee, Neji, and Tenten. Their teacher was Might Guy.
Team 10, consisting of Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino. Their teacher was Asuma Sarutobi.
The Sand Siblings, consisting of Kankuro, Gaara, and Temari.
The friendship displayed by each group taught some important lessons. For instance, Team 7 was taught by Kakashi about the importance of friendship. In Season 1: Episode 5, Kakashi said these words: “While a ninja who breaks the rules is scum, those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.” As time went on, Team 7′s friendship grew despite their differences. For instance, Sakura at first thought Naruto was stupid because he had lost his parents. Yet as time went on, she realised that Naruto was a good friend. Moreover, Sasuke and Naruto were rivals at first since they didn’t get along. Yet as time went on, they became friends, which is saddening because Sasuke left the village in hopes of getting power from Orochimaru. Despite all this, Naruto is determined to bring Sasuke back, no matter how long it takes, which further highlights the theme of friendship throughout the anime series.
Team 8's friendship continues to flourish as they help each other grow as shinobi. For instance, in Season 4: Episode 151, it is revealed that Hinata mastered her new ninja technique known as the Protective 8 Trigrams: 64 Palms. With the intense training she got from her teammates, she mastered this technique, which helped them defeat the Kamizuru clan, who were after the Bikochu beatle. With their friendship to help each other, they are bound to become skilled ninjas.
Team 3′s friendship was meaningful when they had Might Guy as their teacher. In Season 5: Episode 195, the student-teacher relationship between Rock Lee and Might Guy is superb. When Rock Lee was worried that he couldn’t use the Hidden Lotus, Might Guy reminded him of what he said when Rock Lee had his first surgery. In Season 2: Episode 100, Might Guy said to Lee in that flashback, “You worked hard, Lee; there’s no doubt in my mind that the surgery will be a success. You have the power to shape your destiny, and on one and a thousand, nope, one in a million chance something should happen to go wrong, I’ll die right along with you. Since the day I met you, my nindo has been to train you to become the most splendid ninja possible; that’s a promise.” This just further reinforces the close bond that they share; hence, in Season 5: Episode 195, Might Guy said, “You trusted me then, and your surgery was successful; you must trust me now. If you must forsake the hidden lotus, then you’ll just have to work that much harder. There is nothing you cannot accomplish through hard work.” Might Guy prove to be a good teacher who cares about his students? For instance, there was one time he taught his team a valuable lesson. He said, “As you go through life, you’ll find that the world is covered by many rules, but the most important rules are the ones that come from within, the rules that you place on yourself.” With his teachings, Team 3 continued to stay together as a team and is working together to become skilled ninjas.
Team 10′s friendship is focused on their teamwork. For instance, they always find ways to improve their battle formation: Ino-Shika-Cho. As time progresses, they will master their technique through hard work and teamwork.
The Sand’s siblings sort of display a sense of friendship when it comes to Gaara. When Gaara was a monster, killing everyone in his path without remorse, Temari and Kankuro stood by him. They even protected him when Sasuke was pursuing them when they left the Chunin Exams. Eventually, Gaara found peace when he met Naruto, and his siblings were glad.
Friendship is also evident between Jiraiya and Tsunade. They are part of the three legendary sannin. Orochimaru was once part of their team until he became a rogue ninja conducting illegal experiments on humans to achieve immortality and power. Therefore, the friendship is strained.
Kakashi and Might Guy also display a sense of friendship since they are rivals. It is similar to Naruto and Sasuke, where Might Guy always challenges Kakashi.
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Ambition and self-improvement
In Season 4: Episode 151, Hinata mastered her ninja technique, Protective 8 Trigrams: 64 Palms. She was motivated by Naruto’s determination to win a fight against Kiba during the chunin exams. Despite getting defeated by Neji at the Chunin Exams, she did not let it discourage her and decided to work hard with the help of her teammates. Thanks to her relentless drive to work hard, her efforts paid off.
In Season 3: Episode 141, Sakura decided to become a medical ninja. Ever since the Sasuke incident, she has had time to reflect that she is a burden to her teammates. She also felt useless when she couldn’t convince Sasuke to stay at the Leaf Village. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she asked Tsunade to train her as a medic ninja. Ever since then, she has improved and, for once, played a role in a mission. For instance, she healed Kurenai during the Yakumo incident. She also healed Gaara when he was injured by the Four Celestials. From my point of view, if she hadn’t healed Gaara, Gaara wouldn’t have defeated the ultimate weapon, Seimei, the founder of the village of artisans. Sakura continues to grow as a medic ninja, so she is on the right path.
Rock Lee’s relentless pursuit of becoming a ninja is admirable. In the ninja world, there are rules that one has to possess: ninjutsu, genjutsu, or any kind of kekkei genkai. Lee refused to conform to those standards and instead decided to become a ninja who masters taijutsu. With the help of Might Guy, Rock Lee has become a skilled ninja. Moreover, at the end of the series, he is determined to train harder so that he can catch up to Naruto since Naruto left the village to train with Jiraiya.
In Season 5: Episode 220, Ino realised that she didn’t play a role in the mission to save Gaara. She felt useless and decided to take action as a ninja. So, she asked Sakura to ask Lady Tsunade to train her as a medic ninja. Eventually, Sakura agreed, which meant that Sakura was her boss while Ino was her protege. One can hope that Ino will also master the battle formation: Ino-Shika-Cho, because that’s where she can flourish as a ninja as well. Moreover, every Genin is working hard to become a skilled ninja.
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Pain and suffering
Out of all the themes, the theme of pain and suffering is the biggest one one can find in this anime series.
Haku had experienced so much pain and suffering. He had inherited his kekkei genkai from his mother, as they lived in the Land of Water. But as those with Kekkei Genkai are demonised, Haku is forced to watch his mother being murdered by his father before subconsciously invoking his powers to kill his father and the angry mob. Despite all this, Haku had his no-kill policy because he sort of regretted killing his father. He was an orphan just because of a kekkei genkai he was born with. Eventually, he found solace in being Zabuza’s tool, but he died sacrificing his life to protect Zabuza from Kakashi’s lightning blade technique.
Jiraiya and Tsunade lost Orochimaru as a friend when he decided to abandon the village. Orochimaru is trying to find ways to achieve power and immortality, even if it means hurting everyone in his path. What makes it even more saddening is that Jiraiya once begged Orochimaru to stay in the village, but Orochimaru was adamant about pursuing his evil agenda.
Tsunade had lost her brother Nawaki and her lover Dan, who had died. One of the reasons they died is that they were both pursuing their ambitions to become Hokage. It left her bitter that becoming Hokage was risky until she met Naruto, who helped her change her outlook. As a result, she became the Hokage.
Zabuza lost Haku after realising that he did care about him as a person and not just a tool. Haku died protecting him, so Zabuza killed Gato for betraying him. Eventually, in Season 1: Episode 19, Kakashi honoured Zabuza’s dying wish to place him beside Haku. It was a sad situation.
The relationship between Raiga and Ranmaru was similar to that between Zabuza and Haku. Ranmaru was the main reason why Raiga became part of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Moreover, when Raiga died, Ranmaru went to extremes to revive him because Raiga was the first person not to fear him for the power he possessed. However, in Season 4: Episode 157, Raiga abandons Ranmaru because he finds peace and is no longer interested in helping Raiga kill people. Ranmaru tried to show him that there is more to life than killing people by trying to give Raiga the curry of life. Yet Raiga took it as betrayal and decided to kill himself with lightning. It was a tragic situation where Ranmaru lost the person he cared about.
Sasuke experienced so much pain and suffering when his brother killed the whole Uchiha clan. This made Sasuke determined to get his revenge, and when Orochimaru planted the seed that he could give him power, Sasuke left the village. As a result, he became a rogue ninja, training under Orochimaru in hopes of getting the power to kill Itachi Uchiha.
Gaara becoming the host of the one-tailed Shukaku hasn’t always been easy. Not only was he resented by everyone in the village, but a person close to him, named Yashamaru, tried to kill him. Eventually, the shukaku protected Gaara and killed Yashamaru. This resulted in Gaara becoming a monster, killing anyone who was in his way without remorse. Eventually, he met Naruto, who helped him see the value of friendship, and ever since, Gaara has changed for the better.
Naruto becoming a host of the nine tails hasn’t always been easy. He faced ridicule due to the beast inside of him and experienced loneliness. Eventually, Naruto found people like Iruka and Team 7, who helped him overcome the pain and suffering he had endured for a long time.
The third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was killed during his battle with Orochimaru. As a result, everyone experiences pain and suffering from losing such a good Hokage to a villain like Orochimaru.
In Season 4: Episode 167, Lady Toki lost her brother Sagi and her father to a man named Mousou, who was Hoki. He is part of the Wondering Ninja, who infiltrated her village because they were tired of being nomads and travelling from place to place. So they went to extremes to control the village, which resulted in the deaths of Lady Toki’s sibling, Sagi and her father.
In Season 4: Episode 182, Sumaru lost his mother, Natsuhi, after years of believing that she was dead. It’s a slap in the face that he lost her just after reconciling with her. She was killed by Akahoshi, who wanted the star training to continue even at the risk of the villagers’ lives. Eventually, Akahoshi was defeated for his evil actions.
In Season 5: Episode 191, Lady Haruna loses her father when he is killed by the three criminal brothers, Renga, Jiga, and Ruiga. Eventually, Jiga and Ruiga died, while Renga was punished for his crimes.
In Season 5: Episode 207, Yakumo found out that the monster inside of her, known as the Idou, was the one who killed her parents. All her life, she thought that the third Hokage had something to do with their deaths. Therefore, when she found out about this, she was devastated and even wanted to kill herself. It is a tragedy that when the monster killed her parents, Yakumo couldn’t do anything to protect them.
In Season 5: Episode 215, Naruto mourns the death of Menma. Though Menma was a bandit leader who attacked a town, he sacrificed his life to cause a rockslide to save the town. To make matters worse, Naruto was the one who gave him the name Menma since he lost his memories, so it’s a tragedy that Naruto lost a friend, especially since he already lost Sasuke to Orochimaru. This episode was emotional to watch.
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My Opinions
Certain scenes left me unsatisfied. For instance, when Menma died, the episode didn’t reveal his real name even after he got his memories. Moreover, when the Ninja Dropouts issue was resolved, Todoroki left his brother behind, even though he hadn’t seen him for years. I was expecting that he would take him with him. Even though Todoroki left his brother under the care of Gantetsu, the episode didn’t show whether Todoroki would ever visit his brother in the Bewildering Forest. To leave his brother forever didn’t quite sit right with me.
At the beginning of Season 1, Sakura tries to get Sasuke’s attention by saying that Naruto is stupid because he doesn’t have parents. At that moment, it made me judge her for saying that because she would talk trash behind Naruto’s back just to get Sasuke’s attention. Of course, it didn’t work because Sasuke was an orphan, so he took offence to what she said. To make things more awkward, Naruto had a crush on Sakura, so he never actually found out what she said behind his back. Moreover, Sakura’s crush on Sasuke seemed toxic. The lengths she would go to get his attention by saying such insensitive things about Naruto are concerning. She even seemed clingy when she tried to convince him to stay in the village. As time progresses, one will see the outcome of this situation in the sequel, “Naruto Shippuden.”
In Season 5: Episode 208, I didn’t like this Shinemon character. His pompous, overbearing attitude and his willingness to put Naruto and Kiba in danger just to protect his interests made me hate this character. He put them at risk to protect an artefact when he could just make another one himself, which left me baffled.
I see a pattern where female characters are always feeling useless or a burden. For instance, Sakura felt like a burden for being a weak link in Team 7. Second, Ino felt useless when she couldn’t play a part in the Gaara mission. Last, Hinata would often feel like a burden when she attended missions with Kiba and Naruto. Though there are female characters such as Temari and Tsunade who are strong, I can’t help but notice that when it comes to female characters in this anime, they seem a bit weak.
I didn’t like Mizuki at all because he was a fake friend of Iruka. He was jealous of Iruka when they were kids for getting attention from the kids and the third Hokage. Iruka had lost his parents to the nine-tailed fox, and instead of being empathetic about his situation, he was driven by hate because he always sought attention from others, especially the third Hokage. He even went as far as killing a comrade to complete a mission, so I didn’t feel sorry when his body was damaged due to Orochimaru’s formula. He let his greed for power get the best of him, which led to his demise and prevented him from becoming a shinobi again.
Out of all the villains I hate, Akahoshi was the one I didn’t like. He lacked common sense when he resumed the star training in his village, even though it was one of the reasons why most people died. He claimed that he wanted the village to have strong shinobi, but he failed to stop and thought that the star training was the reason why they were a small village. Most people dying could make any village small, so Akahoshi let his greed for power control him, which led to his demise when he and his henchmen were punished in their village.
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and then Add to home screen.