Uzumaki Tales
Jan. 26th, 2014 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mastergraywolfLet me starting by saying that I am not that happy with the comic direction of NARUTO.
As ninja are romanticized in various media, with NARUTO being no exception, NARUTO has become an international hit. Ninja drama has existed for years and I grew up enjoying the element of mysteriousness attached to the ninja. Also, I am a martial arts fans. Swords, bo sticks, throwing knives, anything where tools are used skillfully. Thus, the reason why I wanted to do Seishin Series, research all I can about ninja, and send it out into novel.
However, as NARUTO's Part 2 developed, it has become more of a shounen comic. a rule-defying comic. Action oriented, WHICH IS NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL, but it has become like Dragonball where power level is an important factor, female and side characters become virtually insignificant, and trust is determined by how much stronger you are. One boy can turn the tides of a large-scale battle; the background of the Uchiha encompasses the plot, conquering the significance of the Akatsuki organization and the potential of war. And oh, Itachi...I don't want to get into it.
War has a lack of shock value. It has not diminished completely as there are some very interesting PARTS, but I am not that impressed.
What NARUTO does succeed in is being an adventure and well-thought out as a world. The main character Naruto Uzumaki succeeds in being friendly and likable (least to me); we learn about the consequences of hatred; the cast is large and mostly memorable too. I'll stop here.
I'm not doing a review so I'm not elaborating my complaint that well.
I am ambivalent about fanfiction; I sometimes dislike how people disturb canon. I want to use fanfiction to prove that I read/watch/played something and then write proving my appreciation for what I read/watched/played. I don't do character bashing, I don't do main-original character stories (however, Penitent Feathers is my first, so I can convey the importance of the Sagittarius Saints. Might've been a bad idea to go with?), I don't do smut (I think it's incredibly pointless and just a guilty pleasure), etc.
Since I'm doing Seishin to set the tone of what ninja were, and since NARUTO comic might end this year, I thought of Uzumaki a re-telling. I have a fondness for "what makes people" and what a story and what characters can teach. It's not really a punch to Kishimoto; you wouldn't be an author without mistakes and I'm sure he has editors that can influence his direction of the comic.
I like affirming stories, I can like "positive energy" like with super robot franchise, but not that much with NARUTO. I'm almost annoyed by the popularity that it gets, especially in fanfiction, and how fanfic authors debase the series with their desperate self-inserting and their warped, unable to cope interpretations of canon reality (like with romantic pairings).
As ninja are romanticized in various media, with NARUTO being no exception, NARUTO has become an international hit. Ninja drama has existed for years and I grew up enjoying the element of mysteriousness attached to the ninja. Also, I am a martial arts fans. Swords, bo sticks, throwing knives, anything where tools are used skillfully. Thus, the reason why I wanted to do Seishin Series, research all I can about ninja, and send it out into novel.
However, as NARUTO's Part 2 developed, it has become more of a shounen comic. a rule-defying comic. Action oriented, WHICH IS NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL, but it has become like Dragonball where power level is an important factor, female and side characters become virtually insignificant, and trust is determined by how much stronger you are. One boy can turn the tides of a large-scale battle; the background of the Uchiha encompasses the plot, conquering the significance of the Akatsuki organization and the potential of war. And oh, Itachi...I don't want to get into it.
War has a lack of shock value. It has not diminished completely as there are some very interesting PARTS, but I am not that impressed.
What NARUTO does succeed in is being an adventure and well-thought out as a world. The main character Naruto Uzumaki succeeds in being friendly and likable (least to me); we learn about the consequences of hatred; the cast is large and mostly memorable too. I'll stop here.
I'm not doing a review so I'm not elaborating my complaint that well.
I am ambivalent about fanfiction; I sometimes dislike how people disturb canon. I want to use fanfiction to prove that I read/watch/played something and then write proving my appreciation for what I read/watched/played. I don't do character bashing, I don't do main-original character stories (however, Penitent Feathers is my first, so I can convey the importance of the Sagittarius Saints. Might've been a bad idea to go with?), I don't do smut (I think it's incredibly pointless and just a guilty pleasure), etc.
Since I'm doing Seishin to set the tone of what ninja were, and since NARUTO comic might end this year, I thought of Uzumaki a re-telling. I have a fondness for "what makes people" and what a story and what characters can teach. It's not really a punch to Kishimoto; you wouldn't be an author without mistakes and I'm sure he has editors that can influence his direction of the comic.
I like affirming stories, I can like "positive energy" like with super robot franchise, but not that much with NARUTO. I'm almost annoyed by the popularity that it gets, especially in fanfiction, and how fanfic authors debase the series with their desperate self-inserting and their warped, unable to cope interpretations of canon reality (like with romantic pairings).
