Hi!! this is really random, but I’ve been meaning to send in an ask/a message ever since I saw one of your posts on Naruto.
I also started watching Naruto last year (at the beginning of 2021, late to the party, because at first I thought shonen and the fights and everything wouldn’t be my thing. I was wrong.) and I absolutely fell in love with the show and its characters. I’ve never been this invested in a show and it’s characters before (and felt so much for the characters before, to the point where it literally hurts to see them hurt), and I totally didn’t see that coming when I started watching. (even want to get a tablet to make fanart)
I read one of your takes a while ago about Kakashi’s past and how it’s similar to Inari’s situation (just after I watched Kakashi Gaiden actually), and I’ve been thinking about it for a while now as Kakashi is my favourite character.
I friggin love how you point out narrative parallels. (I still wanted to ask by the way, do you think that Kishimoto intentionally made Kakashi and Inari’s situation similar? Because it’s so early on in the story. I think it’s really cool either way.) Haven’t read that many posts from you because I’m still somewhere around 330 in Shippuden, but I’d totally look for your other takes if it weren’t for the spoilers.
Like I just saw a post from you from somewhere at the end of 2020 (I think one of your first posts on Naruto?) Can’t comment on the post but it’s the one where you mention how at the end of Part 1 Sasuke wants to unlock the Mangekyou and gain more power by killing Naruto, and how on the other hand, Kakashi got his power probably not even wanting it in the first place. But I was honestly surprised by how on point you were about Kakashi’s sharingan and in what kind of situation he aqcuired it, and especially how he feels about it.
I was also writing down some of my own theories back then and a few seasons in I think I only gathered that it wasn’t originally his own, since Sasuke’s sharingan could deactivate and because of the scar. At first I thought he must have gotten it from someone, probably another fallen shinobi. I think there was one scene where Kakashi stood at Obito’s grave in the first part of Naruto and talked about ‘this eye’ to Obito & I think I made the connection then that he might have gotten it from his friend. (I always imagined Obito as a young adult or adult though, never would have though he was only a kid.)
How far are you into the show right now? Cause I remember your blog said you were trying to avoid spoilers. I think you’re much further than me though.
Oh and btw, do you read the manga too? & do you ever rewatch episodes to understand them better?
I don’t know many people irl who are interested in Naruto and discussing it, and the internet absolutely filled with spoilers😭 I’m honestly so sad about some spoilers, because some things I’m pretty sure I would never have guessed and… well there’s not much I can do about it now :’) The constant urge of wanting to talk to people about it and find more content on the internet but also the fear of being spoiled randomly on literally any social media platform😭 My little brother has been watching the show for the first time too, but he doesn’t really like to discuss it or talk much about it.
It makes me so happy to see other people who are also invested in the show!
Anyways, I loved your takes, and wanted to say hi :) Sorry for invading your inbox!
Would it be alright to message you about Naruto or send in other asks? And I would totally follow you if if weren’t for the potential spoilers.
PS: I just found out that tumblr archives are a thing! I didn’t really use my tumblr account that much before so didn’t know how everything works. I’m so happy haha! Now I wish I’d found this blog earlier.
PPS: I just saw the ask @dreamersescape sent in about watching Naruto for the first time with her brother (though I didn’t read her take under that because I haven’t got to that part in the show yet) and that’s..that’s exactly how I feel😭!! It’s the same with my brother😂! I’m overly invested and he’s just doesn’t care that much.
I’m on a short trip with a friend for a few days and I was going to wait until I got back to send this, but I was literally too excited to wait.
Hi there! Seems like you, me, and @dreamersscape should start a “My Sibling and I Watched Naruto for the First Time in 2021” club - we could get matching t-shirts! :)
I’m very similar to you in that I completely did not expect to enjoy Naruto as much as I did - or at all! I haven’t watched much anime in the past (Fullmetal Alchemist being the exception, and even that I only watched for the first time a couple years ago), and the only thing I knew about Naruto was what my friends had mentioned when we were much younger and they were watching it as it aired - the only snippets I remember were them talking about who could beat whom in a fight, so I kind of mentally equated Naruto to DBZ in my head and wrote it off, assuming I would hate it. X) Nobody ever told me that it was really about radical compassion, and breaking cycles of violence, or the duty of adults/teachers to protect children, or the power of love and community to save us from despair - if I’d known that, I would have watched it ages ago.
Kakashi is my favorite character, too. It took me a little while to actually get invested in the show as a whole (I didn’t really start to be fully compelled by it until the post-Chunin exams arc where Itachi first returns to the Leaf, aka the point where the plot picks up and starts actually moving faster), but Kakashi’s character kept me interested long enough to reach that point. I was fascinated by him right from the beginning, and I fell hard for him after that Inari scene you mentioned. (Re: your question - I don’t know whether that parallel with Kakashi was intentional or not, but I guess I don’t really feel like it matters - it’s there in the text either way, and for me it really adds something to that whole arc.)
Re: Kakashi’s eye - that was actually the only thing I was vaguely spoiled for before I watched the show, because my sister had started the show before me, and I’d seen a couple things via her blog before I ever planned on watching it myself - I knew that he’d gotten the eye from a friend who died, but I didn’t know under what circumstances or the details of how the eye transfer went down. I didn’t actually mind this spoiler, though, because it added so much resonance to every time I saw him use his sharingan and it helped shape the way I was interpreting him in the early days, before I knew the rest of his history. But after I started watching the show, I completely isolated myself online so I wouldn’t learn anything else. (For me, spoilers are more than “what happens next” - I also really don’t like hearing people say “oh, that season was bad” or “the writers failed at XYZ” etc etc - I just don’t like having my expectations shaped in that way; I prefer to experience things on my own. So I was really careful to learn NOTHING about Naruto online, and people like @dreamersscape were incredibly considerate and amazing about talking to me about the show without revealing anything like that.)
Re: “how far are you in the show right now” - I’m done! My sister and I finished it together a little less than a month ago. And yes, I have read the manga, too (I would usually read a few volumes at a time after watching the relevant episodes). In general, I’ve enjoyed watching the show more, but there are definitely a few scenes in the manga that were left out/changed that I think should have been included/unedited - I haven’t posted about all of them, but some of them are in my naruto manga tag (I think there’s one post in there that has a minor, non-plot-related spoiler for an upcoming scene, but everything else deals with stuff you’ve already watched.) On the other hand, there are “filler” arcs in the anime that I actually think are essential to the story and that I consider part of my personal canon (though there are certainly nonsense filler arcs, too) - so in general, I take a comic book reader’s approach to the manga/anime canon question (aka the “take what you like and leave the rest” perspective) - I’ve consumed both versions, and I accept the parts from each of them that I consider to be well-constructed, in-character, and consistent with the story’s previously established narrative and themes.)
Re: rewatching - yes, I do sometimes go back to rewatch episodes for a variety of reasons - sometimes because I’m making a gifset, or sometimes if I want to check things while I’m typing up various thoughts. There’s also one season that I’ve already rewatched in its entirety because I enjoyed it so much. I’d like to rewatch the entire show at some point - it’s going to be such a different experience watching it knowing everything I know now!
The constant urge of wanting to talk to people about it and find more content on the internet but also the fear of being spoiled randomly on literally any social media platform😭 My little brother has been watching the show for the first time too, but he doesn’t really like to discuss it or talk much about it.
I totally understand this feeling! That’s how I felt when I first started watching - I was lucky in that I’m roommates with my sister @padmerrie, and she gets just as invested in fictional universes as I do, so we talk about Naruto a lot (she’s both a fic writer and a fanartist, so we get to geek out together all the time). And, partway through my watch, I was lucky enough to meet @dreamersscape, who was watching for the first time just like me and whom I really vibed with, so we were able to be outlets for each other’s enthusiasm. But other than that, I avoided the wider internet and stayed inside the bubble of my own blog, specifically to avoid hearing things about the show.
If you've gotten up to approximately episode 330, then anything prior to April 2021 should be spoiler-safe for you to browse in my archive. And, yes, you’re totally welcome to come talk to me about Naruto anytime! I’ll give you a heads-up that I’m usually better about answering asks than I am with the messaging function (which I suppose makes sense, given that offline I’m bad at texting but good at email XD ), so feel free to pop in for discussion anytime! 😊
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