Naruto: The Anime Is as Responsible for the Sakura Hate as the Writing

As one of the “Big 3 anime”, Naruto is an immensely popular series with a dedicated viewership. While there is a lot to love about its story and characters, fans are also more divisive about certain elements. The most notorious among these is the female cast of the series. Sakura Haruno, the main female character, stands as a testament to this and is an extremely hated character.

Most fans believe this to be an oversight on the part of the mangaka, Masashi Kishimoto, and his inability to craft a compelling narrative for the female ninja. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. While Kishimoto bears some responsibility for the criticisms Sakura receives, Studio Pierrot, who adapted the anime, exacerbated the issue significantly.

Sakura Haruno, Naruto and Sasuke’s childhood friend who accompanies them on their adventures, is considered annoying by many anime fans. They believe she does not contribute to the story enough to justify her screen time, and her treatment of the protagonist is plain abusive.

However, for those who have only read the manga, this may be confusing. This is because Sakura is not nearly as irksome a character in the source material, and her development is much more organic.

Most of the hatred directed towards her feels unjust, especially considering that many of her controversial actions happened when she was only a 12-year-old child. Much like Naruto himself, who was the biggest troublemaker in Konoha, Sakura fit the label of a naive, young ninja who knew little of the world. It would be unfair to expect emotional maturity or moral clarity from this girl who was raised under the protection of her loving parents.

This in no way implies that Sakura is a perfect character in the manga. Kishimoto does not take advantage of the potential that the Kunoichi has for development. Instead of highlighting her transition from an inexperienced child to a dependable adult, she is sidelined in several story arcs, her growth lags behind that of others, and her combat skills are also not befitting of a main character.

Nevertheless, the issues only go so far. Sakura is not an excellent character in the manga, but she is far from hateable. Her eventual role as a mother and a senior medical ninja in Boruto also makes fans appreciate the struggles she has gone through.

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How Studio Pierrot Alienated Naruto Fans

Regrettably, anime-only fans have a completely different view of Sakura Haruno. Her role and actions in Naruto have cemented her as one of the most despised characters of all time. What many may not know is that Studio Pierrot holds a lot of responsibility for the reactions she has received.

Studio Pierrot is a hit-or-miss group, with many iconic titles under their belt and other average projects. Naruto is one of their biggest accomplishments, and they enhanced many aspects of its source material, especially the fight scenes. What they failed to achieve, however, was to portray Sakura in a positive manner.

Instead of fixing the issues of this ninja from the manga, the studio magnified her shortcomings in the anime. The reasons they did so are unknown, with many assuming it was to simply give Sakura more screen time. However, rather than working in their favor, it came back to bite them.

For instance, Sakura’s most controversial trait is her tendency to continuously hit Naruto when reacting to his mischievous nature. Anime is no stranger to having brash female characters who constantly lash out, depicting these scenes in a humorous manner. Unfortunately, the moments where Sakura is violent are highly excessive.

While she punches Naruto in the manga as well, the anime features a staggering amount of additional scenes like this. Sakura’s most infamous moment in the series is when she makes fun of Naruto being an orphan.

In the manga, she reflects on her comments after this and decides not to be so harsh with the protagonist. The anime, however, shows no such scene. Rather, it simply skips over the moment and tries to create a lighthearted tone, which ultimately falls flat.

The adaptation attempted to force Sakura into choosing one among its two main characters - Naruto, who had a crush on her, and Sasuke, whom Sakura had a crush on.

Given that Sakura eventually ends up with Sasuke, Pierrot actually created scenes that seemed odd to fans while cutting out those from the manga that could have enriched her character. When Naruto was faced with a tough situation during the Chunin Exams, Sakura displayed concern for him in the manga. However, in the anime, she simply snickered and was condescending towards him.

Her isolation from Naruto continued throughout the rest of the anime. The moment when she saved the protagonist from being beheaded by Zabuza in the manga was actually not shown in the anime. Additionally, her character in the anime was drowned in a state of mental turmoil, caught at a crossroads between Naruto and Sasuke. Studio Pierrot made her question whom she would protect if she were forced to make a choice between the two.

Kishimoto had never encountered any moment such as this in the manga. Sakura was always a consistent character who simply wished to reach the pinnacle of medicine and save everyone. Her incredible skill in the final war, where she lands a devastating hit on Kaguya Otsutsuki, is, therefore, the culmination of all her efforts up to that point.

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Sakura’s intense hatred is not just a result of Kishimoto’s writing but also Studio Pierrot’s impressive efforts to give her character more time in the limelight. Regrettably, intentional or not, it ends up making the negative traits of her personality more apparent, thus incurring the ire of fans.