The roster of characters in Naruto is studded with one memorable character after the other. Masashi Kishimoto ensured that these characters leave an indelible imprint on fans with their personalities…or their tragic backstories. Out of the numerous exemplary characters, one specific character posed the biggest challenge to Kishimoto.
A conflict between the potential direction of the story and the character’s personality landed him in some trouble. The striking contrast between two important aspects of his storytelling was a daunting setback. As the character in question was Sasuke, the deuteragonist, the only option he had was finding a fitting resolution.
He believed if a specific approach wasn’t followed with Sasuke, it’d clash with the future events of the story. In hindsight, the troubles Kishimoto faced were somewhat essential as we ended up with one of the best written Naruto characters.
Sasuke, the Most Difficult Character to Write
The amount of character development and arcs Sasuke had in the story are second to none but Naruto himself. He went from a prodigy to a traitor and then played a paramount role in the Great Ninja War. All the setbacks he faced and the series of traumatic events in his life were necessary to mold him into his potential and better self.
Kishimoto shared in an interview with Cinema Today (via Tumblr), that he went out his way to create several different situations for Sasuke. It was a conscious decision he made to get Sasuke to make the necessary choices. He believed that if he didn’t follow this approach, the bigger picture wouldn’t have worked out.
Although Sasuke may have been difficult in the sense that he had many scenes where if I didn’t give him various circumstances, it meant that it wouldn’t have worked.
As a character there were a limited number of choices that aligned with Sasuke’s personality. But this limit would have stunted his growth. To deal with this problem Kishimoto ended up creating a multitude of different patterns that broadened the horizon of choices for the character; while ascertaining that the choices align with the core idea of his character.
Kishimoto followed the same rule with Naruto
The main rule Masashi Kishimoto followed with Sasuke is to have him grow without losing his key essence. As he worked with this idea and eventually followed the same rule with Naruto. There were cases where it’d have made sense for Naruto to act more like a grown-up but that didn’t align with the character everyone had grown to love.
To a certain degree, it was ok if it was something he had experienced, but if he suddenly said something grown up about something where he had no experience, it would be a lie.
But this didn’t mean that Naruto never acted like an adult. The execution of how to present him mature made all the difference in this respect. His maturity wasn’t as outright rather well-executed and subtle. After all, a big part of Naruto’s character was his optimism that is reminiscent of a child. He faced situations where he shouldered the fate of humanity but he fulfilled those responsibilities while staying true to his character.
For characters who were worlds apart in their attitude towards tragedy and life, the same ideology was used to craft them. It can be said that Kishimoto’s approach worked wonders as the characters continue to be relevant years after the anime ended.
Naruto is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
