From the not-so-casual sexism to objectification, popular anime like Naruto and Dragon Ball have been under the fans’ radar. Although writing strong female characters isn’t Masashi Kishimoto’s strong suit, his poor writing of Sakura garnered hate for decades. However, Sakura wasn’t the only one to bear the consequences of misrepresentation.
Bulma’s relentless objectification and sexualization in the series ruined her character. While both characters have been misrepresented by the animators, they differ in the intensity of hate they receive. For Sakura, the hate was a blot on her abilities as a character but for Bulma, it was the normalization of creepy behavior. Either way, both characters were misrepresented.
Bulma’s objectification in Dragon Ball reduced her to a stereotype
Bulma is a major character who appears in the Dragon Ball series written by Akira Toriyama. She is also the first character to befriend Goku in the 1984 series. Although she holds scientific expertise and knowledge, her distasteful portrayal in the series overshadowed this trait. To add to that, her character was hyper-sexualized throughout the series. However, there’s more to it.
Although the manga did sexualize her character, the anime blew it out of proportion. While the original anime had these elements of hypersexualization and gross perversion, these scenes were omitted in the American version. Regardless of Bulma’s ridiculous naming tradition, there’s more to this culture of perversion than meets the eye.
What makes this even more appalling is that Bulma is introduced as a 16-year-old girl in the 1984 series. From Muten Roshi’s perversion to Goku’s inappropriate behavior, her character went through a lot. While Toei grossly objectified her character through the fan service culture, Studio Pierrot wasn’t too far behind in their misrepresentation of Sakura in the Naruto series.
Studio Pierrot and Masashi Kishimoto failed Sakura as a character in Naruto
From being called useless to being deemed as trash, the hate for Sakura Haruno is never-ending. Despite her character growth and development, she is still regarded as one of the hated characters in the series. While Masashi Kishimoto is responsible for her character’s ruin, Studio Pierrot’s alteration of the storyline enabled it. To say the least, it messed up her character in every possible way.
From her mastery of Hundred Seal to her expertise in medical ninjutsu and combat, Sakura has grown exponentially as a character. Although Masashi Kishimoto isn’t adept at writing female characters, he took the blame for ruining her character in the series. Furthermore, his attempts to garner and please the female audience backfired with his poor writing.
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In their treatment of female characters, both Dragon Ball and Naruto blew things out of proportion. Be it Bulma’s distasteful representation or Sakura’s “uselessness” stereotype, both characters received unnecessary hate. Although Boruto salvaged Sakura’s reputation as a shinobi, it won’t take away the fanbase’s hatred towards her character.
Moreover, this misrepresentation has paved the way for a toxic culture of hate and perversion. All in all, both characters received unjust treatment from their writers as well as animators in their portrayal.
Dragon Ball and Naruto are available for streaming on Crunchyroll
