This post will talk about Sakura’s dethroned status as a heroine and promotion of Hinata. So let me begin properly.
Heya, dears, how are you today? Hope you’re doing fine.
Now before I begin this, I need to share with you certain information that I don’t know if it has been shared with you before.
On Tumblr it circulated before and it was initially started on Twitter.
On Sakura’s dethroned status as a heroine
I’m gonna copy here the post from Meganezaru’s Tumblr in regards to what actually happened in the end with Sakura as a character and why Hinata is the new heroine and how that ending came to be, after all.
Currently on twitter, a Japanese nrt fan (locked account) who apparently knows someone at Shueisha and the said person leaked the truth behind the ending; this information is being escalated around among fans on twitter. I would like to thank a friend who kindly notify me about this and gave a brief translation; however, this is not word for word translation and just a gist of it. Also, for personal reasons, I’m not going to post all tweets:
編集部のはサクラが嫌いで自らネガキャンをした。海外での嫌いなアニメキャラまとめ動画でサクラが1位になっていたことを、当時のジャンプ公式メルマガ的な物でURLを流した。
後、イン戦以降の「サクラとヒナタ、どっちがヒロイン？」という質問をあるアンケート葉書で全てが決まったという事のようだ。当時はヒナタが告白したのにサクラがナルトに抱きついて、サクラクソ！みたいなアンチ意見がたくさん来たからその流れで決めたらしい。
ナルヒナ信者はカミソリレターもやらかしてたらしいし、アニメイトの前で署名活動して注意されていたという話もあった。それ程昔から過激な信者がついてて、活動を続けてきた。
The editors themselves hated sakura and started a negative campaign
Kishimoto tried to push sakura and was supported by other mangaka by the editors in shueisha refused to allow a sakura ending
Using a mail magazine within shueisha the editors even circulated the news about sakura being voted most hated character overseas
They even sent it with the video showing sakura being voted most hated with the email magazine
During the pain arc they apparently sent a questionnaire out that asked which one do you think is the heroine – sakura or hinata?
And apparently hinatards sent lots of comments about how hinata already confessed and yet Sakura is a bitch for still hugging naruto
And that’s how they picked the heroine
A lot of hinatards also sent threatening letters to shueisha stating they want nh
Hinatards also tried to get petition signatures in front of animate and where warned to stop
So that’s why it went this way
Pressure from editors and hinatards and s fans not knowing so they couldn’t counter the lobbying of the hinatards
A small analysis
As we can see, Sakura’s dethroning has to do not only with popularity issues. But also with hate from the editors of the manga.
This paired up with Kishimoto’s interview back in 2010 along with the interview with Kobayashi from months ago, makes total sense.
No wonder that Naruto and Sakura never spoke to each other in the end. And no wonder that Naruto didn’t confess to Sakura after the promise of a lifetime has been completed.
No wonder that Sakura never really found out who exactly complimented her forehead back in chapter 3.
No, all this is no wonder because in the end, these type of fans reduced it all to the pairings. And how dare she, b*tch Sakura hug Naruto after Hinata-sama “sacrificed” her life for him?
It doesn’t matter that it’s Hinata’s decision and she is the sole responsible for her actions. No, how dare she, b*tch Sakura hug Naruto in front of Hinata?
I remember how in the beginning of my interactions with the fandom I said that all this Hinata wanking is done at Sakura’s expense?
Well, in the end NaruHina happening is done at Sakura’s expense given that we have all the proof we need here.
Kishimoto not only went with the Hero x Heroine formula which would’ve meant Naruto and Sakura.
But because he went with this formula and Sakura wasn’t popular enough, he dethroned her.
Made her her 12 years old self again. Screwed-up Sasuke’s character so it can match afterwards some sort of dynamics with Sakura.
Given that in the whole manga and especially at the end he makes it clear he has no interest in Sakura you can see that.
Above all this, he made Hinata the newly wanted heroine.
Because that’s how this market works nowadays.
The authors don’t get to write their own stories. They have to be forced to do one thing or the other, depending on what the popularity polls indicate.
And since they hated Sakura and had “back-up” from the West side, they thought this is going to work very easily.
I mean, look how confident they were that they didn’t expect this backlash from the fandom.
Those editors of Kishi didn’t knew that the west doesn’t only consist of NaruHina and SasuSaku fans. That the West doesn’t all hate Sakura and all these other things they had no idea of, until it blew in their faces that they rapidly rethought their marketing strategies.
Was Naruto really Kishimoto’s story?
But in the end, it doesn’t matter because from what we see, this story wasn’t even Kishi’s 100%. It was more written by his editors not him. So us, fans of Sakura who also happened to be fans of NaruSaku, got a taste of betrayal not only once. But twice.
Not only Kishimoto dethroned Sakura from her status as a heroine but in the end he also indeed went with the Hero x Heroine formula for the pairing. Only that he replaced the heroine because that’s what the popularity polls said.
Not only he dethroned her and brought her to her 12 years old self; he married her with Sasuke. He didn’t know probably that a great majority hates Sakura not because she’s moving on towards Naruto. No. That wouldn’t have made her a terrible woman like the NaruHina fandom along with the editors there made Kishi believe so. No.
What made people hate Sakura was her love for Sasuke. And not her love for Sasuke per se, but the fact she wasn’t capable of standing up to him and be herself. Her real self around him and had to act totally different. That’s mainly the disappointment.
The fact that she becomes a doormat when it comes to him. Do you think that people would’ve had a problem with Sakura and her love for Sasuke if she had been a girl standing on her own two feet to Sasuke like there’s no tomorrow, let’s saaay… like Karin does?
SS fans belittle Karin for her “lust” for Sasuke in an attempt to justify Sakura’s love for him. When the problem is not that. Not only Sakura has been shown to be a pervert herself just like Karin, the problem is she doesn’t know how to stand-up for herself and send Sasuke to the depths of hell when she feels like he’s acting like a douche.
You know, like Karin does, not caring that he’s this cool last survivor of the Uchiha clan.
Sakura’s dethroned status as a heroine, editor meddling and Kishimoto’s inability to understand the issue
That’s the problem with Sakura and her character. But Kishi never understood this. Plus, it was never really told to him exactly.
After all, in the interview with Samura he says how he has seen reviews of Naruto from abroad. But let’s remember a bit here who exactly showed him those interviews? By whom was Kishimoto shown these interviews and with what purpose?
Right, by the editors of SJ to show him how Sakura was hated. And how Hinata was loved.
I mean, just think about what kind of “reviewers” we have abroad on YouTube and then you’ll understand what happened.
It’s that simple. In the end, like I said, Kishimoto couldn’t stay true to himself and gave-up on her. He gave up on all of them, in an attempt to make Hinata the heroine so that the Western fandom would be pleased.
But surprise, Kishimoto dear… The Western fandom isn’t made out only of those people. There are a lot of us who respected you enough to leave you finish the story on your own terms.
But instead you betrayed us, your own characters and your own story. For some people that didn’t have the respect they so much claim to have for you, now, at the end of the manga. To let you finish the story you wanted. How you wanted, while it was running.
So in the end you ended up betraying the people that respected you while trying to satisfy the people that never really respected your work for what it was, the way it was like in the first place…
Hope you’re happy now. But do know that your fans are not, and we’re reaching out to each other, from continents and seas apart in an union for the story we once dearly loved.
Sakura Haruno deserved better, your characters deserved better, you deserved better. But the problem is that you didn’t have the guts to respect yourself and take care of your own story…
Oh well, that’s what happens folks. Plus, apparently this is how the manga market is ran. Apparently this is how Shonen Jump operates. Glad to know that so I’ll know not to give them a penny anyway.
But yeah… so if you ever wondered about this ending and how it ended the way it did, never forget this.
Even if it’s not true and “just a rumor” like people will like to call it, how comes it match with Kishi’s interview in 2010 when he defended Sakura in front of Hinata? Where it’s clearly stated by Kishi that people have told him that Hinata would make a better heroine than Sakura.
Back then we never knew which people. 5 years later, apparently we finally find out. Shonen Jump editors and NaruHina/Hinata fans…
But oh well, that’s life… for the story that once united hearts and now breaks souls with betrayal.
Cheers, my dears!
