Is Sakura bad? There is no doubt about it, out of all the Naruto characters, she has gotten the most hate in the franchise. But her unpopularity is so over the roof it makes everyone wonder if she is that way by design. Some authors make characters that way to boost popularity or give others contrast to the shine they need. Attack on Titans has few of them, but they are within the realm of understanding. But that doesn’t apply to the pink head of Team 7. We will cover that in detail and her history as to why she wasn’t received well by everyone despite Kishimoto’s efforts.
Was Sakura Bad from the beginning? A look at the Naruto era
Sakura had one of the worst first impressions in the series. Her motivations were flimsy and shallow from the get-go. But what made fans, especially unlike her, was her disregard for Naruto. Sure, she looked at him as anyone else from her village would at that age. But her being ‘normal’ was misplaced. And later down the line, everyone was revealed to have quirks or personality traits that made them different. Sakura, on the other hand, was a blank slate in everything. Kishimoto was confused by all this, out of all the characters, she got the worst reactions despite his attempts to make her as realistic as possible.
The one moment that forever cemented her as the worst in Naruto was at the very beginning of the show. During the second episode, she insults Naruto behind his back for being an Orphan and to Sasuke of all the people. Sasuke didn’t give Naruto much reward in the beginning, but he understood not having parents better than anyone. He responded in just malice as you would expect and that only confused her.
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Was Sakura bad even after the time skip?
Kishimoto went to great lengths into learning about female psychology as he could. He even bought a book that explained how teenage girls thought and acted. And putting knowledge into practice, he added as many changes as he could after the Time Skip. However, it was clear in the first few panels of Shippuden what the fault with her character is. Her first reactions are the worst. After Sakura and Naruto met after two years, she responded with angst and rage, typical behavior for teenage girls. What’s more, Kishimoto decided to work on her character even more during the Shippuden and put her on the level of Sasuke and Naruto. That was why the first two arcs of Shippuden had her as the main focus. But fans didn’t want to see her for anything. And after pressure from Studio Pierrot and his publisher Shueisha, he gave up on her.
Will is Tsunade’s tutilage’s future? Is ‘Sakura Bad’ a Naruto Trope now?
Almost everyone has gotten some sort of improvement after the second skip in the Boruto period. Except for Sakura, Kishimoto has more or less given up on her as no matter what he did, there is no bringing her up. So ‘Sakura Bad’ has more or less become a trope among anime fans.
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