Thoughts on Naruto

[Rosso]

Hello everybody,

I'm a follower of the Naruto (& Shippuden) anime/manga series. As well as the series as the manga are very popular. I'm not a manga reader or anime watcher but Naruto definitely amazed me.
For all the people not knowing it:

Twelve years before the start of the series, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked Konohagakure destroying much of the village and taking many lives. The leader of the village, the Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life to seal the Nine-Tails into a newborn, Naruto Uzumaki. Orphaned by the attack, Naruto was shunned by the villagers, who out of fear and anger, viewed him as the Nine-Tails itself. Though the Third Hokage outlawed speaking about anything related to the Nine-Tails, the children — taking their cues from their parents — inherited the same animosity towards Naruto. In his thirst to be acknowledged, Naruto vowed he would one day become the greatest Hokage the village had ever seen.

Why bother posting this here on Revleft?

I see in Naruto a lot of socialist aspects and I was wondering if any other Naruto watchers and/or readers on Revleft see these too. Opinions on the show/manga are also welcome :lol:

[Halert]

I love anime but i'm not so much naruto fan. "I see in Naruto a lot of socialist aspects" I don't see them could you explain them.

[Yuppie Grinder]

I think you might be reading into it too much. It's a kids show. Nothing wrong with liking cartoons, cartoons are the only tv I watch, but I think you're seeing what you want to see in it.

[Aleister Granger]

I've seen a little anime and Naruto is one of them.
It uses liberal ideas of community, but I wouldn't call it socialist in nature. In that case most anime and cartoons could be called socialist.

[khad]

Anime is a self-regurgitating consumerist spectacle. Compared to shows even 5 or 10 years ago, today's crap is practically a laundry list of product placement/otaku culture tie-ins. I really don't see the point of trying to read socialism into that.

[Rosso]

Okay, maybe using socialist was not the right choice.
I know it's a cartoon, I thought it would be fun to ask others about it :lol:
For what I meant: overall are the characters in the show mostly not interested in money nor manipulated by it. I like the way how much these characters care for their bonds with each other and their solidarity. Next to that I like the simplicity of their living styles, they don't seem to use very much more than their basic needs. I thought that in a socialist society these things would be very important. And yes, I know this is a cartoon, but the kind of society of their home village, the hidden leave village, reminded me on these things very much of some of the things we want to obtain as socialists. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a young bird still learning :)

[Remus Bleys]

For what I meant: overall are the characters in the show mostly not interested in money nor manipulated by it. I like the way how much these characters care for their bonds with each other and their solidarity. Next to that I like the simplicity of their living styles, they don't seem to use very much more than their basic needs.
you sound like youre describing a monastic order

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Personally, I prefer Kill La Kill.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I am not sold on the solidarity aspect of it since a lot of anime are driven by the "Power of Friendship" concept. Also, there are nations in the Naruto world and the protagonists are essentially (what) special agents for their specific nation in times of war and peace. Doesn't sound very socialist to me.

[khad]

Personally, I prefer Kill La Kill.
A google image search turned this up, so I guess we all know why.

http://dalian.7thstyle.com/2013/09/kill-la-kill-erotic-heroine-seifuku-armor-seventhstyle-001-614x774.jpg

[Red Commissar]

Okay, maybe using socialist was not the right choice.
I know it's a cartoon, I thought it would be fun to ask others about it :lol:
For what I meant: overall are the characters in the show mostly not interested in money nor manipulated by it. I like the way how much these characters care for their bonds with each other and their solidarity. Next to that I like the simplicity of their living styles, they don't seem to use very much more than their basic needs. I thought that in a socialist society these things would be very important. And yes, I know this is a cartoon, but the kind of society of their home village, the hidden leave village, reminded me on these things very much of some of the things we want to obtain as socialists. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a young bird still learning :)

You got to keep in mind shows targeted towards a younger audience it's usually good to instill moral values along the lines of not being an envious jerk, catering and keeping friendships, not being a social deviant in your community, what ever. I know Naruto isn't a kid's show in the sense most people think of it, but it is ultimately geared more towards teenagers than say people in their 30s.

If the villages were organized in such a way that included some collective management, then maybe this interpretation would be valid (you'd still have to deal with the warfare aspect though, seeing as there is a pipeline of the youth to fight in these conflicts). But if I recall correctly from when I last saw it, I think that these villages were organized traditionally with family status playing a role in the standing of the residents, though of course not to the point that you had dickish feudal overlords. Even then, we'd still end up like something like the Smurfs which is more a throw back to idealized conceptions of village life than socialist paradise, though it does give good opportunities for tongue-and-cheek communist parodies.

I should point out though the last time I watched Naruto was as a teen back when I was 14 when it came up randomly once. I didn't really get hooked, but then again I was never into anime or manga much to begin with.

Thinking back to a cartoon from my youth, I recall Gargoyles from Disney. They had some similar drama/interaction among characters but you usually had consistent themes of sticking with your family and/or friends, standing against people who do wrong, fighting exploitation, and also living pretty simply (though admittedly they were living on their home transplanted on top of a freaking Manhattan high-rise by the lex luthor type trying to exploit them).

Another I remember was the X-Men cartoon from the 90s, which helped to cement the interpretation of the mutant-human theme in the comics as an allegory for racism, though of course we shouldn't say it was profoundly political. Many superhero-based franchises with some exceptions (Batman, Ironman) often had heroes who lived simply- for anonymity purposes as much as their own values- and were generally kind people all around. This again is back to the point that you want kids to take away a positive message from what they are seeing. The Teenage Mutant Turtles were a pretty solid case of staying true to your friends/family and living simply (pizza diet and living in the sewers!), but again this was for the benefit of instilling "positive" values the network wanted, and hopefully the parents willing to buy the numerous toys for their kids if they don't think the show is offensive.

Kids cartoons that did go pretty political often are parodied now, the most (in)famous being Captain Planet and it's obvious environmentalist position. You had some other cases like Phantom 2040 which also took a safe anti-corporate/ environmentalist theme (greed is bad!), but still ultimately these shows are guided by one principle- marketability. There's only so much politicalizing you can do in a show before you run into problems because you are bound to alienate potential viewers. Many 90s cartoons lived and died by this standard and I'm under the impression that it's even stronger with the anime industry, regardless if the merchandising takes the form of toys, posters, tie-in media, what ever for a show to be seen as viable by the distributor. Disposable income is the name of the game so you have to keep your viewers attached and make sure their parents don't pull the plug when they disagree with something they see you pushing.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Fundamentally, Naruto is about national military industrial complexes training child soldiers in dragonball-esque magic in order to compete on an open market for contracts to kill for, or defend, semi-fuedal wealth. I like the early bits of the manga where the story was interesting but later on it just gets shit and I stopped reading. I don't really have a favourite manga/anime but there was this cool anime adaption of Metropolis that I would recommend (only having watched the original for perspective).

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

A google image search turned this up, so I guess we all know why.

http://dalian.7thstyle.com/2013/09/kill-la-kill-erotic-heroine-seifuku-armor-seventhstyle-001-614x774.jpg

Yes, I enjoy the fan service (I do like boobs).

But I also like it because it's created by the same people who did another personal favorite anime, Gurren Lagann. It's also written by Kazuki Nakshima, whose a popular playwright in Japan and also responsible for writing the scenario for Gurren Lagann.

[RedGuevara]

Haha first thread I've really seen about anime. I stopped watching Naruto about 4 maybe 5 years ago but I wouldn't say it has alot of Socialist ideals. Alot of Nationalism. Definitely alot of killing for profit type deals. But I enjoyed the frog hermit haha.:lol:

[Goblin]

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[Ceallach_the_Witch]

A google image search turned this up, so I guess we all know why.

http://dalian.7thstyle.com/2013/09/kill-la-kill-erotic-heroine-seifuku-armor-seventhstyle-001-614x774.jpg
my brother and I just call it Service la Service. Surprisingly engaging to watch though, it's absolutely dumb as hell but (personally) i find the animation is enjoyable to watch, and to be fair, the silliness seems to be tongue-in-cheek.

E:

one of the first series i watched all the way through was Hokuto no Ken and my personal analysis of that was that it's mostly about punching dudes til they blow up JUST AS WE MUST COLLECTIVELY PUNCH THE BOURGEOISE UNTIL THEY BLOW UP

[Flying Purple People Eater]

How do you read this off of a kids' show?

I mean you could say that god-damned blues clues is indicative of socialist values with this dumb logic.

[Yuppie Grinder]

this thread is evidence that anime rots your brain tbh

[Yuppie Grinder]

Yes, I enjoy the fan service (I do like boobs).

But I also like it because it's created by the same people who did another personal favorite anime, Gurren Lagann. It's also written by Kazuki Nakshima, whose a popular playwright in Japan and also responsible for writing the scenario for Gurren Lagann.

Any sort of art that panders to it's audience for profit in such a crass and stupid way is horrible in my mind. I don't think that ALL japanese animation is bad, I can't say that because I don't know anything about it, but if this is representative of the genre I'm glad I know nothing of it.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Any sort of art that panders to it's audience for profit in such a crass and stupid way is horrible in my mind. I don't think that ALL japanese animation is bad, I can't say that because I don't know anything about it, but if this is representative of the genre I'm glad I know nothing of it.

Horrible in your mind, quite enjoyable in mine. :)

[Yuppie Grinder]

Horrible in your mind, quite enjoyable in mine. :)

You enjoy dehumanized caricatures of real women?

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

You enjoy dehumanized caricatures of real women?

Well, I've met and am friends with actual women, so I highly doubt that I'll ever get the two confused.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Well, I've met and am friends with actual women, so I highly doubt that I'll ever get the two confused.

You're missing my point entirely. Blocked.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

fan service has always bothered me intensely (it even bothers me when (I think) it's being played "ironically") and it's very unfortunate (and frankly pretty pathetic) that it's so prevelent in so much anime. I'm guilty of some hypocrisy on this I guess because it rarely stops me from watching a series I otherwise enjoy - but believe me when I say that there are plenty of examples of anime that don't do this kind of stuff.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

fan service has always bothered me intensely (it even bothers me when (I think) it's being played "ironically") and it's very unfortunate (and frankly pretty pathetic) that it's so prevelent in so much anime. I'm guilty of some hypocrisy on this I guess because it rarely stops me from watching a series I otherwise enjoy - but believe me when I say that there are plenty of examples of anime that don't do this kind of stuff.

Yeah, pretty much any of the films of Hayao Miyazaki are not only fanservice free, but also incredible pieces of art.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Horrible in your mind, quite enjoyable in mine. :)

What, cartoon sex dolls?

[Remus Bleys]

Don't we have to step back and say "whatever gets you going"
Not that it justifys children shows being riddled with sexism and, well, porn.

[Rss]

Don't we have to step back and say "whatever gets you going"
Not that it justifys children shows being riddled with sexism and, well, porn.

Just because something is animated doesn't mean that it is meant for children.

But, as it has been asserted, anime as it is today is really, really patriarchal and consumerist in essence. I'm hard-pressed to find anything good to watch. Watamote is decent, I like it's stinging commentary on occasion.