(no subject)

[yummeitenshi.livejournal.com]

I've been around the community for about two weeks, and I have no idea if this topic has been posted yet.

The thing is, I know a lot of people hate (or at least, strongly dislike) Sakura's character in the first part of Naruto. But now that she's tapped into her real potential as a kunoichi, what do you guys think about her now?




Sakura's definitely stronger now, though. I think she's grown a lot, and changed a lot. She's a lot more feisty, and she uses strong words and she has the strength to back them up. But I still wonder, though. I've seen some people change their opinion about her, but I want to know what the rest of you think.

And - well, just a thought - did you notice Inner Sakura hasn't appeared in the recent manga chapters? And that Sakura herself has said "Shannaro" once, in the fight against the Akatsuki? I think part of her new character is the fact that Inner Sakura has somehow "fused" with Outer Sakura and is now part of the person she shows to other people. Inner Sakura was as feisty as the Part Two Sakura, so do you think it's logical Sakura finally let her inner self take over? What do you think?

(err sorry if i got the lj-cut thing wrong... my first time to use it)

Comments

[0x.livejournal.com]

I dont' read the manga, but I can say there is a difference in her after Sasuke left. She takes herself more seriously.

[fork-my-eye.livejournal.com]

I think Sakura has changed a lot too. It's been three years since she was a little girl. She's grown alot mentally and physically too. I think being with Tsunade as her apprentice has helped Sakura be alot more confident in herself, so she can be strong in every way. Sakura must have originally had a lot more power than Kishimoto lead us to believe. Even Kakshi was shocked with her physical strength.

I was just talkinjg about the inner Sakura with my friend the other day. I noticed it's disapearance too. This probably means that Sakura says what's on her mind without trying tocover up for it. It seems like she used to keep things bottled up and say other things to impress Sasuke. But now... Sasuke's gone, things have gotten more serious, and Sakura believes in her own strengths.

[yummeitenshi.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... do you think the inner self will come back when Sasuke does? Just a question. Personally, I don't think I'll be able to stand it, if it means Sakura will go back to her whiny old self.

Not that I hated Sakura before, I just like her better now. ^^

[fork-my-eye.livejournal.com]

hmmm when sasuke comes back i honestly believe that sakura has moved on. I think that by the time we see him (hopefully soon) sakura will have realized that there's no saving him. it's been three years When she had a crush on him she was just a little kid, but all three of them, naruto sakura, and sasuke, are so powerful that nothing's really a game like that anymore.

i don't think we'll see the inner sakura anymore. sakura's grown up too much. i think sakura will probably want to beat the shit out of sasuke. naruto on the other hand will probably think he can save sasuke again..

i'm probably completely wrong with everything i jsut said. lmao. who knows. kishimoto's good at throwing us off. so we might see the inner sakura again... might not. who knows. i sure as hell don't.

(the old sakura really was annoying and useless. i like her alot better now too.)

[hara-karikitty.livejournal.com]

I never really liked her as the push about. I thought she had more in her. And when i read the chapter with the bell test i thought she'd changed and grown up so much. She's really a better character now, and she can contribute more to help her team mates. She sure is cooler than she was at the beginning thats for sure. Her power wasn't just given to her by Tsunade-sama, it was in her all along and now she can prove that she isn't just a cry baby.

Ahem, sorry about that. I get carried away on the subject of Naruto characters haha!

[yummeitenshi.livejournal.com]

Rants about the characters are just fine. I love hearing - er, reading - long, long comments. Makes me feel I'm being taken seriously. I totally agree, actually.

[hara-karikitty.livejournal.com]

I love ranting/rants, they really make me feel better xD!
I also like getting long comments because it feels like I've put a good point forward. Yay! I didn't say anything wrong haha

[sevetenks.livejournal.com]

I never really understood why people disliked Sakura so much. Hum... But she is cool now too...

[0x.livejournal.com]

can't understand why?! zomg, all she ever did was stand around and scream. useless, weak, annoying.

[okay.livejournal.com]

I never liked Sakura because she's too much of an obsessive crybaby-whiner. Now that 3 years has passed, I still don't like her but seeing her mature is pretty cool

[kunoichi-jaden.livejournal.com]

I know that I definitely like Sakura a lot more than I used to. She annoyed me so much. >.< I swear, I cringed every single time she wailed "Sasuke-kun!"... especially at times when Naruto was badly hurt as well. It was all turned around for me in one of those chapters during the Gaara rescue arc, in which she said something akin to "I want to save the both of them [Naruto and Sasuke]" She's finally come to value both her teammates and now she wants to do something for both of them. That made me really happy.

I still feel that the true test of Sakura's newfound character will come when she sees Sasuke again. If she goes all doe-eyed and flirty, I'll lose my mind. @.@

[0x.livejournal.com]

I hope she bitch-slaps him.

[lunarwhirl.livejournal.com]

Eh, she's okay now. Don't exactly like her, though.

[kidouche.livejournal.com]

Meh. I've always liked Sakura. I knew she had the potential to be a badass, but she was so stuck on Sasuke that she just couldn't...grow, so to speak. Now, at least, she has a drive, and she knows what's important and what isn't...(like her fangirling...XD) But hey. She was TWELVE. She had a CRUSH. Come ON. Twelve year old girls and crushes=lots of silliness. Not everyone can grow up fast, you know? She needed a little kick, and she got one.

TAKE THAT HATERS! XD

[yummeitenshi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess she still needed room to grow up. I agree with your review of her character.

I wouldn't pick fight if I were you. There may be a lot of haters still out there. ^^; I wouldn't know, that's why I posted this thing to see. ~Nyao

[kureno-rooster.livejournal.com]

Never liked her before, don't like her now. I don't care how strong she gets.

[yummeitenshi.livejournal.com]

Oh. Sucks for Sakura and her fans then. I guess all of us have biases. Thanks for the comment though.

[yummeitenshi.livejournal.com]

I guess what Kishimoto wanted to do was to give readers (and the characters, probably) something to be surprised about, when she just shows up and is all KAPOW. I'm not sure, I'm not him, but looking into it, I think it's logical to assume that. Although how she grew should've been shown somewhere. We only get to see two (TWO!) scenes of her being trained, and that doesn't count for much. It would be nice if Kishimoto made something like a Gaiden for what happened in between the time-jump. But then again, we don't see Naruto's growth in between the time jump either, but still, we see his growth for MOST of the anime (seeing as he's the title character) and compared to Sakura's, the stages of his growth were shown more.

But I have to beg to disagree with what you said, about her love for Sasuke being a hindrance to her development. I think that it's the perfect driving force for her to develop. At first it was just plain annoying how all she did was just to impress Sasuke, but now she has a real reason to get better. Anyway, that's just her character, she's the girl in love with Sasuke, and that's one of her main roles in the story. Besides, if she wasn't in love with him, the driving force of her trying to get Sasuke back would be less, and we really can't see her kicking ass as much.

(I'm just really, REALLY biased. ^^ Nothing personal, 'kay?)

I guess all of us have our preferences. Kishimoto doesn't delve into Tenten's character, but I'm damn well liking her. But I guess we have to be open minded.

(whoo, i'm just glad to find someone who's open minded and who isn't all "I hate Sakura just because she was weak and annoying and has pink hair.")

Cheers.

[kunoichi-jaden.livejournal.com]

Wow, I really agree with your points here.

To me, really, I've always felt that Kishimoto did a disservice to Sakura's character. Relating to her "sudden" development, like you said... we don't get anything of Sakura to make you really really fall in love with her character. I feel like he's given more attention to supporting characters like Lee, who's emotional story has a lot more depth than Sakura's.

I like Sakura's changes, but Kishimoto probably just couldn't show us how they really came about. He's given us a "just-add-water" type of thing with her. "This is how it starts, and this is the result."

Yeah, I also agree with what you said about her love for Sasuke. (This is also why I loathe SasuSaku, but thats another matter entirely.) Her love for Sasuke is what made her treat Naruto so horribly, which majorly detracted from her character. I'm really hoping that time-skip Sakura isn't in love with Sasuke anymore, but we still really don't know.

Know why many people aren't interested in Sakura's character? Because, compared to basically every other ninja in the show, Sakura seemingly has no reason to be a ninja. We don't know anything of her background at all, except that she lives with her Mom, she was friends with Ino, and she has a huge crush on Sasuke (and gave up said friend for said crush.) She doesn't seem to have any motivation, and if she does, its completely overshadowed by Naruto's desire for recognition and Sasuke's quest for revenge. Even Tenten has more ninja-like motivation than Sakura.

My answer to this is that Kishimoto was waiting until Part 2 to give Sakura her true motivation (protecting Sasuke and Naruto) but I think its too little too late compared to other characters.

[cutemew.livejournal.com]

"sasuke tunnel vision"

.. *snort*

:3

[otaku-kitsune.livejournal.com]

I like with Sakura when she isn't standing around being useless or when she's fangirling over Sasuke too much. Now, she doesn't do that kind of stuff anymore so I think she's actually pretty cool.

[strangestquiet.livejournal.com]

All that's required of me to like a ninja in Naruto is for them to do something cool. Sakura just wasn't cutting it. Now that she's grown up and gotten serious, she's a-ok in my book.

Hoping that she's given up on Sasuke, though. I'm kind of afraid of how ninja couples would be portrayed in this series. I almost died when Naruto told Hinata she'd make a good wife in the filler. *headdesk*

I'm kind of surprised by the discussions here about that Sakura has no motivation to become a ninja. The fact that a ninja in Konoha would need motivation hadn't really occured to me. Considering how being a ninja is a paid job, I figured the people who had the skills did it, and those who didn't have the skills/weren't interested didn't. Like any job. :D;

[arandomstudent.livejournal.com]

In the very beginning of the series, Sakura was too much of a girl. It looked like she didn't know what it means to be a ninja. (She was on a diet when she's only twelve, and she's not even remotely fat. When Tazuna the bridge-buider revealed the truth, she just wanted to take the easy way out, be safe, and go home. She did not appreciate Naruto as her team mate.) But she changed and matured a lot as the series progressed, even before the time-jump.

Now she's an increbidly strong and able ninja. What makes her really cool is, in my opinion, not her physical strength and Tsunade-punches, but something else inside her. I don't know how else to describe this... She isn't such a book-smart anymore. Now She is more than willing to take on enemies much bigger than her, for the sake of her dreams. She can give you attitude when she needs to -- as you pointed out, we havn't seen the Inner Sakura recently; (Think back to the time where Kakshi got chalkboard-eraser on his head, and Sakura appeared sorry ouside, and happy inside. Now, after time jump, when Naruto complains about Kakashi being late, Sakura says it's not he's fault he's got lazy eys -- right in front of Kakashi!) I wouldn't say that Inner Sakura took over, but she's just less restrained. Sakura doesn't give a care for being a primp and proper lady anymore, and she doesn't hold herself back anymore.

Overall, Sakura has become a loveable, stong ninja!

You brought up really good points, and started an excellent discussion! Thank you! : )

[yummeitenshi.livejournal.com]

Yes, and thank YOU for bringing in some positive comments about Sakura. Almost all I've been hearing is negative...