With the Naruto franchise nearing its 25th anniversary, some old criticism is back in circulation. If you’ve followed the series for any length of time, you’ve probably seen the argument already: a bunch of side characters arrived with huge buildup, then never got to become as strong or as important as fans were led to expect.
In the early arcs, the Konoha rookies felt like the next generation of elite shinobi in the making. Then Naruto: Shippuden tightened the lens around Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and powers big enough to shake the whole world. Rock Lee had the taijutsu, the underdog pull, the Eight Gates, and that Gaara fight people still bring up without hesitation, but he never turned into the Hidden Leaf powerhouse a lot of viewers thought he was heading toward. Neji Hyuga had a similar problem. He started out as a Byakugan prodigy, basically rival-level talent, and ended up attached to one of the war arc’s most argued-over deaths before plenty of fans felt he’d actually hit his peak.
You can see the same issue with Shino Aburame, whose insect-based fighting style always seemed made for bigger tactical battles, and with Tenten, whose whole weapons specialty barely got much screen time or room to grow.
As Naruto: Shippuden kept escalating, the series moved further into tailed beasts, reincarnated legends, and threats that were close to god-like. Once the scale got that high, grounded shinobi started to matter less. Add in weekly deadlines, plus director Hayato Date speaking about the difficulty of handling such a massive cast, and it’s not hard to see why English-speaking fans and Japanese forum users still keep circling back to Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and Shino Aburame.
So if you’re still following Naruto while the franchise moves toward that 25-year mark, and while people keep speculating about a Boruto: Two Blue Vortex anime, don’t expect this argument to disappear anytime soon.
Author: Jesús Bosque
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