Board Thread:Naruto News/@comment-26937472-20151130084303/@comment-5936871-20151201185746

BakumatsuWarrior wrote: Thekillman wrote: BakumatsuWarrior wrote: I think I've had enough of super-powered kids a small side-note: as early as Part I we've had super-powered kids. It got worse over time, but in itself it's nothing new. Yeah but strictly speaking for myself, Naruto was the first anime I followed seriously. So I wasn't really bothered by the "super-powered kids kicking powerful and experienced adults in the nuts" all that much. I never cared for Pokemon, and my enthusiasm for DBZ totally evaporated away after watching the Goku vs. Frieza fight (which mostly consisted of Goku and Frieza staring at each other). I've heard that the original Dragon Ball (when Goku was a kid) is much better than DBZ, but it wasn't aired in my country for some reason; only DZ was aired. So I had no chance of watching the early Dragon Ball as a kid.

Then came Naruto, which had a far more interesting premise than DBZ: a pariah kid battling against his fellow villagers' prejudice and working his butt off to win their respect. Now that was far more interesting than watching a bunch of alien space monkeys yell and shout and go blond and destroy entire planets in the process. Naruto offered an emotional and (to some extent) political complexity that simply wasn't there in DBZ (which was the only anime I'd bothered to watch at that time). And so I got hooked.

But now that I've watched/read a few more anime/mangas, the whole "teenagers saving the world" thing is getting ridiculous. I haven't followed Bleach, Fairy Tail and One Piece yet, but all seem to have teenage protagonists (Ichigo, Natsu and Luffy). All the protagonists from Shingeki no Kyojin are teenagers. The protagonists from Tokyo Ghoul are teenagers too. Even Code Geass (which I love to death) has a morally ambiguous, master manipulator teenager as the protagonist and anti-hero. This "teenage hero" crap of Shonen mangas is getting really tiresome.

Now I've watched and read some Seinen mangas/anime as well, like Basilisk, Elfen Lied (again, led by teenagers), Monster, Death Note, Shigurui: Death Frenzy, Ninja scroll, Lone Wolf and Cub, etc. But quite a lot of them have their fair share of excessive gore, nudity and rape. Monster and Death Note are fine though. And it's not that I find gore and rape to be repulsive (I liked most of the violent mangas). It's just that as a newbie to the whole manga/anime world, I'd like to read mangas that have nice action and complex plotlines without too much blood, gore, nudity AND teenage protagonists. Something in-between Shonen and violent Seinen. Something like Rurouni Kenshin, for instance.

Which brings me to Naruto spinoffs. The world of Naruto, with its 5 Shinobi Superpowers and smaller Shinobi countries, has excellent potential for stories involving awesome action coupled with complex political intrigues. I think Amegakure has the best potential for such a plotline. It's a small country condemned to be dominated by the larger powers (kinda like my country). Ame's Civil War with Hanzo and Akatsuki can be quite interesting if done properly. Same with Kirigakure. The 3 World Wars could also have complex plotlines along similar veins. And finally, complex plotlines can be created by exploring the stories of the previous incarnates of Indra and Ashura.

Kishi spent 15 years on a bunch of super-powered kids. If someone were to produce Naruto spin-offs, I think focusing on adult shinobis and complex plotlines would be better. Itachi's story is the pinnacle of such type of plotline in Naruto, IMO (even though Itachi was himself a teenager). But I'm asking too much now. You should probably try more seinen series then, cause the shounen genre itself is directed at a young male audience and what captivates them the most, and that isn't really a deep political drama.