“Because life just isn’t Dattebayo anymore”
One of the saddest things about being a Naruto fan at the age of 39 is realising you have to wear your Hidden Leaf Village Ninja band a little higher than the kids to hide the receding hairline. Or find a dhobi to iron your 4th / 7th Hokage cloak. But this is to celebrate the creator of this incredible little boy who has touched so many hearts that we laugh through the tears and cry through the laughter. Naruto is a series as tragic as it is comic, and perhaps it is testimony to the creator that it continues to have a fan following that has only increased over the years.
Naruto is a series as tragic as it is comic Amazon
Masashi Kishimoto is a Japanese manga artist who created the series adapted into two anime and multiple films, video games and related media. Scroll through enough Instagram reels and you will find a crazed mix of fan fiction, humorous scenes, romantic scenes and many tragic ones from the series as well. Naruto is a young ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village, who battles through Sadness & Sorrow to finally achieve his destiny and a shot at happiness. A glance at the creator’s Wikipedia page shows some light poignant moments from the creator’s life as well. That he couldn’t always afford the Weekly Shōnen Jump, where the Dragon Ball manga was published, something he grew watching in school and also idolising its creator Akira Toriyama. Today, he would be greeted with roars and cheers from Naruto fans around the world. Some might even treat him with the reverence only preserved for the three Legendary Sannin, who are Mercurial Ninjas from the series with their own tragic as well as comedic arcs.
Do you want to trigger a medley of emotions in a Naruto fan? Here’s a handy guide:
1. Tap one of them on the forehead and say “Sorry Sasuke. Maybe next time” and watch them tear up.
2. Give one of them a fist bump and say “Dattebayo” and watch how every action has an equal and opposite emotional reaction.
3. Casually mention how much you like Sakura and watch them turn red in the face with anger. And if you want to see some real red in the face, just say “Naruto is looking at you” to Hinata.
4. Exert your full energy against a door that says “Pull” while screaming “ALMIGHTY PUSH!” and feel the “Pain” of your embarrassed friends
Me, on the other hand, have had a Naruto Leaf Village headband mysteriously stolen from an airport security check. I’d like to believe it was stolen by a young ninja out on a mission hopefully to save Jiraiya from his hopeless fate or perhaps a young Shikamaru trying to woo a mercurial Tamari. Beneath these light moments is the sobering realisation that a lot of the series has the very real devastation of Hiroshima somewhere in the writer’s rear view as narrated to him by his grandfather. But he still manages to make it a story about hope.
The author in a Hidden Leaf Village ninja headband and the cloak of the 4th and 7th Hokage
To the many Narutos who sat alone on that swing from birth, who have seen a real life almighty push blow up the village of their childhood, who have seen the Jiraiyas of their life killed by real-life Pains only to sit all alone with an ice cream stick that melts slower than the tears that follow, perhaps we all owe a debt to Masashi Kishimoto. To say, “Thank you for giving us hope that someday we might find a Hinata, who will see us for who we are when no one else would. For I am Naruto and I never give up.” You’d better believe it.
Dattebayo!
The author is a Marwari investment banker turned corporate comedian. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the website.
