Saturday, April 5, 2014

NaruHina/NaruSaku Shipping and Real Life Relationships

I never thought that I'd ever write anything about shipping, but an interesting question from AniMarch gave me a great idea. While a lot of people argue about ships, compare the character's personalities, and decide who is the better couple, has anyone really taken the time to compare these situations to real life?


Spoiler Alert ~ Proceed with Caution

While I cannot speak for every place on the earth, in the United States divorce and relationship problems are a commodity. It's common to find single parents, domestic violence is present, and in relationships we tend to play a game to get what we want.

Since we're on the topic of relationships, let's bring NaruHina and NaruSaku into real life. I'll be focusing on these two pairings because they're the only ships I really pay attention to. Also a quick disclaimer; don't take this post as an opportunity to start flame wars. I'm not saying either is better than the other yet I might show a bit of favoritism. Let's all be happy and respect each other!

While looking at personalities in the anime world, it's easier and more well presented for us to see, due to knowing and seeing what characters are thinking, as well as having constant access to the material. In real life, this isn't always the case. So while these two are a good guide, a relationship in present day might be similar, but not exactly the same. Let's take NaruHina as the first example and look at the development of both sides of the pairing.

Naruto has developed significantly throughout his time as a ninja. When he was young, he was somewhat of a troublemaker, being isolated and looked down upon by the entire village. Naruto was breaking the mold of the village in a sense. Hinata, on the other hand was somewhat confined by the rules and regulation of the village. While she admired Naruto and inspired by him to change, she was basically near the opposite of him at this point of time, or so it seemed.

We can look further to see that as the series continue they have certain similarities. Both can be seen as an underdog, both have the same motive and life code they follow, and both experience changes in their personalities. They are dynamic, changing and growing unlike certain characters. Even with this, differences are still present.

Naruto's lack of a family, outgoing personality, appearance that makes him stand out from the rest, is heavily contrasting to Hinata's family of Hyugas, introverted personality, and blending in with the crowd. While both are different they aren't vastly different. The difference is just enough to make the interactions between them interesting, but not different enough to alienate themselves from one another. Let's bring this into real life.

Have you ever heard the saying that opposites attract? In this case, the question should be "will opposites last?" The answer, in this case is yes. While different, they both have the ability to inspire one another to keep moving forward. They're both dynamic, changing and improving themselves constantly in hopes to be better, so there will never be a situation where one side will hold the other down. This is perfect in real life as a couple with a member who wants to grow and one who does not seek improvement, will conflict.

Their personality differences could cause problems such as misunderstandings, yet it creates a great mix of wholeness for the two, as instead of two of the same pieces, they have a half of each. When put together, it creates a whole. This is also perfect in a real life situation, as when one looks for a mate they look for their "other half." In a way this can be related to yin and yang, two parts of the same whole. One cannot have yin without yang.

Let's move on to NaruSaku now. While NaruHina is like yin and yang, NaruSaku can be related to yin and yin, or yang and yang. Instead of two different pieces creating a whole, we have two of the same pieces. While this can work, it's a bit more unstable due to lack of balance. Before moving onto to this type of relationship in real life, let's look at Naruto and Sakura's interactions and characteristics.
While Naruto and Hinata are able to relate to each other due to being somewhat underdogs and having similar mindsets, Naruto and Sakura don't have this capability, at least not in the same way. The connecting factor that grows between the two is the recovery of Sasuke, starting with Naruto's promise to rescue him for her. Throughout the time, the relationships is very one sided, leaning more on Naruto's side.

While they have similar traits, such as being outgoing and stubborness in on way or another, their beliefs and morals don't line up very well. Sakura had little respect for Naruto when he first joined, looking down and him and treating him as a nuisance. Naruto didn't typically treat people this way, unless he was going against authority or rules. Even Sasuke notes that this was something that Naruto didn't really deserve. As we see later, Sakura eventually warms up to Naruto completely and begins to shift her own views that somewhat match hers. While Naruto is growing, Sakura also grows, but they grow in different ways.

When Naruto eventually sets off to confront Sasuke, Sakura takes advantage of his feelings for her in other to keep him from leaving. While this may seem worse than it really is on paper, we can see that this sort of manipulation is something that is bad in every day relationships. One should not manipulate the feelings of someone they care about to stop them from their goal. Sakura did not do this in bad spirits; she was simply trying to protect Naruto.

Despite this, they still bring out good traits in each other. Sakura keeps Naruto moving forward towards his goal and Naruto serves as an inspiration for Sakura to get stronger. However, they aren't as dependent on each other as NaruHina. Disregarding this, they have known each other for a long period of time, and have an interaction that can't really be compared. They have the closeness of siblings in a sense, and have been through times that are difficult and manged to prevail, something that Naruto and Hinata haven't really had the opportunity to do.

Though, let's examine this relationship in a real life setting. Sakura's violence against Naruto would definitely not be acceptable in our society, as it could be related to domestic violence. However, both are dynamic and are working towards their own goals. They would most likely not need the support of each other and would be able to manage easily. With their outgoing personalities, they are most likely to lead instead of follow. With this relationship they might face more troubles than NaruHina, but less misunderstandings. 

From examining the relationships of fictional characters, we can learn a lot about real life interactions. In my opinion I'd prefer the NaruHina relationship with contrast but balance, compared to the double edged sword of NaruSaku.

Sorry if this post was long! If you managed to read or skim through it, I thank you!


7 comments:

  1. To be honest I think NaruSaku fans have a warped and twisted view of love.

    You shouldn't have to change THAT MUCH in order for someone to consider you. It sends the message that you have to become an international hero before someone you like will like you back. (The way you like them I mean.)

    Where as with NaruHina, Hinata loved Naruto even when he was loser. Even when he was nothing. Naruto had a negative opinion of Hinata at first too, but that changed much faster.

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    1. Thank you for commenting!

      I wouldn't go as far to say that all the NaruSaku fans believe in this type of love, but I can see where your opinion comes from.

      In my view, you shouldn't have to change yourself to get the attention or love of someone. If you have to do that, then they never really had feelings for you to begin with. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that they may have feelings for you, but for all the wrong reasons!

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  2. Yeah? bunch of crap. if you ask me you are not taking all facts to consideration. for exsample Sakura have warmed up to naruto and in her own way she wish to be usefull to him and. love comes in many shapes and sizes. some People look classy and fancy others are cute even when they fight and act like children. hinata is cute and all but here is a hard damn solid fact. naruto DONT love her. he love Sakura and it will NEVER change. as you said if a person has to change to get aproval its wrong. for sasuke to love Sakura she will have to change so thats wrong. for naruto to love hinata will claim a total makeover and still she wont pass and you know why? becouse she is not Sakura. naruto have said from the beginning that he love Sakura and he has always looked at hinata as a weirdo. if they one day shall find true love i sudjest naruto should kiss his Sakura and hinata should turn to kiba becouse that is where she belongs. and let us not forget the fact that kushina narutos own mother said find a girl like Your mother. well Sakura is like kushina and naruto told his father that Sakura is his girlfriend and she diddent deny it. yes Sakura loved sasuke but so did everyone else in their class. im not married to my first crush are you? but Yeah lets run Your theory to the test. if hinata loves naruto so much then why the heck diddent she try to Comfort him alittle when he felt all alone in the world? becouse she was stalking him thats why. she dont have the guts to be there for him. who is naruto going to? thats Sakura. and besides putting hinata and naruto together would be like putting the fashion snob ino With the Food loveing chouji thats how messed up naruhina is. all tho you nh fans deny it kishimoto lay the hints pretty Clear, hinata is a cute sweet character but she is just a side character she is in the same line as kiba, kankuro, tenten and the rest. Sakura on the other hand is a main and more than that she is the heroinne. so common sense will say narusaku atleast i will. sorry rekari its not to offend you but i really love narusaku and you kind made them look bad :( ( Moriko )

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    1. Thank you for commenting!

      I understand that you're upset about it and trust me I didn't mean to make NaruSaku look bad. In fact, I really don't concern myself too much with shipping wars. I think that everyone should like the pairing they like, despite what happens in the story.

      However, with this post I was basically just expressing my outlook and opinion. To be fair, I don't think we can be sure what Naruto is thinking....because we're not him. We don't also know the direction the story is going to take from here on out. I think with all the different interactions between the characters we could argue and compare for a long time, but there's really no set outcome at this point. Naruto may not end up with anyone; we don't even know if Naruto will survive the current battles.

      With the whole thing about opposites like Hinata and Naruto...it goes back to the whole saying that opposites attract. Yes, pairing Choji and Ino may seem somewhat mismatched, but the fact that they are different is what allows them to learn and grow from each other. A like-minded couple can do this too, but thats a whole different story.

      If anything, the reason why I feel NaruHina is a bit better is because Yin/Yang relationships are seemingly pushed at this point. Naruto and Sasuke for example, are very different but key similarities allows them to remain friends. Naruto follows the light, Sasuke the dark. Without dark there is no light, and without light there is no dark. There needs to be a balance.

      I think during the first parts of Naruto, it seemed obvious that Naruto would eventually win Sakura oover. Naruto was basically following in Jiraiya's footsteps, as far as the Pain Arc. Now, he's begun carving his own path; he's accomplishing what Jiraiya could not. This could mean ending up with Sakura, surpassing Jiraiya's failures with Tsunade. Alternatively, he could take a completely different route and wind up with Hinata.

      So I'm not really saying that there's no possibility for NaruSaku...but I'm obviously rooting for NaruHina. I replied to the other commentor in a similar way; NaruSaku fans aren't wrong in their beliefs...I just don't agree with them.

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  3. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon. Big thanks for the useful info. How to be happy in life

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  4. Nice to read your article! I am looking forward to sharing your adventures and experiences. Relationships

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  5. Crates are forklift-maneuverable plywood boxes constructed by Europa-Road either the shipper or appropriate local crating service or even purchased from a vendor of pre-assembled crates.

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