Although the original Naruto series has already ended and we don’t get to see Sakura much in Boruto, still the fandom’s hate towards her reigns equally. Fans have been complaining for years now about how unsatisfied they are with this character for several reasons like, the apparent lack of depth and development.
However, surprising the entire anime fandom, it turns out that Sakura is hugely popular, exclusively in Japan, despite the original creator Masashi Kishimoto’s relentless attempts to make her look bad. This revelation has forced an introspective crisis within the fandom as everyone’s preconceptualized thoughts are getting reevaluated. The news has brought a shocking question asking if the hate against Sakura actually holds any justification!
Sakura Came Up to The Top in a Recent Character Popularity Poll in Japan!
A recent character popularity poll, conducted by the Japanese site Nijimen, uncovered an interesting fact about the Japanese fans of Naruto: Sakura Haruno is hugely popular there! In fact, Sakura ranked second in the men’s poll and first in the women’s poll for favorite female Weekly Shonen Jump characters. This outcome stirred up quite a commotion among global anime fans. The result of the poll indicates that criticism against Sakura is rather limited within the reach of online media only.
Despite the widespread hatred of Sakura, many fans argue that she is quite appreciated by a lot of people in real life. Most people, outside online sites and forums, are very fond of Sakura. There is a huge variance between what people say on social media and what people really think. Therefore, one might wonder if the Internet discourse ever says the truth. After all, true fans must always evaluate the overall opinion by looking at different perspectives aside from what the extreme majority voices online.
However, The Global Audiences Have Good Reasons to Criticize Sakura
Many storytelling mistakes changed Sakura Haruno from a liked character into one of the most disliked in the Naruto fandom. Unbalanced in writing, and puzzling in personal character development, his arc brought forth problems with respect to his choices even in the end. Moreover, her former way of being in love with Sasuke Uchiha has become an annoyance, because she was seen as weak for being in an one-sided relationship.
Major hatred came when Sakura didn’t really play any leading parts in some of the most crucial moments and made questionable choices, such as attempting unnecessary sacrifice and marrying Sasuke. Such developments angered people and brought a lot of criticism and dislike from fans.
It legitimized the reputation that her character has major weaknesses and is very annoying to bear with. As the series advanced, Sakura’s potential shriveled up, and her character became nothing but a bad omen of Naruto’s several story arcs, tagging her as one of the most hated characters in the entire anime fan base.
The Naruto anime series is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
