Remember Naruto 10 Years After his Series Ended

November 10th, 2014 was an important day in my life. Not because I hit an important milestone or something good happened, but because a story that I had been following for the last nine years had ended. On that day, Naruto, one of the greatest Shonen manga of all time, came to an end as we saw that our guy, Naruto Uzumaki, had finally achieved his dream of becoming Hokage.

I learned about Naruto in 2005 when the English Dub made its way onto Toonami in the Fall. And while I thought the series was pretty interesting, it still took me a while to get into it. It didn’t help that I kept missing a few episodes or that more than half of the original series was filler. It wasn’t until I was in Middle School or High School that I became a hardcore fan, watching most of the episodes and reading the manga weekly. It became one of my favorite things when I went to lunch. I would go to the library, find a computer, and just read the newest chapter on whatever website I could find. And I’m pretty sure I almost cried on the day that the last chapter came out. These characters, who started no older than me, were now all grown-up and living their best lives, raising their own families and everything. And I went to my journal (I wrote in a journal then) and just poured out all my thoughts and feelings about the ending.

Growing Up in Unprecedented Times

I think the reason that I grew to like Naruto so much was not just because of the story or the flashy moves, but because of the message that I felt that it was trying to teach us. When we’re kids, we tend to see things as pretty black-and-white, good and bad, that sort of thing. As we get older, most of us tend to realize that things aren’t often as simple as they appear to be. Good people like Itachi can be forced to do terrible things to prevent something worse. Those with the best intentions can wind up being broken by the pain and suffering we all experience through life, just like Obito and Nagato. And some people just wind up being hated and spat on for reasons that they simply don’t understand, just like Naruto. The boy was born the son of the Hokage, but not only did he lose his parents within hours of his birth, but he didn’t even know they were his parents until he was in his teens. And everyone treated him like trash for something that, as the Third Hokage pointed out, should’ve been seen as a hero for. The world wasn’t always fair like that!

Such Pointless Hatred

I didn’t start getting full-time into Naruto until my teens, but I found it at the right time in my life. Because that was around the time when I began to realize just how bad the world could be for some people. I was reading up all these history books talking about atrocities like the Holocaust and all this other stuff, and I couldn’t understand why these people were being treated so harshly for, what I saw, the most trivial of reasons. And this wasn’t just an issue of the past, either. It was something that was affecting our world in the present day. Flash forward to a few years after the end of Naruto, and it seems like people are more divided than ever! People are being divided on all sorts of lines! And for my life, I still don’t get why everyone is making such a big deal about it. I understand rationally why there’s so much hate and discord. People are afraid of that which they don’t understand. We’re so scared of losing the things that we have because someone else is going to come and take them. We’re afraid that that new neighbor who moved here from another country will hurt us or our loved ones. And sometimes that does happen, causing that fear and pain to morph into hate. And that hatred leads us to continue the cycle of pain and hurt others in the process.  

I understand that, but I don’t accept it.

Naruto himself would learn that all too well when he lost his master and father-figure, Jiraya. He was motivated to avenge his master, especially when he realized that his killer was once Jiraya’s own student. And that need for revenge almost made him succumb to his dark side until the fail-safe his Dad left brought him to his senses. Afterwards, instead of just killing Pain, he chose to hear out how his life fell apart and what made him the way he was. And while he understood why Pain became the way he did, and still wanted to make him pay for hurting his loved ones, he chose not to. He decided to spare Pain’s life, and that mercy and empathy led Pain to undo everything he did, albeit at the cost of his own life.

We All Need to be Nicer to Each Other

Naruto had always been a person who was capable of great empathy, because he knew what it’s like to be treated like garbage. But this was the moment when he really started working towards finding a way to end the hate that seemed to plague his world. He didn’t know how he would do it, but he knew he had to do it. Granted, many people have complained about his “Talk no Jutsu” over the years and called it a cop-out. And it can be a bit of a cop-out at times. The way I see it, though, Naruto is just really good at trying to find the good in other people, no matter who they are.

I know that Naruto isn’t always the most realistic of characters because of how he views the world, but then I remember just what his world is like, and what our world is like. More and more people are living in fear and hatred of each other, and given current events, it might even feel like there’s no hope for the world. As bad as things are, and I know that they can get worse, I don’t want to give up hope that they can get better. When enough people realize that’s it better to love each other rather than hate each other, then we can change the world for the better. I know that many people may feel like they don’t have a place in this world, but they can’t let themselves think like that. They need to keep working towards making things better. And maybe, when enough of us come together to do so, we can end up changing things for the better.

Just look at what Naruto was able to do by the end of his series. He had managed to unite the majority of his world together through his empathy and kindness. Through his sheer tenacity, he managed to slap some sense into Sasuke and made him turn his life around. And it looked like the world was on the way to becoming a better place.

Choose to Follow Naruto’s Example

Granted, Boruto has shown that that’s not the case, and many people hate the series for that. But no matter how great you are, you can’t expect to solve all the world’s problems in your lifetime. But if you manage to pass on your ideals to the next generation, they can continue what you started. And right now, our generation is in the position to do just that.

Our generation came of age in very uncertain times, and it feels like things have only gotten worse. But, as bad as things are, I still hear stories about people going out and doing things to try and make the world a better place. It may not seem like much, but all those small acts of love and kindness can add up to something greater. And right now, the world needs more love and compassion.

So, as we celebrate ten years since the end of Naruto, I’ve gone back and reflected on the message behind the entire series. What Masashi Kishimoto was trying to do was teach kids the importance of hard work and never giving up on our dreams. That we should not hate each other, but learn to understand one another. And from that understanding, we can work together to build something more significant than we ever could on our own. With how the world is right now, heaven knows we need to remember that kind of message. This world needs more people like Naruto in it!

Happy belated birthday to Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto. It was an honor to get to see you at NYCC in 2015, even if I never got to speak to you!