maoam

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What popular anime genres you don't like?

Hmm I don't know, ecchi? I'm not familiar with mecha anime so I'm not sure whether I'll like it or not. Idol anime is another that doesn't really feel like my kind of thing, but then again I found Oshi no Ko okay.

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Most likely! I wasn't really sure what to make of the difference in their wrists, I just noticed Sasuke's looks a bit more slender or graceful. But it does show once again Kishimoto puts a lot of detail in his drawings (unlike people saying he doesn't know what he's doing).

I mentioned earlier Kishimoto using body language used in Japanese theatre, so I gathered some pictures to show what I mean.

I have to mention Naruto’s master Jiraiya, whose design, antics and speech are all based on Kabuki. Jiraiya’s rough, broad and bombastic way of speech and body language is a style used in kabuki for masculine, heroic characters. These type of characters take a lot of space and use flamboyant and exaggerated, even aggressive body language.

I have seen a claim that Naruto is the “opposite of traditionally masculine” because he’s flamboyant while Sasuke is traditionally masculine. Sorry but that’s not what Kishimoto was going for:

He draws Naruto in a similar manner to Jiraiya whenever he wants to bring “Kabuki” into Naruto’s character. Notice the crude facial expressions, the face paint and the same, reoccuring hand move.

Jiraiya and Naruto’s sage mode “makeup” is also a nod to the exaggerated face paint used by these hero characters in Kabuki plays. Which is why it makes perfect sense Naruto is wearing the intimidating “hero makeup” when arriving as a hero to save everyone.

So what about Sasuke? Sasuke’s look is more soft, fluid and not exaggerated (including facial expressions). I don’t bother with too many individual pictures so that this doesn’t become too long but Kishimoto spends time portraying Sasuke as poised and graceful in comparison to Naruto’s brash and exaggerated appearance.

Here as well you can see Naruto’s body language being the same type of brash and exaggerated, taking a lot of space, while Sasuke is calm and beautiful and expressionless. . Sasuke is the yin to Naruto’s yang.

But nowhere is Kishimoto’s intention more evident than in this illustration he drew in 2018.  Here they are complete opposites. Sasuke’s stance is graceful and closed, his back is straighter and his shoulders are down. Naruto’s is more assertive and open (arrogant). Sasuke is delicate looking, feminine (has some makeup), his build is slightly smaller than Naruto’s (look at the wrists). Sasuke uses the back of his hand to hold back the sleeve, unlike Naruto. Sasuke’s face is smaller and more slender than Naruto’s while Naruto’s features are squarer and not polished. Even the patterns and colors of the kimonos follow. Sasuke’s blue and white symbolise calmness and passivity, Naruto’s colors and patterns symbolise aggression and war (notice the lighting and thunder clouds). The sheer attention to detail!

I don’t think this illustration is much talked in western spaces (?) but in jpn fandom this was definitely noticed and there was some talk about Sasuke’s “feminine aura” when this was released, and that Kishimoto always draws him so beautiful. The contrast between the two of them is interesting, and in my honest opinion ignoring Sasuke’s traditional beauty and grace, as well as Naruto’s brashness, is missing a part of their characters and their relationship.

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Hey Maoam I don’t know if you have TikTok but I sometimes see this person on TikTok on any sns video I find. They reply to comments to anyone that says something nice about sns video. The picture that I showed is what they always reply to anyone to says lovely things about sns. Not surprised that they are sasusaku and gaanaru shipper and is one of those sasusaku shippers that tries to proof that sns is pedo incest. I don’t hate gaanaru but the way some people only ship(specifically sasusaku shippers) it is to keep Naruto away from sasuke or use it as a tool against sns. It’s not the best to go on their page because it’s a waste of time.

This person seems to be bored out of their mind. Imagine pretending to ship a ship and on top of it trying to bring down a ship the whole story hinges on. I'd suggest to just ignore these weirdos, you can't reason with them.

Also I love how we make these detailed essays with evidence and reference pointing out all the romantic writing (and sometimes even sexual) of Naruto and Sasuke and then these people's response is to say they are brothers. Okay, what are brothers who have romantic and sexual writing? Incest. Why are they reading an incest story since even the mere idea offends them? Because last time I checked, the romantic undertones between two characters do not disappear if you say they're related. Take the case with Uranus/Neptune in Sailor Moon. The English dub changed them to cousins because they wanted to avoid the lesbian relationship. However, obviously they didn't change the looks, the body language, the music, the things they did for one another, so it just came off as romantic regardless of the cousin change. I didn't watch Sailor Moon as a kid, but my friend who watched the English dub as a kid, said she just thought they were two cousins who were in love. Lmao.

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Sorry to bring up One Piece all of sudden, but by any chance, did you saw how fr*bin shippers on twitter were going crazy over auto-translation of Robin's VA words which were ,,Franky is Robin's man", when in reality she was paying tribute to Franky's VA and said nothing ship related? This is textbook SS shipper behavior and atp idk who is more delusional, like? Imagine losing your mind over an AUTO-TRANSLATION of a video, claim it means they're endgame and getting 11k likes on twt 💀

I would say this is pretty average shipper behaviour, not just SS. Even SNS have posted audio clips of Sasuke's VA doing a confession to Naruto (it's edited) or NSFW audio of the VA's (it's edited) and saying they're legit.

Shippers are very quick in all fandoms to jump on mistranslations or auto-translations as long as they support their ship. I have seen this play out in many ships and fandoms.

I'm curious now on what she actually said.

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"I think it's because of your wish to protect me all this time that I am what I am now. And it's that "me" who has finally found an answer. So please... trust me."

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Space girl 🪐

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the trio <3

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Gojo Satoru, the people's princess the strongest sorcerer of the modern era 🤍

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happy valentines day to the hokagays~  💕 🧡💙💛💜 💕

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Just wanted to come by and say I really appreciate your posts/meta, whatever fandom they're from ❤️ Love reading your analyses

Thank you, that's nice to hear.

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owo wtf

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You've posted about the internalized homophobia from naruto's character writing. Other sns blog also posted about him being written as a closeted gay and the one who is in-denial about the nature of his feelings/relationship to sasuke, what with him not being able to define his feelings when sasuke kept asking him why did you go so far for me? So naruto always just says it's because of friendship as a cop-out. Also how sasuke looks unsatisfied and lowkey annoyed the last time naruto says it at the end in vote2, which ofc led him to ask naruto to clarify more and all. I agree with all the analysis that says sasuke has always been the one who is more self aware about the romantic implications of their bond from the start.

But what I'm trying to ask here is specifically about something from naruto's side. We've established that there is that one panel where he was thinking about sasuke and then when sai and sakura approaches he says he was thinking of sakura instead. Other sns blog also has posted on how naruto's entire "childhood crush" on sakura is just a projection of his feelings on sasuke, citing panels on how he didn't react when Lee made a move on sakura but everytime it's sasuke that is involved, he always went above and beyond to show how 'jealous' he is. I also agree with this and you also has posted about when minato assumed sakura was his girlfriend, he hastily didn't correct him to please his family's expectation. All of this is very much familiar to a closeted/in-denial gay person who is experiencing comphet and wants to appease to heteronormativity to conform.

Which brought me to my concern here. It always rubbed me the wrong way how one of the life advice Kushina gave him is to find a 'nice girl'. Especially how we know that after the war, he was also being guilttripped to accept hinata's confession. In a comic written by kishi after the last, the villagers are shown to be in awe of the 'picture perfect' couple of the soon-to-be-hokage and the heiress, implying that the entire reason nh happens is for this. To paint a respectable image for the war hero amidst the village's politics. All of this leading to gaiden/boruto where it is shown that while he does loves his family (in the same way he 'loves' the village, 'loves' being a hokage) there is some intentional distance that he kept from them. Other than constantly choosing to be on the office rather than at home, he also asked his own son to call him with formalities.

I think other blog has posted in great details how much it is implied that the life naruto choose for himself, marrying into a respectable family, settling down with kids, taking up the hokage mantle, is no longer his own wants but just to conform into society/familial expectations that became a burden for him. He slept through his own inauguration, even his own son is wondering why is he not more prepared/estatic to the day that supposedly is his biggest dream coming true.

I think all this reasoning became my main gripe with minakushi and all the sns parallels with them. Sure, naruto and sasuke being hokage and shadow kage, working alongside each other is a valid and canon narrative. Sasuke telling Boruto about naruto's development since he was a kid through his eyes also parallels what Kushina says to naruto. It's a cool thing but sns is also laced with a lot of anguish in these things that the other (heterosexual) ships just dont get.

We're not even gonna go to very charged and ambigous panels such as their last interaction in ch 699 where they promised to "have their real fight" and the implications of that headband (that sasuke eventually gave to boruto in the end, using the same exact words he used "hold on to it" vs "I'll hold on to it until we have our real fight"), that weird interaction in gaiden where it seems like sasuke is taunting naruto for his choices, calling him 'hokage' when in other times he called him by name, highlighting their philosophical differences too (naruto stays in the village, sasuke works outside of it) as "cooperation", highlighting how "the mission" that he's doing is 'top secret that nobody can know', "ignorance is bliss"????. It's probably the most subtext we're ever gonna get into those two's arrangement and it haunts me still.

Hi. I talked a bit about this [link]

I understand the bitterness towards het couples. Kushina's comment is realistic since most people expect their children to find a member of the opposite sex, get married and have children. Heteronormativity is a thing. I do feel the recent Boruto chapters have been oddly playing with the subtext that makes me wonder where it's all going. But we shall see.

The "cooperation" part is a very suspect moment, like a private conversation we aren't given full context of. As you said, the charged tone, the unsaid things, Sasuke's sad face and Naruto's taken aback/nervous face, Sakura's nervous face etc. Sasuke's conversation with Boruto as well, especially with the last frame of him saying maybe I'm the one who has to show his resolve next. Like why so vague? I do hope Kishi some day will explain all this!

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I feel like even if Sasuke was a girl, a lot of men would still hate him or be against the ship, because the protagonist would enter the simp zone, and it would hurt their masculinity that the MALE main character would be the one who has to chase the "girl" and humiliate himself for her in their eyes.

I'm sure they would. Also just like with women, there are men with different tastes in ships. I have seen men who like narusaku and men who like naruhina. Men who like erehisu and men who like eremika. And so on.

I remember when I was reading a Japanese forum someone made a thread asking "what if Sasuke was a girl?" (the starting post didn't imply a ship) and someone answered "Naruto would end up with Sasuke no doubt" lol. And it wasn't the only comment that was like that, several others followed.

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https://www.tumblr.com/maoam/771042635123212288/hi-this-is-sort-go-dumb-but-a-few-months-ago-i

There’s a function on YouTube now where you can posts photos to your community tab. It’s almost like twitter in the sense people can comment & interact.

They literally just took screenshots of your analysis and posted it in their tab. Like they didn’t even copy and paste it.

I wasn’t on their channel for long because the homophobia was just uncomfortable and gross. Especially with the religious aspect. From what I see they’re like a Ino Stan & think Sasuke is straight & in love with Ino & Sns are delusional fetishists. Oh and they ship Narusaku (while hating both Naruto & Sakura..???)

They hate Sakura but tolerate Hinata from what I see so they were just looking for confirmation bias by looking through you anti Sakura posts & ignoring the Hinata ones as you said.

Sounds pretty pathetic. So sns are fetishists but them shipping Sasuke with someone he never even talked to is deep or whatever.

I remember some narusakus who shipped Sasuke and Hinata together so anything can be possible. Sometimes ship is just to get characters out of the way.

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If this was posted on Japanese tiktok, it could possibly have the "you have a hard on when thinking about your brother's smile?" "you turn berserk if someone says your brother belongs to them? especially in front of you?" comments made by Japanese dudebros I saw😭

This might be the post that triggered SS, this interview bit is one of their only lifelines in their eternal battle against Naruto and Sasuke's very blatant gay love.

this is actually taking me out but I’m also happy that dudebros don’t buy into this “they’re just brothers” bs

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Going on reddit and reading all the topics about narusasu with fem sasuke is really eye opening. Some people really admit that the only problem they have with SNS is the fact they are 2 boys and since they are straight (the readers) they cant enjoy SNS because they do not relate to homosexuality. It's ironic because they do not understand that's what queer people are going through. Most movies/series we watch focus on straight romance.

They see the romantic chemistry, but can't handle the idea of homosexuality. Very sad.

I remember a discussion forum where someone said eventhough he supports traditional marriage, he thinks Naruto and Sasuke should have ended up together, not with Hinata and Sakura. And someone replied "Sasuke should have been a chick to begin with." I also remember a Japanese comment that said he would feel less uncomfortable with Naruto's feelings for Sasuke is Sasuke was a female character. Sigh...

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Hi. This is sort go dumb but a few months ago I saw one of your anti Sakura analysis on YouTube. At first I was like people are making analysis in YouTube community posts? As I read I noticed it was entirely too similar to something you made.

Checked their account and they’re a very religious homophone, transphobe & sasuino shipper.

This was just crazy to me. Like did they go through your account to find that post, and if they did.. wouldn’t they see your sns stuff? Lol. It was just so lazy.

I'm confused, you mean they wrote it on their youtube community page? That's very weird...

The last part doesn't surprise me. I have had Sakura stans come to my anti-hinata posts and Hinata stans come to my anti-sakura posts. It's mindblowing to them when there are people who don't like either character.