#.i can talk about this series forever but neji forever x2

[everyneji]

Tell us about Neji! Since when did you start liking him? What do you like most about him?

Anything works. I miss him so much my eyes become teary when I see him 🥺

[This is one hell of an amazing ask to receive ehe thank you very much fellow teary-eyed Neji lover.]

So I started watching the dub when it first aired, right at the start of the Waves arc, so it's been [checks calendar] about 16 years of being a fan of this series. 😨 I always liked Neji and considered him a favourite, but I really became a stan after joining the more gen fandom spaces, particularly the narutoforums which gave us such classic quotes as this:

For me, Neji is a very easy character to love. In fact, from 2016:

"definitely Neji. i like geniuses who get humbled lol. but his whole story, his tense + complicated + horrible relationship with his family, the bird metaphors, the hair, how he came out a nice guy after struggling in ~~the darkness~~ and was always quietly improving … yeah man it's been years but he'll never stop being my #1.

eta oh yeah and his team, team gai ftw"

So I guess past me sums it up fairly well. Also, please appreciate how Kishimoto read this thread on what would be your breaking point for the series and decided to ruin my life, in particular:

{screaming white woman.gif}

For my 2022 opinion ... Neji is a fascinating character. When we meet him, he's so angry, justifiably so, but it's hardly a healthy state to be in. He's drowning, and no one around him cares. His address of Hinata is superficially respectful but the actual tone of his words is anything but. He's probably learned a lesson or two on respect in his day, and he toys with the limits of what's possible. He pushes, and he pushes, in hopes of finding a little give. He could have made chunin based on skill alone, but he's clouded by his feelings AND puts a state secret on blast in front of a whole arena of people -- can you imagine the unbelievable levels of emotional stress he was under, to do that?

As I endeavour to write about Neji as much as possible, I once summed it up as such:

"Neji was an odd study of contrasts. He was quiet, yet never timid. He had more secrets than most, but never hesitated to spill the darkest things at the slightest provocation. Listening to him, Shikamaru had to wonder if it was because Neji had so few people in his life who would listen, he was scared to lose the chance to speak."

There's this raw vulnerability to his character which is always fun to see with otherwise 'cool guys', and it speaks to how big his heart is. Neji was mean for a few years as a traumatized kid lashing out and to this day people still act like he's particularly callous. He really isn't! One of the greatest Neji moments is this flashback of his apology to Lee, during Hiruzen's funeral:

Neji is aware that he was projecting his own beliefs onto Lee and strives to make it better. We assume Hiashi reached out to him after the exams, but Neji still meets him halfway, which is very big of him. He fights side-to-side with Hinata as 'equals'. Much like Gaara apologizing to his siblings for the first time in years after they carry him away from the Naruto fight, we see someone who has really no reason at all to be kind learning that they can be, and choosing to be.

I had fallen off the manga by the time Neji died; my friend called me up to break the news. I read the chapter and then lay down on my basement couch, and spent the rest of the day sobbing. I thought a lot during those hours about how Neji was fundamentally a good and kind person, but in a way he was living on borrowed time (as it's rumoured Kishimoto wanted to kill him and Choji in the Retrieval arc but decided not to.) To have someone so young -- and the older I get, the more his youth strikes me -- and kind exist in a liminal state ... it's a tragedy. His whole life is a tragedy, but he tried to make the best of it for what he could. That means more to me than I can ever properly communicate.

Also, he's a gay boy, and that's always a bonus in a character. ☝️