Moments that Made Me Cry in Naruto: Part 1

Review

Naruto had a lot of epic action-packed fight scenes, light-hearted comedic moments, crazy nonsensical fillers, and an overall great narrative. It had complex, unassuming characters with backstories that added a layer of depth and richness that made the story compelling and gave it more personality.

While I was watching it, I paid close attention to the dialogue between the characters because to me, that allowed me to peer into their hearts and minds. Their words along with their actions, body language, and expressions gave me a sense of who these characters were and what they stood for.

I became attached to certain characters because of the level of intricacy that came into weaving their story and how they play into the grand scheme of things, the meta-narrative. Especially the main character, Naruto, who was unrelenting and unchanging while transforming those around him. He definitely had this ability of drawing you in toward him and liking him for who he is – the good, the bad, and everything else about him.

Through the small details, I got to see the motives that drove the characters’ actions and moved the story forward.

Though pacing is a usual problem with shonen anime, I didn’t take much issue with it in Naruto. Many people complained about lengthy or irrelevant fillers. But my take on that is that these fillers give you time to process what has happened.

They shed light on other characters and how they interact with the main characters. It gives you something to go back to and hope for. When you finally return to the main storyline, you are able to take it in.

Anyways, I also loved how they were able to pick the right moments to show a different dimension to some of the characters or to transition from one arc to the next. For me, it’s fine to take things slow or drag out certain events in the timeline since that fuels your appetite for the main events.

Moments that made me cry

Now, moving on to the main part of this post. What I liked most about Naruto is that it knew how to tug at my heartstrings. The dialogue, the characters, their circumstances, and the timing just seemed like they were all setting us up for these big moments that would be forever etched into our hearts and minds.

I cried many times throughout the whole series. There were numerous moments in the whole series that made me ugly cry, as in, I bawled. I even had to stifle myself from crying loudly because my parents might hear and I didn’t want them to think that there was something wrong with me.

Obviously, there were several deaths in the series that could make anyone cry. But again as I said, what made me cry most of the time was the journey toward those pivotal moments. The events that led up to those deaths made them more meaningful and heartbreaking.

The time invested in developing these characters and their stories really factored into the weight and gravity of their loss. It built up all the emotions and attachments until such point when it was time to let it all go.

For me, the dialogue was mostly the key element that often made me choke and start bawling. But of course, that was aided by the masterful crafting of the plot. Couple those with the passion and intensity of the characters’ emotions, and the tears just won’t stop.

Spoiler alert: There will be major spoilers throughout this post. So if you haven’t watched it and don’t want to get spoiled, don’t read any further. However, as my friend said, Naruto is such a good anime that even though you know what’s going to happen, you still find yourself being heavily affected by it.

Itachi

Credits: anime-boyz on deviantart

This guy, just... this guy. Sigh.

Anything that has to do with Itachi is so sad and absolutely depressing.

After the truth about Itachi is finally revealed, there’s just no way that your heart won’t break.

Just thinking about the life that he lived makes me feel both sad, amazed, and so freaking annoyed. I can probably just focus this post on Itachi and I will.

As you may have guessed, Itachi is one of my favorite characters in the whole series. In my opinion, he is the epitome of a tragic hero in this story. He is much like Severus Snape in that respect, who by the way is my fave character in Harry Potter.

Both of them were vilified throughout their lives and only in their moment of death was the whole truth about them revealed. In truth, they were only doing what they did to protect the ones they love.

First Impressions

Itachi was initially presented as a cold, heartless S-rank criminal who massacred his entire clan on a whim so that he can test how powerful he was. He killed everyone except his little brother, Sasuke.

This led to Sasuke bearing a grudge on him and embarking on a quest to become stronger so that he could take revenge and kill his older brother. In the few interactions that Itachi had with Sasuke, we see Itachi provoking Sasuke’s hatred of him all the more, saying that he’s weak and foolish. These actions convince us that he is a very contemptible person and a true villain.

During the fight scene between Sasuke and Itachi, Sasuke is able to exact revenge against his brother. But it is later revealed what Itachi’s true intentions were and where his true loyalties lay.

The Truth

The massacre of the Uchiha clan was a plot that the top officials of Konoha concocted to avert the planned coup d’état of the Uchiha clan. Itachi was a double agent for Konoha’s officials and the Uchiha clan. But he chose to put the village’s safety over his own clan’s motives.

He agreed to take the last resort mission of killing the Uchiha with the condition that Sasuke would be spared and protected. He joined the Akatsuki organization to keep an eye on them and made a deal with them not to target Konoha.

When he was about to kill his parents, they had a short talk and he hesitated a bit. He couldn’t bring himself to kill them but they consoled him with the fact that their pain will only be momentary compared to the one he will have to face throughout his life.

After killing his parents, he faced Sasuke. These moments were always portrayed from the point of view of Sasuke where we see Itachi as a cruel, heartless man. He tortured Sasuke with the images of the clan massacre then left him unconscious on the road. But Sasuke later remembered that just when his brother was about to leave, Itachi looked back at Sasuke, and Sasuke saw him crying.

It pained Itachi to bring so much sorrow, grief, pain, and suffering to his brother. Itachi bore the scorn and hatred of everyone in the village especially of his brother. And he did it all alone. In that essence, he sacrificed his own life and reputation for the sake of those he loved. And he died without people knowing the truth.

That’s how sad Itachi’s life was and even as I write this, I still cry over it. What endeared me most to him was his love for his brother. He was ever the doting brother to little Sasuke and he had a strong sense of affinity to his village. He forsook his own desires and dreams for the sake of the village. His life was a true testament of what it means to be a shinobi.

Later on, Itachi would get revived and he would fight alongside Sasuke against Kabuto in the Great Shinobi War. He passes on all his memories and the whole truth about his story to Sasuke. Even though Sasuke did not initially share Itachi's will to protect Konoha, it was okay with Itachi. He didn't try to convince Sasuke otherwise. Rather he left the rest to Naruto. Then we are gifted with the most beautiful scene between the two brothers:

Credits: daniimon on deviantart