How the Naruto Anime's Best Theme Became a Hypocritical Dead End

Hard work is supposed to beat talent in Naruto's world, but the protagonist ditched this idea halfway through and left the real hard workers behind.

The long-running Naruto anime quickly established itself as a shonen "big three" must-watch with its intriguing combat system, its resonant personal themes, its wacky humor, and much more. The Naruto anime kept viewers engaged with thought-provoking and emotionally charged messages about cycles of hatred and the power of hard work beating talent, but some of those core themes eventually rang hollow.

In the end, protagonist Naruto Uzumaki completed his "zero to hero" personal arc and became Hokage, as he always dreamed, but his success came at the cost of the Naruto anime's message about gritty underdogs catching up to the superstars. That theme was what made the pre-Shippuden phase so great, but even in that narrative golden age, Naruto Uzumaki started contradicting his "hard work beats all" theme, and it became worse in Naruto Shippuden.

Naruto Uzumaki Was the Most Talented Ninja After All

The Naruto anime roughly divided its cast of characters according to who had immense natural talent, and who had little to none. Neji Hyuga, for example, contrasted sharply with Rock Lee the martial artist because Neji had formidable natural gifts with his Byakugan eyes and the Gentle Fist technique. Similarly, Naruto's rival Sasuke Uchiha had the benefit of his natural Sharingan eyes, while Sakura Haruno lamented her lack of any kekkei genkai or hiden jutsu. Characters like Kimimaro Kaguya and Gaara were also propped up as talented prodigies born with it all, but in the end, Naruto Uzumaki was the most naturally talented ninja of them all, regardless of his "hard work beats all" theme in the anime's early days.

In hindsight, Naruto fans can see how many serious advantages Naruto Uzumaki had, regardless of his outcast status. Like Gaara, Naruto was born with a tailed beast's demonic power residing within his body, Kurama the nine-tailed fox, which served as plot armor throughout the story. Kurama is a beast that won't let Naruto die, as was seen early on when Haku had Naruto cornered with his ice crystal jutsu on Tazuna's bridge. From there, Kurama continued to be Naruto's best asset, especially with the benefit of Jiraiya's additional training. Naruto was always an inventive and resourceful ninja, which helped take the edge off these "god mode" powers and made him feel like a hard worker with cool ninjutsu to show for it. Ultimately, though, Naruto really was born with all the talent he needed, more so than even Neji, Kimimaro, or Haku.

This meant Neji Hyuga actually was correct in his duel with Naruto in the chunin exam's final phase, when Neji's deterministic views held that a select few are born for greatness. Naruto denounced Neji's views, but in the end, Neji was right, and Naruto himself proved it. Being born with Kurama's massive power and being the reincarnation of Asura Otsutsuki as a child of destiny made Naruto the "child of prophecy" who was set on the path of greatness from the beginning. The Naruto anime disguised this early on with the titular character's lack of control over Kurama and his not knowing of his Asura lineage, but by the time of Naruto Shippuden, his status had shifted from "scrappy underdog" to "Goku-style powerhouse."

Rock Lee & Sakura Haruno Got Left Behind

The Naruto anime tried to reinforce its "hard work beats all" theme with parallel characters like Rock Lee and Sakura Haruno, fellow members of the Konoha 11, but the anime eventually dropped the ball in this regard. For a brief time, Rock Lee was a more genuine version of Naruto's underdog status, lacking any jutsu at all and relying entirely on taijutsu and sheer grit to stay competitive. That made him a breakout star in the chunin exam arc, but the anime soon ditched his character, only giving him one more inconclusive fight against Kimimaro before he became completely irrelevant. Naruto and Rock Lee grew up together as fellow underdogs, only for the anime to emphasize its naturally talented hero and forget Rock Lee, whose arc hit a plateau. It's almost as though Naruto was mocking its own themes and characters in favor of power scaling with cool Kurama-based abilities.

The anime did something similar with Sakura Haruno, who had a few natural gifts to work with, but she also hit a wall. Sakura got a glow-up in Naruto Shippuden with medical jutsu, special taijutsu and renewed self-confidence, only to soon resume her position as Team 7's weakest (and least likable) link. Sakura's hard work paid off just enough to make her worth bringing back in Naruto Shippuden, but then it abruptly stopped.

Why Naruto Abandoned Its Underdog Theme

It's clear what happened in the Naruto anime, with the narrative abandoning or even contradicting its "hard work beats talent" theme to push Naruto Uzumaki to greater heights, at the cost of characters like Rock Lee and Sakura. As for why, the answer seems to be sheer power creep, which is to be expected in a shonen combat anime like this. Naruto and his shonen counterparts like Ichigo Kurosaki, Monkey D. Luffy, and Izuku Midoriya are all meant to constantly grow stronger and scale up the combat system, even if that means resorting to reckless power creep or a change in the story's tone. Even if "zero to hero" is a completely valid framework for the hero's journey, and character growth is a must, anime like Naruto get carried away and pay the price for it. Other anime like My Hero Academia and Bleach pay for it too, but not even they contradicted their trademark core themes like Naruto did.

Naruto Shippuden's arcs called for stronger villains like the Akatsuki gang and Madara Uchiha, and the heroes had to power up so they could face Madara's army, Ten-Tails, and Kaguya Otsutsuki. The climactic endgame was so big that Naruto Uzumaki needed to be a massively talented child of destiny so he could actually win against these overwhelming odds. If Naruto were truly born with nothing and patiently built up his strength, he would have never stood a chance. It may have been thrilling to watch Naruto Uzumaki use things like Six Paths Sage mode and Asura Kurama mode to fight these titanic villains, but that meant smothering the resonant core messages that defined the series in the first place.