Summary
Naruto Shippuden's emphasis on Konoha hinders the development of other regions, resulting in a flat, lifeless world. Despite numerous missions to various villages, Naruto fails to provide depth to settings outside of Konoha, leaving untapped potential. One Piece excels at world-building by characterizing every region, highlighting Naruto's missed opportunity to do the same.
EQUAL Naruto Returning home to Konoha after a long training trip with Jiraiya, the enthusiastic inauguration of Naruto Shippuden also directly shows the serious missed potential. Naruto, of course, is a series that focuses on the main character's journey to become Hokage alongside comrades like Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. The Hokage is a fixed figure in the village of Konoha, and The emphasis on Konoha could be a problem. because it also highlights an important issue: other areas are also mentioned and visited, but they are rarely given attention and are often even forgotten.
While this issue is common in Naruto, it is especially notable in Naruto Shippuden for the simple reason that the plot revolves around Akatsuki's attempt to collect Tailed Beasts from all the Jinchuriki. This mission naturally involves their trip to many villagesHowever, Naruto Shippuden never spends enough time on these villages. As a result, the world becomes flat instead of vibrant.
The structure of the Naruto world creates space for growth
Despite its large size, the world of Naruto still follows simple principles.
The world of Naruto is fairly simple. Based on a group of countries, Naruto focuses on hidden villages where shinobi live and train. The most prominent of these is Konohagakure, the “Hidden Leaf Village,” located in the country known as the Land of Fire. However, Many other countries and villages also support the series.as shown in the Chunin Exams, where shinobi from many villages compete to be promoted to higher ranks.
Although shinobi are constantly sent out of Konoha to do missions in other villages, viewers and readers rarely actually given the opportunity to know these places more deeply. A specific example would be the Gaara rescue arc from Akatsuki, which shows the daily life and politics of Sunagakure. This arc is notable precisely because it is an example of Naruto trying his best to give depth to another land but ultimately failing to overcome the challenge.
After Gaara was rescued, the village never really returned. This is an unfortunate trend that has continued for Naruto. The depth given to Sunagakure becomes a side note in an eventual story about Konoha and its exploits. Hardly any other village is given the same amount of screen time in Naruto Shippuden. A worse example would be the massive amount of screen time that Killer B gets, but that is offset by the relatively small presence of A and the Hidden Cloud Village. The Simplicity of the Naruto World provides a blank canvas to add depthbut not used.
Naruto's approach to worldbuilding has huge consequences
A world too big to handle causes Naruto to weaken its own theme
The way Naruto mentioned the role of other countries was political consequences and unintended narrative for the story. An example is Konan and her home village, Amegakure: “The Hidden Village of Rain”. Amegakure is considered a small village in the Naruto world and was constantly ravaged by war, a state it remained in at least until episode #157 of Boruto. Because Naruto paid so little attention to these peripheral countries and villages, it had the consequence of Naruto betrays his promise to restore the village and may be the cause of Konan's death..
I find the tendency to dismiss these other areas as possible narrative centers questionable. On the one hand, it is legitimate. undermining Naruto's theme as the location is forgotten and as Konoha seems, at best, to be a lackey to other villages. The individual clans in Naruto are barely fleshed out, leading to Naruto's Uzumaki clan being poorly explained.
On the other hand, I find it interesting to imagine an alternate Naruto, where the storyline is similar with Naruto and his companions traveling to different lands, as the viewer gets to know more about the places they visit. I would love to see their customs, stories, and the lives of the people there. It would be brings a new dimension to the series to me. Sunagakure showed a whole host of other possibilities for Naruto that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, were denied.
One Piece shows how Naruto's world-building can be improved
Despite Different Goals, Shonen Titans Can Still Learn From Each Other
As much as I love Naruto, it's clear that this series tries to do too many things at once.
A worthy comparison would be between Naruto and the mutual inspiration of One Piece. While I don't mean to suggest that Naruto should imitate One Piece, it should be noted that one of the main appeals of One Piece is that the secrets of the world it is built around – still relevant decades later. Naruto started about two years after One Piece debuted. The pair are two of the “Big Three” of shōnen, so the comparison is even more apt. One Piece focuses on Luffy and a group of pirates as they navigate the world in search of adventure and accomplish their goals.
One Piece has succeeded in describing each land that Luffy and his crew visit in a way that makes Naruto pale in comparison. Each island has its own distinct cultural identity and characters are given The dense hidden stories that connect them to their societycreating clear boundaries between the regions of the series. This is essentially absent in Naruto. One might note that in the Fourth Great Ninja War, the perspective remained focused on Konoha while the other regions were secondary; in contrast, a similar planetary threat recently emerged in One Piece's Egghead Arc and the impact on each island was shown.
For comparison, one could even look at a series like Assassination Classroom to see how planetary threats are assessed at the level of a particular region. intentionally made the focus of the series smaller. My Hero Academia has also been criticized for not showing much of the world outside of Japan, but that has always been the focus of the series and it works on a narrative level. As much as I enjoy Naruto, it has always been clear that it tries to do too much at once. It builds an incredibly large world while failing to bring those regions to life. The effect is a series that, intentionally or not, places Konoha at the center of its world.
I can't help but look at the world of Naruto and feel a little empty.
World building is a difficult process. It's hard to build a truly large world. spend time in all the places it combines. It's also important to remember that mangaka inherently work within the constraints of the genre and the demands of readers and editors. At the same time, it's hard to fully enjoy Naruto when the plot encompasses a vast horizon of lands that I, as a viewer, am largely unfamiliar with.
It is also important to realize that Naruto's world building isn't bad at all.. I'm sure many viewers will find the way Naruto builds its world effective in accomplishing its goals. However, I can't help but look at the world of Naruto and feel that it's a little empty. Everything seems trapped within the lens of Konoha, ultimately rendering its most dire peacekeeping missions futile. I like Narutobut i find it impossible to escape the feeling that It can build a better world.