Naruto and Naruto Shippuden are praised for their engaging fight scenes and thematic storytelling. However, much of the fan base will concede that the series has suffered from poor writing choices, particularly in character conflict and relationships.
Although the Naruto series created some of the best action and relationships in shonen anime, fans often felt that Naruto would go against its own themes involving hard work and friendship. Fans often cite overpowered characters, plot armor, and forced relationships as key examples of the series cheating by using weak writing decisions to artificially create or resolve conflict.
10 Everyone Should've Stayed Dead After Pain Reformed
Pain's attack on the Hidden Leaf Village brought great destruction and many deaths, including Kakashi Hatake's. Fans truly felt the hurt Pain brought onto everyone and praised the manga for creating a villain with such tremendous impact. However, a lot of the praise was lost when Nagato Uzumaki revived those who Pain had killed.
Nagato had used a new jutsu out of nowhere to revive the villagers, making it feel like a cheap and random way to revive Kakashi and bring more happiness back into the plot. Many fans would've preferred if the villagers stayed dead and for Naruto to learn to move past his hurt anyway.
9 Kurama's Power Took Away From Naruto's Accomplishments
The power Kurama gave Naruto has been a contentious talking point. Throughout the series, Naruto used Kurama's chakra when the former was close to losing. As an adult, Naruto even commented that he would've lost many fights without Kurama's help.
Although Naruto worked hard to control Kurama's chakra, many fans can't help but feel that Kurama's abundance of power made things too easy for Naruto — especially once Naruto was no longer at risk of losing control of his mind. Funnily enough, it's not just the fans who felt like Naruto had been cheating; the blonde ninja himself admitted that Kurama's power kind of felt that way.
8 Madara Should've Been The Final Villain
The War arc is infamous for its wide length, spanning a huge chunk of the series' run. Fans grew tired of the arc, and many even dropped the series. However, a majority of the fan base praised Madara, believing him to be a great villain and that the war would end with him.
However, Black Zetsu killed Madara, and the manga introduced Kaguya as the final villain. This severely disappointed fans who believed the creative team was using Kaguya to extend the manga's length. It didn't help that Kaguya was basically a god to the characters and had very little development, making her stick out like a sore thumb among Naruto villains.
7 Neji Could've Survived
Although Neji's demise is among the saddest deaths in Naruto, an abundance of fans feel that Neji's death was written cheaply. During the deadly attack on Naruto, Hinata used her own body as a shield, prepared to die protecting Naruto. However, Neji did the same for both of them, sacrificing himself in the process.
Many fans feel that Neji's death was forced for the sake of driving Naruto and Hinata closer and that both Neji and Hinata should've been able to block the deadly attacks with their Kekkei Genkai. Fans would've appreciated Neji and Hinata at least trying to use their Kekkei Genkai instead of just using their bodies as shields.
6 Talk No Jutsu Is Too Idealistic
Naruto's ability to connect with people led to many villains analyzing their beliefs and turning over a new leaf. Naruto's conversations helped create peace and world unity and taught the importance of empathizing with your foes. However, Naruto talking to his foes has been heavily criticized by fans for being too unrealistic.
Infamously dubbed "Talk no Jutsu" by the community, many fans feel that Naruto convincing his foes to switch their beliefs lessened Naruto's storytelling. Many in the fan base have pointed out that people wouldn't confront their ideals so thoroughly, much less actually change what they believe. Talk no Jutsu has its defenders, but many still criticize it as lazy writing.
5 People Feel Naruhina Wasn't Developed Properly
A common critique of Naruto is that the romantic pairing between Naruto and Hinata wasn't developed properly. In truth, Kishimoto had major trepidation writing romance, finding it embarrassing. As such, Naruto and Hinata don't have a lot of interaction in the series, making their eventual pairing feel unnatural to many fans.
Much of the fan base feels that the film, The Last: Naruto the Movie, fails to make Naruhina more believable. Many fans feel the movie has Naruto fall for Hinata too quickly and portrays Naruto as more foolish than usual. As such, even a number of Naruhina fans feel like the Naruto series cheated to bring Naruto and Hinata together.
4 Naruto Shouldn't Have Been Able To Use The Nine-Tails Chakra Against Neji
During the Chunin Exams, Naruto managed to defeat Neji, who was the top genin. The outcome inspired many fans, but many fans have criticized the fight for how Naruto got the upper hand. To many fans, Naruto shouldn't have been able to access the Nine-Tails chakra.
Neji had used Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms on Naruto; the move blocked Naruto's chakra points and thus prevented Naruto from using his normal chakra. However, Naruto was still able to access the Nine-Tails chakra, which helped him win against Neji. Fans have argued that this felt like cheating and forced storytelling to have Naruto win the fight.
3 One Of The Konoha 11 Should Have Died During The Sasuke Retrieval Arc
As praised as the Sasuke Retrieval Arc is, several fans also cite a critique: one of Naruto's friends shouldn't have survived, particularly in the cases of Neji and Choji, whose fight scenes had ended with their apparent deaths. Choji and Neji had beautifully constructed scenes where they reflected on their pasts and present lives, rising above their flaws.
They defeated their respective enemies, and it looked like they both had died as stronger people. The "death" scenes both touched and saddened the fan base, and fans were happy to see they both survived. Upon further reflection, fans are willing to point out that at least one of them should've died and that their survivals were plot armor.
2 Sasuke Shouldn't Have Been Able To Survive Deidara's Final Attack
In the classic Deidara versus Sasuke fight, Deidara proved to be a worthy opponent with his advanced jutsu and bomb attacks. Deidara truly gave Sasuke a run for his money, but Sasuke was ultimately about to win the fight.
Frustrated, Deidara did one final attack to end Sasuke once and for all: Deidara used himself as a bomb. Deidara had become so enraged that he blew himself up, unleashing a massive blast in the forest. However, Sasuke somehow survived the blast, with many fans accusing the scene of using plot armor to keep Sasuke alive.
1 Naruto & Sasuke Needed Flashbacks To Artificially Show Their Friendship
Throughout Naruto Shippuden, Naruto would talk about how Sasuke was like a brother to him, and Sasuke referred to Naruto as his closest friend. Although many fans bought their friendship, many others feel that the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke was forced. Much of the fan base has critiqued that the series didn't develop Naruto and Sasuke's bond properly.
The Sasuke Retrieval Arc and Naruto Shippuden introduced flashbacks of Sasuke and Naruto's childhood kinship; however, many fans felt that the series was trying to fool the fans into thinking that Sasuke and Naruto's bond was deeper than it really was. To many fans, it felt like the flashbacks were an easy, forceful way to may people buy into Naruto and Sasuke's relationship.