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The representation of Japanese values in the manga Naruto

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The representation of Japanese values in the manga Naruto [preprint’s translation]
Valérie Harvey
The final version of this chapter had been published (in French, pp. 78-98) in this book:

Les arts martiaux. Entre enseignement et intervention

Editor : Olivier Bernard

Publisher: Les Presses de l’Université Laval (PUL)
304 pages
https://www.pulaval.com/produit/les-arts-martiaux-entre-enseignement-et-
intervention

To cite :
HARVEY, Valérie (2019). “The representation of Japanese values in the manga Naruto
[preprint’s translation]”, Les arts martiaux. Entre enseignement et intervention, Québec : Les
Presses de l’Université Laval.

Chapter’s abstract
The popularity of the manga Naruto and its derivatives (cartoons, movies, video games) goes
beyond Japan, its country of origin. Through the analysis of two essential aspects of source
material such as comics, visual representations and key-speeches, this text makes connections
between the manga Naruto and some contemporary Japanese values. Thus, through the
drawings, it is shown that if the country of the hero is comparable to a symbolic vision of
Japan’s past, the United States is also present through the Land of Lightning; moreover, the
place that women occupy in the manga is similar to the role of Japanese women in today's
society: they are strong, but mainly responsible for supporting the main male characters. Then,
through the discourse, other values are put forward: first, that if the purpose is to form a savior,
the construction of the Japanese hero is different than in the West, the boy associating real
strength to his links with others, which necessarily influences the definition of good and evil;
finally, the need for collective concern to achieve peace. If Naruto's values are close to the
realities of today's Japanese society, the popularity of the manga around the world suggests a
more universal desire for a leadership in relation to others.

Biography

Valérie Harvey obtained a master's degree in sociology at Laval University where she studied
the desire to have children in Japan, where she lived a year and a half. She has subsequently
published several books related to Japan, taking both a scientific (essays, scientific articles) and
artistic (novels, children's books, songs) interest in this country. She teaches Japanese in
Quebec City and regularly speaks on the francophone waves of CBC Radio as a sociologist and
specialist of Japan. Her doctoral dissertation in sociology focuses on the difficulties of returning
to work after parental leave for Quebec fathers.
 2

It suffices to open the door to the world of manga (Japanese comics) or anime (television
adaptations) to note the dominance of the title "Naruto", constantly leading sales and
streaming views. The 700 chapters of what constitutes the 72 volumes of the manga Naruto
cover a period of 15 years in Japan: from October 1999 to November 2014. The series was
adapted in anime with two titles: 220 episodes of Naruto (2002-2007) that tell the hero's
childhood, then 500 more episodes of Naruto Shippuden (2007-2017). In addition, there are 11
films, 6 OAVs (Original Animation Video), several video games and novels.

The author and cartoonist, the mangaka Kishimoto Masashi, did not suspect, when he began
the story of this boy fighting in an imaginary world populated by ninjas, that his manga would
find such a vibrant resonance. Not only his work is popular in Japan, but it has gone beyond the
country's borders. Translated in English in 2003, the franchise's rights were purchased in 90
countries according to a report by TV Tokyo Corporation (2008: 9).

A sequel, which lingers on the course of Boruto, son of Naruto, is being published since May
2016 in Japan. Television episodes (more commonly called anime) are also being aired as we
speak. The popularity is such that chapters, and episodes, are virtually translated immediately,
making them available simultaneously in English through different commercial agreements.

Naruto is therefore a cultural phenomenon anchored in the beginning of the 21st century. First
and foremost, intended for Japan, the chapters have never been designed for the international
audience. But then, by its wide diffusion, it reached the western world. This is probably why
Naruto's character finds himself among the official ambassadors chosen to represent the
Japanese team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (Sims, 2017).

Japanese comics are divided into different genres depending on the audience. Some are
published specifically for adults (seinen and josei manga), others are aimed at teenagers (shôjo)
or teenagers (shônen). Naruto is part of the latest style, the 少年 shônen manga, which
presents a story of type 熱血 nekketsu, or "hot blood". The characteristics of these scenarios
are to stage an honest and determined young boy, who will have to complete a quest against
evil. The hero develops his strength, and his friendships, through battles that push him to his
limits, but from which he comes out with this "fever of winning", hence the name given to
these stories. The martial arts form an essential part of the hero's adventure, symbolizing the
personal overcoming (discipline, perseverance) that becomes possible only when the character
is strongly supported by the group (friendship, justice, loyalty). Many popular stories in Japan
(both in manga and novels) are based on this type of scenario. The manga Naruto is one of the
archetypes of this style.

What does this constantly renewed popularity mean? Through this text, I would like to use the
sociology of literature to delve into a less studied type of cultural work, the Japanese comic
(manga), and its derivative, the anime, which draws inspiration from the manga, to take a look
at contemporary Japan. With what Zima defines as the "sociology of the literary text" (Zima,
2000: 9) and which he calls “sociocritic”, Zima describes the social values included in the
language of literary works, values that “account for pre-constructed behaviors of individuals or
 3

groups, their beliefs, prejudices, traditional or liberal, etc.” (Trudel, 1999: 6). But literary works
go further by also conveying the norms, the “common rules that a society collectively gives
itself” (Trudel, 1999: 6-7) and which can lead to a sanction if they are not respected. By focusing
only on the literary text, Zima seeks to know “how social problems and group interests are
articulated semantically, syntactically and narratively” (Zima, 2000: 9).

The use of Zima's theory is limited in the context of manga analysis. Indeed, the combination of
text and images cannot be removed from the sociocritic of a work, since drawing elements
makes it possible to avoid using descriptions, sometimes even explanations, since the action
illustrates the gesture, the environment, and reaction.

Disregarding this alliance between text and images is not the goal of this chapter, but the
theories of analysis in the field of comics being rare, some do not hesitate to combine classical
literary analysis with the frameworks of theatrical performance (Berthiaume, 2012: 3). Instead
of adding theories, it is also possible to use part of a theory, which constitutes the chosen
approach for this text. As such, it is the concept of "socio-linguistic situation" developed in the
sociocritic of Zima that is interesting for this analysis. The socio-linguistic situation is the
interaction contained in the language between present and past discourses, this representation
quoted, developed, criticized, parodied, dismembered and recomposed which implies that
speech also modifies the rules of the system, that it is itself “an open structure in motion” (Zima,
2009: 30), reflecting and changing the system from which it originated. This is why this text will
first focus on the images and roles of the characters that provides the context of the drawn
world, before getting more specifically to the level of the words themselves that fit into this
drawn environment.

Since the series ended recently and continues through Boruto, the interpretation is limited by
its timeliness. It is rarer to dwell on a work still under construction, because this spontaneous
sociology of scientific knowledge is more likely to include the researcher's own preconceptions
in the object being analyzed (Bourdieu, Chamboredon and Passeron, 1983). It is obviously
difficult to remain uninfluenced by the historical context in which one writes, but this will also
be the case for a researcher turning his attention toward the same work fifty years later. He,
too, will tend to interpret the result in terms of his own historicity. This is a recurring problem,
evoked as soon as we focus our attention on a “live” phenomena (Clain, 2013: 400). The only
advantage of a “live” analysis of an ongoing literary work lies perhaps in this “aligned”
historicity of the researcher with the work. Without pretending to be able to ignore all existing
preconceptions, an interpretation based on concepts studied by other researchers can help
avoiding the biggest pitfalls.

Another difficulty is added to the analysis since the original work is written in Japanese. Should
we analyze the texts from the various translations made in English? If so, should we use the
official translations of the editors or choose one of those made by the fans? The former have
the particularity of being sometimes adapted to the cultural context where they will be
published, the second are often more literal (which can make them “stranger” to the English-
speaker's ear). In order to avoid deciding for one or another translation, this text will quote the
 4

original words in Japanese, which will allow a reader familiar with this language to read the
original version. An English translation will be proposed for each of the examples.

Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to show that Japanese values are present in one of the
country's most popular masterpiece. This text can be understood without knowing the Naruto
manga, but it will reveal key elements of the narrative (notice to those who hate spoilers). I
make the assumption that the success of Naruto is largely due to the fact that the values and
norms of the manga are in adequacy with the current Japanese society. In conclusion, I propose
an explanation for the popularity of Naruto outside of Japan.

Visual Representations

Land of Fire and Land of Lightning: Japan and USA

Naruto’s character is from the land of fire. Inside of him resides the nine-tailed fox, a fire-
monster, luminous and destructive, recognized as one of the most powerful tail beasts. For the
leaders of the country, this monster is a "weapon" that can be used in case of a war with the
surrounding countries.

The nine-tailed fox is a mythical figure of East Asia, mostly perceived as a being with an evil
tendency. It is called 九尾の狐 (kyuubi no kitsune) in Japan, the "nine tails fox". In the manga, it
is called 九尾 (kyuubi), which literally means "nine tails".

Japanese folklore does not associate fire with the nine-tailed fox, nor does the manga explicitly
do so. But when the fox takes control of Naruto, his strength literally burns the boy's skin.
When the main character learns to use this power, he turns into a "luminous Naruto": he
becomes as bright as the sun, the flames surrounding his body.

Why was fire chosen as the element that represents both the land and the monster inside
Naruto? This symbol is not surprising, knowing that the Japanese goddess of the sun,
Amaterasu, dominates the pantheon of Shinto gods, the traditional religion of the country.
That's why the Japanese flag is a huge red sun on a white background. The name “Japan” in
Japanese 日本 nihon is formed by two characters: the "sun" and the "origin", so it is "the
country from which the sun originates".

The powerful figure of the sun thus symbolizes both Japan History and Naruto’s land. This boy
carries a monster within himself, a beast with nine tails, a weapon that also represents a
potential threat fir his own country, which partly explains the fear and the rejection of the
inhabitants towards the boy. A creature that the mangaka chose to bind to fire, a power that is
both devastating and beneficent.

The Japanese have experienced the might of fire several times in the course of their history.
Their country emerged from the waters thanks to the collisions of four tectonic plates forming
 5

the Pacific Ring of Fire. This means that volcanoes are numerous, making earthquakes a daily
reality, and tsunamis a true risk, as the tragedy of 2011 in Tohoku sadly showed, killing nearly
20,000 people. The Japanese have thus seen lava and fire devastate their cities many times. Fire,
and its destructive force, is part of reality in Japan. But volcanoes have also brought fertile lands,
onsen 温泉 (hot springs) and energy.

Thus, Naruto’s village will be destructed several times and it will be rebuilt. As it is the case with
Osaka Castle for example: the building we admire today is actually the third reconstruction. In
the manga, the nine-tailed monster occasionally appears and devastates everything. Like
volcanoes and earthquakes, it is a "natural" threat difficult to control, to predict, despite all the
knowledge and technological means (Doll, 2012: 179). Thus, the land of fire in which Naruto
and the nine-tailed fox live have both a beneficial and a malevolent power. This is a symbol of
Japan’s embodiment and resilience necessary to live with these daily threats.

However, if the Land of Fire is a beautiful allegory of Japan, the Land of Lightning is symbolic of
the way Japanese perceive the Americans. The nation of Lightning is the only one to present
characters with several colors of skin (white, mixed, black) and various kind of faces. There is
even the stereotype of the Hollywood pin-up modified by surgery: her colleagues often insisting
on the heaviness of her immense breasts. Note that if the image of Samui corresponds to that
of a woman who could pose for Playboy’s cover, her attitude is very far from that: this
character taking her missions very seriously as a high-ranking ninja of her country. This is an
interesting contrast on which this text will come back later.

As mentioned above, the Land of Fire has, as an ultimate weapon, control over a "tailed beast",
the Kyuubi. In theory, other countries also have such a weapon at their disposal. The plot of the
manga is that each monster will be stolen from their host, which will cause the death of the
host. So the Land of Fire tries to protect Naruto, since he is the holder of the nine-tailed beast.

If Naruto succeeds in avoiding his monster’s theft (thus escaping death), the only other country
that will remain for a long time in the same situation until the final war is the Land of Lightning.
Their hero, Killer-Bee, with his eight tails beast 八尾 Hachibi, can potentially match the Land of
fire's. He is Naruto’s ally, joining the great alliance of all the national armies united to face Obito
and Madara.

This is not a hasard. From a military point of view, the US army is still the world's leading power,
based on the quantity of weapons, number of soldiers and military budgets. With their "self-
defense force", the Japanese are ranked 8th in the world, while Canada is 25th
(GlobalFirepower, 2018). The United States also has an agreement with Japan, since the end of
the Second World War, which gives them a share of the territory of the Okinawa Islands, where
nearly 50,000 soldiers are stationed in various US bases.

Thus, the way the people of the Land of Lightning are pictured and their strong military strength
make them valuable allies in the final conflict of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, which is not
unlike how the Japanese perceive the United States.
 6

The world in which the story of the manga is set consists of several countries, five of which are
dominant: those of Fire, Lightning, Earth, Wind and Water. The official leaders of each country
are people of the nobility, they carry the title of daimyô 大名. Each of these countries has a
hidden village populated by ninjas. The chief of this village is the kage 影, a word meaning
"shadow". These kages are named by the daimyô, but they must always be chosen from among
the best ninjas, those having proven themselves not only by demonstrating their strength, but
also by helping the village residents throught various tasks or missions. It is therefore an honor,
but also a more "democratic" function since the recognition of the people will have a great
weight in the choice of the kage. In summary, the daimyô rather has a more symbolic function
as opposed to real power, and he has the obligation to choose a kage with strong potential to
lead the people and avoid the rebellion of its most powerful population (the ninjas).

This division of power is reminiscent of Japan's political structure in the Meiji, Taishô and Shôwa
eras when the emperor had not only the roles of supreme commander and living god, but also
the responsibility of appointing the prime minister, a function that should rally the different
factions, both politicians and armies. According to a recent analysis of the events leading up to
the Fifteen Years War (1931-1946), the historian Kawamura shows that political Japan in the
1920s and early 1930s was chaotic, going through a devastating earthquake (100,000 deaths),
assassination attempts, failed coups and military leaders who invaded part of China before
obtaining the emperor's seal (Kawamura, 2015: 39). She concluded that the emperor did not
have the power to prevent Japan from going to war against the United States at that time,
partly because of the great power of Japanese military forces (Kawamura, 2015 : 19). In the
same way, the kage are the real powers of the lands of Naruto’s world, not only because they
are strong, but also because they are closer to being the "leaders of the people".

Female characters: Chief protectors

The women in Naruto are numerous, allowing this manga to avoid the Smurfette principle
(which is defined by the idea of staging only one or two female characters in the middle of a
crowd of male characters). In other dominant manga, women are often underrepresented
(DragonBall) and/or wear a minimal garment (Fairy Tail, OnePiece), but they are relatively more
present in Naruto. Although they constitute less than half of the group, they are regularly
staged and sometimes occupy leadership positions. While some are high level ninjas (Samui,
Kurenai), others can be frighteningly strong (Tsunade, Sakura) and some even become kage
(Tsunade, Terumi, Kurotsuchi). We could therefore conclude that the women in Naruto have a
decidedly modern image, which would be partly correct.

But there are several aspects that disturb this flattering portrait. First, the fact that female
ninjas are often chakra specialists and therefore medical ninjas. It is thus of utmost importance
that during the battles, they stay behind to heal the wounded. In addition, when they become
mothers, they tend to abandon their role of fighter to take care of children. The most obvious
example is Kurenai Yuuhi, a high-level ninja who, when she becomes a single mother, will have
almost no presence on the screen until the end, except as a grieving widow and blooming
 7

mother. The two main women who become kage in the history of the Naruto manga (the
Hokage Tsunade and the Mizukage Terumi Mei) are single, the first having lost the love of her
life (and not having been able to love another one afterwards), the second being clearly
frustrated at not being married. It is particularly interesting to note that the men kage
preceding Tsunade in the Land of Fire had descendants, and therefore a wife.

In the early 1970s, the psychoanalyst Takei Doi, in The Anatomy of Dependence, analyzed the
importance in Japan of the link between mother and child during the first years of life. He
concluded that the amae, the bond that is forged between the child and his mother, was
essential to any meaningful relationship thereafter, this imprint continuing to influence the
adult's attitude and ensuring his successful integration to Japanese society (Holloway, 2010: 36).

Doi's theory strongly influenced the vision of Japanese society about women. They have
become guarantors of a home to come back after work or school where life is good. A place
where the pressures of the outside world are left at the door, where men and children are lucky
to belong, where they feel confident, comforted, listened to, cared by what is nicknamed a
"house maid professional"(Holloway, 2010: 37). Even today, husbands are the ones who bring
the main sources of income and mothers “[…] are expected to experience a "natural" and
unequivocal flood of positive emotion toward their children and are discouraged from doing
anything that would compete with devoting time and attention exclusively to child care”
(Holloway, 2010 :37). This division of roles is widespread: “Many Japanese women feel like
foreigners, gaijin, in their own country” (Madeley, 2012 :792). Women like Kurenai, who leave
the labor market at the birth of their child, are still numerous in Japan today. In fact, this
country is one of the few in the OECD to show an M curve about women’s employment. This
means that although the employment rate of women aged 20 to 30 is high and is increasing,
standing at around 70% in 2007 (Keizai Koho Center, 2010: 83), 40% of women still withdraw at
the birth of the first child, then return to the labor market between 40 and 50 years of age.
Only 22% of mothers with pre-school children continue to work (Holloway, 2010: 172).

This coincides with another characteristic of women in Naruto manga: they are instant and
faithful lovers (Tsunade, Karin, Sakura, Ino, Hinata). When they fix their attention on a man,
their love is unconditional, even if the man in question acts maliciously with them. Karin is
fatally injured by Sasuke. She will be saved and will come back to him to continue to obey each
of his orders. As for Sakura, she is saved in extremis by Naruto, while she is about to be killed by
the same Sasuke, the one she does not dare to threaten seriously because of her love.
Regardless of these dangers, women remain faithful to the object of their affection in the
majority of cases.

How do men fall in love in this manga? It is impossible to know. While virtually all women in
Naruto are particularly "verbal" about their affection’s subject, only Naruto and Obito are
visibly in love. It seems quickly obvious that reacting in the same way girls would in front of the
beloved one (stuttering, redness, kissing dreams, etc.) shows a lack of restraint from these two
boys, who are perceived as too "naive" for exposing themselves as such publicly. Naruto will be
 8

one of the only examples in which the adult will finally love another woman (Hinata) than his
childhood fantasy (Sakura).

Finally, if it is necessary to praise the fact that the women represented are not very sexualized
(not wearing particularly tight clothes, with few scenes aimed at showing us naked women). But
we should not see the ugly and aging women. That's why the strongest female figure, the
Tsunade’s kage, is an elderly woman who uses her powers to maintain a consistently young and
sexy image. In today's Japan, the pressure to keep looking young is not imaginary: "To attract
boyfriends, American girls pretend they are women while Japanese women pretend they are
girls"(Cherry, 2017: 59). The obligation to be kawaii (cute) is a way to sexually attract a boy
while remaining close to the characteristics of childhood: innocent, shy and romantic
(Gomarasca, 2002: 39). Tsunade does not look like a girl, but she remains close to her
appearance as a young woman, "wasting" some of her chakra strength to camouflage her age.
Perhaps this influence of kawaii culture also explains why girls in Naruto all have identical
attitudes when they are in love: they change from being a reliable fighter to a person unable to
concentrate when they are close to the one they love.

Thus, the female ninjas in Naruto have strength, they know how to defend themselves if
necessary. But their specialty in care and the way they love, and then how they devote
themselves to children afterwards, show that they are primarily responsible for this area of
protection and recovery necessary for the stability of real combatants on the ground, those
who will have the wounds and scars: the male ninjas.

Textual Representations

Building a superhero: far from the self-made man

The manga follows Naruto from childhood to adulthood, and even parenthood in the Boruto
series. The series is based on a child who lives difficult events, surpasses them to become a
hero and saves the world. A classic scenario.

But as we have seen, Naruto is growing up in a Japanese world. If the result is the same as the
American superheroes where the lone child loses his parents very young and overcomes
hardships (Batman, Spiderman, Superman, etc.), the path to becoming a savior does not
resemble the course of American heroes. Because of the nine-tailed beast, Naruto is different,
which means that the whole village rejects him. This gives rise to hard times for the reader who
understands with difficulty how adults can be so cruel with a child.

In Japan, a proverb says 出る杭は打たれる(deru kui wa utareru) which means that "the nail
that goes higher calls the hammer". A different person, especially a child, must "learn" to follow
the rules. If he has a difficult past, he must remain even more discreet, in order not to disturb
social cohesion. But Naruto seeks to attract attention by always doing more reprehensible
things.
 9

Gradually, people around Naruto will understand the great void within this child who seeks to
be recognized, to be loved. And these key people will form bonds with him. This allows the child
to accept his difference (he hosts a monster) and his story (his parents died at his birth). Which
will make him evolve from the dunce of his village to the hero.

The result is the same as the American superheroes: the boy goes through difficult trials, he
becomes very powerful and he saves the world. This is the path that is radically different. In this
series, there are several reminders of what is "true strength": Naruto constantly remembers the
images of his childhood and the people who supported him, who believed in him to go further.
"True strength" is explicitly presented as relationships with others, the desire to help those who
believe in us, the deep conviction that we must try to do better, to do more to build a better
world.

As young teenagers, Naruto meets Gaara, the holder of the beast with one tail. Gaara, to justify
his desire of murder, will tell Naruto:

「オレはオレ以外全ての人間を殺すために存在している」
“The reason for my existence is to kill humans, except myself.”

Naruto will quickly guess the path of loneliness Gaara must have gone through, since he too is
harboring a beast. Gaara becomes like a mirror of himself, the one he might have become if no
one had reached out to him. And he answers Gaara, after defeating him:

「一人ぼっちの… あの苦しみはハンパじゃねーよなぁ… お前の気持ちは…なんでかな

ぁ…
痛いほど分かるんだってばよ… けど… オレにはもう大切な人たちが出来たんだ…
一人ぼっちのあの地獄から救ってれた… オレの存在を認めてくれた… 大切な皆だか
ら。」
"To be completely alone... The suffering it causes... Your feelings... What they are...
I understand this pain... But... I managed to have important people for me...
I was saved from this hell of loneliness... I accepted myself, thanks to these important people."

Real strength doesn’t come from being the most powerful, dominating and killing everyone. In
fact, Naruto’s strength isn’t even entirely tied to this monster that gives him extraordinary
powers nor his constant work to master it. Because the only way to succeed in controlling such
a power is to have been supported, helped, believed. That's what this character understood
very young (from the beginning of the manga) and that's what he will carry throughout his story.

Compared to the American’s self-made man, there is a strong opposition. And it's very
representative of what Japan is: success is not due to talent alone or hard work. Success is
linked to all those others who made it possible to move on when it no longer went well, to all
those who believed when there was a need, to the significant links that were forged over time.
 10

As we saw previously, in the visual representations, several hints indicated that one could see
the United States in the Land of Lightning. The speech is also very clear. Indeed, it is the only
nation where the characters have an accent. And not just any: the hero Killer-Bee (who hosts
the eight-tailed beast within) sometimes speaks with the accent of an English speaker who
speaks Japanese. This is not the only aspect of his personality that is significant: Killer-Bee is a
bit strange, hard to grasp, always oscillating between ridicule (reciting rap with questionable
rhymes) and relevance (giving advice to Naruto to control his power). He smiles and keeps his
spirits up, despite the difficulties, seeming to take nothing seriously. He is the image of these
Americans, portrayed both under a positive and negative light. Some Japanese have trouble
grasping their message and their intention, given the "exuberant" way they have to act and
express themselves. They appreciate and respect them, but they do not always understand
them. They find them impulsive, a little intense, sometimes too sure of themselves and their
opinions, but they also admire their determination and audacity.

The kage of the Land of Lightning is a character with other archetypal features: he is very strong,
but also stubborn and he often expresses his devastating anger, breaking furniture and walls.
He can be "reasonable", but it takes time and strength to change its mind... And this kage has a
different conception of power.

When Naruto begs him on his knees to spare his old friend Sasuke, who has become a criminal,
the kage of the Land of Lightning gets angry and replies:

「忍が簡単に頭をすげるな！忍が尊重するものは行動と力だ！」
"Ninjas do not kneel so easily! What a ninja respects is action and power! "

But later in the manga, while Naruto leads the group of ninjas to the ultimate fight, the Land of
Lightning’s kage recognizes that:

「火影になる者は土下座が好きなようだが… アレも…
想いを伝える行動であり、力になりえるのかもしれんな…」
"The Land of Fire seems to love kneeling in front of others, but... It's also...
This way of communicating one's feelings is power... "

Thus, the supreme leader of the Land of Lightning acknowledges that collaboration with others,
and the desire for compromise and harmony, is a power.

Good and bad: the strength of the link

In Naruto manga, not only does the hero get older, but the scenario presents complex and
nuanced situations, where there is no clear division between the good and the bad. The
characters in shades of gray are numerous. Some are very dark gray, leaning strongly towards
black, others are much harder to label (Obito, Madara, Pain, Itachi, Konan, Karin, etc.). Are they
really mean? Or are they rather being manipulated because they suffer?
 11

The most obvious example is the character of Sasuke, Naruto's best friend. If Sasuke also has a
difficult past, he follows the opposite path of the hero. He tries to relieve his pain by taking
revenge on his brother Itachi because the suffering he feels is "Itachi's fault", then, realizing his
mistake when he learns the truth about his brother, he transfers his revenge on the Land of Fire.
He always repeats the same pattern: he takes revenge to try to make peace with his past. And
the goal is always to punish the bad guys.

The manga shows that by doing this, Sasuke hurts, kills, spoils everything around him in an
attempt to reach his goal. Without ever being relieved. He cannot face the worst: the suffering
inside. Which Naruto does slowly, taming the monster within him, supported by his
relationships with others. But Sasuke rejected all links, no longer wanting to lose a loved one
and to be "weakened".

However, without ties, he does not have the strength to face his demons. He becomes a
monster himself, that all the village rejects, having lost the empathy towards this former model
and admirable student. Only Naruto will keep believing in him. Because this is the characteristic
of this hero: to know that only a strong bond can bring you back, that without an extended
hand, nothing will be possible.

This brings the idea of the link, a very important concept for Japanese people. Temples exist to
"undo the links" with people that you want to exclude from your life. Because links bring
certain obligations. But they are also the greatest strength.

Several words exist in Japanese to speak of the "link". There is 縁 en, a link that is not chosen,
imposed by the gods, by destiny. But the two main words used in Naruto are rather 絆 kizuna
and 繋 が り tsunagari, links that are forged over time.

Japan is built on the model of a collective society. As mentioned, recurring natural disasters
have been added to human conflicts in a country with a limited number of arable lands. This is
why the "household", the group to which one belongs, has a great value in Japan: the
collaboration between the members of the same group was fundamental to the survival. The
term 家 ie, can be translated in different ways: "house", "household", "family". It symbolizes
the way the Japanese conceive unity and their society, a concept that is always present,
according to the anthropologist Nakane. According to her, in today's society, this word would
simply have derived from the concept of the family towards the company: “[…] the traditional
structure persists in large measure. This demonstrates that the basic social structure continues
in spite of great changes in social organization” (Nakane, 1986 :177). The members of the same
group are linked by the amae, "a feeling of dependency, interdependence... It is a reflection of
the affection of a small child for his mother. The expectations that flow from this mixed feelings
of affection and dependence persist throughout the life of a Japanese. It is the link that unites
and ensures the cohesion of Japanese society" (Hirai, 2012: 9).

"The amae also inspires relations between large companies and their employees. [...] the
 12

employer expects employees to fully identify with the company, and that it is at least as
important for them as their own family" (Hall and Hall, 1994: 81). It is thanks to the amae that
the boundaries between a person being inside or outside the group (ie) are clear.

Sometimes amae is translated as "dependency". But this word has a negative connotation in
English, while in Japanese, it is less true. Indeed, the amae brings obligations, includes this idea
of being indebted to other people and to assume this responsibility all his life. It's a huge weight.
Companies sometimes use to the extreme their employees’ dedication and this desire to strive
for perfection related to their history (North, 2010: 7) until burnout and/or karoshi (death by
excess of work). In the same way, suicide is generally not well seen (unless it serves to save
honor), because it is the choice of an individual seeking to "cut" his bonds with those who have
so much made for him. This is one of the reasons why many Japanese decide instead to
"evaporate", to become joshatsu, that is, to disappear without leaving a trace (Mauger and
Remael, 2014: 26).

While links can be heavy to wear, they are also essential for survival, as shown by the excerpts
quoted above. Others who have bonded, who have believed in a person or a collective project,
are important. And they help to overcome the pain, scars and the various sufferings that an
individual will face during his life.

For example, Naruto expresses to his enemy:

「仲間とのことならどんだけ痛くてもガマンするつってんだ！
仲間が居ねーのが一番痛エんだよオレ！以上！」
"Even if it hurts when we have friends, I will endure!
Because it's not having friends that hurts the most! It's worse! "

Another character from the Land of Fire (Kakashi), seeing all the ninjas follow Naruto,
concludes:

「心の穴は互いに埋め合いうことを人はいずれは知ることになるからだよ。
そしてその仲間で満ちた心を持つ者は強い！」
"People know that the holes in their hearts can only be filled by others.
And those are the ones who have hearts filled with friends who are strong!"

Links can be the source of suffering (because there will be disappointments, losses, betrayals),
but they are also the only way to fill this pain. And in Naruto series, they are also the only way
to stay on the right path, to do good. Not only is the story with Sasuke a blatant example, but
the many past friendships of Madara/Hashirama, Kakashi/Obito, Jiraiya/Orochimaru are
constant reminders that a lasting bond is the only way to be saved.
 13

The desire for peace to overcome pain

The link we have with others allows us to create a community, to weld people around a cause, a
goal, a desire for survival, to surpass themselves. And these bonds of friendship allow to build
the hero that becomes Naruto.

But throughout the manga, Naruto meets characters who show him how links are also the most
important sources of suffering. To love someone (lovers, family or friends) opens the door to
disappointments and sorrows. The character who best symbolizes the effects of these repeated
bereavements is the one who takes the nickname "Pain", a direct incarnation of the suffering
he feels. He explains to Naruto how hopeless it is to hope for peace, because the chain created
between people generates disasters with every loss. Sadness then turns into a desire for
revenge. And this suffering is one of the reasons opposing peace.

「大切なものを失う痛みは誰も同じ。お前もオレもその痛みを知る者同士だ…」
"The pain of losing loved ones is the same for everyone.
You and I know this pain... "

How can one hope for peace when this great community that is created between people in the
villages naturally leads to wanting to protect what is close to them, which is dear to them? How
can one hope for peace when even ordinary people can come to see one who threatens their
family as an enemy, as someone who has lost all humanity, what Hannah Arendt has named the
theory of the banality of evil? Pain comes from a small village that suffered from wars waged by
great nations. He led a totalitarian movement because he succeeded in joining "apparently
indifferent people whom all parties had given up, deeming them too apathetic or too stupid to
deserve their attention" (Arendt, 1958: 4).

Pain says it well to Naruto:

「火の国… そして木ノ葉は大きくなりすぎた… 国益を守るため大国同士の戦争で自国

の利益を獲得する必要があった… でなければ国… 里の民が飢える… その度に我々の国
は荒らされ疲弊していった。幾度かの戦争を経て大国は安定した。我ら小国に多くの痛
みを残したな。」
"The Land of Fire... Imagine that your village is becoming too small for the inhabitants... In the
interest of your country, to gain more power for your people, the war is necessary... Otherwise
your country... The people of your village will be hungry... Each time, this is how one brings ruin
and devastation. After many years, the great nations are calming down. But they leave behind
so much trouble for the smaller countries... "

What Pain explains is that in the "superior" interest of a country, the leaders do not hesitate to
resort to extreme means: the war, the executions (Itachi is the best illustration), the
assassinations to preserve their nation. The leaders of the countries, using such means and
dividing these tasks among the ninjas, dehumanize the other and it is because the other has
 14

lost his "humanity" that he can be treated so bad. "How to hold the individual responsible for
his actions as long as they fit into a long chain of technical processes, upstream and
downstream of his action, which result in consequences of which he is not aware and on which
he has no hold? "(Poizat, 2009: 177). These soldiers who obey, kill and injure are also part of a
family and community network that will be affected as well. And this causes other suffering,
other desires for protection.

The solution of Pain, Obito and Madara to put an end to this chain of pain is to "connect"
human beings to a gigantic illusion where their desires will be filled, their suffering erased, the
lost beings recreated. In short, it is a proposal very similar to the movie The Matrix (1999), that
of including all human spirits in a matrix giving them "satisfaction", filling their desires. Losing
individual freedom, no longer remembering one's personal history with the losses and
successes that are part of it, is a small price to pay for peace.

The concept of peace is very important for the Japanese. After the Second World War, Article 9
of the new Constitution voted under US occupation in 1946 makes direct reference to it:
"Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people
forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means
of settling international disputes.” (World Perspective, 2018). Some Japanese journalists and
politicians criticize this commitment to have been imposed by the Americans. The current
Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo, has softened for several years the meaning of this article to allow
more latitude to the Japan Self-Defense Force (Makoto, 2015). He also talks about reopening
the Constitution. But the Japanese are still attached to this "Japanese pacifism": in a survey,
74% say they think that this trait has allowed their country to prosper (Duncan). Recall that the
current Emperor, who reached a reign of 30 years in 2018 and will retire in April 2019, chose as
the era name 平成 heisei, which means "achievement of peace". The character 和 wa which
means "harmony" also means "coming from Japan": the 和服, 和 食, 和風 are translated
respectively as "Japanese clothing", "Japanese food" and the adjective "Japanese". This means
that, by writing, being of Japanese origin is "harmony".

Considering the recurrence of the theme of peace in Naruto manga, which turns almost to the
obsession, this desire to achieve harmony is still present in Japan. Pain's character, intrigued by
Naruto's speech, wants to know the latter’s "answer" to this insoluble problem: how to make
peace? Naruto answers:

「オレがその呪いを解いてやる。平和ってのがあるなら、オレがそれを掴み取ってやる。
オレは諦めねェ！」
"I will break this curse. If peace is possible, I will get it. I will not give up!"

Naruto repeats several times that he will not give up. He will not give up hope that peace is
possible. He will not give up his dreams and the dream of peace of others (Jiraiya, Minato,
Hashirama). Because Naruto won’t only hope, he intends to become a kage himself in order to
achieve this ideal of peace.
 15

「オレは火影になる！そんでもって雨隠れも平和にしてみせる！オレを信じてくれ！」
"I'll be Hokage! And I will bring peace to your country too! You can believe me! "

This may seem naive, especially considering the young age of the character. But the question of
Pain isn’t. How to make peace? How to build a lasting peace? The rest of the manga gradually
provides other answers, showing how the dream of peace that the first kage of the Land of Fire
transmitted has passed down through the generations and has begun to bear fruit. While the
five great nations are united in the final battle, Tsunade (granddaughter of this first leader) and
5th kage, makes it clear:

「おじい様の想いと夢も孫の代… それよりも未来に受け継がれてる…」
"The feelings, the dreams too, of my grandfather, in the era of his grandchildren... The future
has inherited."

The five countries managed to reach an agreement for the first time, announcing a possible
peace. The agreement was difficult to make, with discussions, compromises, tensions. But the
agreement managed to hold, and the soldiers are starting to perceive their foreign comrades
under a different light, no longer as former, less than human enemies, but as people who
suffered the same way they did during the preceding conflicts. The mere idea of uniting and
building bonds brings hope that it is possible to do things differently. Thus, Obito’s words, after
his defeat:

「信じる仲間が集まれば希望も形となって見えてくれるかもしれない。」
"Hope can take shape if the friends who believe in it come together.”

Once again, the manga comes back to the link between the others, which humanizes and makes
it possible to face the trials, the sufferings of existence. In the end, the message of the series is
clear: it is only with the others that it is possible to aspire to a better world.

Conclusion

The Naruto manga covered the first fifteen years of the beginning of the twenty-first century in
Japan. Quickly, its popularity outside its country of origin led to the publication of several
translations (by the fans, then by the publishing houses). At first glance, this may seem
surprising because, as this text has attempted to demonstrate, the values represented in this
manga are based on what animates Japanese concerns today, in the light and knowledge of its
history.

This Japanese vision of things is showed first of all through visual representation, which, even if
the manga stages an imaginary world, can refer to the reality of the contemporary world. The
Land of Fire is akin to Japan and the Land of Lightning is staged in a similar way Japanese
perceive the United States. Also, the role that women play in the manga is in line with the
 16

tensions that Japanese women have to deal with today (Harvey, 2012), in order to be part of a
modernity that allows them to fight and be strong, while pursuing more traditional habits that
maintain them as protectors and primary caregivers.

Then, the representations in the text are also based on Japanese values that support what is
readable in the images. The sad story of the child Naruto, this nail that had to be hit because it
was different and stood out, makes sense in a collective society that seeks a form of
homogeneity in order not to disturb the harmony. It is thanks to the bonds that the child
succeeds, that he does not succumb to the "monster" within him, thus introducing the value of
the amae into the manga. The links are the lights that prevents from getting lost, from entering
a path toward "evil". As such, the opening credits of the song "Diver" is a good example of
these links: several hands are reaching out to help the hero not to sink into the dark depths of
the sea before the hero finds the strength to dive deeper and help Sasuke not to drown.

The various "wicked" characters in Naruto remain far from condemnation. Indeed, all the
"wicked" are in fact lost beings who seek either to fulfill their own sorrow, or to relieve the
human beings from their destructive habits, resorting to a bad solution of their own finding.
Naruto manga's message is that it is possible to find answers when the question is shared with
others, to find a common solution. It always comes back to this idea of the collective. Finally,
the kage is not a dictator who imposes his own solutions upon the people, he is rather the one
who shares a question and tries to find a way to match the interests of his country with those of
others to discern a path that will satisfy everybody.

This idea of a leader chosen from the people for the people is well summed up in this sentence
pronounced by Itachi:

「『火影になった者』が皆から認められるんじゃない。
『皆から認められた者』が火影なるんだ。」
“ ‘The person who becomes kage’ will not be recognized by everyone.
‘The person recognized by everyone’ will become kage.”

Nakane (1986) already reported in the 1980s on the collective way in which Japanese society is
organized. In the syntax of the Japanese language itself, the order of importance is completely
reversed in relation to European languages. Indeed, "[...] it is the ‘context’, the ‘environment’
that have a privileged place, both in terms of discourse and logic" (Tremblay, 2016: 123). The
subject, the famous "I" that dominates English, disappears very quickly in Japanese because
"[...] the syntax of the Japanese language clearly shows that it is the ‘world’ that has priority
over the ‘subject’, that it is the ‘experience’ that precedes the ‘individual’ "(Tremblay, 2016:
125).

This is why the Japanese hero is not built alone, he is indebted to what others have given him,
to what he has received. The way he uses his powers, through fighting, comes from a long
practice, and constant support. If he inspires others afterwards, if many follow him and
recognize him, he must never forget what he owes to those who were present throughout the
 17

journey, to the strength that forms the collective. As one of the characters said to his son
playing shogi (a board game similar to chess), the king is not the kage. The true dominant figure
of the village, the 玉 gyoku, is the people, the next generation, whose life, security and
happiness must be guaranteed.

If the socio-linguistic situation of Naruto is definitely Japanese, his message nevertheless

resonates with the concerns of several young (and older) people, around the world. This way of
painting evil with more shades than the North American heroes, this importance given to the
strength resulting from the alliance with the little ones, this wish that the leaders remain aware
of what they really should represent... Can we conclude that these desires, far from being
limited to Japan, are of universal scope?

The real world of the beginning of the twenty-first century paints a tense portrait of the
relations between the leaders of the different countries, between the religions as well. Fiction
is sometimes a way of escaping reality. But, as we have seen, fiction is also part of reality. And
Naruto manga’s speech about that hope for peace, through greater harmony among peoples,
may need to be heard in the real world, far beyond the limits of the fiction from which it
emerged.

* The quotes in Japanese are from the Naruto manga (numbers 15, 16, 46, 47, 66 and 68),
specifically chapters 132, 138, 436, 448, 628, 631, 648 and 651. The translation into English is
from the author.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Augustin Piché-Gravel who has listened to my ideas on Naruto’s

world and has revised this text; thank you to Philippe Arsenault for my translation’s revision of
and sorry for my ongoing analyzes!

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