My problem with Sarada’s timeskip outfit
I wasn’t going to do this but with the number of times i have seen that outfit on my FY page on other platforms, I kinda wanna gauge my eyes out.
But I’ll refrain from that and explain why I don’t like it. If you like it that’s your thing.
I won’t be too mean so let’s get to the Pros first.
- This is Ikemoto’s own flare and I respect that. Kishimoto did encourage him to do this own thing rather than copy his style, and he’s doing it, so that’s a plus.
- It helps separate Kishi’s and Ike’s work better.
- It’s kinda cool and fashionable once you get use to it. The outfit is also a continuation of her pre timeskip ( which is also problematic for me)
However, for me the Cons outweighs the Pros about 3 times at least
1. It doesn’t suit Sarada as a person.
She’s quite level-headed and practical since the beginning of the series. Sarada also doesn’t express her emotions openly. She’s not much of a fashion gal who needs to dress cute and sexy all the time as well.
She’s also a responsive and active girl.
As we know, outfit is a big part of character design, it shows the readers part of the character’s characteristics, and we can understand which vibes they gonna give off.
Heels and loose jackets don’t help indicate the activeness, maturity and seriousness that Sarada has.
The jacket and the shoes being big and heavy don’t indicate a powerful taijutsu user who has Chidori ( a technique that is speed based) as one of her arsenal.
Various accessories don’t show a girl who is efficient and analytical right on the spot.
So a drippy and ngl sexy outfit doesn’t help showing what kind of person she actually is.
2. The design doesn’t match the world building
Yes this is peace time, yes it is also a fantasy world, but Naruto character designs have always been more functionalities oriented. Tell me you look at a basic jounin outfit and say it doesn’t scream life bulletproof jacket.
However it’s still a fantasy so not everything has to 100% be functionalism because if that’s the case then they’ll all wear bulletproof jackets.
If you see the main designs of each period you can see how it evolved over time: from samurai-ish armor to bulletproof style jacket and lighter version of it in Boruto time.
This problem comes in 2 parts
- It hinders Sarada’s very own power
She has her mother’s strength and her father’s ninjutsu, which requires her being fast and active. A big bomber jacket which is always fallen on one shoulder ( and stay there with all of her movements smh ) doesn’t help her very physical fighting style.
And you better tell me how this kind of sleeves does not hinder her hands’ signs, esp the thumbs.
- The design contradicts a very crucial element of Naruto’s clothing design: Maneuverability
This one is quite a controversial and people have screamed left and right about this so I’ll just argue some stuff they said
1. Heels are not a problem. She can fight in heels since there were other women in Naruto did that.
Yes and no.
Yes theoretically she can. However Sarada as an active teen Chunin won’t do that.
The famous examples of women who fight in heels were Mei, Tsunade and Konan. However Konan often turns herself into paper and she floats/ flies a lot so she didn’t even need her legs as much lol.
Mei and Tsunade are straight up Kages, they don’t have to fight that often. And when they have to fight, it’s either ambush or a sudden wtf thing appears out of nowhere.
If you look at every Chunin girl designs, none of them fight in heels. Especially those taijutsu specials aka Tenten, Hinata and her mom!
2. There are ppl who wear long coats but still can fight so can she. ( aka the Akatsuki and Hinata)
The coat is part of the character designs to help gives off a cool, dangerous and mysterious vibe for the new villain, so that the readers can be hooked and keep reading.
Still the coat is quite easy to move in even when it’s zipped up.
The lower part ( idk what to call it ) can still split apart after that.
Hinata has a big jacket but it’s to show her shyness and introverted nature, and she zips that shit up wtf.
Summary:
I guess my very main problem is that it doesn’t suit Sarada’s very own character, the others are just favour to the main dishes.
Thank you for reading till the end. I’m also happy to hear other takes on this.
