Now, as for Sonic- and I’m assuming that in both this case and the other, you are referring to the series, rather than the character - I don’t actually hate it per se. My current feeling towards the Sonic series is that I do sorta enjoy the games (though not to the extent where I feel an outright need to play every game in it), don’t particularly care for any of its outings in other media, and I find the fanbase to be a complete joke.Now, the thing about me and the Sonic series is this: Around seven years ago or so (geez, this long ago already…), I actually was one this standard kind of Sonic fanboys. I thought that Sonic was OMGZ THE BESTEST THING EVER, considered the series superior to Mario, and of course had my own 100% sure-to-work ideas on how to “rescue” the franchise. I even made a few OCs- I never actually posted or really visualized them, mind you, but the ideas where there, in my head. I also thought that I was nothing like these other, total Sonic fanboys, since my OCs ideas were just so much better than these unoriginal and stupid ideas that they had- looking back, it was pretty damn pathetic. It didn’t really help matters that I also thought that Shadow was “like, the greatest Sonic character of all!!!11″, and that his haters were just that: Haters. Well-founded, legitimate criticisms? Why, what is that? There’s only haters and fans!But, luckily enough, on a day that I don’t even remember all that well, also several years ago, another defining aspect of the fandom made me essentially quit it: The constant arguments in it. In that particular instance, I got into an argument with a Sonic fan who was primarly a fan of the 2D series, and who couldn’t stand any of the 3D games; ergo, pretty much the opposite of my opinion. After debating with him for a while, and combined with some trolling that I had received from other people beforehand, I simply told myself “Fuck it!”, and gave up on the fanbase. Of course, I didn’t really stop caring about everything Sonic right away, but it was the beginning of the end: I simply cared less and less about Sonic as time went on, until I was at the point where I am now: I still kinda enjoy the games, play some every once in a while, but I can easily see their flaws and silliness, and consider the entirety (or at least the vast majority) of the fanbase to be a complete joke.
As for Naruto… there is not as much of a personal history for me there, but rather a simple and firm disdain for the series. See, even when the series first came out around these parts, and there was the inevitable big hype around it, I just never even tried it out (and anime in general for that matter, I only really did that in my mid-teens). So, for years, all I really got from this series was the occasional blind gushing from fans, about how it’s oh-so great, and the bestest thing ever. Now, if I keep hearing things that I know nothing about myself, my opinion can either change in favour of the thing, or against it- and, considering the reputation that the series’ fans already had back then, my opinion was negative. What did eventually change my opinion on the series a slight bit was when I started watching LittleKuriboh’s Abridged Abridged series of Naruto, since I thought that my limited knowledge of the series was enough to get a laugh out of it, which it was. So, with a slight curiosity awakened through that parody, I cautiously decided to give the series a try, figuring that it probably wasn’t that bad, after all- this first attempt at reading the series I gave up about ten chapters or so in, when I realized that the characters in the parody were a lot less exaggerated than I previously thought. A few years later then, after having read some other long-running series (One Piece, Bleach, Gintama, Fairy Tail and Berserk, for example- and as a side note, I think that Bleach and Fairy Tail are in the same league as “bad” as Naruto is), I thought that I might as well give the series another go, just for the hell of it- and that time, I read through it all.My opinion on the series did not improve in the slightest after that.Out of the main characters, I simply couldn’t stand any- Naruto was an overpowered and obnoxious ninja Jesus, who everyone else in the series either adored, or hated, only to be defeated by him and have their minds changed, with a character arc that was simply boring. Sasuke was a whiny, overpowered brat, who constantly had to backstab everyone for no apparent reason, and was only really redeemed at the end because Naruto wanted him to. Sakura was no better than either of the two: She was pretty much a main character in name only, went through no real development, was barely even relevant as a fighter with the exception of a handful of small bones that Kishimoto threw her. And of course, in the end, she’s perfectly happy to stay at home to take care of her and Sasuke’s children (with a Twilight-level of romance beforehand), or in better terms: Stay in the kitchen, like pretty much every other female character in Naruto does in the end. Out of all the main characters, Kakashi is the only one I kinda liked (at least I assume that he’s supposed to be the main character?), but even then, that’s one bearable and kind of interesting character in contrast to three that I despise.The minor characters were a bit better, but even then, the lack of screentime as a result of Naruto and Sasuke constantly hogging the spotlight made it really hard to actually care about any of them. And even so, from the top of my head, I can think of four characters that I liked - Hinata (although she has an absolute shit taste in men), Shikimaru, the Raikage and Killer Bee - which is a grand total of four characters out of several dozen.Needless to say, the villains were hardly a saving grace. Gaara was still good enough, and it was interesting to see where his road in life took him. Orochimaru was cool for a while, but simply stuck around for way too long, and ultimately didn’t even get any sort of punishment, and is still around to cause mayhem?? Every other villain… urgh. From my memory, every villain either had a half-assed sob-backstory and turned good to some extent or another in the end, or was an outright unredeemable asshole, with none among them that could really break the mold- and don’t even get me started on the villain sue that is Madara Uchiha.The story of the series itself was- oh, do I even need to say it at this point? I simply thought that it was bad, beginning to end. I’ve heard fans of the series say several times how it’s such an oh-so-great underdog story, and how Naruto works his way up in life and everything… but honestly: When your protagonist has an evil demon fox thing sealed inside him that grants him power, has parents from ancient and powerful clans, he can befriend almost everyone sooner or later, and he’s literally some sort of reincarnation of the son of the guy who’s essentially that world’s Jesus, then you hardly have a character that could be considered an underdog. Not to mention that Naruto’s position in the beginning of the series is just plain unrealistic, and only suggests that the villagers of Konoha are phenomenally stupid. “Hey, it’s the orphan son of our popular deceased last ninja major, who has the spirit of an evil demon fox thing sealed inside him! Let’s make him feel like shit during his entire childhood, and make sure that our children constantly bully or avoid him! That’s totally what he deserves!” And the story just doesn’t really get any better or more interesting for me as it goes on, and for a long time even lacks a major end goal other than “Imma be Hokage!” (which of course he totally achieves in the end- because he has shown such wonderful leadership skills throughout everything!) and some very vague Uchiha massacre mystery. And lastly, the entire Sasuke’s betrayal, and all these attempts to bring him back… I honestly don’t think that I need to say anything about that, since from what I gather, the fandom already thinks that this is stupid enough.
