Honestly, one of the most fascinating parts of Naruto fandom was seeing the better corners of the fandom going "no, these designs and concepts could slap, actually" and fleshing out a dozen underserved female characters by the sheer force of determination and spite alone. It's kind of baffling how much wasted potential Kishimoto left by the wayside, because a lot of the ideas were pretty solid to begin with. Seeing this little essay pop up in my feed was an unexpected treat. I just love that I got a Sakura Haruno take from the same channel that schooled me on the distortions of the Andromeda myth and speculative sci-fi zoology. Moth has the range!

I hate when people bring up the whole "shounen is for boys" excuse in the context of female characters never getting to do anything of importance. Audience is never an excuse for bad writing. Sakura deserved better. Characters should also be well-written regardless of gender anyway. The audience for Naruto isn't stupid.

Yeah she has so much potential

I just finished the video. This was your best yet, Moth. As a Sakura defender, this was great to watch and validating

I really hate that Sakura's mastery of Genjutsu and Chakara control was suddenly dropped when she trained with Tsunade. I do wish Sakura learned Slug Sage Mode and Wood Release and Sakura SHOULD HAVE BEEN fighting Sasuke alongside Naruto.

Lack of screen time is the only thing keeping back Tenten's tremendous power. She could solo Obito, Madara, and Kaguya all at once, she simply decided not to use Panel no Jutsu and let everyone else have their spotlights.

I often compare Sakura to Amy Rose (not just because of their similar appearances) because these two had almost the exact same story of how they were recieved by fans. When Amy Rose got re-introduced into the franchise she had a lot of potential she showed a desire to help others in need, however most of her appearances in the 2000s revolved around her crush on Sonic and her temperamental personality which was a turn-off for many fans. In the late 2010s there was more of an effort made by the developers to push back against this portrayal and most of Amy's recent appearances have been praised. I think that if someone wants to improve Sakura you could look at how Amy Rose was improved in the last decade.

While Sakura was mostly failed by the writing it's a bit unclear how much of that is actually Kishimoto or his editors' fault. Since according to Kishimoto in interviews he was told to lessen her "screen time" since she wasn't popular.

I love Sakura😢

Disclaimer: I'm a sakura hater. and dont come at me in the comment section bringing up Hinata in the equation. I hate her too and she is a side character with little to no importance. The reason for people hating her, myself included, is how she earned a name for herself as an obsessive Sasuke fangirl. We cant think about Sakura without removing her from her Sasuke obsession. Even though i vehemently despise her, she has shown tremendous potential both as a character and a shinobi. Then what's the problem? it was never exploited to it's fullest potential. When she was first introduced as one of the main characters, she was like a blank canvas. She could have taken off in ANY direction, and her inner sakura should have been her power, instead of this giddy headed comic relief and with the passage of time, it went nowhere. Her affinity for genjutsu was never touched upon and i was hping against hope that she would get some sort of genjutsu training either from Kurenai or kakashi. Sakura has water and earth chakra nature or something along those lines. her water release could counter sasuke's fire, sasuke's fire can counter naruto's wind style and naruto's wind style can counter sakura's water style jutsu. Think of it as the three-way deadlock but with ninjutsu. That wouldve been the dopest of the dopest concept but alas, we have to write our own fanfictions for that and consider them as head canon. When we were at the Kage Summit Arc, we saw Sakura in the worst possible light ever. no. it's not her fake love confession that shines a bad light on her. its what she does after that is what has earned her the top spot for character assassination and mockery. Everything that Sakura had so stubbornly fought for herself till now, the bell test with naruto and kakashi, learning medical ninjutsu and monster strength, her healing Gaara's bro, her coming up an antidote when no one else could, her combined efforts with Chiyo Granny to take down one of the Akatsuki members, punching one of the animals (or whatever) during the Pain assault, attending to the wounded civilians afterwards, everything boiled down to Sakura weeping, taking abuse and still accepting Sasuke, hoping he will come around. She barely resonates with the majority of the fanbase. The major factors for her downward spiral was her one-sided unhealthy attachment towards Sasuke. it has always served as a hinderence for her growth both as a character and a shinobi. The main question is not about sakura's reasons for chasing after Sasuke. The actual question is, why SHOULD she?

I think you did a good job addressing the sexism both present in parts of the fandom and the work itself. i think sometimes people end up focusing on only one or the other which can create a very incomplete picture or not properly address the problems. I've seen people convinced that Sakura is absolutely useless but as you pointed out that isn't true but I've also seen people refuse to acknowledge how Sakura is treated in the story and how the way she's treated could exasterbate or increase the sexism that is already present or feed into such views present in the audience. I think Sakura is kind of a funny character because people love calling her useless but at the same time are annoyed that Naruto isn't as focused on hardwork and not being born with a destiny or genetics that give you a massive advantage because what they are describing is literally Sakura. Yet they rail on her for being weaker than the reincarnations of 2 people who are some of the most important members of their clan destined to fight against each other. Honestly, it's impressive that she's anywhere near their league along all things considered. I also think how people tend to interact with younger Sakura is also influenced by sexism. I mean yeah it's annoying but that's kind of the point. She's an arrogant vain and shallow teenager which isn't the most unbelievable or unforgivable thing in the world. As far as powerful women go in media it's a bit more complicated than some people give credit for. I mean yeah I think rating every character stricly by power or how good they are in a fight is a very flawed take but at the same time I think it's clear that men in media tend to be given more chances to be powerful or the strongest than women are and I see some fans in various anime communities that seem to coincidentally hate every strong woman in a series but almost worship one or more powerful men in those same stories. So it's this weird tug and pull sometimes with sexism where some people don't want a woman to be too strong, and some are quick to label strong women as mary sues even though a mary sue isn't just anyone who's strong or competent, but you also aren't allowed to be weak or weaker lest you be useless. I think there's a simultaneous problem with how people tend to engage with strength in stories and at the same time how women are more likely to be pushed to the side or not given as many chances to be as supernaturally powerful. Not saying that Sakura would have been better if she was more powerful I'm just speaking in a broader sense.

I've never completely hated Sakura, it's just the way she was written that makes her bad, you know the stereotypical girl that fights for a boys approval, portrayed as normally weak without any decent fights, has to be helped out and saved most of the time and overly emotional, it seems like she's just to cling to the main characters, not only that, but most of Naruto's female cast ends up being house wives or medical ninja's which I hate so much

Sakura was destroyed a long time ago and she should’ve moved on from Sasuke that would’ve been a good moment. She gave up her dream to be with Sasuke and Sakura was mostly a fangirl in the series. NaruSaku had more screen time than NaruHina and SasuSaku. Tsunade only taught Sakura to grow up and be a women, and Sakura still hasn’t gotten out of her fangirl, which she can upset Tsunade a lot. I think they reason why she wanted to be trained by Tsunade to get Sasuke’s attention other than bring Sasuke back. Sakura didn’t even follow her heart and Sakura should’ve had more fights and more character development and that’s why Naruto’s women cast have poor reputation than other Shohen anime women cast.

in my honest opinion, the fact that naruto’s mom and dad were so powerful doesn’t play a big role in the story simply because they’re dead so they never trained him and pretty much everyone in the series has powerful parents except for Lee and Sakura really the only point that makes the whole zero to hero no longer count for Naruto is when you add the whole prophecy and reincarnation bullshit but that’s just my opinion because before the reincarnation, there was no guarantee, he was going to be a bad ass. He was still a loser no matter who is parents were.

I've not interacted with Naruto as a media in many ways because of the was Sakura was treated. I had people try to get me to dislike Sakura, but I just kept saying, so She's Krillian? And how mad people got was really off putting. Even if Sakura was a male, (and I firmly believe it would be different but let's just play it out), I don't want to see someone be treated like that. That's not fun to me. Krillian is respected, loved, and valued to his more gifted counterparts. He's allowed to be his own person and included. That can happen with Sakura very easy.

Sasuke was like that to everyone he was distrubed in mind , sasuke literally put his life on line to save Sakura multiple time when he was a kid, in manga he really showed intrest on Sakura too so don't be so strict on sasuke saying he was abusive

im not surprised by an author engaging in sexist, misogynistic tropes concerning his girl/woman characters when the same author basically engaged in fictional genocide denialism in the same story

🎉🎉🎉🎉 Glad to see u back

fanatastic video, I didn't even notice some of the finer things you pointed out despite fully agreeing with it being misogynistic writing. It really is bizarre in retrospect that the women had less friendship moments... and when they had them they were always with guys.

I've tried to make time to watch a Speedrun recap of Naruto because I watched Shippuden a lot when it was on Disney XD and I want to catch up somehow.

I do think she could be “better written” but that could mean a number of different things… I don’t see violence in relationships as inherently negative or misogyny necessarily… mangaka often use personal experiences & the experiences of friends fans lovers & of course Editor-kūn who will usually be able to say “nah no one cares… don’t make it too complicated! Focus on protagonist & rival! Also Redesign all of these things! This is shonen jump not a Shojo manga! & most readers probably can’t related to this sad girl nonsense so just make her wish she could compete or something!” Cause Editors have been telling people to focus on a thousand things for better and worse whilst dropping lines belittling his ideas of his female character’s story arc even being included so that it only shows in the anime! I feel like most of these complaints would probably have been handled totallly differently like Only having her yell for help instead of a cool fight with Kōnàn or something which getting overpowered once someone more aggressive intereupts because not liking that she’s actually listening to Sákūrà could’ve been really cool & id be shocked if there wasn’t a number of fights that the editor said “no one cares! People wanna see the protagonist’s important struggle right now!” Or “Nárūtō training in magical frog land is taking too long the fans are annoyed! Just make Sákūrà scream for him to show up and then the fans will like her for seeming to have brought him back like Kakarot teleporting cause they sense krillin or something! Move it along kid! No one cares about these other characters & some might skip chapters if you focus on Sákūrà! Just have her scream and the protagonist impress people if you wanna keep succeeding!” Cause that’s the stuff that might be objectively Partially true in it’s pandering to whining kids and nerds unaware anyone would Ever be criticising less focus on positive character development in Japanese Young Boys Magazine for manga… which NOW people want better developed female characters but some of that is because of people bummed out with how lackluster the handling of Sákūrà’s writing is & writing her to have such a “competent but emotionally insecure” feel that doesn’t lend well towards classic Fan Service material like they’d do with other female characters… but it’s sad that all her impressive female character development arcs are basically just in lightnovels which make more sense out of fan desires around the resolution to some of the awkward mysterious aspects of her and Sásūké’s love story… which A Ninja Story should have a female ninja that’s willing to do crazy stuff to meet some standard to feel old timey but then when it’s overmodernised visually some of those realistic aspects just feel lost and irrelevant to foreigners who are used to hearing about how much more feminist or DEI issues that are getting complained about when overdone to detriment of Overall Quality or whatever people wanna argue…. Don’t wanna touch that overpoliticised nonsense & internet fights wherever they may appear… but I honestly wish it’d been just suggested or asked about by editor so that the finished project isn’t left with “Sakura? Oh she’s our third wheel on our murder dates!” Feeling that All the Naruto and Sásūké feeling like More of a couple of you don’t mix in the “actually their reincarnated brothers of the alien god with power to create anything…or something” which is probably how basically the editors and other mangakas are thinking at the time while maybe one or two thought “do more with Sákūrà but don’t make her just get killed!” Which then there’s the “only alive cause X showed up to Save them… and sásūké does it so he doesn’t even appear to be helping her just wanting to kill something before it has chance to feel success in combat” or whatever way it’d need to be done… But if it were written now I’m sure a bunch of changes would be in there… When they say she could specialise in gènjūtsū training & the “surprise!” way all her “actually I’ve been training too!” Moments where before the other can say “but watch out for- ohh that’s… wow; she’s still able to move kinda!” moments are written, I’d at least let her have used a Kūrènaî technique that failed on ītáchí one someone in the war so we could see that move used successfully in a way that adds to all the surprising stuff she can do since she’s the one whose training was off-screened… That’d be my main argument for making her surprise attempts at something when others think “how do we safely deal with That though?” & she’s running in about to get wrecked by a Limbo Clone… AT LEAST make her take advantage of pretending to Not have sensed the clones when she actually did because of some elaborate combo she knew her team would back her up with because it’s a different phase of the ways they’re fighting the character so dramatic stuff can happen til Sásūké points out something complicated about the opponent which maybe they make him waste Chákrà fighting in Sūsànôō or whatever… It’d have made sense for her 100 healings’ link with Katsuyu should’ve added some cool sage sensory stuff that assists in analysing biology of patients & opponents or something… But I’d have had her using chákrà scalpel shenanigans that could be talked about why they can’t just mess up the wiring of the guy’s heart cause of some Sènjūtsū & auto heal nonsense which… Mádàrà somewhat was all three of the improved versions of their own powers all rolled into one until the boruto alien magick comes outta nowhere on them and just turns him into evil alien grandma? Which could’ve used more than just Punching her into place for the big sealing thing which should’ve made a moon to replace a destroyed moon but that’d mess up the Toneri stuff with the original moon which I guess he saved for the movie? Kaguya out of nowhere really does overcomplicate things in a way that feels forced and like an attempt at tackling ideas that could only be storyboarded so far… I can just imagine the editor saying “no do ninjas in space Later man! We’ll test with a movie on the moon just like governments do!” : D excuse the mixed views on shift from super powered fantasy ninja stuff to ninjas vs aliens as secretly demigods reincarnated which is left to filler episodes… Maybe jump freaked out when everyone hated Mádàrà being betrayed by Black Zètsū who was perfectly overlooked the whole time as some goofy unexplained side character… Sákūrà having that level of powerup or smarts might’ve been avoided because of something about having characters be reflective of actual friends inspiring characters or whatever? Maybe it’s why the coolest villain becomes their past life alien grandma they’ve only heard the name of from a dead person… I mean it puts the so called misogyny in a wierd spot that makes me feel like some editors & women he knows in real life are what did this… Though I know his wife hated that Naruto Hinata happened or something… or am I thinking of something with the rukiashippers in bleach fandom? Hehe I’m so glad that stuff isn’t a big aspect of one piece or it’d be way too chaotic for the rest of the more important story ideas… But I do always feel like the way we criticise this character might literally be like making fun of a nice lady that vaguely resembled whatever aspects of this character… But I don’t wanna overanalyse any of whatever I’ve heard about that which feel like rumours & vague personal stuff from mangaka about stuff that’d be messy to overidentify characters with people in real life so directly… most of it’s messy dream storytelling that’s been handled into something else by editors and peers… Maybe it’s something to ask; how would you improve your handling of sákũrà’s character arcs & combat performance, looks & intellect… might she get the chance to do the Shikamaru stuff on their current fight instead of just Kakashi summary mumbles? But I do like those Kakashi analytical mumbles… good for reader understanding as a connecting piece between readers as a friend or comrade who lets us in on all that fancy eyeball magic from an outside perspective with experience… There’s a lot to manage in the story and I’d be more worried about unusual additions that shift out of the vibes the old story had before it turned more scifi fantasy & was more shonen highschool magical ninja war shonen rivalry with that gritty art shojo romance bits because everybody tried love handled differently a bit after Kenshin… but who knows how messy any of the writing was at the time or what they wanted as a kid drawing professionally trying to do so many stories whilst people complain in all directions you choose regardless of how the comments age… I think the judgement on Kishimoto is a bit much for standards that didn’t exist at the time… but that there are innumerable places I can understand How even obvious moments get abandoned for meeting some deadline under pressure for young boys magazine there… but a lot of writing is hampered so many ways when fans wish it were something you were intending to do later… stuff like that… But I can’t write fiction much only relative truths percieved as fictions so maybe I am overthinking the pressures of the industry’s effects on his choices in story… but limitation of her successes in the story does make you expect more from her when she shows up and the surprise development gets laughed at… but maybe that’s intentional for stuff that got lost in the war arc?

I reference my previous video about Naruto throughout this video. Here’s the link! m.kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iZxjjJyp2J6VcY0.html

Your point about the popularity list is not indicative to actual popularity but rather a chance for fans to get their own manga spin off featuring the number 1 winner. Why do you think characters like Shisui ranked higher than the namesake of the story himself?

Sakura Haruno is not dumb or stupid, even Naruto has aknowledged her for being a strong medical ninja himself. But then again, her relationships with other female characters or her infatuation with Sasuke are questionable to me. Sasuke thought of her as annoying. That already tells enough about his personality. So instead of focusing on him, she could fix her relationship with other women instead, especially with her daughter Sarada. And be with Naruto as her partner.

Whether or not Kishimoto is consciously or subconsciously sexist, I think the problems for Sakura boil down to Kishimoto screwing her over in the following ways: 1. Not showing how hard she worked to achieve her improvements; 2. While I don't think wanting to improve at least in part for the sake of Naruto and Sasuke is bad in of itself, another part of her motivation should have been she wanted it for herself as a form of self-respect; 3. Her feelings towards Sasuke were too much of a part for her character, while not as bad as Hinata who was 100% defined by her feelings towards Naruto, it is still incredibly bad that she continued to endure Sasuke's treatment of her which was dismissive at best and murderous at worst for over 90% of the manga's run; 4. Downplaying her both in-universe and out to hype up Hinata who did not really do much in the manga and was again 100% defined by her feeling towards Naruto; and 5. Whenever he did allow Sakura to shine he either relegated her to the side-lines for ages like he did after her fight with Deidera. Or, he quickly undermined her to make her progress look meaningless like he did after giving her a good showing of mastering Tsunade's release only for her to immediately need to be rescued by Naruto and Sasuke. This is actually rather impressive in a sad way if you consider that on paper at least, Sakura is arguably one of, if not the most impressive shinobi in the entire series. Think about it, by the end of the series she mastered Tsunade's seal which nobody since her has been able to do, she is able to summon one of most powerful summons in the verse, she was qualified to perform heart surgery, and she decked someone who was effectively a goddess. And she achieved all this at age 16. This is even more impressive when you consider that she is not from a prominent shinobi clan like most of the prominent and semi-prominent characters, she has no kekei-genkai, she has no biju to draw power from, she is not the reincarnation of any god-like being, and as far as we know she does not have a drop of moon-woman DNA in her veins. I think we need a new trope called "The Sakura Effect" which is basically when you have a character who on paper at least is truly incredible and one of the most impressive characters in the series if you think about their achievements and abilities. But because of how the story unfolds they end up coming across as nowhere near impressive as they should at best or weak and worthless at worst. This is different from The Worft Effect because it does not require the victim to lose a fight specifically and the Worft Effect does not necessarily undermine its victim's strength and talen though that can happen. A good example of this outside of Naruto comes from Bleach where Hitsugaya won his one on one fight against Harribel but had it quickly undermined which made it look less impressive than the victories achieved by the characters Byakuya Kuchki and Kenpachi Zaraki despite the fact that the latter two faced far weaker opponents and came out of their fights more injured then Hitsugaya.

Gonna disagree with the anime adding friendship with sakura and hinata as I feel they only did that to glorify hinata and have sakura force a romance between naruto and hinata

Ok.

Cook!!!

Sakura should’ve moved on

I mean, it's a fact that she would do more as a member of Team 7 if she was a man.

I disagree, Sakura starts as an abusive fangirl and turns into an abusive young woman. Especially when it comes to the main character. She has a hair trigger for her anger when it comes to Naruto. While this maybe a trope of Japanese culture. It is still abuse and assault. How would you like if Naruto caught one of her punches and threw her outside the village? Or into a wall? He asks for a date, having never been taught how to deal with social situations. Male victims of domestic violence see her actions as what they have had to endure. Yes, Sakura has grown, but this habit still will never endear me to he. She'll always be one of Naruto's tormentors. I'm sure if they sparred for real she would lose, but we know Naruto would hold back.

I feel like Ochako from MHA is a slightly better version of Sakura. She's motivated by money, but it's because she wants to support her parents and the story respects her for that. She comes close to beating the rival, Bakugo using an impressive strategy. The problem is it reduces her motivation to getting with a guy, and then her character gets thrown out a window. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i56fiLanlZe9oHk.html

Everything is hate for women now a days like they dont have alot of anime where the females are all better than the males and nobody complains

You defended your point on Sasuke and Sakura in a sexist way, what's wrong in having a motivation to get strong to help is friend whom she admired and loved him frim childhood sasuke inspired her through out, she wants to stand beside him and she worked hard for it, when Naruto went after sasuke nobody had a problem but when Sakura want's to do the same people put her down by saying it was just stupid crush where she genuinely Loves him, double standards

did I miss something? Did Kishimoto activly speak out against woman? this could just be a case where a comic-writer decides on investing time on some characters and not others.. or is just more able to identify with MALE characters as.. well a MAN .. but YEEEES lets call it "mISogyNy"... very fashionable these days

Ah yes a female character who is crap because of how she is writen, and most likely edited by men in a battle shoen manga. Especially when placing her front and center with three male characters who are given more favoriable light. All becaue one is the main character, another his rival and the third, the first major adult mentor to said rival in the first part of the series. Of course what else does one expect to happen to Sakura when she is given such poor character development on panel. Now some who want to think these truths are projection. Well it is unlikely anything else said would be a waste of time to such closed minded thinking. Anyway that is my buck fifty on the subject. That said I will say my farewell, take care, and be safe all.

👏👏👏 In my fanfic version of the story, Sakura indeed falls out of love with Sasuke in the timeskip period between part 1 and Shippuden, is there for/participates in all the important battles (without the need for rescue apart from the chuunin forest fight, post chuunin exam Gaara fight, and one part of the war arc, but I have her hold her own in those fights a lot longer and show her as more battle-wice/tactical-wice), didn't offer Sasuke to leave Konoha with him (and in fact was more harsh/blunt when confronting him about his decition to do so in my version), joined Naruto's Rescue Sasuke team (where in my story, is the point where she wants to take up and learn healing, after watching Choji's and Neji's injuries after trying to get back her teammate, and knowing how powerful/dangerous Sasuke could become in the future under Oroshimaru's influence), and she indeed takes part in Naruto and Sasuke's final battle, using the very skills Kishimoto hinted at that she would have/get, as they are a prefect counter for Sasuke's skills/abilities. Using her battle analytics skills against Sasuke's, using her earth and water elemental based jutsus to counter Sasuke's fire and lightning ones, healing herself and Naruto as Sasuke tracks their every punch/kick, and using her own genjutsu skills to keep up with/counter Sasuke's sharingan. I also have her hone her obervation skills, quick thinking and reaction time/reflexes, chakra control, and study a lot more to improve her overall knowledge after the chuunin exam forest part, and being the only one on her team not to move on to the next round (her "real world hitting her" moment/realization for me), and in the end have her be known for her genjutsu mastery and expert battle analytics on top of her super strength and medical skills, and I have her carry around and use poisons and antidotes in battle (seeing how she's extremely skilled at that). To be fair, I do have her fall back in love with Sasuke after the war arc, but in order to justify it, and not making a walking red flag no character ever should want to romance, least of all Sakura, I heavily changed part of Sasuke's story as well (such as, while he tried to overthow their leader system, he didn't aim to destroy Konoha, he didn't try to axe off the 5 kages, didn't join the Akatsuki, didn't try to assassinate Naruto and Sakura, and actually have him show signs of appriciating/caring for Sakura and appriciating/being on good/friendly terms with Naruto before abandoning the village). The fact that Kishimoto had Sakura trail after Sasuke and crying for him to just love her already like a kicked puppy. No woman ever would want to (or at least shouldn't want to) be with someone that's a criminal with such a record, and whom is downright cold, dangerous, toxic and clearly uncaring towards them (and the fact that Kishimoto thinks that one "sorry" from this character will fix it, to the point that he actually/seriously have Sakura reply with "For what?"!).

Ino is better than Sakura Stop projecting because your favourite character is crap.

Now I love Naruto even more! Misogyny is awesome 😎

I’ve lost all my respect to the Naruto franchise and I haven’t done watching the series and I stopped watching Boruto after the Jigan arc and the characters are not great at all.

I might have put an essay in a comment section and I deeply apologise, but since this video digs deeper into Sakura's character rather than using the outer parts of the overused statements as to why she is hated, I would also like to voice my view on her. I am a Sakura fan for about two years and while she is my favorite female character in the Naruto series, I'm aware of the flaws that's put into her writing. Both Anime and Manga had different views on her, since the anime has more fillers we see more of Sakura's flashbacks (at least from the view of Studio Pierrot), there are good and bad points towards their approach as since they give Sakura more moments with her abilities as well as additional feats on her strength, there are number of moments where they overshadow her character with more scenes of her "punching Naruto" and her acting along with a gag, like making her just be there even if she is important as one of the main characters. The manga (true source material) while shows more of her development, still is lackluster compared to Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke. The reason as to why I am interested in her character isn't because I'm satisfied of what she is right now, it's about the potential of what she could be if explored more. In the series, she's one of the major underdogs as a ninja just like Rock Lee, and while she is born with good memory and perfect chakra control, there are many scenes proven that those skills aren't enough to survive in the ninja world. Feeling insecure and self aware Sakura knows that she has to work harder if she wants to feel like an equal to her teammates. And honestly I'm fine with Sakura not being as powerful as Sasuke and Naruto as long as she's shown to be competent and not be heavily reliant on her teammates (pretty ironic since she's supposed to be the support of the team). The idea of Sakura being born as a normal civilian and have no special kekkei genkai is interesting especially if she is a main character, and usually having someone start with nothing but somehow is a force to be reckoned with is an amazing concept but only if executed properly. And of course female characters are treated way differently than males, because only girls like "boys and girly needs" add to the many fanservice to make viewers remember they exist. Unlike the homey friendship you got from the boys like the ones you mentioned, we don't see much interaction of the girls as close as the boys. Hinata and Sakura's friendship sounds pretty wholesome but it was rarely shown except from the fillers and the last movie and like you said "romantic interests" as if they're implying girls doesn't talk to eachother about anything but romance. So tip that's used by many but is heavily necessary towards creators that makes female characters: Don't make a strong female character, make a strong character that just so happens to be female. It honestly be great if a big care and thought towards not only Sakura but poorly written female characters are given and not being created just for the sake of just needing female characters. Again I am reallyyy sorry for making it very long but it's a thought I've been keeping and any word of talking about Sakura in a positive light is taboo in almost every video about her.