What's the first anime you think of when you think of your childhood? Probably Naruto, right?

The fanbase behind Naruto is wild. They are a fandom that is strong in numbers, and nothing can bring down their loved show. Well, at least until today. Because we’ll be exploring all the things in Naruto that make no sense whatsoever. As much as people love the show, they are quite fair when it comes to whether or not the show is always perfect, because spoiler alert, it’s not. There are so many plot holes and issues with some of the characters in the show, it’s no wonder the fanbase feels the need to defend it so often.

But this kind of community is right about one thing: it is a good anime and it’s fun to watch. It’s a great story, but even the greatest stories have some flaws that tend to be covered up as often as possible.

In this article, we’ll be going over all of the things that don’t make sense when it comes to the popular Naruto anime. Just remember that these are community opinions. These opinions are based on factual information about the show and the story line and the majority of them are from the community that loves Naruto, the fans! We might be poking fun at some of the silly plot holes, but at the end of the day, when we want to watch an anime, we’ll always watch a few episodes of the great and much loved Naruto!

20 Kaguya’s Rise To Evil

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The rise Kaguya had to gain his true power seemed so random and out of place, especially when there was the most known villain in the whole series, Madara. Madara was always the most evil person in the series. Everyone knew who he was, and he constantly was involved in the story line. His character actually kept the story going in many places and made it all make sense. Some fans even argue that without Madara, the story line of the early episodes wouldn’t have even been that cohesive. That brings the problem of Kaguya.

Why was he involved randomly as one of the most powerful villains?

Where did they even come from? Many fans even petitioned that Madara needed to come back and be the main villain. That’s how upset people were about this story change. Overall, this character was a total disappointment to many people who love the show.

19 The Shunning Of Naruto

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At the start of the series, it becomes very obvious that Naruto has a tough childhood. It gives his character depth and really shows how much he’s been able to overcome when you fast forward through the story. It’s a classic hero story, where the main character is weak and treated badly by parents and people in the village, but they use that as motivation to be better and prove people wrong. But there was a flaw in this that was taken a bit too far by the story writers. Naruto was basically exiled from his village. Apparently this was done because of Naruto’s father, but his father was a hero. He saved the village they all live in currently. The village people took this out on Naruto, especially after learning of his powers, but they treated him badly and made him leave the village. This could only turn out badly. Luckily Naruto didn’t seek revenge, but he grew and built up his strength.

18 Gaara, The Unworthy Kage

Crunchy Roll

This is probably one of the most insane plot holes in the whole story, and the sad thing is this wasn’t even a mistake. This was done on purpose by one of the writers. Why? We may never know. Basically, Gaara is portrayed as being quite evil, very erratic, a love-to-hate character. Gaara has so much depth as well. While he isn’t a main character, he is one of the most memorable. But even though he’s been known throughout the show as a very scary individual who can’t keep his head on straight, he suddenly became the Kage?

This was one of the most unexpected story changes.

It was almost laughable. So many people thought this was a joke until they saw the episode. It doesn’t make sense, but don’t worry because this isn’t the only time something like this has happened. It’s happened with Sasuke as well!

17 Sasuke, The Unworthy Hokage

Ign

Sasuke has some similar character traits as Gaara. He's obviously not as crazy, but it’s hidden in there somewhere. His character is presented as being very mysterious, off, and vengeful. There are even moments where Sasuke just breaks because of the revenge he wants on his brother. But just as the story changed with Gaara, it changes with Sasuke as well. Eventually the story gets to a point where Sasuke wants to become the Hokage. Even though this is supposed to be Naruto’s destiny, Sasuke doesn’t care all of a sudden and wants what he wants, even if it’s wrong. While it's messed up that he wants to take this from his peer, it does fit in line with his vengeful attitude that’s always negative. But still, this was a shock to many fans because of how out of the blue it was. At the end, Sasuke is too evil to rule and so is Gaara. They shouldn’t be trusted, and it never made sense for the story to change like this.

16 The Ship That Should Never Sail

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Another cheap ploy to make money! The romantic side of the show didn’t even seem like a possibility at the start of the series. The developers of Naruto seemed to have cashed in on the fact that many people were wanting Sasuke and Naruto to date or be a thing. It seemed as though this was taken to heart and became almost a subplot to the actual story. In reality it had no business being in the show whatsoever. It was never a part of the show until the fans made it a thing.

In return, it didn’t add any depth to the series.

It just allowed the developers to drag things on once again from episode to episode. This seems to be almost taking advantage of the fanbase, filling the show with fluff when that’s not what anyone signed up for.

15 Relying On Flashbacks (For No Reason)

Netflix

You might have noticed that we had previously mentioned that in some episodes, they filled up half of the 15 minute show with flashbacks that showcase the previous episode. This is so frequent that it has become habit for many individuals just to skip the first few minutes of the episode to get to what’s actually happening. While we understand that flashbacks were more necessary when watching a show that aired once a week on TV, it’s still ridiculous how often these episodes happen. This made many fans upset because it seemed to really interrupt the flow of the show. This is especially true when they would put a flashback in the middle of a full-on ninja battle. Even though most of these insane flashbacks were at the start of the show, there’s no excuse.

14 Girls Can't Be As Strong As Guys, Apparently

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We're talking about Sakura. She's a female that's in the spotlight almost every episode, and she happens to be one of the most popular characters in the show. Why was she created in a way that constantly made her look weak in every single situation? This is the case for almost every female in the show, if you compare them to their male counterparts. This has been an issue with fans for quite some time as well. Many fans have found this to be the case.

Why is it always the case that the males are always more powerful and brave?

This is compared to the females learning the same skills. It doesn’t make that much sense, especially since they are presented as equal in the show. There seems to be no bias towards gender in the show, yet there is this power difference that sets them apart at the same time.

13 Filler, Filler, Filler

Naruto Wiki

The filler is too much. In such a stretched out series like this, there’s bound to be filler, but there isn’t just the typical amount. It goes on and on. Many fans speculated that there were so many filler episodes because the manga was coming out at the same time and couldn’t be published as quickly as a short episode. Many believe that the anime was stretched so far because they wanted to keep the story up to date with the manga. But some people did the math. There are 221 episodes that are pure filler in the whole series. That’s literally almost half of the series! While some of these episodes were fun to watch, the plot suffered in the background. It made the show basically turn into a joke.

12 Where Are The Other Villages?

Naruto Wiki

The whole show is based on villages and how they come together to fight and train their ninjas. While we do see some of these ninjas from these villages, where are the villages? Not once do we ever get a decent portion of the show that showcases any other villages in the universe that Naruto lives in.

The show chooses to just stick to the Leaf Village because that’s where Naruto is from.

It does seem strange that they bypassed this opportunity to showcase other areas of the world. Many fans believe that if they did explore more locations, it would flesh out the world and make it seem more realistic, especially when it comes to the plot. Plus, with how many episodes there are in the series, seeing the same village over and over again can be a bit slow and boring. We’re not the only ones who think this!

11 The Father, The Son, And The Missing Backstory

Netflix

Minato, Naruto’s father is so much more interesting. His character’s personality, his talents, his poise... it's all so much more impressive than Naruto. It’s almost as if the developers of the show wanted Naruto to have two very different personalities: the cool vibes of his father, and the childish brat of his own personality. But it just doesn’t work, and makes it quite awkward, honestly. Minato in general isn’t seen that much in the show, especially not as much as Naruto obviously. Surprisingly, this has peeved a ton of fans as well, because people want to know more about Minato and his past. Hints are left here and there of the stories Minato probably has, but they never go into them. Minato trained himself, unlike any other individual in the show. So why isn’t he more of a big deal?!

10 The Hero Who Can't Make Up His Mind

Netflix

Similar to what we mentioned above, Naruto is quite a confusing character. He starts off with a very clear goal at the start of the show. Naruto constantly goes on about being the next Hokage. He doesn’t ever shut up about it. It’s the main purpose of the show. But somewhere along the way, the plot began to focus on Sasuke because he ran away.

Why did Naruto throw away his only goal to save someone that didn’t even like him?

We might never know, but many fans are demanding answers. It's a subtle romantic chase to save a damsel that happens to be Sasuke, in this case. But everyone seems to forget that Sasuke didn’t want to return to the village. He left for a reason! People even told Naruto to give up on chasing him because he didn’t want to be rescued.

9 Why Is There Focus On Sakura?

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Sakura is one of the worst heroines in the history of anime. She seems to only exist to make a romantic plot line possible. Her main role in the whole anime is to play a part in the love triangle between Sasuke and Naruto. Sakura loves Sasuke, but he doesn’t love her back, while Naruto loves Sakura, but she doesn’t love him back. While this might have acted as a kind of comic relief at the start of the show, 400 episodes later, it’s not funny anymore. Not only is this romantic subplot a waste of time, she also whines too much and is one of the weakest characters in the story. Why couldn’t they showcase a strong female role? Why did she always need to have help with every single thing, or need to be saved every episode? She just didn’t have a real purpose in the plot whatsoever.

8 Madara The Useless

Netflix

Similar to what we mentioned above, it seemed like Madara was quite useless at the end of the day. They threw out the character and added so many evil villains you could hardly even count them. From an outside perspective, it seemed like they wanted to change the storyline and choose a new villain. But because fans didn’t like their choice, they instead started throwing all kinds of new ideas out there with a bunch of different bad guys.

It seemed chaotic, messy, and the storyline was lost in the process.

Madara wanted to simply rule the world, just like all the other villains in the show. It was a shallow goal and made all the bad guys seem to blend together. What villain was your favorite from the series? We’d love to know.

7 The Jutsu Dilemma

Netflix

One of the biggest plot holes in the whole series of Naruto would probably be the jutsus. At the start of the show, it was common knowledge that ninjas had to center themselves and find balance, focus, and peace within each of their unique chakras to be able to perform a jutsu properly. But about a hundred episodes later, this ground rule changed completely. Soon enough, they basically became magic spells and no one ever was fatigued after using too much of their power, which used to be the case. The “realism” that was set at the start of the show was gone, and it made sure to make room for the idea that anything could happen. Many fans were also upset that some minor characters had easily learned some of the hardest jutsus, when it took years for characters to learn them at the start of the show. It just doesn’t make sense!!

6 Everyone Can Be Magically Revived

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No one seems to ever stay down in this show. About halfway through the show, things started to change. The writers would write in the character just so the fans would be happy. This is why the writers should have learned early on that they shouldn’t just do what the fans want them to do.

From the start of the show, people didn’t pass away all the time.

When they did it actually meant something. But now, the show ends people all the time, just because they know they can always add them in the show again later on. They even brought back Zabuza, someone that was supposed to be gone from a fair fight! Why? There wasn’t even a real reason why this was to happen. It didn’t even serve the plot line whatsoever. This made fans fed up, and many stopped watching the show at this point.

5 The Hinata Confession

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The Hinata confession, just like everything else, took WAY too long. Everyone knew basically from the start that Hinata was in love with Naruto, but when did it actually become a thing? About the whole span of the show. They stretched this relationship subplot out so much that it became distorted. It was obvious that they were only stretching it out that much so they could make more filler. It was physically frustrating to watch this relationship unfold. When Hinata actually confessed her love, her life was ending. But like we mentioned before, anyone can come back to life with magical jutsus! Naruto brings her back to life, but he never brings up her confession ever again within the show. Did he even remember what she said, or is he just rejecting her? Or is this just another plot hole?

4 Trying Too Hard To Copy Other Animes

Drama Fever

Naruto has always been a very strong show. It had a ton of characters and interesting things that hadn’t ever happened in other animes at the time. But as the series progressed over hundreds of episodes, the plot holes started to form and the show became something much more than an epic tale about ninjas. As time went on and the story continued, it seemed more apparent that the show was more focused on what was trending at the time.

It used many aspects similar to Dragon Ball.

This is one of the main reasons why so many fans in the hardcore fan base have a problem with the later part of the series. It simply seems all over the place, and it has no direction. It quickly became a copycat show. Eventually the show lost its charm as well. Because why would people watch it if they could just watch the real thing: Dragon Ball Z?

3 The Show Just Doesn't Go Anywhere

Viz

The story of this anime is huge: the rough childhood of Naruto, the abundance of characters... every single thing was included in the story. Some things maybe even when they shouldn’t have been. But it seems like the creators of this show decided to purposefully stretch out the story and slow down the pace to just get the most money out of the show. It was a pretty cheap thing to do, especially since this led to many filler episodes. This made many of the episodes in the series very slow, boring, and redundant. Some of the episodes were just recaps of the previous episode and flashbacks. This was annoying and had no real purpose other than getting more money for the company. We can’t even imagine what it would have been like if the story was set like a typical anime, which is very fast-paced.

2 The Dubbing: Make It Stop!

Netflix

If you’re a hardcore anime fan, you probably know of the debate between the sub and dubs. Many people approve of watching anime with dubbing in English, while many other individuals would rather watch the anime with the original voice actors and subtitles. We’re just going to recommend that you watch Naruto with subtitles, because the English dub has been known to be one of the worst in the history of anime. Although dubbing has improved quite a bit in recent years with more relevant anime, this show isn’t included in that category.

Naruto has some of the worst voice acting for the English dubs, ever.

We mean it. Which is exactly why many people who are hardcore fans of Naruto will tell you that subs are so much better than watching the dubbed version. Which will you choose when you watch the series?

1 Sasuke Is A Mess

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Sasuke is simply a mess. This isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact by now. Especially if you’re a hardcore fan, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. His story is pretty straightforward, his character is developed, and he has a rich history that gives his character some depth. But that quickly changes as soon as the series progresses. His personality changes about a handful of times, and his character does not stay consistent throughout the show. Keep in mind, this is not just character growth.

While we just listed the top 20 problems in Naruto, would you believe that this isn't even all of them? The list could go on for quite a while. Many fans have had enough when it comes to Naruto. They’re sick of all the changes and the seemingly obvious lack of care the creators of the show express.