Yup he was annoying from the start but he became unhinged in Shippuden, then he went full renegade and did a lot of questionable and outright evil shit, but it still was not the worst, this was actually pretty fun as far as the tropes go (though his portrayal as “tragic” character failed since in order to become tragic the character needs to be first made sympathetical to the viewer and not an annoying little douchebag). But then we have Naruto siding with him all the time and everyone except Raikage either backing him up or looking the other way, (and it was Raikage being portrayed as a villain for opposing a unit731 class shit done by Sasuke and let’s not forget who was Sasuke allies and backers) - a really stark contrast with how the show treated other renegades which were more sympathetic like Zabuza and Haku. And then when entire thing around Uchiha clan was explained he just fucking got back like nothing had happened and he said he wants to be hokage too and everyone was “oh, ok” and instantly forgot everything that happened.
So while by himself he was just one of the annoying douchbags there is quite a lot in anime (it’s one of the staple tropes after all), it’s the blatant brain-suspending deus ex machina favouritism by visible author which gets him elevated so high on the list.
I guess it was the case when the author invested too much in his favourite character and was unwilling to modify the end goal for him, better ending for him would become the real villain and especially a personal to death nemezis of Naruto, would be great contrast with how Naruto personality was just straight up doing wololo to tons of people but failing for the one he considered his closest friend, that would also give some depth to Naruto’s personality.
Especially visible how the author generally have no trouble writing good characters, for example Itachi was actually very impressive not only for a manga and a real tragic character in the story. Even Naruto himself, while being the same annoying bubbly liberal type as is common in the animes, had a lot of quirks and traits to ease that up and ultimately ended up being pretty ok consistently (except his obsession with Sasuke, that would be great if he wasn’t ultimately forced to be correct by author).
Yup he was annoying from the start but he became unhinged in Shippuden, then he went full renegade and did a lot of questionable and outright evil shit, but it still was not the worst, this was actually pretty fun as far as the tropes go (though his portrayal as “tragic” character failed since in order to become tragic the character needs to be first made sympathetical to the viewer and not an annoying little douchebag). But then we have Naruto siding with him all the time and everyone except Raikage either backing him up or looking the other way, (and it was Raikage being portrayed as a villain for opposing a unit731 class shit done by Sasuke and let’s not forget who was Sasuke allies and backers) - a really stark contrast with how the show treated other renegades which were more sympathetic like Zabuza and Haku. And then when entire thing around Uchiha clan was explained he just fucking got back like nothing had happened and he said he wants to be hokage too and everyone was “oh, ok” and instantly forgot everything that happened.
So while by himself he was just one of the annoying douchbags there is quite a lot in anime (it’s one of the staple tropes after all), it’s the blatant brain-suspending deus ex machina favouritism by visible author which gets him elevated so high on the list.
I didn’t watch Shippuden in a long time but I remember him being better before it.
He became much worse as he aged up. And again it’s not even about him but the author failing to write him up properly.
Fr
I guess it was the case when the author invested too much in his favourite character and was unwilling to modify the end goal for him, better ending for him would become the real villain and especially a personal to death nemezis of Naruto, would be great contrast with how Naruto personality was just straight up doing wololo to tons of people but failing for the one he considered his closest friend, that would also give some depth to Naruto’s personality.
Especially visible how the author generally have no trouble writing good characters, for example Itachi was actually very impressive not only for a manga and a real tragic character in the story. Even Naruto himself, while being the same annoying bubbly liberal type as is common in the animes, had a lot of quirks and traits to ease that up and ultimately ended up being pretty ok consistently (except his obsession with Sasuke, that would be great if he wasn’t ultimately forced to be correct by author).