Welcome! You have arrived at the favorite topic of Naruto fans, and it is to diss Sakura for being useless in the majority of the Naruto series. This is interesting as Sakura is considered as one of the protagonists of the show, so why is she one of the least liked characters?
Sakura is considered useless in Naruto as she is unremarkable compared to her other teammates who are two of the most notable ninjas in Naruto. Her vision and her actions are always contradictory. She is the epitome of bad writing in the characterization of a female protagonist.
Is Sakura really useless? Or are we simply judging her unfairly? This has been a long-standing debate that is yet to have a conclusion as everyone is waiting for Sakura’s notable contributions in Boruto. So keep on reading to be caught up on the important points about Sakura’s character so you can make your own conclusion.
Top 3 Reasons Why Sakura Is Considered Useless
You will be bombarded with reasons as to why Sakura is considered useless when you look it up on the internet. Some reasons can also overlap others. Therefore, here is a cheat sheet as to why the majority of Naruto fans think that she is useless.
1. Sakura Always Had To Be Saved
It is a tradition in Western media to have a “damsel in distress” and it is also slightly the same with manga and anime. However, people veer toward the damsels in anime as more often than not, they grow stronger as they complete their character arcs.
This is not the case for Sakura.
In Naruto, we were first introduced to Sakura who was obsessed with Sasuke. We were given this impression that her entire being revolved around fawning over Sasuke.
As you keep watching Naruto, you almost always expect Sakura to do something careless that she always had to be saved.
Spoiler alert!
An example of this is when Sakura fell for the genjutsu of Kakashi during their initial exam. Kakashi used her feelings for Sasuke to lure her into a trap and she fell for it easily and ended up injuring herself.
Even Kakashi himself had to help Sakura even if he was the perpetrator of the jutsu.
This logic would have been easily accepted were it not for the fact that Sakura believes that she is one of the most awesome kunoichis in their batch despite lacking the needed skills.
Further, it is manga and anime canon that Sakura is one of the most intelligent ninjas in her batch besides Shikamaru, so why does she always need saving?
What makes the blood of Naruto fans boil is the fact that Naruto always ends up saving Sakura, and she is not even grateful for it. The exchange will always end up with Sakura’s fist on Naruto’s face.
Her constant need to be saved almost immediately dismisses her as a female protagonist even if the show forces it down on our throats.
For fairness’ sake, there were also times when Sakura prevailed and showed her strength, but fans do not appreciate these moments as they already have this “bratty Sakura” image ingrained in their heads.
2. Sakura Does Not Have A Special Jutsu
Before Sakura supporters hate on us, hear us out. Yes, we understand that she is an accomplished medical ninja and that she was trained by none other than Tsunade who is the number one medical ninja in the Naruto universe. We are not forgetting those.
But! and this is a huge but. There is nowhere in the series that she even tried to develop her own special jutsu. It has been argued that Sakura did not come from a ninja clan thus there is no special jutsu that can be passed on to her and make it her own.
The biggest argument that can crush the previous statement is the fact that Naruto (who at the time did not know that there was an Uzumaki clan) always had the intention and succeeding action to develop his own unique jutsu.
When Naruto learned the Rasengan, he made it his own by coming up with other Rasengan jutsus. Even if Sage Mode was bestowed to him, he added his own twist to it when he learned he cannot merge with Fukasaku due to the nine tails.
Case in point: Almost every other ninja who was also the batchmate of Sakura, may they come from a ninja clan or not, had the initiative to develop their own special jutsu.
In the case of Sakura, she envisions herself to become this great medical ninja, yet she did not do anything about this vision.
3.Sakura Is A Poorly-Written Female Protagonist
It is important to remember that if you also hate Sakura or you consider her useless, you should not put the blame on the pixels dancing on your screen. However useless Sakura is in your eyes, she is still a product of writing and animation.
Hence, Sakura is simply a victim of a poorly-written female protagonist. Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto is truly a great mangaka. However, he simply cannot write good female characters.
He admitted this in countless interviews and as of date, he is still trying his best to write or characterize a female character that is independent of a male protagonist. It only sucks that Sakura always had the short end of the stick.
If you take a look at the female characters in Naruto, they only have shallow character arcs. Practically all of them rely on the character arc of a male character. Yes, even the fan-favorite Hinata suffers from bad female characterization.
You will notice that even if Hinata betters herself, it is still inspired by her affections and drive that Naruto gives her.
The same goes for Sakura, she only thought of bettering herself and changing her ways because she wants to measure up to her other stronger teammates, Naruto and Sasuke.
When Naruto first rose into popularity, we can say that the take on writing female protagonists is still not that radical, compared to today.
However, Kishimoto pushes it to the extreme when he made Sakura a helpless and annoying character, which is even more behind than the crappy writing of female characters in those days.
Sakura Suffers From Inconsistent Writing
The biggest characterization flaw of Sakura is that her character arc suffers from inconsistent writing.
In one sequence, she is vowing to train like there is tomorrow to become this epic kunoichi, in another sequence, she will be so busy fawning over Sasuke that she cannot even focus on a mission.
The only consistent thing about the characterization of Sakura is that Kishimoto loves it when she cries. When there are major battles, it is almost always expected that there is a buildup to a crying scene of Sakura.
Even if there is an opportunity to show Sakura’s improvement, Kishimoto will always choose a crying scene of Sakura over a fighting scene of Sakura.
Spoiler alert!
A good example of this is the opening and ending credits in Naruto Shippuden during the Pain Arc. Both credits have a scene where Sakura is crying while all the other characters have cool fighting sequences.
Another example of an episode where Kishimoto reveled in a crying scene of Sakura is when the Hidden Leaf Village was decimated by Pain. Once the village was in shambles, the next sequence is a closeup of Sakura crying and begging for Naruto to show up.
The same goes for the succeeding episode where Hinata was the one who tried to save Naruto from Pain even if she knew that she was no match for him. Where’s Sakura? Oh, Kishimoto, made her cry in the background.
When you think about it, there are a lot of missed opportunities for Sakura’s character to shine. She was actually more equipped to save Naruto during that time and not Hinata. She was strong then and she was smart, so why the crying?
The simple answer is inconsistent writing. The character was made to be strong at this point, but Kishimoto always goes back to his roots of bad writing for female protagonists.
Is Sakura Really Useless In Naruto?
Unfortunately, the resounding answer is yes. In Naruto, Kishimoto portrayed Sakura as a whiny, shallow, and love-obsessed character. She lives and breathes Sasuke to the point that she ridiculed Naruto.
Further, she is also not self-aware. She always needed saving and she could not even properly protect someone without other people helping her, yet she still always had the last say.
Spoilers ahead!
A case in point is the flashback explanation behind the rift between Sakura and Ino. When Sakura was little, Ino actually gave her confidence and protected her from people who bullied her.
They were the closest of friends, then in just an instant, they became rivals as both of them like Sasuke. Uhh, excuse me, come again?
The shallowness of her character does not end there when the most notable thing that Sakura did in Naruto was to cut her hair. This is in reference to her and Ino keeping their hair long as they learned that Sasuke liked girls with long hair.
During the Chunin Exams, there was a time when Sakura was the only one capable of protecting Sasuke and Naruto. Given that she was weak, she really was no match for the enemies so she ended up being subdued by the enemy by way of pulling her hair.
In order to get away, she made the hard decision to cut her hair which was also painful for her as it lessens the chances of her being liked by Sasuke. This “valiant” effort was also praised by Ino who was watching in a distance.
When a female’s character arc in a series is just summed by cutting of hair, can you really expect more from her?
It is good that by the latter part of Naruto, she resolved to train under Tsunade to learn medical ninjutsu so she can support her teammates. Yet, even having this self-awareness she still managed to shun Naruto.
Is Sakura Useless In Naruto Shippuden?
Sakura is not useless in Naruto Shippuden. In fact, she is already this great medical ninja that even the people from the medical corps rely on her for guidance.
If you look at Sakura from a gamer’s perspective, her talents and skills in Naruto Shippuden prove to be the perfect support to ensure that your main DPS characters, like Naruto, will shine and ultimately not die.
However, the hate stems from the fact that she was not given a lot of opportunities to show off her skills.
Rather, she is restrained to her roots of watching and crying on the sidelines. What is worse is the fact that even though she is already an accomplished ninja, she can get pretty careless.
Spoiler warning!
The biggest careless move of Sakura in Naruto Shippuden was when she recklessly ran towards Madara as a form of diversion only to be stabbed.
This is again an example of inconsistent writing. It has been established in previous episodes that she is calculating and smart, so why run towards the enemy all of a sudden, without even a plan?
Another Sakura blunder was when she hurt herself by running to Naruto in his four tails state.
Captain Yamato told her not to, yet she disobeyed him and ran straight to Naruto, in the hopes that Naruto will recognize her and stop the transformation. The ending? She got hurt and Naruto felt guilty about it.
Sakura Was Her Best During The Sasori Fight
This is just a slight spoiler as we will not get into the specifics of this awesome fight as you will be reading this until tomorrow.
Hands down, Sakura fought Sasori fair and square even if she had the assistance of Granny Chiyo. In this fight, Granny Chiyo was more of a support, while Sakura did all the hard work.
I was squealing in my seat when the fight started as I thought, this was the time when Sakura finally joins the likes of Naruto and Sasuke.
The fight was so epic that you are sold that truly, Sakura was powerful and that she can finally prove that she was indeed the top female protagonist in the series.
Not only did she display her prowess in medical ninjutsu by concocting the needed potion and saving Kankuro. But also she used wit and executed a perfect strategy to defeat Sasori. I was so proud of her.
The bad news? After this awesome fight, we no longer see more action scenes with Sakura. This arc was considered as her best fight in Naruto Shippuden.
Sakura Should Have Been In The Front Lines
A lot of loyal Naruto fans get ticked off by the fact that Sakura was mostly confined to healing people during the war. However, we believe that this is necessary.
Yes, with her power it would be easier to beat an enemy or two, but keep in mind she is a medical ninja.
So we will let this one slide as this situation is very logical. Without Sakura’s healing during the war, a lot of people could have died, even Naruto.
The biggest justification for this is the time when Tsunade taught Sakura what was the most important skill that she has to learn to become a great medical ninja, and that skill is to dodge.
Tsunade added that an injured medical ninja is a useless one. Therefore, it is imperative that Sakura should learn how to protect herself during fights so he can heal her teammates during the fight. So in this regard, we should give Sakura a break.
Is Sakura Useless In Boruto?
We still cannot give a final answer on this as Boruto is still ongoing and there are still no key moments of Sakura for us to analyze. However, it is important to know that she is regarded as the 3rd strongest ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village.
Therefore, if something happens to Naruto and Sasuke, she will most probably become the Hokage. A key piece of information about the strength of Sakura (even though we do not see it much) is getting the approval of Sasuke.
Spoiler ahead!
In Episode 170 of Boruto, Sakura and Sasuke were having an argument regarding the training of Sarada’s Sharingan. It was shown that Sakura spoke out of her insecurity as she felt she was not powerful.
To this, Sasuke said that she is the strongest kunoichi he ever met. This was further confirmed by Hinata and Ino who tried to cheer her up. They told her that Sakura was the standard in becoming a great kunoichi.
Is Sakura Even Important In The Naruto Series?
Sadly, the answer is no, except for the fact of keeping important characters alive. We are not answering this based on her skills and how she was wrongfully characterized. This is based on how her character affects the plot of the story.
You will notice that even if there are key plot points that include Sakura, whether she was there or not, the outcome will always be the same.
The only time where her character became essential to the plot was that Naruto was determined to get Sasuke back because of a promise he made to Sakura.
Again, this is the classic case of making a female protagonist a prop. Sakura truly deserved better writing.
Is Sakura Vital To The Character Development Of Sasuke?
A lot of fans hold on to this argument in the hopes that the hated Sakura had some sort of use after all. But the truth is harsh.
It was not Sakura’s love that made Sasuke better. In fact for the majority of the series, even up to Boruto, the question still remains, “Does Sasuke really love Sakura?”
Another thing to note was Sasuke was able to move on from his misdeeds not because of the support of Sakura, rather due to Naruto.
So the only character development Sakura contributed with regard to Sasuke is the fact that without Sakura, there will be no Sarada (Sakura and Sasuke’s daughter)
Do Other Characters In The Naruto Universe View Sakura As Useless?
It is a good thing that despite the hate that Sakura gets from Naruto fans, the characters in Naruto are so appreciative of her.
For example, it was Sakura that inspired Ino to become a medical ninja to be more useful to her team (even if Ino does not want to acknowledge this)
Shizune also had a monologue in Naruto Shippuden that in many ways, Sakura has already surpassed her mentor, Tsunade.
Further, everyone is thankful for her healing capabilities and you will notice that in missions where Sakura is included, the people who fight in the front lines can fight at their best, knowing that Sakura will heal them if worse comes to worst.