Thread:BuriedMemory/@comment-4961229-20141227185255/@comment-13970942-20141229173407

I have spent countless hours doing research on the subjects of supernatural lore, esp as it pertains to the various mythological allusions and references of the Naruto series. You may not realize it, but Kishimoto is not very original. He literally borrows the way jutsu and techniques work, by drawing on a mish-mash of real-world dogmas and philosophies. Jutsu may be a feature of Naruto, but Naruto did not invent jutsu or eastern-styled magic. Or handseals. I take it as a brazen insult when the effort I've dedicated to understanding a series and the way its magic works, is devalued by a dismissive two-sentence response. "Canon" refers to more than the facts presented by the databook. The art itself- the images and symbols and names and references- are the source material and in fact supersede the veracity of the databook. The expression "a picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind. There is a limit to the information that a simple sentence can convey. A drawing on the other hand can do much more to inform the viewer- if he has the discernment to recognize key details and draw connections between the art and its inspirational material- in this case lore.

For example, Tsukiyomi, the sharingan technique. It is named after the God of the moon in Shintoism. Guess what else he's a god of? Time. The technique named after it alters... guess what? A person's perception of time.

The twelves handseals correspond to the chinese zodiac. Do you honestly mean to tell me, you think that's really a coincidence? Why not have a zebra handseal? A hand seal for porcupines perhaps? Kishimoto knew why he was choosing the twelve constellations- and what the symbolism of those seals entailed. What they represented in Chinese Astrology and by extension, their influence upon Taoism.

I keep telling you people (the fanon) to do some of your own research into the subjects to get a perspective of how and why jutsu work the way they work. And most of you never do- because of laziness. Most of you people don't give a flying fuck about the world of Naruto or its lore. For most of you it's just entertainment- a mediocre stand-in for a DBZ fix. Explosions and energy blasts are preeminent in your minds. More chakra = bigger explosions. That's about the extent of your collective understanding of what creating a jutsu might entail. So yeah I'm just fed up with the hypocrisy. I've worked very hard to understand what inspires Kishimoto's world and series. You jaggoffs do practically nothing, riding on the coattails of the databook to "understand" the details that are spoon-fed to you. You contradict my ideas when it suits you- but you people keep coming crawling back to me when you want to understand how a jutsu or technique works and need help.

You want to make it up to me? Care enough about Naruto to see it as more than a simple cartoon, but as a piece of art that requires a more thorough analysis than the meaningless trivia presented in the databook.