From the beginning of the broadcast, I never thought that Bo Ren Chuan would develop so terribly. Compared with the original Naruto, the biggest drawback of this sequel is that it completely lost the flavor of Japanese ninja and became a running account without thickness. More specifically, it's because it completely ditched the inherent contradiction that ran through its predecessors—the long struggle between ninja identity and universal humanity.
This starts with the true legend of Naruto.
Naruto and its sequel, Shippuden, not only have various action features, but also have the same ideological core—that is, to discuss how individuals should choose between ninja principles and universal ethics. In other words, to be an excellent ninja, or to do Contradictions of a good man. This contradiction promotes the growth and psychological struggle of the protagonist, and also distinguishes the character's position and personality. It is mainly reflected in the following three categories:
A mission and partner, the contradiction between ninja professionalism and humanism
This contradiction first appeared in Naruto's story with Kakashi. On the one hand, the professional nature of the ninja requires members to put the task first, but on the other hand, the simple emotion of being a human being requires that the ninja cannot give up basic humanity because of work, and put the lives of friends at the expense of the task. Even though he understands this truth, the ninja still has to face this painful choice. The tragedy of no slaughter, the suicide of Konoha Baiya and Kakashi's remorse all stem from this contradiction - the source of tragedy that precipitates the emotion of the whole work , is also the main theme of the predecessors of ninja works - Koga Ninja Post.
2. Peace and survival, the contradiction between the need for ninja warfare and pacifism
Whether war is a good thing or not seems to be an open question, but not for ninjas. On the one hand, ninjas need war, earn income through war, and use what they have learned; on the other hand, the universal ethics of being human requires them to yearn for peace. This contradiction appeared for the first time in the Chunin exam part. Because the Ninja Village was unable to make ends meet under peaceful conditions, the daimyo of the Kingdom of the Wind greatly reduced the financial support of Sandyin, which directly affected the livelihood of a large number of ninjas, which led to Sandyin being induced by Orochimaru. On the road to war. And the far-left terrorist leader Payne interprets this contradiction from another angle-the ninja world can't be peaceful at all, unless it is corrected by "Xiao" with pain. Madara and Obito, the actual controllers of the organization, have a similar answer - they both betrayed their professional identities as ninjas, gave up the possibility of allowing the secular regime to evolve peacefully on its own, and pinned on extreme means to solve the problem once and for all .
The three villages and the individual, the conflict between collectivism and individual interests
This is perhaps the most Japanese-flavored contradiction in Naruto, discussed in detail in the article The Messy Traces of Old Japanese Civilization: An Analysis of Japanese Values Reflected in Naruto. From a purely ethical perspective, Danzo, Itachi and others are obviously extremely cruel and perverted criminals, but from the perspective of collective interests, the great righteousness of "for the sake of the village" makes their behaviors sublime. Here again, the criteria for being a good ninja and being a human collide again.
What is the point of describing these contradictions?
It is these contradictions that give the whole work its vitality and depth.
First of all, the contradiction enriches the multi-faceted image of the characters. For example, through the conflict between tasks and partners, the character of Kakashi successfully stood up at the beginning of his debut, shaping his very distinctive personality. Love and gratitude for the collective, hatred and hatred of tyranny have also become the foundation of Naruto and Sasuke's values.
Second, the contradiction is the opportunity for the evolution of the plot. Adhering to the concept of I am collectivism for everyone, and constantly benefiting from the collective, Naruto's growth is a process of constantly accepting the bright side of Konoha; while Sasuke, the victim of collectivism, chose the utilitarian and individualistic line of convincing people. Their battle of ideas can be traced back to the battle between the pillars at the beginning of the establishment of Konoha, which promoted the key plots of the two Battles of the End Valley. It was the motive force for the characters to act, and it became the motive force for the audience to expect how to resolve the conflict. Important suspense throughout.
In the end, the paradox succeeds in interpreting a believable fictional world. There is light and darkness in the world, and the entanglement and stagnation of the ninja world runs through the contradictions, which makes the whole plot have a high sense of integration.
The flaw in the production of Bo Ren Chuan is that it has washed away most of the above contradictions, but has not been able to launch its own new core.
First of all, the contradiction between tasks and partners is basically non-existent in Bo Renzhuan. The basis for the existence of the contradiction is that there are two contradictory coexistence concepts. For example, Konoha Baiya pursues both the professional standards of ninjas and the general human nature, and will commit suicide because of this. But bloggers seem to have no professionalism at all, and naturally there is no psychological basis for self-blame. Boruto lacks reverence for his ninja identity or mission in the series, which is the complete opposite of his father. Naruto has limited talent (seemingly), and has gone through hardships to get a hard-won ninja headband from Mr. Iruka. He has always been proud of being a ninja, and he has always sacrificed his life for the task. But Boren's growth process is just the opposite. As a genius, he has limited contributions to the ninja career, and he does not have the strong desire to prove himself like his father. In the task, he can do whatever he wants at every turn, and even betray the village. He is unusually unprofessional. A figure of a rebel who is different from his father. But compared to the previous generation of Sasuke, his rebelliousness also seemed unprofessional and superficial. Despite his many impulsive moments, the young Sasuke has always been a doer who has done what he says he does, unswervingly pursuing his goal of revenge. The rebellious motive of the blogger seems to be only to be different from his father, which has caused him to become a mediocre and uncharacteristic image of four dislikes.
Secondly, the contradiction between peace and survival could have been a big book, but it was used up shoddy at the beginning - that is, the plot of the Kiriyin rebellion. Wuyin in the new era abandoned the dark history of blood fog and developed the economy and tourism, which was hated and counterattacked by the old forces of the young Zhuang faction. This contradiction discusses whether the ninja should maintain the war for themselves, or destroy themselves for the sake of eliminating the war. It has not been continued in the Naruto biography, but in the new era of peace, it is enough to become the Boss behind the scenes and become the main line of the new era. . It's a pity that this rebellion ended in a ridiculous form, and the memory of the people in the blood fog is actually a middle-aged teenager, which makes this farce feel extremely absurd. Even in Kiriyin Village, which is quite right-leaning in terms of historical origin, the fundamental contradiction between ninjas and war can be solved so easily. It seems that the author does not expect the author to continue to dig and continue this clue.
Third, the contradiction between the collective and the individual is almost eliminated, because the former protagonist Naruto has become a representative of the collective and the system, and the protagonist cannot make moral mistakes, so Konoha can't be sorry for any individual at all. . You can find that from the beginning of Naruto, the conflicts between individuals and groups have been reflected as "historical problems" or "behind the scenes": the tragedy of the Uchiha family is the historical problems of Madara's black hands and the second generation, Hinata religion The oppression of family separation is also the legacy of previous generations rather than the fault of the masters. In Shippuden, the tragedy of the squad leader is also a historical legacy from Danzo, and Orochimaru, whose position is the opposite of Konoha, was appeased so that there was no conflict with Konoha. And all this is because the savior Naruto achieved a great rule of the world. For this reason, we can basically conclude that Bo Ren Chuan will not continue to dig into this contradiction.
Now that the three major contradictions of Naruto are gone, what are the contradictions and clues of Boren Chuan?
There are only two:
The conflict between humans and aliens, and
The conflict between rebellious adolescents and their parents.
What can you think of when you see these two conflicts?
Yes, it is the plot of a Hollywood commercial blockbuster. An assembly line movie, the main line is about aliens attacking the earth, and the emotional line is about the emotional reconciliation between father and son. When the fight against the alien invaders reached a critical moment, the son finally understood his father. Under the impact of emotional power, the two clues met, and the father and son defeated the aliens together... Not only the wandering earth, the world war, we have seen There are too many similar routines, but it really happened in Naruto Boruto and its theatrical version.
Isn't this kind of plot okay?
of course can. It's just that if I want to see superpowers vs aliens, why not watch the Avengers? The characteristic of Naruto is precisely that this is a very Japanese, even very Asian movie. We can see the interweaving of light and shadow in the ninja profession, the conflict between the collective and the individual, the righteousness and the small righteousness, and even the rather dark but highly recognizable suicide complex - the beauty of the fallen cherry blossoms in Japanese style. But Bo Ren Chuan did turn the film into a degraded version of Avengers—a theme park-style series of superpowers battling aliens, with the occasional dog-blooded family conflict. Could it be that the new era of Naruto is like Japan after the war, becoming a colony of universal values in the West, making a living by picking up Hollywood scraps and cheating money?
But we can't just blame the author of Bo Renzhuan, whose predecessor Shippuden abandoned thinking about the nature of ninjas at the end and fell into the stereotyped struggle between superpowers and aliens. Bo Ren Chuan perfectly avoided the advantages and flash points of the previous work, but absorbed its thunder points and failures just right. Even if such works have excellent characterization and production, they will inevitably become mediocre works, not to mention the characters, plots, and even most of the paintings.
First published at Station B: https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv4497398
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