Sasuke Uchiha (うちは サスケ Uchiha Sasuke) is a fictional character in the Naruto manga and anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto. He was created as a rival and foil to the series' titular character, Naruto Uzumaki. Sasuke's design caused difficulties for Kishimoto as he drew the manga scenes, but he has grown to enjoy drawing him.
In the anime and manga, Sasuke is a member of the Uchiha clan, a highly skilled clan of ninjas allied to the village of Konohagakure. His primary motivation throughout the series is to avenge the destruction of his entire
clan by killing his brother, Itachi Uchiha, a task he pursues at all costs. While he was initially cold and singularly driven by his revenge, he becomes more empathetic through his relationships with other characters, notably Naruto Uzumaki, whom he comes to consider as a rival. Sasuke has additionally appeared in several of the featured movies in the series, as well as several other media relating to the series, including several video games and OVAs.
clan by killing his brother, Itachi Uchiha, a task he pursues at all costs. While he was initially cold and singularly driven by his revenge, he becomes more empathetic through his relationships with other characters, notably Naruto Uzumaki, whom he comes to consider as a rival. Sasuke has additionally appeared in several of the featured movies in the series, as well as several other media relating to the series, including several video games and OVAs.
Several anime and manga publications have provided acclaim and criticism of Sasuke's character. While many reviewers have noted his cold and detached attitude and abilities, he has been viewed as a stereotypical "rival" in the mold of several similar characters in other shōnen manga. His personality has also been subject to criticism, with many finding it difficult to like or sympathize with Sasuke's character. Nevertheless, Sasuke has been highly popular with the Naruto reader base, placing high in several popularity polls. Merchandise based on Sasuke has also been released, including action figures and plush dolls.
Creation and conception
When developing the original Naruto manga, Masashi Kishimoto had not initially intended to create Sasuke. After speaking with his editor about the future of the series, he was advised to create a rival character for the series' protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki, resulting in Sasuke's creation. To learn more about creating an effective rivalry, Kishimoto read a variety of manga to gather ideas on what constituted such a rivalry, and he coalesced these ideal elements into one relationship. Because Sasuke is intended to be Naruto's opposite, Kishimoto is always careful to make sure Sasuke is never too emotional. With Sasuke's character being that of a "cool genius," Kishimoto feels he has created the ideal rivalry. When first introducing Sasuke, Kishimoto had made a chapter which was set before the creation of Team 7, and Naruto had just become a ninja. However, this idea was later cancelled and Sasuke was introduced alongside Team 7, yet keeping the same traits and his rivalry with Naruto. Sasuke's first name comes the manga Sasuke by Sanpei Shirato, a series which Kishimoto likes, as well as from Sarutobi Sasuke, a fictional ninja featured in Japanese children's stories. Kishimoto remarks that Sasuke's character was influenced by Hiei from YuYu Hakusho, stating that he referenced Hiei when making his character and his Sharingan.
Sasuke's design gave Kishimoto a number of problems, making him the most difficult character he had to create. Because he lacked a proper idea of what Sasuke's face should look like, initial drafts of Sasuke appeared too old or mature for a character the same age as Naruto. Once settling on a proper face, Kishimoto worked on Sasuke's attire. Original designs of Sasuke had a number of necklaces and ties around his arms and legs, a result of Kishimoto's habit of giving characters as much ornamentation as possible. Realizing he could not draw such a complex character on a weekly basis, Kishimoto simplified the design to a basic contrast of Naruto's costume.
For Kishimoto, Sasuke remains the most difficult character for him to draw. While drawing, errors and mishaps commonly result in Sasuke's youthful appearance being lost, a result of Kishimoto's inexperience in drawing characters mature beyond their years. Sasuke's hair, originally kept short to save Kishimoto time, has slowly gotten longer as the series has progressed, increasing the amount of time needed to draw Sasuke. Midway through Part I of the series Kishimoto drew a new costume for Sasuke that featured a number of belts strapped around his arms and legs. Because of the time needed to draw a costume of this design, Kishimoto returned Sasuke to his original costume. Despite the time and energy Kishimoto spends drawing Sasuke, Sasuke has become his favorite character to draw.
When designing Sasuke in his Part II appearance, Kishimoto's main objective was to make him look cool. For this, he tried giving him several outfits such as Shimenawa around him to preserve Orochimaru's style of clothing. He also tried other clothes such as a turtleneck and a military uniform to show "cleanliness". However, he ended up choosing Japanese-style clothes.
Character outline
Background
Sasuke's early childhood, as told over the course of Naruto manga volume twenty-five, was spent not being able to catch up to his brother, Itachi Uchiha, a natural prodigy of the Uchiha clan whom Sasuke looked up to and admired. In an effort to win some recognition for himself, Sasuke trained diligently to win some of his parents' attention, though he was never able to surpass the milestones set in place by his brother, who would be the only one to acknowledge Sasuke's accomplishments. In time, Itachi began to distance himself from the clan and fell out of his family's confidence, which consequently began to look to Sasuke as the new future for the clan.
Soon after Sasuke started to be accepted into his family, he returned home one day to find the streets littered with the corpses of the Uchiha clan. Upon rushing home, Sasuke found Itachi standing over his parents's corpses. As Sasuke tried to flee, Itachi went on to explain that he had never loved his little brother. Claiming that Sasuke was not worth killing, Itachi encouraged him to get stronger by living a life of hate and anger towards him, with his sole purpose being to avenge the clan. Itachi left, and in the absence of a loving family Sasuke agreed to do as instructed, dedicating his life to killing Itachi. Years later, in Part II of the series, Sasuke is shown to have some doubts about the events of that night. It is not until after Itachi's death that he learns the truth surrounding the massacre of the Uchiha: that it was all done on command by the village, and that Itachi had left him alive because he could not bring himself to kill him.
Personality
Sasuke as he appears in Part II.
When first introduced during his assignment to Team 7, Sasuke displays a great brooding skepticism to his teammates. Feeling that his abilities are more special to theirs, he is unwilling to cooperate with Naruto Uzumaki or Sakura Haruno, as doing so would apparently do nothing to help him kill Itachi. These perceptions are quickly proven wrong, for despite their failings, Sakura is a useful spout of information; while competition with Naruto acts as an effective way to get stronger. While he retains a conceited arrogance in himself throughout the series, Sasuke increasingly relies on his team over the course of Part I. As he starts to get close to others he also begins to risk his own life to try to save them, even though his death would leave him unable to fulfill his goal of vengeance upon Itachi.
Although Sasuke becomes content with a life of happiness in Konohagakure, he never allows his ambition to gain power to leave his thoughts, always keeping them as a dark muttering. During his Part I battles with characters such as Haku and Gaara, Sasuke arrogantly tests his abilities against those of progressively stronger ninja, in the process discovering the weakpoints he needs to overcome. While initially complacent with his development, Naruto quickly starts to compete to grow stronger at a faster rate. This, coupled with his humiliating and effortless defeat by Itachi during a brief return to Konoha, leads Sasuke to believe that his growth is too slow. In an attempt to reassess his strength, he begins to treat his friends as opponents so as to test his abilities against their own.
When Sasuke realizes that his abilities in Konoha will never match up to Itachi's, he decides to leave for Orochimaru to gain power at the end of Part I. Naruto attempts to stop him, but Sasuke, believing the death of Naruto, his closest friend, will give him the power he desires (as he was told by Itachi), tries to kill him instead. He is ultimately unable to follow through with this idea, because he felt he'd be no better than like his brother, Itachi, and instead shamelessly continues on to Orochimaru. In the two-and-a-half years he spends with Orochimaru, Sasuke's goal to kill Itachi takes precedence above all else; he even claims he is willing to give his body and soul to Orochimaru if it means killing Itachi, but later turns on Orochimaru after reaching the conclusion that he can learn nothing else of value. After achieving his goal of bringing about Itachi's death, in the process learning how his brother was ordered by Konoha's higher ups to perform the murder of his clan, Sasuke abandons all of his hate for Itachi and resolves to kill Konoha's higher ups for his revenge. Read More »
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