Moose

5th Apr 2007

Naruto (2002)

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Question: Why were the preliminary trials for the Chunin exam done as single elimination? It would not really cause the best of the best to be chosen because when two strong Ninjas fight (like Gaara and Rock Lee) one has to lose, while when two weak ninja (Sakura and Ino) fight, one gets to go through, only to be guaranteed failure. How is that fair?

Answer: Out-of-character, because single elimination is the most exciting format for the viewers of the anime. In-character, a possible reason is that the failure of single elimination to correctly identify the second and lower places was only recognised relatively recently - there is an essay by Lewis Carroll (yes, that Lewis Carroll), describing the problem in detail, written in 1883. Ninjas were around in about the 1300's, so it probably hasn't been discovered yet. Of course Naruto's history might not match real history but if you depart from reality then there can be no answer but the out-of-character one.

Moose

29th Jan 2007

Naruto (2002)

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Question: How is Naruto able to easily create dozens of shadow clones when he needs to, but will sometimes struggle to create just a few.

Answer: In-character, he's not very good at Bunshin No Jutsu, so it's unreliable. Out-of-character, it's a classic plot device shared by hundreds of anime that people who're not generally too great can do spectacularly well when it really matters.

Moose

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