Personality Bleed: Typing the Creator of Naruto

A few months ago, I wrote an article called Personality Bleed: Typing Fictional Characters. In it, I discussed how every author, creator, actor, artist, and etc. imprints a piece of themselves onto their creation. Works of art are, in reality, just an extension of someone else’s personality, which, as result, makes some fictional characters incredibly hard to type. Have you ever watched a show and noticed the consistent, overarching themes? Or perhaps, the traits that are being celebrated, and the ones that are being condemned? Have you ever recognized these things as clues to the author’s true personality?

Personality Clues in Naruto

I’m going to call out a few things that I specifically noticed about Naruto, the series, and conclude with a possible type for the creator, Masashi Kishimoto. Before I begin, please don’t take this article too seriously. I haven’t spent time researching Masashi Kishimoto, and I developed this idea purely off of watching both the original Naruto series and Shippuden. It’s an amusing theory… a perspective that I’ve considered… an educated guess at best. I could be way off base, or dead on. It doesn’t really matter.

1. Naruto’s overarching theme

“I’m Naruto Uzumaki” Naruto spends a large portion of the original series shouting this out to anyone who will listen. He wants everyone to know his name. He wants everyone to notice him. Even up through Shippuden, Naruto proudly declares his name to anyone he comes across. He freely demonstrates his character and nature, never holding back. It’s sometimes grating and cringe-worthy, but everyone Naruto comes across leaves the scene knowing WHO he is.

“I won’t run away anymore… I won’t go back on my word… that is my ninja way!” is another thing Naruto is constantly spouting. He lives by ideals and a code, which he refuses to betray. His stubbornness and perseverance carry him forward, endearing him to those around him and the audience. Other characters are inspired by this, and many are shown developing and declaring their own ninja way.

In general, self discovery and remaining true to self are constant themes for the entirety of Naruto, more so than anything else. Some of the other characters get mini-arcs dedicated purely to their own journey of self-discovery.  For instance, Tenten goes through a drama about trying to be like Tsunade, only to eventually learn that she has to remain true to herself, and cannot be something she is not.

2. The Lack of Ne

I know there is a big debate over whether or not Naruto is an ENFP, but I firmly believe that the entire show of Naruto lacks good Ne. Ne is NOT about a vision or dreaming, like some people think. It’s about all the many possibilities (Ne) that span from one small detail (Si). It’s quirky, random, scattered, and struggles to focus. Naruto is not at all like that.  He has a vision and is rarely, if ever, distracted from it. He sees one possibility, not many. The show itself does not demonstrate any incredibly strange, out-there things. Sure, it’s fantasy, so it’s not realistic, but it’s not as wildly unrealistic as other shows. For instance, One Piece is everywhere, and is constantly throwing out things that make absolutely no sense… like an island deep under the water that has it’s own atmosphere, clouds, and sky. In general, One Piece just has some really weird things in it, and it’s constantly introducing new, weird things. Compared to One Piece, Naruto is rather uncreative. (To be clear, I’m not bashing Naruto… It’s a completely different type of show.)

While people in the show are driven by their dreams or visions, the show itself is not about dreaming; it’s about taking action. The characters must all learn who they truly are and what they truly believe, and then they must act on it.  The show isn’t about invention, ingenuity, or exploration.

After studying the Naruto characters long and hard enough, I have been able to pinpoint characters that were intended to be Ne users, like Kakashi and probably Orochimaru, but it wasn’t easy to settle on those conclusions because the Ne is very subdued. It wasn’t until later on in the show when characters like Killer Bee and Hashirama are introduced that I began seeing a better demonstration of Ne.

3. Ni – Symbolism and Vision

The intuition that the Naruto series is fraught with is Ni. The show is chocked full of symbolism, life lessons, and metaphors. The characters all develop a singular vision or goal for the future which they are encouraged to work toward with all of their strength and will power, no matter what the cost. I’m not really interested in doing an in depth analysis of the symbolism in Naruto though, so I’m going to leave it at that

My Conclusion

Based on all the above things, I drew the conclusion that the author of Naruto has the following functions: Fi (and, consequently, Te), Ni, and Se. This narrows down the possibilities to the SFPs, and the NTJs. With this in mind, I now look to what I think the overarching theme of Naruto is: discovering and remaining true to self (Fi). While the lead character is clearly an extraverted perceiver, themes like freedom and exploration are not often stealing the spotlight in the show. However, I can clearly see Fi and Ni. Ergo, I believe that Masashi Kishimoto is mostly likely an ISFP.

Take it or leave it. I hope you were at least somewhat entertained. 🙂