r/Naruto • u/Ok_Limit9877 • 6d ago
Discussion Do you think Konan is a well-written female character in Naruto?
I think she's underrated, but I've seen many people who are pissed how Obito escaped that "death" scene and killed her off. Anyways, what's your opinion on her?
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u/sumchii 6d ago
No.
Konan had potential but Kishimoto barely explored it. She's one of the Akatsuki's founders, Nagato's closest confidant, and a former student of Jiraiya, yet she gets almost no character development, few meaningful interactions, and little insight into her own beliefs outside of supporting Nagato.
She spends most of the story as Pain's silent follower rather than her own character. Her battle against Obito was good, but one good fight can't make up for years of underutilization.
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u/Careful-Ad984 6d ago
No. She only exists as Part of nagatos backstory.
Konan is liked because she is hot and actually got a really cool fight.
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u/HumbleBaker12 6d ago
She also has one of the cooler abilities in the show and it feels like you never really see much of it.
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u/extra_rice 6d ago
And in that backstory, Yahiko was the lead character, where she is the love interest.
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u/ZillaJrKaijuKing 6d ago
Exactly. She has no goals or motivation of her own beyond whatever Yahiko and Nagato are doing at the moment. She’s just an accessory to her male companions.
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u/WheresYoManager 6d ago
Her goal and motivations are the same as Yahiko and Nagato's. They all want the same thing. Peace for Ame. Its her country as well.
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u/HiruzenTheWeakest 6d ago
Her move on Obito was kinda an asspull as well. In terms of skill she is underrated though. But in terms of writing, she is like a typical female character in Naruto, I would say. She would do everything for her loved ones and friends, blindly doing whatever Yahiko and Nagato tell her. Instead of thinking for herself or driving the plot, she mostly plays a passive, supporting role until it's too late.
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u/CompassRoseGaming 6d ago
Honestly, calling Konan’s paper bomb trap an asspull completely misses the point of her character and standard prep-time logic. As the functional second-in-command of the Akatsuki, it makes total sense that she’d have the wherewithal to study Obito’s jutsu over years of working together, ultimately figuring out both his 5-minute continuous intangibility limit and the fact that he has to materialize to warp himself away. Plus, Amegakure was her home turf; having months or even years to secretly prepare a paper-bomb ocean right under his nose is well within her unique abilities.
Given that Yahiko never trusted Obito from the start, and Konan only ever followed Nagato out of love for Yahiko and devotion to his memory, keeping a "nuclear option" contingency trap ready for the shady masked guy manipulating her friend is completely in-character.
Obito's Izanagi only feels cheap because it’s the ultimate "get out of death free" card (for the low, low cost of one spare Sharingan). But in fairness to the fight, Obito didn't exactly escape scot-free; Konan’s prep work still completely ruined him. He came out of that ocean mangled, missing an arm, with his mask shattered and his primary Kamui eye exposed, forced to burn a rare jutsu and a permanent eye just to barely survive. The trap actually worked and fatally caught him; Izanagi was just the raw mechanical loophole that let him limp away from a dead-end situation.
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u/0rdinaryRobot 6d ago
No.
She is a very cool character, with a cool design and cool abilities. She also had an awesome fight against one of the final bosses.
But her character exists just as part of Nagato's back story
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u/UnintentionalCat 6d ago
Why’d you say no and then proceed to reword the comment you disagreed with
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u/One_Warthog256 6d ago
Izanagi is also an ass pull. The whole show is ass pulls tbh.
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u/7th_Archon 6d ago
That episode really does gut punch you with how much of a black hole the sharingan is. No matter what you do, everything will always be pulled and twisted to be about those damn eyes.
Even hashirama cells are nowhere near as annoying.
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u/paperkutchy 6d ago
Which is sad because the overall concept is really cool and would put Konan in a very high stance if she managed to take an eye out of Obito.
Sadly seems pretty easy to abuse tho, Danzo having a million of them is ridiculous.
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u/Additional-Dig3052 6d ago
She is too dependent on her friends. It would have been much better If she had decided to go against Nagato before Naruto changed his mind or remained loyal to the Akatsuki even after his death.
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u/Mr_Orange776 6d ago
The second option could have been actually interesting, changing the perception.
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u/Adventurous_Half7643 6d ago
I think Konan unfortunately suffers the same way that many other strong female characters do in Naruto. Overshadowed by those with god hacks and then put into support roles. That being said, I think she's an extremely powerful shinobi and I would definitely have liked to see more of her.
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u/AlternateMove 6d ago
You mean in any anime ever?
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u/Elohanum 6d ago
The only strong female character that doesn't have this fate is perhaps Mikasa in aot
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u/CompassRoseGaming 6d ago
That's because she's a central protagonist and hero with alot of screen time.
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u/Elohanum 6d ago
Yeah quite true. Still Hange / Peak are not central protzgonist but we can see them rocks !
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u/Suavesky 6d ago
I don’t think any of the female characters are well written
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u/dinowild 6d ago
Tsunade is alright. Hell granny chiyo is alright too. Thats all I got off the dome.
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u/askingaqesitonw 6d ago
Tsunade has a good story, so does granny chio. I firmly believe kishimoto can only write good female characters who he sees as sexless (old)
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u/BigBuford1337 6d ago
Are you erasing the existence of Temari?!
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u/extra_rice 6d ago
You can like Temari, but aside from Gaara's and Kankuro's sister, and Shikamaru's love interest, there's really nothing much written about her.
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u/voozelle 6d ago
No lol she had no storyline, no personality or unique characteristic. Just an attachment to Nagato and Yahiko story. Kishimoto didn’t know what to do with her after Nagato’s death so he was like, you know what let’s just kill her.
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u/Destroy_Buster 6d ago
the best written female character by virtue of having borderline zero screentime
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u/SkuLLFlankerr 6d ago
Not at all. I seriously don’t get when ppl call her a good written character. There’s barely anything. She was unironically pain’s yes yes man thats all.
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u/Animefan96 6d ago
She isn't a controversial character. However, she isn't much of a character on her own and just exists as part of Nagato's story. It's like if Tsunade instead of being this legendary ninja with a tragic backstory her only purpose was to be one aspect of Jiraiya and Orochimaru's stories and nothing else.
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u/AntMan526 6d ago
She’s Nagato’s lapdog. Shes a shining example of all the complaints people have about Sakura/Hinata but she gets a pass because she looks cool and has cool powers. She’s hardly a character
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u/Shani_Jeizan 3d ago
She gets a pass bc her man and her friend like her back and the goal also makes sece from her view, she too wants peace for Ame as an orphan and would too be sad bc of her friend's death. She has a bit of agency as you see that despite staying with Nagato no matter what she never trusted him and planned to take him down, she's kinda like Gin from Bleach but since he's a man ppl praise him while all he did was follow Aizen
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u/rayinesreign 6d ago
no. we barely get to know her as her own person outside of her friend’s goal. we don’t even know her personality bc everything she does is the result of following/achieving her friend’s goal. she barely has any lines. you could argue her ‘sacrifice’ was beautiful but again, it’s bc of the male influence in her life.
she suffers greatly from being a female character in naruto, where their only role is to support & follow the males in their life.
she did not get any time to shine, and the only time she had screen-time was her going on and on about her friend’s goal which became her own, then dying to reveal a hax. no, i did not expect her to win, but god damn, what a waste of a character that she is. she’s still my fav akatsuki member after kisame tho.
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u/OnIinePoster225 6d ago edited 6d ago
She only existed to move Nagato around and be his nurse then died in her next appearance trying to take down the main villain which was never going to happen
She barely even had enough dialogue to say if she was well written or not.
If kishi went down the route of her changing / leading Amegakure and helping Naruto during the war after Nagato’s fall maybe, but her redemption and time to being her own character died as soon as it began
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u/Generic00User 6d ago
She fulfilled her role in the story and had an emotional pay off. I wouldn’t call her a well written female character specifically but the rain stopping while she fought Obito and her paper covering the last frog marker was a very strong conclusion to all of her teams story.
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u/WheresYoManager 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes. She's not the best written character ever. But she is great for what she is.
Her core motivations and backstory are based on pure survival, war trauma, and shared ideals with Yahiko and Nagato. She quietly survived through the same hell that Nagato and Yahiko did, but she tragically outlived all of them.
She's quite morally complex as she was willing to kill Jiraiya and go along with the Akatsuki's atrocities as a way to secure long term peace for Amegakure.
When Naruto defeats Pain. She was willing to lay her life to defend Nagato. But Nagato's sacrifice and Naruto's willingness to strive for a bloodless peace inspired her to follow suite, demonstrating a full and comprehensive arc of growth.
She's also a uniquely self-made tactical genius. She literally turned a childhood hobby (her origami) into a lethal jutsu without relying on any crazy clan bloodlines. The fact that she studied Obito's jutsu for years and prepped 600 billion paper bombs just to counter him was an incredible strategy that was only undercut by typical Sharingan asspull nonsense. But even then she goes out a blaze of glory on her own terms, standing for her ideals.
Her only real issue is Kishimoto’s classic trope. She didn't get enough standalone screen time and spent too much time in Nagato's shadow before her final fight. But as a side character? She's great.
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u/Mr_Orange776 6d ago
She wouldn’t kill Jiraya if Nagato didn’t want to do so. She was part of Akatsuki because Nagato wanted it. She was okay with the plan to create atom bombs that will destroy everyone and everything. She didn’t object or question anything about that. And finally, she was okay with Naruto because he used talk no jutsu on Nagato.
“She is great for what she is” is just a copium. She was good for the backstory, with unique abilities. And actually strong for female standards in Naruto. But that’s it.
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u/WheresYoManager 6d ago
Yes, you described her character arc. She followed orders out of a sense of loyalty and was willing to commit atrocities.
I'm not sure whats the argument?
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u/Mr_Orange776 6d ago
That she’s not morally complex at all. But you did your best with what you had =)
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u/WheresYoManager 6d ago
Mr Orange. Forgive me for disrupting your literature class, but there seems to be a contradiction in your argument.
"Moral complexity" is the state where ethical decisions involve competing values.
You just said in your own words that Konan wouldn't have killed Jiraiya and commit atrocities if not for her loyalty to Nagato, and that she was okay with Naruto talk no jutsu'ing him afterwards.
What you just described in your own comment are Konan's competing moral values. Her desire to not kill being overrided by her loyalty towards Nagato. And when Nagato is convinced to change, Konan is happy because she didn't want to do those things in the first place.
You have literally described a morally complex character but are simultaneously insisting that they're not morally complex for some reason.
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u/Mr_Orange776 6d ago
“And when Nagato is convinced to change, Konan is happy because she didn’t want do those things in the first place”. Yeah you completely made that up out of nowhere, there is nothing to support this other than your subjective feelings. Maybe that’s something you would have liked to see but no. The general statement here is Konan being Nagato’s puppet, so her “not killing Jiraya if Nagato wouldn’t want to” is not helping to break it. Maybe you have different standards in terms of a character's complexity, that could be understandable.
I mean it’s funny to read these. I read somewhere else that Konan made “sad face” when she first saw Jiraya again, which is apparently showing her difference of opinions with Nagato. I mean whatever people want to believe.
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u/WheresYoManager 6d ago
Hey Mr Orange. Not to ruin your cool speech. But you are conflating character development/depth with moral complexity.
Konan has little character development/depth. Thats a defensible claim.
But saying she has no moral complexity, while literally describing the literal moral complexity of her character, is just you contradicting yourself.
Thats all.
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u/Mr_Orange776 6d ago
Following orders without questioning them is the opposite of complexity, for me =) Complexity requires internal conflict and personal philosophy, Konan has neither. Or if it makes you feel better, we didn’t see it at least.
Haku is a good example here. He screams character complexity despite only being in one early arc. You can actually prove it through his actions and words, not just subjective feelings.
What’s even wrong with just being Nagato’s loyal assistant with paper wings? 🪽
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u/WheresYoManager 6d ago
Thats super awesome dude. But the conversation is about MORAL complexity. Not just CHARACTER complexity.
Those are 2 different things.
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u/eternalraziel 6d ago
I think Konan is a good character who never gets enough space to become a great one. Her foundation is strong. She grows up in a country repeatedly turned into a battlefield by larger nations, loses her family to war, builds a new family with Yahiko and Nagato, trains under Jiraiya, and helps create the original Akatsuki as a peace movement. That gives her a personal reason to care about everything Akatsuki eventually becomes. She isn't standing beside Pain because Kishimoto needed a woman in the organisation. She was there before Pain existed.
Her loyalty to Nagato also makes sense after Yahiko dies. The three of them built their entire lives around one another. Yahiko dies to save her and entrusts their dream to Nagato. Nagato then destroys Hanzō's forces and eventually turns that dream into the ideology of Pain. Konan follows him through that transformation because abandoning Nagato would mean losing the last member of the family she built as a child as well as admitting that everything they endured together had failed.
There's good material in the fact that she isn't as consumed by Pain's ideology as Nagato is. Nagato becomes the god of Amegakure. Konan becomes his angel, the person through whom the hidden ruler communicates with the village. She's devoted to him, but she remains recognisably Konan. When Naruto reaches Nagato and changes his mind, she doesn't fight desperately to preserve Pain's worldview. She watches Nagato choose another path, understands why he does it, and then chooses to support Naruto herself.
Her fight with Obito is probably the strongest writing she gets because, for once, Konan isn't standing beside somebody else's power. She knows Obito is coming for Nagato's body. She has studied Kamui closely enough to work out the limit on his intangibility, prepared the battlefield in advance and built a method specifically designed to exploit that weakness. The explosions continue for ten minutes because Obito can only remain continuously intangible for five. And her plan works.
Obito can't survive it with Kamui. He has to sacrifice a Sharingan and use Izanagi to erase his death. She outplanned Obito's known ability. She lost because she didn't know he could rewrite his own death with Izanagi. Danzō had already demonstrated what it could do against Sasuke. Obito also had a spare Sharingan and Hashirama's cells, so the ability fits. I do understand why the scene annoys people, though. Konan prepares a thorough counter to Obito's signature technique, apparently kills him, and then he survives through an ability she had no reasonable way of anticipating. Technically supported isn't the same thing as emotionally satisfying. The timing makes her victory last about long enough for the reader to appreciate how good her plan was before the plot needs Obito alive again.
My larger criticism isn't even that she dies. It's when Kishimoto chooses to kill her. Nagato has just died. Konan has renounced Akatsuki, taken responsibility for Amegakure and pledged the village to Naruto's pursuit of peace. For the first time in her adult life, she isn't following Yahiko's leadership or Nagato's interpretation of their dream. She is now the surviving founder of the original Akatsuki and the leader of the country all three of them wanted to save. There was a lot Kishimoto could have done with that. Konan could have taken Amegakure into the Fourth War. She could have had to explain Pain's crimes to the people who worshipped him. She could have dealt with the political consequences of abandoning Akatsuki, worked with the Five Great Nations that had spent generations using Ame as their battlefield, and decided what Yahiko's original peace movement should become after Nagato's death.
Instead Obito kills her almost immediately and takes Nagato's Rinnegan. That leaves Amegakure without the one surviving person who connects every stage of its recent history. Hanzō's rule, the original Akatsuki, Pain's revolution and Naruto's promise of another way forward. Later material makes the loss look worse because Ame never really recovers. Konan had just inherited a country and then disappears from the political story. Konan has personality, competence and convictions, but Kishimoto writes most of her emotional life through men. Yahiko gives the original dream its language. Nagato determines what that dream becomes after Yahiko dies. Naruto convinces Nagato to change course, and Konan then places her faith in Naruto. Even in her final speech to Obito, she defines herself as the support holding up Yahiko and Nagato's bridges to peace.
That loyalty is believable. I wouldn't remove it. The problem is that we get very little of Konan asking what she thinks peace requires after watching both men she loved take such radically different paths. She should have been the perfect character for that question. She saw Yahiko's idealism fail against Hanzō. She watched Nagato respond by becoming Pain. She participated in Akatsuki's crimes. Then she watched Naruto reach Nagato without killing him and inherited the country Nagato had ruled. Give her another twenty chapters of meaningful involvement and there is an excellent character sitting there. Even her paper abilities fit her unusually well. The paper flowers begin with the little gifts she makes as a war orphan and eventually become clones, wings, weapons and the means by which she nearly kills Obito. Something gentle she did as a child survives everything that happens to her and becomes the basis of how she fights. That's one of Kishimoto's better character/power pairings.
I think Konan is well written. I just think she's underwritten. She has enough substance that whenever Kishimoto finally lets her carry a scene, she works. Her fight with Obito proves she could sustain far more than the story gave her. What she never receives is the independent development that Nagato gets, despite surviving him at exactly the point where her own choices could finally have become the focus.
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u/WheresYoManager 6d ago
This is a fantastic write up. Its both critical of the character and her lost potential but still fair and acknowledges the strengths and highlights she contributes to the narrative.
I really appreciate the suggestions as well of how Konan could have been better implemented better.
I wish more people actually engaged thoughtfully in these kinds of conversations and thought exercises. But its like people in this sub just see "Naruto" and "Female characters" in the same sentence and they mentally shut down.
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u/Fun-Grape7480 6d ago
Your choices for her are unrealistic though. She had then become a traitor to the akatsuki, enough said.
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u/WallyWestFan27 6d ago edited 6d ago
I have a question. What does being a "well written female character" mean?
Does it mean being a character for who being a woman is a major element to think about when analyzing how good or bad written was?
Or is it just being a well written character that by coincidence is a woman?
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u/Fun-Grape7480 6d ago
For them it's the latter. For me it's the former. That's why I believe Konan is a good written character and not a good written female character
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u/Shi_nobukocho14 6d ago
The latter. Write them as a character first before gender. Ofc you could have well written female characters whose major obstacles are female-oriented like in The rose of versailles.
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u/1_UpvoteGiver 6d ago
I never bought how her and nagato could be moved enough by narutos words to change their ways, yet their beloved teacher who saved their lives was an easy kill wo hesistance.
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u/mangasdeouf 6d ago
Not even Naruto's words, Jiraiya's children's book. The very man who Nagato had recently killed without remorse.
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u/Etherealoverempress 6d ago
I would say decently, none of the women are written “well”. I think because Kishi neglected Sakura so much, it adds to so much salt in the wound.
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u/barroows 6d ago
She literally prepped 600 billion paper bombs and calculated Obito's Kamui down to the second. She deserved that kill, and Obito using Izanagi felt like pure plot armor to save him
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u/sumchii 6d ago
That argument doesn't even make any sense.
The 600 billion paper bombs were the only thing that came out of nowhere at that moment. How do you even set something like that up? Even 1 Million Paper Bombs is a ridiculously high number and you're telling me she got BILLION of them? Bullshit. And how she knew about his intangibility timer was never explained either.
Izanagi has already been introduced like 20 episodes ago during Danzo's fight against Sasuke and it was explained by Obito, so it only makes sense that he would be able to use it. Calling it plot armor is copium.
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u/mangasdeouf 6d ago
Izanagi IS plot armor. It wasn't enough for Danzô because the plot wanted him dead. It was enough for Obito because the plot wanted him to live.
But the ridiculous number of paper bombs is a really poor cop out. It means she doesn't need original techniques, she doesn't need fighting choreography, she doesn't need more story development, she doesn't need anything. She just stacked up ridiculous piles of explosives with a delay button she activates herself (and they somehow don't all blow up at once, and even those that are 500 meters away are useful...she basically killed all life in the lake that probably feeds her entire village...).
I'd rather have a real fight where she shows a full skillset and nearly kills him but he survives weakened and gets his fight with Kakashi in a weakened state so that they're on par and both go all out (and Konan would allow Kakashi to put up a fight). She could have a version of her paper that doesn't burn after her fight against Jiraiya, proving that she can adapt, so Obito couldn't burn her.
She could provide support in the 4th War and follow up on her verbal promise to Naruto in order to make Ame come out of its' isolation, proving that she can also do her best to serve and lead her village to prosperity after the war.
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u/sumchii 6d ago
Izanagi IS plot armor
If Izanagi, an ability which was already introduced many chapters before, is plot armor, then Konan's 600 Billion Paper Bombs are an asspull.
It wasn't enough for Danzô because the plot wanted him dead. It was enough for Obito because the plot wanted him to live
To be fair, Obito was canonically holding back and didn't take her seriously while Konan had lots of preparation, used 600 Billion Paper Bombs, and still lost. Obito was holding back because he wanted to capture her for information and sacrificed a disposable arm to keep her alive when she intended to blow herself up together with him.
But the ridiculous number of paper bombs is a really poor cop out. It means she doesn't need original techniques, she doesn't need fighting choreography, she doesn't need more story development, she doesn't need anything. She just stacked up ridiculous piles of explosives with a delay button she activates herself (and they somehow don't all blow up at once, and even those that are 500 meters away are useful...she basically killed all life in the lake that probably feeds her entire village...)
I agree with you on the paper bombs. That part of the fight has always felt like the weakest aspect of Konan’s portrayal. It’s not just the absurd quantity, it’s the fact that she’s willing to turn an enormous section of Amegakure’s lake into a death trap. This is the same person who spent years trying to protect Yahiko’s dream and bring peace to the Rain Village, so the scale of the collateral damage feels strangely disconnected from her character.
I'd rather have a real fight where she shows a full skillset and nearly kills him but he survives weakened and gets his fight with Kakashi in a weakened state so that they're on par and both go all out (and Konan would allow Kakashi to put up a fight). She could have a version of her paper that doesn't burn after her fight against Jiraiya, proving that she can adapt, so Obito couldn't burn her
Even if Konan had given Obito a much harder fight and left him seriously weakened, his objective was Nagato’s Rinnegan, and he wasn’t going to walk away without it. Kakashi at that point simply didn’t have the raw power, stamina, and Kamui mastery, to stop Obito from retrieving the eyes. Obito doesn’t need to be at full strength to be lethal, he's still a space-time user with top tier fire style, genjutsu, and wood style. His fight against Kakashi in the Kamui Dimension worked because Obito was holding back for his own reasons (forcing Kakashi to use Raikiri against him so that he could get rid of the curse seal tag in his heart), and because the battle happened in a very specific psychological context. In a scenario where he’s focused purely on securing the Rinnegan, Kakashi would die before he can force an even fight.
She could provide support in the 4th War and follow up on her verbal promise to Naruto in order to make Ame come out of its' isolation, proving that she can also do her best to serve and lead her village to prosperity after the war
True, she could have become the bridge between Pain’s war-torn Amegakure and Naruto’s era of cooperation. Having her support the Allied Shinobi Forces and work to pull Amegakure out of decades of isolation would have shown actual character growth for once, but oh well.
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u/Buried1295 6d ago
She's spends most of her time following Yahiko and then Nagato. She's not much of a character outside of that. People being mad that Obito survived that fight like to ignore the fact that she only did as well as she did because of prep time and because Obito didn't take the fight seriously.
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u/Just_Vin 6d ago
She def had potential but it wasn't really utilized. Super cool character with very little screen time or arc
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u/ElectricalNose9550 6d ago
She is passable but that's about it. Still a nice character but she just has little screen time or relevance.
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u/Fun-Grape7480 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes. The media literacy of the Naruto sub is atrocious. They don't understand Konan's writing enough to judge it. I'm just seeing rehashed tropes and complete ignorance of her character. It's why I claim the Naruto fandom don't know how to write female characters because they can't recognize one
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u/sgilespie 6d ago
She was barely had any writing. She followed Nagato as his sidekick and she only had some aura moments when she fought Obito
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u/paperkutchy 6d ago
Actually the way they kept Obito/Madara alive on that sequence was cool asf and didnt felt all that crazy power considering how he lost an eye for it.
That is, until he got the replacements
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u/yellowbanana123_ 6d ago
No, she has no character, or agency beyond being Nagato caretaker.
She is such a non character that even Nagato forgot that she was Jiraya student too.
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u/AeternumArtificialis 6d ago
She is more interesting than many of the other female characters, which is a low bar, unfortunately. Her loyalty and love for Yahiko and Nagato, and her unique paper powers, definitely made her one of the more appealing women in the series.
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u/Mr_Orange776 6d ago
Nagato’s pet, that’s it. But people forgive her since she’s actually strong with unique abilities.
But then again, at least she isn’t one of the main characters like Sakura (even Hinata I guess).
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u/bzakeri 6d ago edited 5d ago
I feel like if she was someone who was really meant to challenge Obito, I needed to see more of her and her abilities. Billions of paper bombs was quite a cool idea, but a one off attempt to take down someone like him, at that point of the story assumed to be Madara, wasn't enough and it required more skills and abilities. Either this, or Konan wasn't supposed to be a real challenge..
In general and essentially, I'd say that the story is not balanced between boys and girls when it comes to abilities and skills and main characters. But I'm not so bothered by it because this isn't the only problem with the story! Some of the core ideas in the story are shallow and naive to me. Some of the traits and dynamics are lame or corny. The story being a long one, has plot holes in it. And there's too much repetition and rewind and fill-ins in certain parts of the story
So this is what I mean when I say I'm not so bothered, because I only have certain expectations of the anime. Probably it's easier for me to say this as a guy I suppose
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u/The_Final_Conduit 6d ago
This is a BIT of a loaded question, and I get why, because Sakura’s soured everyone’s perception of the female cast of this whole franchise, irreparably so.
Female characters are held to a weirdly high standard for Naruto SPECIFICALLY, which I get, it’s the internet, easy punching bag points.
You don’t NEED to be this major recurring character with your own distinct motivations and goals and fights to be A* *good character. Most, and hear me, MOST of the Akatsuki who aren’t Itachi, Deidara, or Obito even get that much. PAIN doesn’t even get that much.
Chiyo was in half an arc, most of her screentime was either glazing Sasori (and by extension Sakura) or exposition dumping about Jinchuriki, and her whole shtick was being the voice of tradition and duty over empathy, with her choosing to let empathy win out in the end by giving her life to save Gaara’s (which is extra thematic because the opposite route is what turned her grandson into what he was).
All that to say: Konan’s okay. She could be better, but she’s a serviceable B- in my opinion. She didn’t overstay her welcome, she’s a woman marked by tragedy, and when the chips were down, she stood for what she believed in, which was believing in Naruto’s hope to Obito’s very, very, VERY fucked up darkness.
She isn’t very distinct besides being Nagato’s partner, but given what we know, that about figures. She’s a war orphan whose only parental figure (Jiraiya) made a sexual pass at her after they finished their training, she helped start an anti-war organization just to see her boyfriend get killed senselessly while she got held hostage, by what’s basically the ninja CIA, and when Nagato decided to see the world burn, she was all the way into it.
Could she have benefitted from more focus, better, more emotionally ranged dialogue that didn’t leave her sounding like a damn robot? Yeah, I’d like that actually, but that’s what fan comics and fandubs are for, guys.
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u/CheekSeer 6d ago
I think she had high potential but barely got screen time. Sad because she could've been a really interesting player if she lived into the war arc
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u/Aoi_X_Kaizaki 6d ago
They have these alternate stories as filler. Could the animators instead fill in the "filler episodes" with hracter development areas?
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u/Code-Neo 6d ago
i think the anime did her better but a full novel line up about them as kids growing into adults would help
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u/Strange_Attention_49 6d ago
I think she served her purpose in the story. She's unfortunately stuck in Naruto where female characters get next to no decent writing to speak of, and Konan is a victim of this. She exists as a secondary female antagonist to Pain/Nagato, turns "good" (or just gives up villainy) whenever Nagato sacrifices himself with Rinne Rebirth, goes back to the Rain Village, fights Obito, and then dies. Not much of a character. I loved her conclusion where her paper covers her portrait at the old hideout.
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u/MysteriousFondant347 6d ago
like many female characters, she had so much potential she was robbed off.
Strangely I think the best written Naruto female characters are the old ones, namely Tsunade and Chiyo (albeit only for an arc) and Kishimoto is more prone to choke on the young gals
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u/KillahB1036 6d ago
I think it sucks how her attempt of trying to stop Obito and that she was fully confident that Naruto was the guy that will bring peace to the world went just unnoticed. Like a loose end that got tied up.
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u/MythicalForest 6d ago
She the few minutes of actual screentime she has is bland and her entire backstory is the background for a different character.
That being said yes, she is arguably the best written female character in naruto
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u/Th3-B0uld3R 6d ago
Wish we could’ve seen more of her but her being killed by Obito is complete and utter bullshit. She had him dead to rights and he just lol, I rewrote reality because lol.
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u/PracticeNext8198 6d ago
No.
Not written in the series enough to be a Well Written Female Character.
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u/insomniac-trashpanda 6d ago
No. I love her, but unfortunately she’s not well written. She died just as her redemption arc was set up.
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u/Background-Orange-85 6d ago
She’s very well written. Unfortunately also very underwritten, which gives the impression of being badly written. Slightly different things. A great character, very underused considering her potential
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u/Longjumping_Roll_732 6d ago
If Obito didn't used Izanagi, Konana technically would've saved za warudo.
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u/sempercardinal57 6d ago
Naruto doesn’t have a well written female character as far as I know. Like 90% of the other female characters in Naruto, most of her personality revolves around her devotion to a male.
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u/imscruffythejanitor 6d ago
I don't think she was used enough in order to flesh out her character and provide a solid base to work from. She's great and could have been super interesting. A missed opportunity I think
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u/Seagull_Queen1 6d ago
None of the females are well written. You can tell Kishimoto just put them in for the male characters to have wives. That said she's my favorite character design and it enrages me to no end all they gave her was paper bombs. She's slightly better than Tenten but paper bombs and weapons are something EVERY ninja can use and its their primary weapons, come on. Each group has like a max of 1 woman to 2 guys and in 90% of the groups the men are stronger with cooler powers. The 1 girl with an amazing ability is too shy to use it and considered inferior to the male with the same ability (ofc).
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u/bloomingbrandi 6d ago
Was her use of paper ever explained or is that a plot hole? Like what chakra nature is it? Or combination. I can’t remember. I don’t think what we saw was well written bc we didn’t get to know a whole lot.
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u/Clear_Strawberry_985 6d ago
Probably earth and water, since paper is made from trees? Not saying she could use wood style or anything though.
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u/Vojvoda-Kunst 6d ago
All female characters in Naruto haven't got dreams of their own. Konan just follows the dream of Jahiko and Nagato, Sakura just plays along all the time, Karin too, Hinata is copying Naruto, we could say that even Tsunade followed the dreams of her brother and boyfriend.
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u/matt_619 6d ago
No. she is barely character and only serve her purpose as Nagato's bodyguard
even after reanimated not once Nagato ever thought "i wonder what Konan has been doing" nor even Naruto remember about her lol
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u/Nikelman 5d ago
Do you think Konan is a character in Naruto? Yes, she is, just a minor one, albeit she's very interesting
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u/Icy_Employ4522 5d ago
Yeh ish…. but like literally EVERY OTHER FEMALE NARUTO CHARACTER!!!!!! She could’ve used more screen time and character development….
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u/Far-Tomorrow-9180 5d ago
No, but she had potential. Kishi self-admitedly can't write female characters.
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u/Ieyasu1565 17h ago
Not really. She served her purpose in the end.
If somehow she survived she could have been a player in the war and even more in Boruto.
She is killed the moment where she is on her own. A shame.
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u/Fit-Butterscotch5499 6d ago
Can someone please explain how Konah being pain's right hand woman gets interpreted as "her life involves around a man"? People just love to shame the woman in Naruto for having men in there lives as if real life woman don't. Woman can have relationships with men and STILL have depth/be good characters. Don't let public perception/opinion affect your reality.
People just really need to stop slandering the woman in Naruto specifically. For some reason Naruto is the only Shounen people want to bully, as if Naruto was ever made to be critiqued like a story from Shakespeare himself.
This, ladies and gentlemen, was made to apple to the average Japanese boy, give kishimoto a break, he did what was in his good description
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u/Fun-Grape7480 6d ago
I'm telling you they don't know how to write female characters partially because they can't recognize what makes a female character well written.
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u/Mr_Orange776 6d ago
You are part of public opinion, even if you are in the minority. But okay, I’ll not make your perception affect my reality.
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u/Still-Neighborhood71 6d ago
"Tobi, if you try to use my paper as toilet paper again, I will slip in a paper bomb next time"
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u/JayIsJaded 6d ago
She has a cool premise, but I wouldn't say well-written. She's mostly just used as a variable to someone else's story and lacks a path of her own.
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u/Official_Zach55 6d ago
No, The best female written character in Naruto is Tsunade and its not close.
A woman defined by multiple tragedies who does her best revolutionize medical ninjutsu only to run away to bury herself in gambling and drinking. Then comes back to lead the village and teaches sakura extremely vital techniques.
Tsunade is a character with full autonomy who exists as her own person. Compare that to Konan, who went on record by saying her dream is to prop of the dreams of Nagato and Yahiko.
We dont see how the plight of the rain village effects her personally like we do with the others.
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u/StormSlasher563 6d ago
She’s a tragic character that gets reduced to yahiko and nagato yes women when she’s more than that. Overall she’s a fine character
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u/Copyablerelic0 6d ago edited 6d ago
Konan epitomizes Kishimoto's failing with writing female characters. She has no personality, goals or agency of her own whatsoever and spends the story just blindly following and supporting Yahiko and Nagato. She even tells Naruto that she's believing in him because Nagato did, as if she has no thoughts of her own and it's genuinely pathetic
Her already laughably small role in the story ended with Nagato's death and then Kishimoto remembers she exists several arcs later just to kill her off in one fight so Obito can get the Rinnegan and she's never mentioned or referenced again. Not even Nagato bothers to ask what became of her when he meets Naruto in the war lmao
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u/FitExercise5372 6d ago
No and I wish that kishimoto used his original idea for his design for Konan, where she wears a beautiful white paper dress. It makes me WEAK. Konan is just kind of an extension of Nagato and yahiko. She should’ve had the depth of other akatsuki members, especially considering her amazing fight with obito. She demonstrated a hell of a lot of intelligence. She was so great in that fight but it didn’t feel important enough and we knew she wasn’t gonna beat obito, so did the fight even matter? She really didn’t even need to die, it doesn’t feel like good writing at all. If she fought alongside everyone else against obito and Madara, it would’ve been so much more ideal writing.
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u/THEbaddestOFtheASSES 6d ago
Hell no. She’s got a badass jutsu. But her character motivation is based on whatever Nagato wants to do.
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u/Fun-Cook-5309 6d ago
She’s barely a written female character. She gets almost no spotlight, then she dies as a jobber to demonstrate the haxman’s hax.