Summary
- Eight inner gates made taijutsu cool & hyped, but was ultimately underexplored.
- The narrative scope of Naruto shifted to unique powers which led to taijutsu techniques being sidelined.
- Eight inner gates could have been utilized more creatively if combined with other ninja techniques.
The eight inner gates techniques were some of the coolest parts of early Naruto. While shinobi were running around with tailed beast monsters inside them and flashy jutsu, there was an ultimate technique for taijutsu that made it just as viable as the other combat styles. The hype surrounding the eight inner gates techniques reached a fever pitch during Rock Lee’s fight with Gaara. For the first time in the series, we really got an intense, speedy fight that looked more like it belonged in Dragon Ball Z than Naruto.
Our hype was further confirmed by explanations from characters like Kakashi, who promised that someone who used the eight inner gates techniques could surpass even the Hokage in power. With all this hype, it’s a shame that the eight inner gates and taijutsu techniques as a whole were underexplored through the rest of the show. But why was this the case when the show had no problem setting the stage for these chakra-infused abilities early on?
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The Story Scope Changed After The Beginning
How A Need For A Grand Narrative Ruined Some Aspects of the Show
One reason that certain techniques that anyone could use fell by the wayside as the series went on was because the story's scope began to zoom out. In the beginning, the story focused on a small group of genin as they rose through the ranks of the ninja world, with becoming Hokage the seeming end goal.
My motto is to be stronger than yesterday, if I have to I'll be stronger than half a day ago, even a minute ago!
However, as the story continued to expand, it shifted from this smaller focus to encompass the entire history of the world and its origins. This shift increasingly introduced the concept that unique powers were all that mattered. A relevant character could no longer just be a guy who learned ninja techniques; they needed to have mastered a unique, once-in-a-lifetime power to keep up with the strength levels and world-building. In this way, characters had to be descendants of clans, related to powerful historical characters, or have otherworldly origins.
This left little room for something as banal as taijutsu fighting styles and the eight inner gates that anyone could theoretically learn. This was further compounded by the importance Naruto and Sasuke had to play in the story as children of prophecy and the descendants of Ashura and Indra. The eight inner gates shifted from the pinnacle of taijutsu forbidden techniques to a power nearly exclusively used by Might Guy. The hidden lotus style was essentially remade to be Might Guy’s unique power to keep up with the other unique powers in the story.
Naruto: Are Naruto and Tsunade Related By Blood?
The fifth and seventh Hokage are definitely distant relatives,, but their lineages may be closer than expected.
What Could Have Been Done Differently
How The Eight Inner Gates Could Have Worked
Eventually, in Naruto, taijutsu and even genjutsu took a back seat to ninjutsu techniques as the standard power showcased on screen. If the ninja combat trio of these techniques had been allowed to persist longer, we could have seen how the eight inner gates could have been combined with these other styles to produce interesting results. Imagine if certain ninjutsu gained special properties when it combined with the eight inner gates.
A failure will win even at the cost of their own life!
Unfortunately, the costs introduced to the eight inner gates made it worth using only for someone who focused exclusively on taijutsu. By comparison, many ninjutsu techniques of the same power level had hardly the same level of cost associated with their powers. While some of the higher-end techniques we see in the show have immense cost, the plot always seems to find a way around them. It’s a shame we never got a workaround for the cost of the eight inner gates because we might have been able to see more applications for it.
Naruto can be streamed on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
- Release Date
- October 2, 2002
- Network
- Adult Swim
A popular shonen anime based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga, Naruto follows its eponymous shinobi's journey as he goes from his town's outsider to its hero.
