Okay so the Warring Clan Era is based off the Warring State Era from Japan. Does they rest of the story reflect any particular era of Japan or do you think that it’s a combination of some eras in certain places of the story? Like does Part 1or 2 reflect a certain era or do certain villages reflect different eras?

fineillsignup:

I think Kishimoto wanted a world that was low-tech–his views on guns and airplanes in particular are well-known, being two things he cited would ruin the atmosphere. The Japanese population today is very urban, but Naruto is almost entirely composed of little villages surrounded by wilderness; we don’t even usually see farms. So it has a folk-lorish quality.

At the same time, the society is very contemporary Japan, or at least contemporary Japan for Kishimoto’s youth:

• tiny family sizes
• women are ostensibly equal but not at all equal in practice
• in particular, when you marry and have a kid you are a housewife. period.
• crazily overworked dads who are dead inside
• big emphasis on ranks and exams

Bor//uto is like contemporary Japan even more, with the urbanization; what’s more, Bor//uto strikes me as the parental generation justifying a lot of the toxic aspects of the Japanese culture of overwork to children. Accept that your father is never there. Embrace that your father prioritizes his work over you–his work is so important! Forgive your father for being unable to support you. (And that’s just Naruto and Sasuke–I don’t even want to get into the appalling matter of Snakebert and Mitsuki.)

So I would say that the Naruto world is basically contemporary Japan with some storybook window dressing.