Shonen anime is full of many wonderful and imaginative abilities that may or may not be based off of plot established power systems. And for me, these abilities were one of the main reasons why I even got into Shonen. If you look at HunterxHunter, Dragon Ball Z, or Bleach, you will find a diverse set of ways for characters to fight or solve problems. In Naruto, many such powers exist but the one I’d like to look at is the frightening glare of the Uchiha Clan, the Sharingan.

The Sharingan was introduced very early on in the manga at chapter 12 in the first major arc. Ever since it’s introduction it had fascinated the readers and the characters alike. Personally, the appeal was in it’s simple, yet intimidating design. When it was brought out, you knew things were getting serious and you have to admit, Sasuke looked pretty awesome when he rocked it. It was a likable ability. That’s why I think it’s pretty unfortunate how it was treated by Kishimoto as the story went on.

In Part I of Naruto, the Sharingan started off as a simple, consistent, yet interesting ability that was narratively used to help develop Sasuke. However, as the story progressed into Naruto Shippuden, it turned into an overused and overpowered technique that ultimately retracted from the plot. I know, harsh words. But hear me out.

If we focus only on the Sharingan of the first Naruto manga and anime, it’s evidently a very easy to understand technique that focused primarily on increasing the perception of the user. There were three main abilities it granted:

Allow user to see chakra

Increase the “visual prowess” of the user (think seeing things in slow-mo and predicting movement)

Copy ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu techniques

The third ability is in all honesty probably just a result of combining the other two abilities, but we’ll say it has three for now.

Sasuke’s immature Sharingan in Part I

By the end of Part I, we were also given the information that an ultimate form existed, the Mangekyo Sharingan. In my opinion, this is where the problems started, though by this point, from what the audience knew, it was still a fine technique. At the time, it seemed to give its wielder access to two more powerful techniques, Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu. One was an incredibly powerful genjutsu that put a high class Jonin like Kakashi out for days and the other was a mysterious ninjutsu that summoned black flames which would completely consume its target, which albeit, was kind of unrelated to the whole eye motif.

The other main reason the Sharingan stood out to me as a notable ability was because of how strong a role it played plot-wise in establishing character relationships around Sasuke. The simplest example of this was a direct common connection that it automatically formed between Sasuke and Itachi in Part I. It served as a symbol of their familial relationship. However, Kishimoto went beyond that and even used it to convey just how intensely Sasuke despised his brother. When he opted to spare Naruto’s life in the Valley of the End, Sasuke declined the Mangekyo Sharingan. This was Sasuke rebelliously rejecting Itachi’s ideals (or the ideals Sasuke thought Itachi had at the time). And in all of this, the Sharingan was the medium that was used to show this rejection. That’s why the this is an amazing ability. Because it’s an interesting power that’s used to help make the character stronger and more developed.

Itachi wasn’t the only relationship the Sharingan helped solidify for Sasuke though. Kakashi had a much stronger bond with Sasuke in Part I than with either of his other two genin, and part of that can be attributed to the Sharingan. He was the only one who could really teach him. Not to mention Chidori oh so conveniently could only be used by a Sharingan user effectively because it would be too dangerous otherwise. One could also make a case for Orochimaru being another relationship through the Sharingan, but I think I’ve made my point by now.

So, what went wrong for the Sharingan? And where? And why? I think for the most part, it was a great technique to introduce in Part I. It had lore, introduced relationships amongst main characters, and wasn’t overpowered enough to be a decisive victory in a battle.

Though I already mentioned this, I think it’s when the Mangekyo Sharingan was introduced, that things took a little turn. Specifically, what really bugged me was how in Shippuden, the Kishimoto reveals that each Mangekyo user could get their own individual abilities. Now, that’s not bad per se when done correctly. The way Kishimoto expanded on it though, was not ideal.

Itachi’s eyes awakened two techniques as stated before. Sasuke’s eyes also awakened two techniques from his Mangekyo. Kakashi/Obito’s eyes awakened only one. As did Shisui’s. We don’t even know how many techniques Madara had from his. I’m personally not a fan of this inconsistency in what techniques awaken and how many. As an author, one shouldn’t keep their audience guessing on how an ability transforms because that leads to a distrust. For all we know, Kishimoto might then introduce another Uchiha that awakened 5 abilities from the Mangekyo. There should be a reason, right? Or an explanation as to why some awaken more than others? But there isn’t as far as I know.

And it’s not just the number of abilities that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, some of the abilities themselves don’t match the whole eye motif going on. The original Sharingan was an ability of the eyes, and that’s exactly what it improved: eyesight and perception. The Genjutsu abilities of the Mangekyo I can deal with, however both Tsukuyomi and Kotoamatsukami (Shisui’s Mangekyo ability) are VERY overpowered. What I can’t say I like are abilities like Amaterasu and Kamui which don’t have much to do with” eyes” in general. And don’t even get me started on Susanoo’. You can make an argument that they’re controlled by directing the user’s gaze, but I think it still could have been done better.

Amaterasu especially could have had a lot more potential from a story writing perspective. It could have been its own string of fire style jutsus instead of an ability. Perhaps Kishimoto could have written it such that the Uchiha, who are proficient in Fire Style, might have developed their own brand of Black Fire Style jutsus. This way the Uchiha name is known throughout the villages not only for a singular reason (the Sharingan). It would have allowed the Sharingan to be an ability that focused on eyesight, and possibly illusions, while expanding on the Uchiha’s mastery of Fire Style. That’s also not to mention how cool black-colored equivalents of the regular Fire Style jutsus might have looked.

Sasuke using Amaterasu on the eight tails Hachibi

But even stepping away from the Mangekyo, we can still talk about how the 3-tomoe plain old Sharingan was further ruined by Shippuden. You can probably tell from my writing, I don’t like how strong and overpowered the Sharingan became as the story progressed, and this was mostly evidenced by the abilities individuals awakened from the Mangekyo. They were just too strong. However, the Mangekyo at least came with a suitable draw back in that it would slowly cause the user to go blind. There were two jutsus that were introduced in Shippuden that were so overpowered that even their drawbacks didn’t justify them: Izanagi and Izanami.

These abilities ruined the Sharingan further because these could be used by any Uchiha, and given what they can do, it makes the Uchiha clan simply too powerful from a story writing perspective. I won’t even focus on Izanami too much because that ability is far too complex mechanically but long story short, it traps the victim in a loop until the victim accepts his or her fate. Izanagi is the real culprit here. It essentially allows one to cheat death. With it, the caster can remove mortal wounds as if they had never occurred. It turns an illusion of escape into reality. And the only is blindness of the eye that casts it.

Wait what? The entire Uchiha clan can literally undo death once and still have an above average eye left over to fight with. It was even mentioned in the manga that the Uchiha began to abuse Izanagi, which I completely understand. From a narrative standpoint, the Uchiha are far more powerful than almost any other clan with this ability. And, even normal people who’ve obtained an implanted Sharingan have access to these techniques as shown by Danzo, though he did have to jump through a few hoops to get Izanagi to work properly. Once you have a little Senju DNA though, you’ll be good to go.

Why didn’t Obito implant himself with another Sharingan from his stash before he went to war? It would have given him one free death he could erase if he needed it. Why didn’t Danzo use Izanagi with Shisui’s eye during his final moments? Instead of self-destructing, he might have gotten away. Or even better, he could have self-destructed and then used Izanagi to come back and try to make an escape. In this situation, even if he still gets caught after trying to escape, Tobi still can’t have Shisui’s eye.

Danzo sacrifices himself in order to prevent Tobi from getting Shisui’s eye

I think it’s safe to say that I’m done now. Perhaps it was because Naruto was one of my first animes that I was drawn to the Sharingan since I hadn’t seen anything like it before. Or maybe it was because of Sasuke that I was interested in it. Regardless the reason, it was a great ability in the beginning. However, as the story went on, I can’t help but say that it ceased being great.

There comes a point where one ability can become too much, especially in some of these shonen battle manga. Instead of allowing the Sharingan to remain a consistent, small-scale powerup for the Uchiha, Kishimoto tried to evolve it into something far too big. He instead could have devoted more time to developing other techniques that could have raised the reputation of the Uchiha such as Fire Style or more Shuriken jutsus. Had he left it a simple ability and divided out the techniques of the Mangekyo into their own jutsus or abilities, I might have had more appreciation for Sasuke’s powerset.

That said, I think it was still fun to read how it evolved. And how Kishimoto took a concept he introduced so early in the manga and transformed it into a very core part of the lore of the story. Others may feel differently and they’re free to. This was all my opinion and I’m sure many will disagree with me. In the end, let’s all just enjoy the story and how it played out.

Thanks for reading!