Harry Potter vs Naruto

Odd topic choice, right? Harry Potter, the British wizard who defeated the Dark Lord, vs Naruto, the future Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village? Is this even a contest? No, not really. I'm just comparing them at the moment. Don't worry. You can attack the comment section later. Now, I selected these two is because they are very similar in certain ways. They came out around the same time, have similar styles to them, and their story-lines have a similar way of handling situations.

Now, I bet you're getting ready to go on Google and search which one came first. Well, Harry Potter was first published in 1997 as was Naruto. So they have that in common. The protagonist has two sidekicks; one male and one female. They both have that too. As they get older they face more and more threats, each worse than the last, until they encounter their true villain. Check and check. They both have the same style, right? Yeah, pretty much. Their characters are where they differ, plus I will talk about most of everything in both series, so... **SPOILER ALERT**

Let's talk Harry James Potter v. Naruto Uzumaki. What makes them similar? They grew up without parents, they are hated by certain people, when they start their training (wizard and ninja) neither is really good at it at first, etc. We'll get into more in a bit. Now, yes, they did grow up without parents, BUT Harry did have his parents for a year of his life. Naruto did not. His mother gave birth to him, was taken by Obito, and ends up dying alongside her husband to give their son his best chance. This is important since Harry uses his parent's memory for his Patronus. That's a big deal in his case. The whole "You look like your father, but you have your mother's eyes" thing was a big deal. That's mostly why Snape protects Harry. Because he's half of Lily. In all fairness, can we really compare their early childhoods? You bet I will!

All right, so Harry grew up with the Dursleys being assholes to him all the time. He was taught to cook for them, bring them the post, clean up after them, etc. So basically his ass was Cinderella without the Prince Charming. Naruto, well, he grew up alone. Literally, alone in his apartment with milk and ramen. The people in his village hated him to the point where they would keep their children away from him as a child. Mind you, in the real world, our parents just tell us to suck it up and 'try to see the good in them' BS. You would think they would let them (with the exclusions of Shikamaru, Choji, Iruka-sensei, and Kiba) play or be friends with him. It broke my heart (Mind you, I never like the first series of Naruto, but I do like Shippuden). It showed Naruto alone with pretty much no one, and still he had a smile on his face.

For Harry, and this is going into his school years, he needed his friends around for him to feel complete. You can see him starting to unravel as time goes on and he's alone. He's not an established person when he's alone, and it takes time for him to really strengthen himself on that. Actually, now that I think about it, he never truly does. He never reaches a point where he has to stand on his own with no one there (I guess you could count at the end when he chooses to sacrifice himself to Voldemort, but even then it doesn't hold its weight in it). Naruto does. A majority of his life is spent alone. He often shows how he feels when he's alone. And it's interesting. It shows you he has more than anger when he's alone. When it's Harry, you can start to really see the damage that the abuse has caused him throughout the series, and in the movies. It's subtle, and I like the fact that you can really see it at face value. Now, let's talk about their sidekicks.

We've got Hermione and Ron (H&R) vs. Sakura and Sasuke (S&S). Can you imagine a real fight between them? Honestly, my bet is on S&S. H&R are great, and I do love that they fall in love throughout the books, but their asses would be handed to them by just Sasuke alone. Now, let's talk about Ron vs Sasuke first. Ron is the youngest of five brothers and second youngest of seven children. So, you know, identity problems. Who am I? Where do I go from here? How do I make myself different from my siblings? Well, he doesn't really do anything to set himself apart. He's like an afterthought. He's good at chess, getting pissed off a lot, and busting Harry out of bad situations. So point there. He is a loyal friend.

Sasuke? Oh, Fire daimyo no (leader of the land of fire where they all live). Shit, he was a straight-up asshole to Naruto. Just because he was better. Now, he did have an older brother, Itachi, who killed his entire family and left him orphaned. So, yeah, he's pissed! Or emotionlessly annoyed? It's hard to tell sometimes. He leaves his village to get stronger, which prompts Naruto to get stronger to go after him multiple times. Sasuke fights his brother, and his brother dies (not even because of Sasuke. It was an illness that killed him). Then he decides that he wants to destroy the village after he learns the truth (the same village Itachi {his brother} was trying to protect) only for it to be destroyed by Pain. Then he joins the Akatsuki and hunts for Tailed Beasts (I'll get to that soon). Then he decides, while fighting the Fourth great ninja war, that he wants to be Hokage. You know because everyone is gonna vote for Sasuke Uchiha. No. What was that all about? Like, really Sasuke? This is not the time for a political move. So yeah. I mean, Ron only leaves once because he's worried about his family (and thinks Harry and Hermione are doing the Watusi), and acts like an asshole to Harry when Harry becomes a Triwizard champion. To be fair that's only out of jealousy. So, Better friend=Ron. Better Fighter=Sasuke.

Hermoine vs Sakura. This one is hard because Sakura isn't exactly written properly (Kishimoto admitted he's not good at writing females. Even though Tsunade has an amazing character arc). Hermoine has a great story. Born of muggles, raised as an only child, witch prodigy, smart, best of her year. The list goes on and on. Sakura is in between in almost everything, except medical ninjutsu and knowledge. It is sad because people shit on either her or Hinata when they both are great. She has incredible knowledge of ninjutsu, but she never uses it. The comparison is hard when they both are so different. Hermoine fights for her place in the Wizarding World, and Sakura fights for her place as a progeny of one of the Legendary Sanin.

Both are strong women with bad tempers as well as great healing abilities. Even their friendships are rock solid. Hermoine stayed with Harry even when she wanted to go with Ron, and Sakura stayed with Naruto even when she loved Sasuke. The biggest difference is in their romantic natures. Hermoine married Ron, because he was different and always there for her. She grew to love him over the years. Sakura loved Sasuke, but you could see that dwindle as time went on, and it felt as though they pity-married each other. So, I give the love life, intelligence, and overall character development to Hermione. Sakura has the strength and compassion, but she is so underutilized that she feels off. But she did help defeat an Akatsuki so there. I get why people don't like her, and it's mostly because of this.

Now, let's get into love interests. Ginny Weasley and Hinata Hyuga. Alright, on a personal level I always like Hinata more. She was compassionate, caring, and she always tried her best. She went against Pain knowing she wasn't going to win. Now, I'm not going to bash on Ginny even though the movies didn't portray her in the best way. In the books, she did fall for Harry since the beginning, and they got closer-ish as time went on. She is strong and loyal, with a fiery personality. Ginny has a lot that Hinata doesn't. They both grew up vastly different than each other, but end up rising to the challenge. For Hinata, she grew up protected and sheltered, but also trained to become the head of the family. The biggest difference is in how they were raised. Ginny grew up with six older brothers, so it makes sense that she would have her own stand out personality. Being the only girl also makes her have a reason to make herself different than her brothers. Her being so different than Hinata makes comparing them odd since they don't really share anything in common. This is really just neutral territory.

Alright so sidekicks, love interests, what else is there? Mentors! That's true! For Harry, it was McGonagall, Sirius, Lupin, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Snape, and many of his fellow students. Naruto had Iruka, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Yamato (the wood guy that filled in for Kakashi while he was injured). So Naruto didn't have as many, but we did see the impact they all had on him. When we lost Jiraiya (I say 'we' because, man, he was one of the best characters in that series!), you could see the deep pain in Naruto. You saw a proud and happy teen dive into a world of depression.

That's, also, an interesting thing to discuss. How depression is handled in these two series. Harry loses almost all his mentors except Hagrid and McGonagall. You seem him upset for Dumbledore, and even more so for Sirius, but in a way it's fleeting. There's always something else going on that takes more precedence. Even in the books, it's mostly Harry ignoring these feelings (which could be why Voldemort was able to manipulate him). It's more than a little odd.

These two have very big differences in those situations. Personally, I don't think Harry knows how to deal with those type of moments, and chooses to block them out. Which would make sense given how he's lived all his life. In the series of Naruto, you watch numerous people die, and each is handled in very different ways. Kakashi's death (which does happen. He is killed by one of the 6 {7} Paths of Pain) shows him in a purgatory state at a campfire with his deceased father. Even with Jiraiya, his arm is cut off, and he is mortally wounded, but chooses to drown himself in the water to avoid being resurrected in the future (I would assume that was his choice).

The biggest difference is that with Harry Potter, they stay dead, with the exclusion of the resurrection stone, but in Naruto, they can be brought back and controlled with the Reanimation Jutsu. If you've seen Naruto or Naruto Shippuden (I'm going to assume you have if you're reading this), then you have seen it happen multiple times. Even Nagato (the Seventh Pain, and creator of the Six Paths of Pain), uses a jutsu (Outer Path—Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique) to bring the dead back to life at the expense of almost all his chakra, but that could be due to the fact he is an Uzumaki descendant (technically the user is supposed to die in exchange).

To be fair, Harry Potter does take a more realistic approach to how death can happen without warning, and not always being able to say good-bye. Granted he does see Sirius, Dumbledore, Lupin, and his parents again with the stone, but this doesn't happen on its own. Even with magic, there are still limitations. Naruto does feature limitations as well. Overexerting chakra can cause blackouts and even death, and there are quite a lot of jutsu required for an exchange (especially if they are life and death). The Reaper Jutsu(s) (Dead Demon Consuming Seal Jutsu, as well as Dead Demon Consuming Seal Jutsu Release) is one that links the soul to a Shinigami that will consume the soul of the summoner, as well as the target. There's no magic like that in Harry Potter (though it would be a game changer if there was).

All right onto the biggest one; how the Main Character affects those around him. Let's start with Harry. He's a bit easier to explain (no offense. I'm a Potter fan myself. I'm just doing some comparisons. Feel free to debate in the comments.) Well, Harry does end up saving both the Wizarding World and the Muggle World (Side note, JK Rowling, if you're reading this; first off 'Hi, thank you for taking the time to read this, let me know how I did.' and second; why does the American side of the world call non-magical people No-Maj? Why? That's just weird and odd. Just call them all Muggles everywhere. Sorry, just a peeve of mine I had for a while). So you have to give him that. Naruto, well, he saves the planet from the alien who became the first wielder of chakra for the planet and along with his friends seals her back into the moon. Very different endings right?

While it is true they both saved their worlds, Naruto had a lot more to prove than Harry. Harry mostly had to prove that Voldemort was back—and he did. After that, people were either joining Voldey, or joining Harry (Or hiding). It was a two-sided battle. While Naruto's was two-sided, he had a lot to lose. All of his friends, and the rest of the world were possessed by the Infinite Tsukuyomi expect for him, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Obito (though he was dying). He faced a worse threat than Harry. I mean, Voldemort need followers, and Kaguya could just control them, with or without looking at them.

To be fair, Voldemort reminded me of a child who never received any love, and desperately wanted to be loved (Like Azula form ALTA). Maybe that's why he feared death. It was an end to everything he never knew, and with no one who loved him, he would have nothing. But he isn't a strong fighter. He doesn't use any abilities or strategies to defeat his enemies. Now, Kaguya doesn't much either, but she recognizes Naruto and Sasuke as reincarnations of her sons. She does try to reason with them. It doesn't work and it's weird, but, hey, she tried.

The point is when you see them, who would you be more threatened by? The alien who can control you, or the wizard who can just blast IF he can get a lock on you? Realistically. Even throughout Naruto, he and his comrades face people Harry wouldn't even want to dream of facing. The Akatsuki, Danzo, Orochimaru, Haku and Zabuza, Gaara, Neji, Obito, etc. The list can keep going, and with the exception of a few, he changed them for the better.

When you see him face people like Neji, Gaara, or even Sasuke, he still tries to get through to them. For the most part, he does. Gaara even notes how he wouldn't be the man he is without a friend like Naruto. Neji becomes a kinder person, and even sacrifices (I'm still pissed about this) himself for the village. Obito even laments how he wished he returned home after being confronted by Naruto. Shoot, he fights against the Pains and wins! On his own! Okay, Naruto fans, I know Konahamaru defeated one. Don't at me. I'm not going to get everything right. I'm trying. Villains in Naruto > villains in Harry Potter. In a fighting, methodical, storytelling, and technical sense.

I still didn't fully mention the important piece. Harry fought for the respect of his family, and really only ended up with Dudley respecting him (which I'm pretty sure he was cool with). Naruto fought for the respect of his village, as well as all the other villages in the Land of Fire. I mean, who can forget when he got down on his knees to beg the Fourth Raikage (Killer A {Non-Naruto fans that really is his name}) to spare Sasuke. Or when he got his ass beat, because he was friends with Sasuke and just took it. Come on! He was hated throughout his whole childhood! As he grew up, trained, did missions, and got stronger, the village began to care about him—wondering if he was okay, trying to help him after losing Jiraiya, hailing him a hero for defeating Pain, welcoming him back after his three years of training. These are just some of the things the village did for him. He, later on, becomes Hokage of the village. Harry becomes an Auror, and leads a pretty good life. Same with Naruto. Both have two kids, a boy and a girl.

So in the end, they are very similar and very different. Pitting them together doesn't exactly work. They're both great in their own ways. I hope that's what everyone reading this takes away from it. I'm not bashing one or the other. I love both. Neither are my favorite. That right goes to InuYasha, for anime, and Blue Bloods, and/or Vampire Kisses, for book series. Feel free to comment on what I should write about next. I'm eager for topics.

Thanks for reading!

Have a Great Day or Night, Lovelies!