Subject: Uzumaki Naruto

Culture: Japanese otaku

Setting: Naruto / Ninja World

Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)

* Turnbull 2017 p5-6

"The world of both good and bad ninja can be dark and violent, although the action tends to stay within physical limitations, give or take a few somersaults. The benchmark black-clad ninja is therefore essentially human, so it is not at all difficult to identify parallels between what ninja do in the movies and what certainly went on many centuries ago. Yet fantasy is never far away, because there appears to have long been a tacit understanding that if the benchmark ninja is a creature of the imagination, then the addition of a few superhuman elements will be fully acceptable to one's readers and viewers. Thus it was that in 1958 Yamada Futarō's influential novel Kōka Ninpōchō created a painstakingly accurate historical environment in which superhuman ninja could transform their hair into porcupine quills and use them as weapons.

"A different development has been to abandon the visual shorthand of the benchmark ninja's black costume for a punk outfit or a space suit to produce a completely outrageous figure who suffers no restrictions, physical or otherwise. One example is the character called Naruto from the manga series of the same name who dresses in a bright orange jumpsuit. He is referred to as a ninja, but all the old visual clues have disappeared completely."

Costume