Sakura's Narutop99 third place rank has done nothing to protect her from Naruto fans

As the tritagonist of the Naruto series, Sakura Haruno is one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise. Despite her importance in the story, her character has polarized both the Naruto and Boruto fandoms, who continue to debate her usefulness.

It goes without saying that fans frequently go overboard in their hatred for Sakura, labeling her as simply 'insignificant'. While this sentiment mostly stems from her character's portrayal during the early parts of the series, fans all over the world continue to degrade Sakura to this day, in spite of her high ranking in the latest Narutop99 popularity poll.

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Naruto: Why Sakura's Narutop99 ranking changed nothing for her online reputation

Sakura Haruno is, without a doubt, one of the most integral parts of Masashi Kishimoto's magnum opus. While it is certainly true that she may not have created the best first impression of her character among the fans, she did gradually improve herself and proved to be an irreplaceable part of the series.

A great deal of the animosity toward Sakura's character stems from the series' early days, when some may have thought she was annoying or downright intolerable. This reputation can be attributed to her arrogant personality as a kid and her poor treatment of Naruto Uzumaki.

On one occasion, she even mocked the latter for being an orphan, which is something that fans still haven't forgiven to this day. Additionally, she wasn't exactly the most capable shinobi in her earlier days and often relied on others when facing hurdles.

Sakura Haruno as seen in the anime (image via Pierrot)

That said, as the series progressed, Sakura gradually managed to improve her capabilities and developed certain skills that were hard to replicate. After the Fourth Great Ninja War, she took after Tsunade and became a remarkable medical shinobi, whose skills and proficiency in the medical field surpassed even the capabilities of the latter. Additionally, she eventually became exceptionally strong and was adept in hand-to-hand combat as well.

Sakura's character had undoubtedly progressed a lot throughout Naruto: Shippuden, irrespective of fans' acknowledgment. While she may not exactly be as strong as Sasuke or Naruto himself, Sakura has indeed come a long way from the person she used to be at the beginning of the series. As such, her popularity among the fans skyrocketed in no time.

Sakura recently ranked third in the Narutop99 popularity poll, which determines the popularity of the characters worldwide. This was certainly an impressive feat for her character, as it serves as a testament to just how popular and beloved she is among fans all over the world.

Despite this, many fans online continue to reject Sakura's growth as a character and stick to their initial hatred. A lot of them fail to recognize the development her character has gone through since then, as she is no longer the 'useless' shinobi who barely does anything independently.

Online discussions regarding Sakura remain unchanged to this day, as a major portion of the anime's online fanbase belittles her without any good reason.

Despite all her achievements, both in and out of the anime, as evidenced by her popularity poll ranking, the arguments and sentiments regarding her presence in the series remain constant among the fans. With time, however, one can only hope that fans will eventually change their opinion of Sakura's character.

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Related Links:

Top 5 Sakura Haruno moments that had fans in awe

5 things Sakura deserves the hate for (& 5 things that aren't justified)

3 times Sakura Haruno was useless (and 3 times she was not)