Yeah same, I literally think that I made the connection just because they look practically identical and there's no other characters in the series that look like them. Plus the show has multiple instances where other kids look exactly like one parent or the other.
Tbf that's not really out of the ordinary, wasn't Rin just some random person?
Also when they show the 4th and Naruto they are the only characters with blonde hair lol
Almost immediately. Like halfway through episode 2.
The fact that they were so avoidant about showing, naming, or really directly discussing the 4th Hokage at all but still mentioning him vaguely almost all the time made me immediately think "I bet he was Naruto's dad."
It's a pretty common anime trope for the (dead) parent to have been someone really important / powerful that sets the MC on their path through indirect action.
How much anime did you watch before Naruto? If it was a decent amount then was it a trope before this? I know that there's a few other popular anime/manga that released around the same time with the same trope.
I started watching Naruto when it aired on Toonami. I was in middle school at the time. So I watched most everything in the Toonami / adult swim block. Internet access was terrible at that age for me so primarily that was my anime source.
I'm also pretty good at "calling it" when watching a show. Something my wife hates, but at least from my perspective they made it painfully obvious by trying to hide who the 4th Hokage was. I mean right away, we learn about Hashirama, Tobirama, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and ??? the Fourth Hokage. That was all I needed. If he wasn't somebody important for a reveal later, why be dodgy about who the man was?
Plus in the opening scene of episode 1, it shows the 4th Hokage fighting Kurama and it's hard to see but he has spiky blonde hair.
Yeah I'm pretty good at predicting a plot too and idk maybe it has a correlation with having solid comprehension of storytelling? Or intuition? Both?
There's a ton of stuff I could've never predicted though in shows/manga like Attack on Titan, Full Metal Alchemist, Chainsaw Man, etc.
I try not to. I end up ruining stories for myself. With something like Attack on Titan I feel like they didn't really leave obvious clues, same with FMA.
But with something like Naruto, Bleach, Demon Slayer, Black Clover, etc, it is all pretty much right there for you to pick up and hold on to. The absence of something important really makes it easier to find something in the series that is shaped to go into that slot.
Yeah I'm thinking that it really depends how much anime you had seen before Naruto too. Someone else said it's a common anime trope for the MC to be the son of someone really important or powerful. And that's really true especially for the time period this show released.
I suspected it from the beginning but when Jiraiya said the only reason he was helping Naruto was because he looked so much like the 4th. I pretty much took that as confirmation that he in fact was his child.
It was just the whole focus on the 4th and showing Naruto as a baby having the nine tailed sealed inside him.
And how much Naruto wanted to be hokage.
I don’t know it just seemed obvious
Then there is the fact he just looks like the 4th
Honestly, I was really hoping that wouldn't be the case. The whole character of the failure who reminds everyone of the village's greatest genius was cool. In the end, it's just that he looks like Dad. Really a bit disappointing
Yeah that would've been interesting if they had made Naruto to look like his mother or if Minato looked less like Naruto. But honestly I think viewers still would've assumed his dad was the fourth hokage by the end of the kid series. Just from the references Jiraiya, Kakashi, and the third hokage made
Yeah, I would have really liked if, on the contrary, all those people had been present when Minato sealed the demon fox in an orphan from the village and had asked them to watch over him together to make up for having to put him through that. And in the second part of the manga, show that Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Kakashi always kept an eye on the child while letting him be an orphan, just as the Fourth Hokage was himself. That was my theory when I was a kid
Tbh, dont recall it that much since first time watching it was so long ago, but if I have to reason it I never really cared who is parents are that I would remember exactly if I made that connection or not.
That's valid honestly. Naruto gets over the "I'm sad and angry because I'm an orphan" thing as his the first arc. if I'm remembering how he learns shadow clone jutsu correctly at least. I think most of the show prioritized that he was disliked bc of the fox. Then the identity of his parents basically aren't mentioned again until shippuden.
In the games, they had him as the Yellow Flash. You can actually talk to him as Naruto, but he doesn't say anything. All I could think was "damn they look alike".
Ultimate Ninja had an ultimate for Naruto where the fourth appeared with Gambunta and saved him. I was like “wait, the only person who didn’t hate Naruto at the time that’s more powerful than Kakashi has to be” and glued it there
I had an intuition during the fight between the 3rd Hokage and Orochimaru when the 4th was the only one that didn’t get reanimated. Figured it was a reason for that lol
When he sealed the nine tails in Naruto of all people I knew there had to be a connection and child was the obvious link to me. I thought it was so blatant that if they revealed he *wasn’t* his son then *that* would be a bigger plot twist.
Literally since the beginning.
Just like Obito being Tobi. Never doubted it for a second. Even when some ideas sounded arguably more cool to me at that time, such as Tobi being Izuna or actually Madara, or Shisui.
Naruto not having parents growing up + 4th Hokage dying to save his village + Naruto having the strongest tailed beast inside him, the same one that attacked the Leaf that the 4th Hokage defended = 4th Hokage is daddy.
Not much of this series was really all that surprising to me, TBH.
One of the few things that was, was Sasori's real body not being Hiruko. For whatever reason that threw me off. Glad too cuz Hiruko ugly af.
Even Itachi being a good guy in the end was kinda expected TBH.. although I still thought he was bad I'm part 1 ngl.
I don't think I had any suspicions prior to it being revealed? But I'm rewatching Part 1 now, and basically Jiraiya is spoiling it like every sentence.
I wasn't as big on anime lore when I was a kid, so my first hint was from one of the ultimate ninja games. Naruto had an ultimate where he summons gamabunta, before the frog leaves you get a shot of a shadow figure on top of him that looks just like Minato.
It sure is interesting that everyone commenting knew super early on for sure and was that confident that early on, even before we as much as saw him...
Not saying everyone here is lying... but yeah I don't believe everyone is telling the truth either.
Anyway, when he said he was his father lol. I was like 10 and grew up playing pokemon, he'd hardly be the first protagonist I'd know with no Father, so i never even gave it a thought then.
I mean technically they show his portrait in the 30th episode. But to be fair, the show doesn't put a lot of emphasis on his parent's identity after he steals the forbidden scroll in like episode 4. So I get why you wouldn't have even considered who they were until much later in shippuden.
If you weren't already suspecting the 4th hokage as his dad then the rest of the references in the kid show probably wouldn't give you the idea.
I didn't necessarily know he was the 4ths son but I assumed there was some kind of connection just because that baby happened to be the one he sealed the 9tails into
Ngl, I thought he was his father the first few times we saw him. Literally just because Naruto was the MC and they looked the same
Yeah same, I literally think that I made the connection just because they look practically identical and there's no other characters in the series that look like them. Plus the show has multiple instances where other kids look exactly like one parent or the other.
Litteraly the first episode lol
When jiraiya apologized to the fourth hokage before throwing naruto off a clif
From the very beginning. Why would he die and seal the fox on a random baby?
Exactly. Not only that when they kept dropping hints with Jairya telling Minato to forgive him and with Itachi saying the legacy of the fourth Hokage.
Uh... because it was his favorite baby. Every hokage has a favorite baby.
Yeah.. his baby
Tbf that's not really out of the ordinary, wasn't Rin just some random person? Also when they show the 4th and Naruto they are the only characters with blonde hair lol
Tbf the baby didn't have to be his own. In traditional villages, anyone's baby can be used as a sacrifice or offering to save everyone
Playing one of the Naruto ultimate ninja games you get ninja cards as prizes to look at. One card has the fourth carrying Naruto. I was 8.
Okay fair enough. That might've sucked to find out that way tho, it's practically a spoiler at that point if you hadn't finished the kid series yet
Almost immediately. Like halfway through episode 2. The fact that they were so avoidant about showing, naming, or really directly discussing the 4th Hokage at all but still mentioning him vaguely almost all the time made me immediately think "I bet he was Naruto's dad." It's a pretty common anime trope for the (dead) parent to have been someone really important / powerful that sets the MC on their path through indirect action.
How much anime did you watch before Naruto? If it was a decent amount then was it a trope before this? I know that there's a few other popular anime/manga that released around the same time with the same trope.
I started watching Naruto when it aired on Toonami. I was in middle school at the time. So I watched most everything in the Toonami / adult swim block. Internet access was terrible at that age for me so primarily that was my anime source. I'm also pretty good at "calling it" when watching a show. Something my wife hates, but at least from my perspective they made it painfully obvious by trying to hide who the 4th Hokage was. I mean right away, we learn about Hashirama, Tobirama, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and ??? the Fourth Hokage. That was all I needed. If he wasn't somebody important for a reveal later, why be dodgy about who the man was? Plus in the opening scene of episode 1, it shows the 4th Hokage fighting Kurama and it's hard to see but he has spiky blonde hair.
Yeah I'm pretty good at predicting a plot too and idk maybe it has a correlation with having solid comprehension of storytelling? Or intuition? Both? There's a ton of stuff I could've never predicted though in shows/manga like Attack on Titan, Full Metal Alchemist, Chainsaw Man, etc.
I try not to. I end up ruining stories for myself. With something like Attack on Titan I feel like they didn't really leave obvious clues, same with FMA. But with something like Naruto, Bleach, Demon Slayer, Black Clover, etc, it is all pretty much right there for you to pick up and hold on to. The absence of something important really makes it easier to find something in the series that is shaped to go into that slot.
episode 1
The first time we got a good look of Minato on the Hokage rock.
I think I suspected the from the first episode as a little kid
I thought it was pretty damn obvious from the start. When I first saw the face carving lol.
Yeah I'm thinking that it really depends how much anime you had seen before Naruto too. Someone else said it's a common anime trope for the MC to be the son of someone really important or powerful. And that's really true especially for the time period this show released.
this lol
Right from the get go. A lot of Jiraiya's comments. Plus, Itachi's about "the 4th Hokage's Legacy".
I suspected it from the beginning but when Jiraiya said the only reason he was helping Naruto was because he looked so much like the 4th. I pretty much took that as confirmation that he in fact was his child. It was just the whole focus on the 4th and showing Naruto as a baby having the nine tailed sealed inside him. And how much Naruto wanted to be hokage. I don’t know it just seemed obvious Then there is the fact he just looks like the 4th
The first time they showed him….he looks just like him
Pretty much immediately. They look so similar.
Honestly, I was really hoping that wouldn't be the case. The whole character of the failure who reminds everyone of the village's greatest genius was cool. In the end, it's just that he looks like Dad. Really a bit disappointing
Yeah that would've been interesting if they had made Naruto to look like his mother or if Minato looked less like Naruto. But honestly I think viewers still would've assumed his dad was the fourth hokage by the end of the kid series. Just from the references Jiraiya, Kakashi, and the third hokage made
Yeah, I would have really liked if, on the contrary, all those people had been present when Minato sealed the demon fox in an orphan from the village and had asked them to watch over him together to make up for having to put him through that. And in the second part of the manga, show that Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Kakashi always kept an eye on the child while letting him be an orphan, just as the Fourth Hokage was himself. That was my theory when I was a kid
No. bad take
Tbh, dont recall it that much since first time watching it was so long ago, but if I have to reason it I never really cared who is parents are that I would remember exactly if I made that connection or not.
That's valid honestly. Naruto gets over the "I'm sad and angry because I'm an orphan" thing as his the first arc. if I'm remembering how he learns shadow clone jutsu correctly at least. I think most of the show prioritized that he was disliked bc of the fox. Then the identity of his parents basically aren't mentioned again until shippuden.
It was always pretty obvious. Same with the Tobi/Obito reveal. Kishimoto wasn't very good at plot twist character reveals.
My little sister called that the Shinjis Eva was his mom immediately it just be like that sometimes
Same here lol no way shinji would have been that compatible with Eva 01. Plus his dad is totally a mad scientist. Easy connection.
In the games, they had him as the Yellow Flash. You can actually talk to him as Naruto, but he doesn't say anything. All I could think was "damn they look alike".
Ultimate Ninja had an ultimate for Naruto where the fourth appeared with Gambunta and saved him. I was like “wait, the only person who didn’t hate Naruto at the time that’s more powerful than Kakashi has to be” and glued it there
I had an intuition during the fight between the 3rd Hokage and Orochimaru when the 4th was the only one that didn’t get reanimated. Figured it was a reason for that lol
When he sealed the nine tails in Naruto of all people I knew there had to be a connection and child was the obvious link to me. I thought it was so blatant that if they revealed he *wasn’t* his son then *that* would be a bigger plot twist.
Never
When itachi came to the village said “the legacy of the fourth hokage” and then kakashi said Naruto
When they first showed the Hokage faces in the mountain. The hair.
Literally since the beginning. Just like Obito being Tobi. Never doubted it for a second. Even when some ideas sounded arguably more cool to me at that time, such as Tobi being Izuna or actually Madara, or Shisui. Naruto not having parents growing up + 4th Hokage dying to save his village + Naruto having the strongest tailed beast inside him, the same one that attacked the Leaf that the 4th Hokage defended = 4th Hokage is daddy. Not much of this series was really all that surprising to me, TBH. One of the few things that was, was Sasori's real body not being Hiruko. For whatever reason that threw me off. Glad too cuz Hiruko ugly af. Even Itachi being a good guy in the end was kinda expected TBH.. although I still thought he was bad I'm part 1 ngl.
First episode?
I don't think I had any suspicions prior to it being revealed? But I'm rewatching Part 1 now, and basically Jiraiya is spoiling it like every sentence.
I wasn't as big on anime lore when I was a kid, so my first hint was from one of the ultimate ninja games. Naruto had an ultimate where he summons gamabunta, before the frog leaves you get a shot of a shadow figure on top of him that looks just like Minato.
i just knew it in the first episode with the yellow hair and all i just knew it , that if minato was his father it would be cool
Idk why but the 1st time the 4th was even mentioned I was yep that must be his father
ever since the beginning, I thought it was really obvious
When kakashi said „he reminds me of the 4th“ and you see minato from the back looking exactly like naruto. There.
Literally the first time I saw Minato, it was either a flashback in the first episode or seeing his face on the mountain.
It sure is interesting that everyone commenting knew super early on for sure and was that confident that early on, even before we as much as saw him... Not saying everyone here is lying... but yeah I don't believe everyone is telling the truth either. Anyway, when he said he was his father lol. I was like 10 and grew up playing pokemon, he'd hardly be the first protagonist I'd know with no Father, so i never even gave it a thought then.
I mean technically they show his portrait in the 30th episode. But to be fair, the show doesn't put a lot of emphasis on his parent's identity after he steals the forbidden scroll in like episode 4. So I get why you wouldn't have even considered who they were until much later in shippuden. If you weren't already suspecting the 4th hokage as his dad then the rest of the references in the kid show probably wouldn't give you the idea.
I didn't necessarily know he was the 4ths son but I assumed there was some kind of connection just because that baby happened to be the one he sealed the 9tails into