Voting Round 2 Naruto vs. Tokyo Ghoul

[Hermit]

PART 2
Antagonists
I touched on some of the show's most prominent protagonists in my first post, so I'll use this one to touch on the other side of the spectrum, which would be the villains. Its always the bad guys that provide the readers with all the twists in the story. Naruto is no exception to this, providing some of the best villains to ever be seen in manga history. Of course, that honor goes to none other than:

The Akatsuki

These are the main villains of the series, spanning from their introduction in Part 1, and lasting all the way till the Fourth Shinobi World War Arc. And quite frankly, this is probably one of the best antagonist groups ever introduced, along with the likes of the Espada from Bleach and the Jupongatana from Rurouni Kenshin. I dont think anyone who's followed Naruto would disagree. Even if you somehow ended up disliking the protagonists, one would always be excited to see more of these guys, since they honestly have some of the best designs in the story, accompanied by some pretty sweet abilities.My personal favorites among them would be:

Pain

Spoiler: Character overview

The de facto leader of the Akatsuki, and by far my favorite Naruto villain...EVER. This guy was what symbolized the peak of Naruto Stellar design and abilities (The Rinnegan is still to date my favorite Naruto eye technique), along with quite possibly one of the most tragic backstories in the whole story (I really like how he didn't exactly end up becoming evil due to one single event, but a chain of events which led to his ultimate turn to the dark side), you could tell the amount of time put into crafting this villain. I thought he was a truly "realistic" villain. Like how he truly wanted something good but political corruption, the cruelty of the world, and having basically no one to trust turned him into an extremist. Its something that can (without a doubt has) happened in real life. Adding to that, he's also the one who killed Jiraiya, providing one of the series's best moments as a whole

Sasori

Spoiler: Character overview

He was among the first of the Akatsuki members to be introduced, being a partner to Deidara. Initially, he was introduced as this weird hunchback, but later on, it was revealed that was just one of the many puppets in his arsenal. When his real form was revealed under the disguise , that was the moment I decided this guy was going to be one of my favorites.
He is cold, emotionless, and confident in his abilities. He's not exactly insulting but he doesn't suffer "brats" gladly. From a very young age he was worried about his mortality or was painfully aware of the ethereal in everyday life and worked endlessly to find a way to preserve it. To prevent memories and images from fading away, he used his puppetry to preserve people and himself as never aging, decay-immune entities. Again, he has a bit of a pompous air to him (you see it in his confrontation with Konan) but overall he's very low key and doesn't allow much to distract him from the objective. He holds grudges but they are not wrathful and explosive like Sasuke or Deidara.

Tobi

Not Obito ​

Spoiler: Character overview

The real leader of the Akatsuki, who ended up as the one pulling the strings all along, I honestly just loved the mystery this guy had behind him. He was introduced as this goofball, who we expected to be the leader of the Akatsuki, but then after Deidara's defeat, that was all revealed to be a ruse. His real personality is far more chilling and engaging:

This moment was so much of a holy fucking shit moment that he just ended up becoming one of my favorites. Plus he's just all out a badass, this is someone who had no problem standing up to the Five Kage and declaring war to them in the name of Madara. Not to mention that mask he has on is killer af

Konan

​

Spoiler: Character overview

The sole female member of the Akatsuki, general consensus has her as the best female character in Naruto. This is seriously impressive if you consider how limited screentime she had, but I think that did nothing but add to the appeal. Her relationship to Pain (who has her partner), ended up making them the most humane group out of all the Akatsuki groups. Added to that, her belief in Nagato and Yahiko, and then later on Naruto to achieve world peace, did nothing to destroy her characterization. It gave her a badass moment in where she was able to fight Tobi, and even force him to take her seriously. She also has a unique ability in her paper techniques.

And last but not least, someone who is probably considered the best character in the whole series by a good number of fans:

Uchiha Itachi

​

Spoiler: Character overview

Now, I'll admit it. He probably isn't one of my favorites, but like Gaara, you can't deny this is probably one of the best written, if not the best character in the whole manga. He was the first Akatsuki member to be shown, having earlier being teased in a flashback by Sasuke, the real shocker coming in the fact that he was Sasuke's brother. He's a well rounded character, having his moments of being a badass in battle (Knocking out Sasuke and Kakashi the moment he reappears in the story), along with his humanization by showing his love for his clan, and his brother. This is someone who was willing to KILL his own parents in order to protect his village, that is quite possibly the most heartbreaking story in this entire series.

Bonus Akatsuki panels:

Spoiler: Pain and Konan

Spoiler: Itachi and Kisame

Spoiler: Deidara and Sasori

Spoiler: Hidan and Kakuzu

​

 

[Arjuna]

PART 2
Antagonists
I touched on some of the show's most prominent protagonists in my first post, so I'll use this one to touch on the other side of the spectrum, which would be the villains. Its always the bad guys that provide the readers with all the twists in the story. Naruto is no exception to this, providing some of the best villains to ever be seen in manga history. Of course, that honor goes to none other than:

The Akatsuki

These are the main villains of the series, spanning from their introduction in Part 1, and lasting all the way till the Fourth Shinobi World War Arc. And quite frankly, this is probably one of the best antagonist groups ever introduced, along with the likes of the Espada from Bleach and the Jupongatana from Rurouni Kenshin. I dont think anyone who's followed Naruto would disagree. Even if you somehow ended up disliking the protagonists, one would always be excited to see more of these guys, since they honestly have some of the best designs in the story, accompanied by some pretty sweet abilities.My personal favorites among them would be:

Pain

Spoiler: Character overview

The de facto leader of the Akatsuki, and by far my favorite Naruto villain...EVER. This guy was what symbolized the peak of Naruto Stellar design and abilities (The Rinnegan is still to date my favorite Naruto eye technique), along with quite possibly one of the most tragic backstories in the whole story (I really like how he didn't exactly end up becoming evil due to one single event, but a chain of events which led to his ultimate turn to the dark side), you could tell the amount of time put into crafting this villain. I thought he was a truly "realistic" villain. Like how he truly wanted something good but political corruption, the cruelty of the world, and having basically no one to trust turned him into an extremist. Its something that can (without a doubt has) happened in real life. Adding to that, he's also the one who killed Jiraiya, providing one of the series's best moments as a whole

Sasori

Spoiler: Character overview

He was among the first of the Akatsuki members to be introduced, being a partner to Deidara. Initially, he was introduced as this weird hunchback, but later on, it was revealed that was just one of the many puppets in his arsenal. When his real form was revealed under the disguise , that was the moment I decided this guy was going to be one of my favorites.
He is cold, emotionless, and confident in his abilities. He's not exactly insulting but he doesn't suffer "brats" gladly. From a very young age he was worried about his mortality or was painfully aware of the ethereal in everyday life and worked endlessly to find a way to preserve it. To prevent memories and images from fading away, he used his puppetry to preserve people and himself as never aging, decay-immune entities. Again, he has a bit of a pompous air to him (you see it in his confrontation with Konan) but overall he's very low key and doesn't allow much to distract him from the objective. He holds grudges but they are not wrathful and explosive like Sasuke or Deidara.

Tobi

Not Obito ​

Spoiler: Character overview

The real leader of the Akatsuki, who ended up as the one pulling the strings all along, I honestly just loved the mystery this guy had behind him. He was introduced as this goofball, who we expected to be the leader of the Akatsuki, but then after Deidara's defeat, that was all revealed to be a ruse. His real personality is far more chilling and engaging:

This moment was so much of a holy fucking shit moment that he just ended up becoming one of my favorites. Plus he's just all out a badass, this is someone who had no problem standing up to the Five Kage and declaring war to them in the name of Madara. Not to mention that mask he has on is killer af

Konan

​

Spoiler: Character overview

The sole female member of the Akatsuki, general consensus has her as the best female character in Naruto. This is seriously impressive if you consider how limited screentime she had, but I think that did nothing but add to the appeal. Her relationship to Pain (who has her partner), ended up making them the most humane group out of all the Akatsuki groups. Added to that, her belief in Nagato and Yahiko, and then later on Naruto to achieve world peace, did nothing to destroy her characterization. It gave her a badass moment in where she was able to fight Tobi, and even force him to take her seriously. She also has a unique ability in her paper techniques.

And last but not least, someone who is probably considered the best character in the whole series by a good number of fans:

Uchiha Itachi

​

Spoiler: Character overview

Now, I'll admit it. He probably isn't one of my favorites, but like Gaara, you can't deny this is probably one of the best written, if not the best character in the whole manga. He was the first Akatsuki member to be shown, having earlier being teased in a flashback by Sasuke, the real shocker coming in the fact that he was Sasuke's brother. He's a well rounded character, having his moments of being a badass in battle (Knocking out Sasuke and Kakashi the moment he reappears in the story), along with his humanization by showing his love for his clan, and his brother. This is someone who was willing to KILL his own parents in order to protect his village, that is quite possibly the most heartbreaking story in this entire series.

Bonus Akatsuki panels:

Spoiler: Pain and Konan

Spoiler: Itachi and Kisame

Spoiler: Deidara and Sasori

Spoiler: Hidan and Kakuzu

​

Pls Obito was pretty bad villain.Only good villain of Naruto was Madara.

 

[Vici]

@Emperor Spriggan The fact that you still didn't write anything about Hinata so far

As her fan, you should be ashamed of yourself

Spoiler

You Still get some points for Konan through

 

[Hermit]

Pls Obito was pretty bad villain.Only good villain of Naruto was Madara.

Tobi isn't Obito
Also, I think other villains like Orochimaru and Danzo are pretty good, it's a stretch to say Madara was the only good one, but I will admit he is probably one of the best as far as Naruto villains go

 

[Static]

Pls Obito was pretty bad villain.Only good villain of Naruto was Madara.

Nah, Madara and Itachi. Pain was amazing too, probably would have been the best were it not for the Invasion of Konoha arc's ending.

 

[Hermit]

@Emperor Spriggan The fact that you still didn't write anything about Hinata so far

As her fan, you should be ashamed of yourself

One step at a time

You Still get some points for Konan through

Haha thanks! I reconsidered my favorite Akatsuki members for the sake of this event, and realized that she's among my favorite members. Her team with Pain is probably my favorite out of all the Akatsuki teams

 

[Brandish μ]

I like the Akatsuki. Itachi is my fave member of the group. After that I'd say Kisame and Konan.

 

[Arjuna]

Tobi isn't Obito
Also, I think other villains like Orochimaru and Danzo are pretty good, it's a stretch to say Madara was the only good one, but I will admit he is probably one of the best as far as Naruto villains go

Empi I can understand you didn't read TG

(Seriously Empi this doesn't concern the manga war you should read Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul Re Manga.If you don't you are missing something.)


But TG has villains like Eto,Dr. Kanou and Furuta.Sure they may not be able to blow up countries like in Naruto characters or cast Genjutsu's but their action will fill us with horror and awe us.

Spoiler: Manga Spoiler

Even the protagonist turns into villain here.How would you have liked if Naruto turned villain and destroyed Konoha and people of Konoha forced to rally to kill him.That's probably what will happen in Tokyo Ghoul.

The world of TG is not black and white.It has beautifully portrayed it.


Seems like most people who are voting Naruto have one thing in common-they haven't read TG Manga. If they had did they would have voted TG.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 8, 2017, Original Post Date: Oct 8, 2017 ---

Nah, Madara and Itachi. Pain was amazing too, probably would have been the best were it not for the Invasion of Konoha arc's ending.

Well I left Itachi because I don't consider him a villain.He was the Hero of Konoha.Regarding Pain I can't disagree with you.After Leaf village invasion arc Naruto started falling in quality.

 

[Hermit]

Empi I can understand you didn't read TG

(Seriously Empi this doesn't concern the manga war you should read Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul Re Manga.If you don't you are missing something.)


But TG has villains like Eto,Dr. Kanou and Furuta.Sure they may not be able to blow up countries like in Naruto characters or cast Genjutsu's but their action will fill us with horror and awe us.

But I've read it It's my current 5th favorite read, and yes, I know about the villains in it, I found Jason the most appealing). I don't think it's fair to classify Eto as a villain since :

Spoiler: Spoiler

She ended up fighting Furuta in the end, and wanted to groom Kaneki into the One Eyed King along with Arima. She seems more like a deuteragonist to me, but this is just a matter of perspective.

The only stand outs I'd say is Kanou and Furuta. Naruto has far more compelling villains honestly, at least in my opinion. Note I haven't touched on the likes of Zabuza In TG I find myself liking more of the protagonists than the villains (Urie and Mutsuki are my favorites out of the CCG)

 

[Arjuna]

But I've read it It's my current 5th favorite read, and yes, I know about the villains in it, I found Jason the most appealing). I don't think it's fair to classify Eto as a villain since :

Spoiler: Spoiler

She ended up fighting Furuta in the end, and wanted to groom Kaneki into the One Eyed King along with Arima. She seems more like a deuteragonist to me, but this is just a matter of perspective.

The only stand outs I'd say is Kanou and Furuta. Naruto has far more compelling villains honestly, at least in my opinion. Note I haven't touched on the likes of Zabuza In TG I find myself liking more of the protagonists than the villains (Urie and Mutsuki are my favorites out of the CCG)

Eto may be dubious in Re but in the original series

Spoiler

Killed hundreds of innocent persons

Forced normal Ghouls to be slaves.

Put her own father to coma.

Villains in Naruto can't reach the horrifying level of TG.Naruto is a Shounen ultimately but TG is a Seinen.

 

[SirSamuel016]

Going the route of nostalgia and voting for good ol' Naruto. It might've gotten worse after the pain arc and degenerated, but for me it stays decently strong thanks to nostalgia, a solid first part and that great Pain arc.

Spoiler: Spoilerydoo

Plus Naruto only lost an arm while Kaneki lost more

 

[Arjuna]

Going the route of nostalgia and voting for good ol' Naruto. It might've gotten worse after the pain arc and degenerated, but for me it stays decently strong thanks to nostalgia, a solid first part and that great Pain arc.

Spoiler: Spoilerydoo

Plus Naruto only lost an arm while Kaneki lost more

Thank You.

This I get from voting SNS.

I will forever remember it.

 

[XXGenesis]

Naruto is Really Really Good. But TG is Epic. Naruto is like a Candle compared to a Bonefire that is TG.

 

[Aonori]

Naruto wins, Tokyo Ghoul cant match it.

What would be the equivalent of the Akatsuki in Tokyo ghoul? The clowns? Their leader was all hype and poor delivery, it´s like comparing Heaven and Earth.

 

[SirSamuel016]

Thank You.

This I get from voting SNS.

I will forever remember it.

While I appreciate your vote for SnS and that you made the right choice there, I'm afraid that you didn't convince me too well to vote for TG. Naruto is something I remember way back, so it's strong in the nostalgia department for me. While I could've voted against it, I was favouring it and given what had been said so far, I felt more like I'd vote for Naruto so that was that.

 

[Hermit]

Naruto wins, Tokyo Ghoul cant match it.

What would be the equivalent of the Akatsuki in Tokyo ghoul? The clowns? Their leader was all hype and poor delivery, it´s like comparing Heaven and Earth.

It isn't just the Akatsuki

The Sound Four

Members
-Jiroubo
-Tayuya
-Sakon/Ukon
-Kidomaru
Despite being plot devices, they ended up serving their role pretty well, and to this date Neji vs Kidomaru is STILL my favorite fight in all of part 1 Naruto.

While Chouji vs Jirobo is probably his best moment in the whole series:

The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist

They're sort of a bit unmemorable in the grand scheme of things, but I think they were a really cool concept as far as showcasing what the other Hidden Villages were capable of.
Additionally, they're the group that Zabuza and Kisame were a part of, Zabuza being the first antagonist of the show, who provided the first real fight of the show, and giving us a glimpse of what was to come in the series:

Team Taka

Members:
-Sasuke Uchiha
-Suigetsu
-Karin
-Jugo

Sasuke's own personal team, they were antagonists for a short while, as they launched an espionage mission in the Land of Cloud in order to capture the Eight Tails Jinchuuriki, Killer Bee.

This series honestly has some pretty stunning villain groups when it comes down to the wire. I find myself generally enjoying villain organizations more than individual villains, since the group dynamics form a huge part of the enjoyment value when it comes to following the franchise.​

​

 

[Temperance]

Voting for Tokyo Ghoul because @Emperor Spriggan writes in blacks so I can't see it

 

[The President]

Naruto is actually under appreciated in many ways. I've seen a great many people say that the series is trash because of the final arc, but thats some blatant generalization. While I agree that for the most part the war arc was trash (with a few highlights, like Madara), everything leading up to it was really good. Namely everything before chapter 245 which saw HxH levels of quality with one of the strongest introduction arcs in shonen (Hidden Mist arc), one of the strongest shonen arcs in general (The Chunin Exams) and two amazing follow up arcs (especially the Sasuke retrieval, which could have actually been the best arc in shonen IMO if Choji and Neji actually died, besides the Chimera Ant Arc).

Once Shippuden started it took somewhat of a plunge, but still maintained a relatively great string of consistency right up until the war arc, mostly thanks to the Akatsuki, which might be my favourite villain group of any median to date. Pretty much every member in the group except for Zetsu were at the very least, great. Hidan and Kakuzu might be amongst the weakest characters of the group on an individual character basis, however they easily had the best chemistry together as a team which made them so extremely likeable and a joy to watch. Itachi has one of the best backstories of any character Ive read. Kisame was extremely well written etc etc, pretty much no weak links.

Then the war arc happened and that was shit, and it does hurt the series a fair bit that it was 2/7 of the total run time of the manga (and the final arc to boot). However when all is said and done the things preceding it was great so it still affords to have that weak link.

Something about TG just isn't as captivating for me. I do still enjoy the series, but it feels like it lacks that "fun" factor that a manga should have. I didn't enjoy the characters all that much either if I am being honest, though Kaneki is a great lead and Tsukiyama (despite being a blatant Hisoka rip-off) was extremely enjoyable.

Villains in Naruto can't reach the horrifying level of TG.Naruto is a Shounen ultimately but TG is a Seinen.

Yeah generally seinan are way better then shonen since they aren't bound by writing constraints set on em by WSJ to meet the "shonen standard" however like for all things there are exceptions. Naruto happens to be one of the best shonen out there. TG kinda lost me a little bit (which is why I did not go on to read Re:, though I will for the sake of finishing the series).

 

[Reebi]

I only read the first chapter of Tokyo Ghoul and I can already say it's the better series.

@Arjuna you get my vote this round. Still not forgiven

 

[Aonori]

Naruto is actually under appreciated in many ways. I've seen a great many people say that the series is trash because of the final arc, but thats some blatant generalization. While I agree that for the most part the war arc was trash (with a few highlights, like Madara), everything leading up to it was really good. Namely everything before chapter 245 which saw HxH levels of quality with one of the strongest introduction arcs in shonen (Hidden Mist arc), one of the strongest shonen arcs in general (The Chunin Exams) and two amazing follow up arcs (especially the Sasuke retrieval, which could have actually been the best arc in shonen IMO if Choji and Neji actually died, besides the Chimera Ant Arc).

Once Shippuden started it took somewhat of a plunge, but still maintained a relatively great string of consistency right up until the war arc, mostly thanks to the Akatsuki, which might be my favourite villain group of any median to date. Pretty much every member in the group except for Zetsu were at the very least, great. Hidan and Kakuzu might be amongst the weakest characters of the group on an individual character basis, however they easily had the best chemistry together as a team which made them so extremely likeable and a joy to watch. Itachi has one of the best backstories of any character Ive read. Kisame was extremely well written etc etc, pretty much no weak links.

Then the war arc happened and that was shit, and it does hurt the series a fair bit that it was 2/7 of the total run time of the manga (and the final arc to boot). However when all is said and done the things preceding it was great so it still affords to have that weak link.

Something about TG just isn't as captivating for me. I do still enjoy the series, but it feels like it lacks that "fun" factor that a manga should have. I didn't enjoy the characters all that much either if I am being honest, though Kaneki is a great lead and Tsukiyama (despite being a blatant Hisoka rip-off) was extremely enjoyable.



Yeah generally seinan are way better then shonen since they aren't bound by writing constraints set on em by WSJ to meet the "shonen standard" however like for all things there are exceptions. Naruto happens to be one of the best shonen out there. TG kinda lost me a little bit (which is why I did not go on to read Re:, though I will for the sake of finishing the series).

Honestly for me the Akatsuki started going downhill with Sasori´s death, out of all the members, Sasori was one of the very ideal role models for the ninja, works with poisons, puppets, hidden weapons, devised many missions that were hardly linked to him whatsoever, even then Chiyo pointed that Sasori had a hand in Gaara´s father´s death all Sasori said was that one of his puppets lead Orochimaru there, like no biggie, with the information network.

The fact he was the first to die and what came afterwards, just showcased how the ninja thematic lost their ground against the DBZ logic which started to gain more ground around that time.