Naruto Settles an Ongoing Debate About Its Ninja’s Costumes

There are a lot of silly things to debate about when it comes to Naruto, but some are more obvious than others. Whether we are talking ships or plot twists, the Naruto fandom can argue over anything, and the series has solved some of those issues retroactively. And now, it seems that a resurfaced guidebook has settled one ongoing debate.

And what is the issue at hand? Well, it seems the fandom has long warred over whether ninjas were wearing fishnets in Naruto. As you may recall, everyone from Anko to Naruto and Shikaramu wore some sort of netted clothing. And believe it or not, the garments are not actually fishnets.

Over on Reddit, the user blade573 discovered the truth when they looked in one of Naruto‘s first data books. It was there they read up on Anko’s design, and it was there creator Masashi Kishimoto said the netted material is a type of armor.

“She wears a custom-made outfit that is crafted of thin metal mesh to fit the lines of her body,” the book writes. This little blurb makes it sound like Anko and everyone else is wearing chain mail, but that is not quite correct either.

The truth lies in history as Japan had its own time of mail armor back in the back. The garment, which was known as kusari gusoku, was used by fighters and the samurai in feudal Japan. Kusari was often worn under entire outfits in their time, and its twisted weaving is very similar to fishnets. So if you thought the Hidden Leaf had a thing for fishnet clothing, well – this is why.

It isn’t every day an issue like this gets solved so easily, and Naruto fans are happy for the clarification. The garments are never explicitly named in the anime or manga, but some scenes show the netting behaving similar to armor. Now, this data book has settled the debate for good, and it even gave a history lesson to Naruto fans along the way.

What do you make of this resurfaced debate…? Did you ever take an issue with Naruto‘s costumes? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.