The chaos-gremlin audience's opinions were, at times, quite useful for reference.
Hanabi's original plan had been to give her twin swords names like Chidori or Kogarasumaru—the meme route.
Sure, Shuten-doji wielding Dōjigiri was a bit of a dark joke—but in the Naruto world, there was no shortage of dark jokes.
The audience's guesses were good. Now it was her turn.
"And then over here…"
After looking through all of that, Hanabi moved on to the stats.
"Ah, here—merchandise sales. Performing decently."
Merchandise had pulled in a bit over twenty thousand Popularity Points so far, which wasn't huge, but this kind of merch helped boost Hanabi's name recognition and solidify her status as a "main character."
"Hm? What's this?"
She turned her attention to the video section.
This section was full of release previews and recommendations related to The Ninja's Path.
"I remember an uploader named Baye with a pretty solid reputation among the audience."
Hanabi had actually wanted to watch that one Burning Bottle roast uploader, but that guy seemed to have either run into the wrong people or been hit by the platform's moderation hammer. Either way, no follow-up. Apparently his character was kind of shady—he was constantly stirring up flamewars, and Hanabi, lover of drama, wanted to watch exactly that.
After he disappeared, there had been plenty of other recommendations, but they were all basically the same.
"Eh? They've already gotten to the new releases for 5202?" (Yes—2025, written backwards.)
That video was already half a month old.
[Hello everyone, this is Baye, welcome to your customary one-month-early next-quarter anime release preview…]
"He's covering the Chūnin Exam arc. Doesn't seem especially special. Actually it's pretty interesting. Hm?"
She looked again—the guy had put out a standalone video specifically about The Ninja's Path, with views second only to the new-release preview.
[Restoring the glory of the long-running series—I cannot stand idly by]
Unlike the new-release preview, this video opened with footage of Reiner from Attack on Titan.
[Want to make a long-form anime?]
[We're making it? Right now? Right here?]
[That's right—here and now, the decisive showdown!]
Honestly, the bit was kind of funny.
[Hello everyone, this is Baye]
[Ever since One Piece concluded, the anime world has fallen silent. The Pirate King has been beheaded, but the Great Pirate Era has not arrived]
[However, in the year 4202—yes, 2024 backwards—that one anime came]
[It came, bearing exquisite character designs, dazzling combat, and the glory of long-form storytelling!]
The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 2: Battle Tendency background music kicked in.
Then three Pillar Men appeared on-screen, striking their iconic poses.
Hanabi almost toppled out of her seat.
Because those three Pillar Men had had their heads photoshopped onto Naruto, Sasuke, and Hanabi herself.
"I thought this was an anime-essay uploader. Turns out he's from the meme-content side of things."
Unlike the aggressive Burning Bottle guy from before, this uploader was all about the bits—and his bit-timing was slick.
Hanabi nearly threw out her back laughing.
Thankfully, the man then settled into a proper introduction. Along the way, Hanabi picked up some of this world's anime history.
[…Before The Ninja's Path, plenty of works had attempted long-form, hot-blooded shonen anime adaptations. But without exception, manga that had been doing fine all got crushed—each one starting with grand ambitions and ending in a half-hearted finish. Some even dragged down the manga's sales, getting the source material axed…]
"Huh, so that's how it went on this side."
The audience over there had it rough too, apparently.
[And then—just as we'd given up hope—the unforeseeable stage of destiny finally arrived!]
[A fully original long-form anime, and one that adopted a brand-new live-broadcast format. How long has it been since we've had this much fun chasing a show, theorizing, picking apart details?]
[Few anime are like The Ninja's Path—consistently on-model at all times, with characters who never go off-model, and action sequences that are exceptional]
—Of course it doesn't go off-model. The "animation" is live footage.
Hanabi kept watching. After laying out the premise, the video actually got around to discussing her.
[…From the moment of its inception, The Ninja's Path was different from other long-form anime. Everyone knows that in this kind of long-running series, the female lead usually serves as eye candy]
[But in The Ninja's Path, the female lead Hyuga Hanabi can genuinely be called the muscle of the three-person team]
The screen cut to Hanabi facing Kakashi and lifting her kimono to flash white thigh-highs.
The danmaku exploded with "Popsicle, popsicle!" comments.
[Ah, not this one—this one—]
The screen shifted again, now showing the fight against Zabuza, and then the aftermath of the OVA fight against the ice crystal puppet.
[Not just combat power. Her combat intelligence is also off the charts… aside from the slight excessive bratty-loli energy…]
The screen now showed Kakashi facing Rin.
The danmaku went berserk.
[Old Kaka's gonna come out of this with serious psychological damage]
[After this scene, the next episode has Hanabi teaching Sasuke and Naruto to climb trees—and Old Kaka's still probably retching]
[Moving on to combat. I'm not a professional, but The Ninja's Path's never-go-off-model animation is, by now, legendary]
[No anime in history has gone twenty or thirty straight episodes without going off-model—and pulled off back-to-back high-intensity combat episodes the whole time]
[Some say The Ninja's Path, while long-form, isn't really shonen or hot-blooded. But I'd say: when it comes to production budget, The Ninja's Path has to be the most well-funded; the action and animation are top-tier; and the production team's sincerity has got to be the deepest of any of them]
The guy was getting genuinely emotional. Even Hanabi got a little embarrassed.
[And here's another major difference between The Ninja's Path and your typical hot-blooded long-form anime. The Ninja's Path actually explores what drives its characters. And not as a retroactive patch—the reveal happens during the story, and characters fight for their convictions]
[Take Momochi Zabuza. A missing-nin from another country, looks vicious, takes a contract, ends up opposite the main team. But inside the story, you discover he has his own story too—his country is locked in deep oppression, and he wants to change it…]
"You can read it that way too?"
She was stunned.
—So there'd been that much depth in the setup?
"Excellent. I'm using this idea."
Fighting with an unyielding ideology behind you—that kind of clash of philosophies really was more interesting than the standard Dragon Quest-style hero-versus-demon-king setup.
She could absolutely deploy this next time.
But… Hanabi immediately thought of another angle.
"Stage, can I reach out to these uploaders and have them produce related videos or something?"
[Direct paid promotional content is not permitted]
"Eh?"
[However, you are permitted to use operating funds for promotional-style paid content]
[When the actor occupies a role of major supporting character or above on set, Popularity Points may be spent on new-release promotion and the like]
It wasn't useful right now, but for future shows, she'd be able to use it.
Naruto was a long-runner with tons of plot, but for other anime—especially the dozen-episode single-cours kind—this would be a really handy trick…
"No telling when the next casting call comes in, but laying the groundwork early can't hurt…"