[james0246]

Originally Posted by jho

Thanks, had no idea that this was anime thread first.

Spoiler for spoiler:

And the fact that Kishimoto has given Naruto like minuscule time the past year doesn't bother you? I don't remember the last shounen manga where the Main character got shafted this badly.

Rurouni Kenshin spent about 3-6 months solely focused on non-Kenshin storylines (this was later, during the Revenge Arc, where Sonousuke, Enshi, Karou, and Yahiko all had arcs of some size while Kenshin just kind of hung out somewhere).

Most recently, Vagabond took a year off from the main character (Musashi Miyamoto) and focused on his eventual rival Sasaki Kojirou. Addmitedly, mangaka Takehiko Inoue is a far better storyteller than Kishimoto, so this switch (I should say these switches, considering a new Sasaki arc has started) was all part of the story and was masterfully done.

Spoiler for slight spoiler:

There are many others as well, that have taken breaks from the main character, in order to focus all of their time on secondary characters. So, what Kishimoto has done is not revolutionary nor wrong, he just mishandled the change over (and slowed down Naruto's development pre-changeover too much).