Naruto Dialogue

SHIKAMARU:

"I shouldn't have been teamleader this time... I trusted everyone else.

I was laid back, I didn't have enough strength. It is all my fault.

I don't want to have a troublesome argument, because I'm not a girl."

FATHER:
"Yes, but you're also not a man. You're just a regular coward."

"Even if you quit being a shinobi, missions will still occur. Someone will carry them out. Your companions will just go out with a new leader. So then, maybe your companions will die...

But, if you're their leader that time, your companions may not reach that end..."

"If you look at this time as an experience and you learn from it... maybe you can carry out your missions with less problems."

"If your companions are really important to you, before you think about running away..."

"Consider, that you may become greater for the sake of your friends. That's what it means to be a real companion, you coward."

This is the dialogue that I was refering to, in the Manga it depicts Shikamaru much as any junior officer would have been depicted in Western Military. The bridging of the gap of the two cultures is very surprising. Surprising in that the creater was able to understand and portray this burden of command, as well as the popular of the series in Japan in general. Obviously Naruto offers something to the new generation of Japanese that the Shogunates and the Imperialists of yesterdecade cannot or will not.

Relevant Blog links:

First Naruto post

Second Naruto Post

Japanese Culture thoughts and ideas