Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series enjoyed an incredible run in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and even years after its conclusion, it remains to be one of the most popular series out there. Naruto is widely considered to be one of the best shonen stories out there and is also a part of the famous "Big Three," along with One Piece and Bleach.
Despite being quite popular, Naruto's conclusion to the events of the Fourth Great Ninja War, this biggest story arc in the entire series, upset quite a lot of fans. Having been built up for years, the war took a sudden turn when the likes of Kaguya Otsutsuki were introduced to the franchise. Unsurprisingly, Kaguya only marked the beginning of the Otsutsuki clan in the series and ever since then, this clan has been tied deeply to the lore of Naruto and plays a significant role in its sequel as well.
What Is The Otsutsuki Clan?
The Otsutsuki clan was first introduced in the Naruto series' Fourth Great Ninja War when Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha met Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths. According to Hagoromo, Kaguya Otsutsuki came to the planet generations ago and ate the chakra fruit of the God Tree to gain great power. Using her newfound abilities, she ended all wars and began ruling the world with fear until power eventually corrupted her. Kaguya eventually had two children, Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura Otsutsuki, both of which were incredibly powerful themselves.
She ended up fighting her own sons as they possessed a piece of her powers, being her children. Eventually, Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed away in a satellite that came to be known as the moon and Hamura watched over it. Meanwhile, Hagoromo Otsutsuki spread chakra throughout the world with ninshu. Hagoromo's children, Indra and Asura Otsutsuki ended up becoming significant as well as they gave rise to two of the most prominent clans in the history of the shinobi world - the Uchiha and the Senju.
In Boruto, the story goes even deeper in the Otsutsuki lore, explaining that the Otsutsuki are actually parasitic aliens who go from planet to planet in order to harvest chakra fruits. These fruits are harvested via Ten-Tails seeds which, once planted into a planet, suck all the chakra out of it and eventually give rise to a chakra fruit. The Otsutsuki then consume it to update themselves constantly. By doing so, the Otsutsuki get stronger and gain newer abilities all the time. The will of the Otsutsuki clan is known to be quite simple as every one of them wishes to attain godhood by continually updating themselves and becoming stronger. From what the sequel to Naruto tells us, the Otsutsuki clan have their own planet somewhere in the universe and they are a massive threat to humanity.
How The Otsutsuki Clan Affected Naruto
The Otsutsuki have had a profound effect on the Naruto series as a whole. In the Fourth Great Ninja War, one of them in Kaguya Otsutsuki was the main antagonist and her son, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, was an aide of the heroes. Without a doubt, the Otsutsuki are compelling villains with no remorse for life and are, thus, make for interesting characters who ensure that the story remains exciting enough. However, it is quite apparent they the Otsutsuki clan's addition to the story wasn't liked by the fans at all for a number of reasons.
From the very beginning of Naruto, it has been a story about ninjas finding their way and following their own paths in life, good or bad. The likes of Zabuza, who was known to be a demon, had his own life as a ninja and despite being a villain, he too had persevered just like all of them. With that, Naruto set a tone for the future of the series, and seeing the villains in a better light and not just disposable characters was quite a brilliant addition by Masashi Kishimoto.
The likes of Gaara only made it better by having a complete change of heart after fighting Naruto Uzumaki, not for the sake of it, but because both Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara had suffered similarly as ninjas growing up. Through Pain, Kishimoto showed the fans how the various atrocities of the shinobi world gave rise to people like him. Even the biggest villain in the series, Madara Uchiha, was someone who longed for true peace and wanted to achieve it his way rather than going down the path that his friend, Hashirama Senju, took.
The biggest problem of the Otsutsuki clan is that they simply feel too disconnected from the history of shinobi. Having been introduced in the Naruto series very late as the big space aliens who want chakra makes them the weakest villains in the entire story. Granted Kaguya Otsutsuki is somewhat connected to the lore of the shinobi, however, most of it was retconned in Boruto, once again, showing that the Otsutsuki don't make much sense in the story.
Kaguya Otsutsuki's introduction in Naruto as the main villain over Madara Uchiha went down as arguably the worst decision that Kishimoto took in over a decade. Having established Madara as the primary antagonist and giving him a purpose that fans could understand meant that everyone wanted to see how his chapter would close. In a bizarre fashion, Madara ended up as a vessel for an alien who was just power-hungry. Kaguya's goals were shallow, her character wasn't interesting, and above all, nothing about her motivations had anything to do with the history of the shinobi. Kaguya existed just for the sake of being a stronger version of Madara and one without any moral values. Often, it felt as if Kaguya was there to give Naruto's sequel something to stand on and this has been proven right over the years as the entire Boruto story revolves around the Otsutsuki clan.
The Otsutsuki clan is mighty powerful and every fan knows that. However, their addition to the story takes away a lot from it and undermines the basis of it in the first place. At the same time, they don't make for great villains either as they lack the complexity that Naruto villains are known for. The Otsutsuki villains have, over the years, proven to be a questionable addition to the story and Boruto's ongoing story revolving around them only backs it up further.
