Highlights

Mangekyo Sharingan evolves from Sharingan due to intense grief, leading to overpowered abilities with Naruto's later story arcs.
Risk of blindness and restrictions initially imposed on Mangekyo Sharingan fade away, enabling reckless overuse by Sasuke and others.
Sharingan's expanded abilities erode original tactical focus of battles, shifting towards brute force solutions in later arcs of Naruto.

Described as the evolution of the Sharingan — the Uchiha clan's signature kekkei genkai dojutsu — the Mangekyo Sharingan is a power that only a select number of individuals awakened in Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto. Generally, this process is triggered through the loss of a loved one, with the ensuing trauma and intense grief aiding in its activation. For instance, Sasuke Uchiha awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan after the death of his elder brother Itachi, when he learned the truth behind his role in the Uchiha Clan Downfall.

In Part II of Naruto, the Mangekyo Sharingan took on a pronounced role in both the series' lore, and the battles which drove its story forward. However, the overpowering abilities associated with it, coupled with the removal of earlier restraints on its usage were partially responsible for some of the shortcomings of Naruto's later story arcs. Further down the line, it altered the structure of fights from tests of intelligence and skill, to giant mecha-style battles with chakra avatars. Keeping this in mind, could it be said that the Mangekyo Sharingan was overutilized in the series?

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What Were The Limitations Of The Mangekyo Sharingan?

In its first appearance during Part I of Naruto, the Mangekyo Sharingan was not formally introduced, and only Itachi's use of Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu gave away the fact that he had awakened it. Itachi also had to tread carefully, as the Mangekyo Sharingan put an immense strain on his already ailing body, and he struggled to recover from repeatedly using his abilities against Kakashi, Sasuke, and finally, Jiraiya. Even though the Sannin was able to counter Amaterasu by sealing the flames away, this ingenious solution to Itachi's technique was never seen again.

The Mangekyo Sharingan was formally named in Part II, during Itachi's battle against Sasuke at the Uchiha Clan Hideout, where the former demonstrated the difference in their strength by unleashing the dojutsu's ultimate technique: Susanoo. With it, Itachi was able to overcome Sasuke's devastating Lightning Release technique Kirin, but he soon succumbed to his illness. By that time, Itachi's vision had also nearly faded away entirely. This was a hint of the risks associated with attaining such immense power, which Sasuke would learn for himself when he awakened his own Mangekyo soon after. Until this point, there were strict limits and repercussions for this ability, but they would not remain for long.

Empowered By The Curse Of Hatred

Central to the development of the Mangekyo Sharingan was the Uchiha clan's Curse of Hatred. Most Uchiha only awaken their Sharingan after experiencing intense sadness, and this goes double for its evolved form. Sasuke's descent into villainy is a great example of this. The Five Kage Summit Arc saw him driven mad by vengeance after learning the truth about Itachi, and he pushed his newfound visual prowess to its utmost limit to kill Danzo Shimura, the main instigator behind the Uchiha Clan Downfall. Unfortunately, things went downhill from here with the restrictions that had originally been imposed on the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Expanding Abilities, Loopholes, And Power Creep

By the time he defeated Danzo, Sasuke's vision was extremely hampered, indicating that the reckless use of his visual prowess would not go unpunished. He then chose to transplant Itachi's eyes for the purpose of awakening the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. This was the next stage of the dojutsu's evolution, attained by taking the eyes of a close family member, to grant eyes that would never lose their light. Sasuke's power grew immensely as a result of this, and he was no longer hindered by the threat of eventually going blind. Here was where the problems started, as there was nothing stopping him from using Susanoo or Amaterasu at every opportunity.

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Simultaneously, the introduction of a reincarnated Madara Uchiha at a similar time, coupled with the reveal that the masked Madara was actually Obito Uchiha, added new Mangekyo users into the fold. Madara's continual use of his eyes could be excused since he was both an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan user, and an immortal reincarnation. Conversely, Obito's constant use of his signature ability, Kamui was a perplexing phenomenon, as he seemed to exhibit no signs of diminishing vision. Speculation about the restorative powers of his artificial arm cultivated from Hashirama Senju's cells has persisted for years after the series' conclusion, but there is still no real answer in sight.

A similar statement could be made about Kakashi, who had previously struggled to use Kamui more than once a day, but was now employing it in virtually every fight with no discernible fallout from overuse. Finally, Sasuke and Madara's over reliance on Susanoo — due to its now consequence-free activation — was a huge factor in the series' power creep, since no one but Naruto, Minato, Killer B, or Might Guy, could keep up with the two Uchiha. This made most of the Allied Shinobi Forces obsolete against Madara, until Naruto distributed the Nine-Tails' chakra among them. Hence, the Mangekyo Sharingan, or a comparable power up, became the minimum barrier of entry to the battle, relegating Naruto's diverse supporting cast to the background.

A Convenient Solution For Major Conflicts

Last but not least, there is also the all-too-simple process by which Itachi and Sasuke were able to dispel Kabuto Yakushi's Edo Tensei, which was the result of the Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan's hidden abilities. Itachi was only able to free himself from Kabuto's control, as he had conveniently sealed Shisui's Kotoamatsukami into Naruto, which manifested when he encountered the reincarnated Uchiha. On paper, this sounds reasonable, but just consider the many different circumstances that had to align for this to occur, and a different picture will emerge.

Next, the reveal of Izanami by Itachi featured some of the series' weakest writing, since it had practically no foreshadowing, and was too convoluted to seem congruent with Naruto's power system. Although the poignant moments that followed between Itachi and Sasuke were crucial to both their character arcs, the resolution of the brothers' battle against Kabuto was underwhelming, and a sign of how the Sharingan was now being pushed beyond its original scope. At the very end of the battle against Kaguya, Kakashi's miraculous Susanoo was a technique that was virtually impossible to counter, highlighting how far the Mangekyo Sharingan had strayed from its original limitations.

When it first started out, the Sharingan was a cleverly designed ocular ability that could facilitate a shinobi's development by allowing them to acquire new techniques quickly, or mimic and confound their opponents in battle. Sharingan users still had to rely on their own techniques and tactical ingenuity, to win battles. By the end of Naruto, the Mangekyo Sharingan could create undying flames, teleport or grant intangibility, summon towering spectral warriors for mecha-style battles, or even rewrite reality itself. In this vein, regardless of whether the Sharingan was over or underutilized, it did become a quick fix for otherwise insurmountable circumstances, which were now resolved through brute force rather than the clever strategizing that the series became known for in its early years.

Naruto is available to stream on Crunchyroll.