This anime character uses her power to look young 24/7: And I have questions

Originally published on Medium

I wouldn’t call myself an anime fan. I’m a fan of good stories and interesting plots which includes some animes, like Ranking of Kings. And, to my surprise, Naruto. I enjoyed it but had some thoughts on the character Tsunade that I didn’t see reflected in the critical internet comments (Reddit threads) I read about her.

Naruto is about kids training to be ninja and focuses on the boy Naruto, an outcast who wants his village to respect him. The character Tsunade is one of 3 powerful ninjas famous for their extraordinary abilities. The 3 ninja were classmates and teammates in training.

When we first meet Tsunade, the team has long been separated by their different goals. As a legendary ninja, Tsunade is extremely strong and a skilled healer thanks to her large reserves of chakra energy. She uses this immense power to maintain a “youthful appearance”.

Youthful? I wonder. So, like, an energy facial, just to make herself look more awake?

I’ve noticed that anime female characters are drawn either very young or very old. No in- between. I assume the animators struggle drawing women the way I struggle drawing hands and assumed the same about Tsunade’s character.

But I was wrong.

In one fight scene she uses up so much chakra energy that she can’t maintain her youthful appearance. She lies on the ground and we don’t see her body anymore but hear her voice offscreen as if her injuries are too disturbing to see. And then her hand appears, very wrinkled, like a Halloween witch costume. And I realize she’s not using a “chakra facial” but a 24/7 full-body transformation.

And I have many thoughts.

Okay, first.

Her appearance doesn’t make sense. Tsunade is about the same age as her teammates. One teammate is also in this fight scene, existing in his normal, middle-aged ninja body. He has wrinkles but nothing like the Halloween hand we glimpsed. Did Tsunade lead such a hard life that her body shriveled in on itself like Voldemort? No explanation is given for why she’s so wrinkled and he isn’t.

Another related thought.

Why does he get to be on camera as himself and she doesn’t? Her wrinkles don’t need to be censored.

My next thought is a question.

After Tsunade recovers her energy, she resumes her altered appearance 24/7 again, even during grueling fights where every bit of chakra matters. At one point, she continuously heals a whole village during an invasion and doesn’t drop her altered appearance until the near end. She’s incredibly powerful.

So how much stronger could she be if she channeled all that power to fighting? Not to her appearance but to her body’s physical abilities?

What else could she do if she freed up that energy for things besides maintaining that “youthful appearance”?

I can’t stop wondering.

And I could make this question bigger, apply it to us all. How much can we do when we aren’t expending our resources to look a certain way?

But I won’t.

I’ll let you wonder about that.

You can also wonder about how annoying it is to watch Netflix with me because I repeatedly express thoughts like this in real time.