Sasuke Uchiha | |
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Naruto character | |
First appearance | Naruto chapter 3: Enter Sasuke! (1999) |
Created by | Masashi Kishimoto |
Voiced by | Japanese Noriaki Sugiyama English Yuri Lowenthal |
In-universe information | |
Notable relatives | Itachi Uchiha (older brother, deceased) Sakura Haruno (wife) Sarada Uchiha (daughter) |
Ninja rank | Genin in Part Two |
Ninja team | Team 7 (Part I) Taka (Part II) |
Sasuke Uchiha (Japanese: うちは サスケ, Hepburn: Uchiha Sasuke) (/ˈsɑːskeɪ/) is a fictional character in the Naruto manga and anime franchise created by Masashi Kishimoto. Sasuke belongs to the Uchiha clan, a notorious ninja family, and one of the most powerful, allied with Konohagakure (木ノ葉隠れの里, English version: "Hidden Leaf Village"). Most of its members were massacred by Sasuke's older brother, Itachi Uchiha, before the series began, leaving Sasuke as one of the few survivors. Despite becoming empathetic toward his teammates Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, Sasuke's feelings of powerlessness force him to abandon his friends and his home in his quest to become stronger, and to find Orochimaru. Sasuke appears in several of the series' animated feature films and related media, including video games, original video animations (OVAs), and Boruto: Naruto the Movie (2015) and its manga sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (2016), in which he is depicted as a vigilante supporting his village and a mentor to Naruto's son Boruto Uzumaki.
Kishimoto conceived Sasuke as a rival of the series' title character Naruto Uzumaki. Despite Sasuke's dark character development later in the story, Kishimoto avoided portraying him as a villain; he found designing the character challenging and had difficulty creating a suitable look for him. Nonetheless, Kishimoto has grown to enjoy drawing him. In the manga's animated adaptations, Sasuke was voiced by Noriaki Sugiyama in Japanese and Yuri Lowenthal in English.
Sasuke's character has received mixed responses from anime and manga publications. His impressive fighting skills, plot contribution, and rivalry with Naruto Uzumaki received some praise, but he was criticized as a stereotypical rival in the mold of similar characters from other shōnen manga and as exhibiting a cold personality. Nevertheless, Sasuke's characterization in latter parts of the story and more mature personality in the Boruto sequel earned further positive comments. Sasuke has also placed highly in Naruto reader popularity polls and has also been the subject of studies by scholars. Character-based merchandise, including action figures and key chains, have been released.