The two main female characters take on each other. Who wins?
Sakura doesn't get to use any ninjutsu or genjutsu. (if she has any)
The two main female characters take on each other. Who wins?
Sakura doesn't get to use any ninjutsu or genjutsu. (if she has any)
I agree with this. Sakura isn't "bad", but she's really not that "good" either, pre-timeskip. She's more or less just there for Naruto to try, and fail, to hit on, and for Sasuke to ignore. Akane though, while not on Ranma's level, is really good. Being able to take out people swarming her without taking a single hit (from other martial artists of varying sorts, various different athletes, etc).
I would argue that Sakura's main meta-purpose pre-timeskip was to be the relatively normal person who is reacting to and being inspired to improve herself by popular strong guy Sasuke doing cool things and suffering tons of psychological trauma and obnoxious weakling Naruto becoming a strong and admirable person that is leaving her in the dust despite all his apparent starting flaws.
Kishimoto does tend to describe Sakura as being normal, especially compared to her team mates, in terms of upbringing and family situation whenever he's asked about her in interviews. She's got some good traits for a ninja pre-timeskip but doesn't have access to demon powers, ridiculous bloodline abilities or even inherited techniques like the rest of her generation. So it makes sense that it took some time and a teacher than actually pays attention to her *side-eyes Kakashi* before she became a proper asset to the team.
And yeah, post-timeskip Sakura should win without too much difficulty.
I would argue that her general determination once she started to take her job as a ninja seriously instead of just something to try and get closer to Sasuke with was pretty impressive, especially during the Forest of Death where she abandoned her vanity by hacking off the hair that she grew out to attract her crush when it became a hinderance and used actual tactics and traps to hold off vastly superior forces who were trying to murder her disabled teammates long enough for aide to arrive, which was arguably one of the most ninja-ish scenes in the entire series.
Also Inner-Sakura was also a viable psychic defense, which sounds like an indication of a severe psychological disorder, but whatever, I guess that still happened.
Doesn't Akane kind of sort of hang with female Ranma? That's... kind of still really impressive on its own merit, no?
Also, I've literally never read anything regarding Sakura post time skip. What all is she capable of again?
To be honest, I don't think Akane ever did reach a point she could sorta hang against female Ranma or any of the characters that showed up in town and stayed over the course of the manga. It's definitely not a case of being weak and more like those characters are insanely tough on the get-go and they kinda just kept being that strong.
However, she does prove to be a hell lot more reliable in actually helping Ranma in a situation when everyone else is either too self serving or their quirks made them way too much of a hindrance. I will give her that.
I never got the feeling that Akane could really hang with a serious girl Ranma. Which isn't a mark against Akane, she just happens to be at the low end of fighters in the series.
As for what Sakura can do after the timeskip.
This is basically the default of her super-punches.
In the final arc a the big bads summon up a bunch of monsters to fight the united ninja of the world. The monsters turn out to be strong enough to no sell Sakura's super punches. So Sakura activates a chakra reserve she's been building up for three years, it enhances her to the point where she can wreck said monsters.
This in the result of her super punches after the boost: Those aren't human sized figures, a lot of them a building sized monsters.
And here's her most recent fight I believe from the sequel series. Note that she's throwing the pillar up and not down.
Last edited by penguin-in-leather-jacket; 02-28-2021 at 12:22 PM.