
“Family, a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in their respective social positions, usually those of spouses, parents, children, and siblings” (Britannica Academic). As seen from the previous statement, provided by informative scholars, people see the term family as people that are related by blood or united by marriage or adoption, but that statement in inaccurate. In regards to those that believe this, an individual’s family cannot be seen only and unity and blood, but also by the bonds the people share with each other. Everyone must have experience this phenomenon, whether it be with close friends or people that you want to protect, even without any particular reason. However, could that form of family be as important to a family that is connected by blood or marriage?  To determine if family can be important, no matter what kind of family it is, two shows will be compared having each form of family. Both shows are sponsored by the anime production Shonen Jump, and their names are Naruto and Fairy Tail. In order to make a deceive comparison between them in relation to family, a detailed description of both Naruto and Fairy Tail must be made, followed by comparing them to what a family should be to each other. 

In the show Naruto, there are examples for both situations, relating to a certain individual in the show known as Sasuke Uchiha. From these examples, three will be discussed during this portion of the paper: Sasuke and his wife and daughter, Sakura and Sarada, Sasuke and his brother, Itachi Uchiha, and Sasuke and Naruto Uzumaki. Before the discussions between Sasuke’s families, prior background information must be given about Sasuke. Sasuke is a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village, and becomes the last member of the noble Uchiha clan before Sadara was born. As the child, the Uchiha clan was completed slaughtered right in front of Sasuke, which caused him to only live for revenge and hatred. This caused Sasuke to become obsessed with power and abandoned his own village in search for more. Once he accomplished his revenge, Sasuke’s hatred became stronger and led him to try to kill the leaders of the shinobi world, along with his best friend. However, he was stopped and changed back to right path and is now currently traveling the world alone to atone for his sins. 

Although this is somewhat out of older in the timeline, Sasuke and his relationship with Sakura and Sarada are different from what the normal father/husband would be. Sasuke known Sakura ever since he was put on a team with her, along with Naruto, but the only thing that Sasuke ever thought of her as was an annoyance. When Sasuke attempted to leave the village, Sakura was first to see him before he left, pleading with him to let her go with him, but he knocked her out and left the village. Instead of wanting revenge, Sakura pleaded to Naruto with tears from her eyes to bring Sasuke back to the village, so that he won’t get killed by the person he was going to train under. Years followed before Sasuke and Sakura met again, which Sasuke tried to kill Sakura twice, but no matter what she continued to him and cried whenever he did something bad. Following the last shinobi war, Sasuke placed Sakura in an illusion and tried to Naruto, but even after all that, Sakura still healed Sasuke and Naruto after their fight at the same time. Sasuke was imprisoned was a war criminal, but was released with the help from a certain someone, and before he left the village to atone for his sins, Sasuke did a signature poke on Sakura’s forehead as she asked to go with him, saying “maybe next time,” the first time he ever showed any attention to Sakura (Naruto Shippuden).  More years went by, with Sakura living together with her daughter, Sarada Uchiha. Sarada never seen her father before, so she decided to go look for him. Once she found him, Sasuke confused her for an enemy and tried to attack her, stopping just before he made contact, scaring Sarada to the point where she unlocked her Sharingan, a technique that can only be obtained when an Uchiha has felt enough emotion pain. After Sakura was taken by an enemy, Sarada noticed that Sasuke wasn’t that worried about her, although he did went to say her, along with Naruto and Sarada. Once they met up with Sakura, Sarada yelled at Sasuke, asking how can she believe he really loves Sakura, which Sasuke replied by saying that his proof was that he and Sakura had Sarada. Along with extra information, like the reason why he never returns to the village was because people are constantly after him and he doesn’t want to bring harm to them or the village and being around the village/training Sarada sometime in the future, that is the relationship that Sasuke has with Sakura and Sarada.

Sasuke relationships with his brother, Itachi, was exceptionally good for the beginning of Sasuke’s childhood. Itachi was the ideal perfect brother; he was caring, always thought of Sasuke, and was always there for him whenever he needed him. This all changed on the night of the Uchiha Clan’s massacre, where Itachi Uchiha singlehandedly killed everyone in the clan besides Sasuke. The reason that Itachi told Sasuke for letting him live was because he saw potential in Sasuke and that he wanted to kill him when he obtained the Mangekyo Sharingan, which could only be obtained by killing the person closest to him. After that moment, Sasuke lived only for revenge against Itachi. Once Sasuke was strong enough, he fought Itachi and killed him, but fell unconscious afterwards. When he awoke, he was next to Obito Uchiha, which tried to activate the Sharingan on Sasuke, but Itachi signature move appeared from Sasuke’s eyes and attacked Obito. Obito was able to get away from the attack and explained everything about Itachi that Sasuke didn’t know. Itachi murdered the clan as a request from one of the leaders of the Hidden Leaf Village, saying if he didn’t, they would kill everyone, including Sasuke. Itachi agreed only if the main leader promised to protect Sasuke for him. Itachi purposefully made himself look like a terrible person to Sasuke and the rest of the village, so that Sasuke would become stronger and be looked at as a hero of the Hidden Leaf Village. The reason why Itachi implanted his attack to attack Obito was because he was the only one that knew the truth besides the village elders and he didn’t want Sasuke to learn the truth and head back to the village. Itachi even joined an enemy organization in order to make sure that they could not do anything to the village or make contact with Sasuke. Once Sasuke learned this, he unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan, and was bent on killing the leaders of the Hidden Leaf Village and anyone who gets in his way. During the last ninja war, Itachi was resurrected ad controlled by the enemy, but by the help of the technique that he placed in Naruto that was meant to be used on Sasuke if he ever fought Naruto to kill, Itachi was set free and went to stop the person that was controlling the other resurrected people. Sasuke saw Itachi and followed him to the person and fought with Sasuke. After they won and Itachi released the person’s control, which caused the souls to go back to where they belonged, Itachi told Sasuke that no matter what Sasuke decides to do that he would always love him before vanishing. Their bond may very be one of the strongest in all existence.

Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha were rivals from the beginning. Sasuke was always better than Naruto, but after time passed, Sasuke realized how strong Naruto was getting. Before long, Sasuke and Naruto both realized that they were best friends, but Sasuke revenge, along with Naruto rapid growth in strength, caused Sasuke to leave the village in search of more power. Naruto, with a team, went to stop Sasuke, but they were separated and Naruto was the only one that reached Sasuke. This caused one of the most famous fights within the show; during this fight, Naruto even admitted that not only did he think of Sasuke as a friend, but as a brother as well. At the end of the fight, Sasuke had the chance to take Naruto’s life and gain the Mangekyo Sharingan, but he spared Naruto and continued in search for power. The events that happened with Sasuke and Sakura were more or less the same up to the last ninja way. The only critical piece of information that needs to be stated is when Naruto met Itachi before anyone knew the truth about him, he told Itachi that he thought of Sasuke more of a brother than Itachi could. Once Naruto learned the truth, he felt sorry for Itachi and when he met Itachi when he was resurrected, he promised him that he would protect Sasuke and the village no matter what happens. As stated above, after the last ninja war, Sasuke and Naruto fought, which left them both with one arm missing. Naruto words about the bond they shared changed Sasuke back to the right path. When Sasuke was imprisoned, Naruto pleaded for him to be released, and since they were both war heroes, although Sasuke was done wrong as well, Sasuke was able to go free. Sasuke even took back the headband that he left with Naruto during their first fight. Even after years, they still talk as friendly as they used to. The show itself is based on the bond between Naruto and Sasuke, which shows that this description cannot possible describe how powerful their bond is.

In the show Fairy Tail, there is two examples in order for the comparison to begin, which that is Fairy Tail itself and Minerva and Jiemma. No prior background information is needed to begin discussing.

Fairy Tail is a guild within the show that wizards comes together to participate in jobs, have fun, pick fights, and much more. Since Fairy Tail has mass amounts of members, only information about Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster will be discussed outside of any battles. Both Natsu and Gray Fullbuster were orphans that joined Fairy Tail at a young age. Natsu was raised by a dragon until all the dragons vanished at once, while Gray’s parents and mentor were killed by a demon. Natsu and Gray are revival in the show and at first seem like they couldn’t get along. They always got in trouble by another wizard around their age, which was known as Erza Scarlett, although as they grew up, she began treating them as he little brothers. Since most of the important fights were Natsu’s, Gray won’t be talked about until the last fight. As for Natsu’s battles, there are moments that should just how powerful the bond between Fairy Tail is. When Gajeel was in a dark guild, he attacked the guild and stole Lucy, another member of Fairy Tail. When Gajeel was about to hit her head, Natsu appeared and grew far stronger than he was before when he saw that Lucy was injured and managed to beat Gajeel after being injured in previous fights. Probably the second most important moment in Fairy Tail for this comparison would be when Natsu was fighting Laxus, another Fairy Tail wizard that tried to destroy the guild. The important part of this fight was when Laxus tried to Fairy Law, an attack that kills everyone that the person considers to be an enemy, but nobody in the guild was affected by the attack, leaving Laxus speechless. Natsu commented stating that Laxus didn’t hate anyone in the guild, that’s why Fairy Law failed. The last fight that is the most important is Natsu and Grays fight with Mard Geer. Not only did Gray save Natsu’s life twice in the fight, but it almost appeared that he died doing so. This caused Natsu to activate Dragon Force, which he only activated before with the help of etherion and one of the Ten Wizards Saints power, with just his anger. A note was before the end of the battle, when Gray took a massive attack for Natsu, he told Natsu that the only way to protect the future was to believe in him. Once Natsu’s Dragon Force ran out and his magic power was at zero, he said he believes too, which right afterwards Gray got up and finished Mard Geer. Everyone in Fairy Tail is family to each other, and Natsu and Gray are known as two of a kind.

Due to the fact that they are side characters within the show, not much can be said about Minerva and Jiemma. Jiemma was the former leader of the guild known as Sabertooth, which he envisioned to be the strongest guild of them all. Minerva is the daughter of Jiemma and was known as the strongest member during his time. Although it seems like they should be happy about their circumstances, Jiemma treated Minerva quite harshly as a child. As a child, Minerva used to cry and wasn’t all that strong. This infuriated Jiemma, stating that he could have someone so weak in the guild. There was even an instance where Jiemma took Minerva to the wild and told her that she was not allowed back until she had no more tears in her. This made Minerva become somewhat evil for a time and only sought for power. When Sting killed her father in front of her, all she did was smile at them. She eventually got taken over by tartaros, a demon guild. Until she was beaten by Erza for the second time, she tried having revenge for her and Erza’s first match. Jiemma was revived as a demon during the fight against Mard Geer, stating that he would kill everyone in Sabertooth, which could be the same as saying he would kill Minerva and everyone else that Sting knew. From this example, it can be seen that not all blood families are considered to be good.

As seen in the previous paragraphs, both situations have both forms of family that were stated previously. As for the characteristics and bonds between their families, which one could be greater? In order to discuss this, a comparison must be made using each of the examples. No matter what Sasuke did towards Sakura and Sarada, their love stayed strong enough to look past all that he did, or didn’t do for Sarada’s case, and after enough time, it reached him and produced love that no other character could image Sasuke having. Itachi lied to Sasuke in order to protect him, make him stronger, and become known as a hero if his plans would have worked, while he would have died by his own little brother’s hand. Naruto would sacrifice anything for his friends and village, except Sasuke. He could never see Sasuke as an enemy, on as his best friend/brother. Even after losing an arm, Naruto still was happy to see Sasuke. Sasuke repents for his sins and all the trouble that he caused his friend. He travels the world to stop enemies from attacking the village that are after him, even at the cost of not being with his daughter and wife. Gray and Natsu put everything on the line to protect Fairy Tail and their family. Gray almost threw his life away in order to protect Natsu from an attack that would surely had killed him. Natsu charged at Mard Geer alone without realizing he activated Dragon Force to stop Mard Geer from hurting anyone else, even though with Gray helping prior to Dragon Force, they were doing no damage. Jiemma treated Minerva as a weakling that caused her to fall into darkness for a given interval of time. Each of these are different to some degree, but one thing that can be noted is blood families could be ranged from being almost perfect to a complete nightmare, while families formed by bonds will never die, no matter hard people try to sever them. It doesn’t matter which of the two types of family are better, since no two families are the same; however, a family made of bonds can always be comparable to a family by blood or unity. 
