
“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, 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.

In the show Fairy Tail, there is a guild within the show known as Fairy Tail 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. Probably the second most important moment in Fairy Tail 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 most important moment is when 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.

As seen in the previous paragraphs, both situations have different forms of family that were stated previously. As for the characteristics and bonds between their families, which one could be greater? Let’s first start by comparing the two different situations. 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. 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. In short, both the bond between Itachi and Sasuke along with Natsu and Gray are strong enough to put their lives on the line for each other. The only difference is the methods that they used in order to become stronger. Itachi lied to Sasuke, causing him to sought for revenge to get power, while Natsu and Gray were always upfront about everything and thought as each other as rivals, gaining power to never lose the other. Which type of family could be considered stronger with this comparison? That answer is unknown, but it does prove that a family that is formed without blood or unity can be comparable to those that are, especially since all blood families are good to each other. 
