The Naruto World

Pete Zaitcev writes:

Complete explanations of Naruto face exactly the same problem [as Lain]. Neither Kishimoto nor Abe thought out their respective worlds in the detail required to sustain such explanations. So when the question of overseas nations with nuclear power arises, the answer is… a magical shield (if that). Heck, nobody can even explain why radio exists while telephone does not, or why an outboard engine exists, but not a car.

The best explanation of the Naruto world’s tech level that I’ve seen comes from a thread on anachronistic settings over on the RPG.Net Forums, where Thomas T explains:

There’s computers, power lines, motors, cameras and radio headsets but no guns, cars, factories, or indeed anything that smells of industry.

And no explanation is offered or even needed because the whole point of the setting is just “Holy crap! Ninjas!” It’s a historical setting with a heapin’ helpin’ of every modern convenience that can be included without outshining the ninjas or modernising the “feel” of the world.

Which is probably about as far as Kishimoto thought out the world’s tech levels and why it’s generally not worth thinking too hard about them.

If you knew me, you wouldn’t be surprised that I have thought too hard about them.

I tend to take a “world-building” type approach to writing fanfiction, at least vaguely sketching out in my mind tons of historical details that never directly influence the story. My Sailor Moon stories “Shades of Gray” and “Shades of Darkness” have a history starting tens of thousands of year before the earliest event even mentioned in the stories themselves, and for “One Hundred Days” I’ve pondered such irrelevancies as which of the Hidden Villages is the oldest and just how the Hidden Village system originated.

One of the other things I had to do for “One Hundred Days” was develop at least a vague idea of what the technological level of both the world and the ninja nations was, while keeping the “Holy crap! Ninjas!” feel. I could (and probably should) have just gone “Holy crap! Ninjas!” myself, but that’s not really the way I work and I find this whole thinking-too-hard thing kind of fun.

Regarding the “overseas nations with nuclear power” question, to the best of my knowledge the only canonical information on the other parts of the Naruto world are that they exist, they don’t have ninja, and they have armies. There’s no particular reason that they have to have technology that the ninja nations don’t. The other nations might even be less advanced. For what it’s worth, as I recall the glimpses of the rest of the world we get in the second Naruto movie show a medieval-styled society (with perhaps some steampunkish elements given the tech the invaders use, but that could be specific to the invaders rather than widely spread).

That’ the easy part of the issue. The harder part is figuring out what the ninja nations’ tech level is and why. The closest thing to a coherent explanation I’ve been able to construct is that the Naruto world is high-tech but non-industrial; besides some inexplicable gaps the technology level is roughly real world 1980s, but all products are still made by skilled craftsmen and not mass-produced. I throw in some sort of magic handwave to make radio and television transmissions over long distances impossible.

It doesn’t explain everything perfectly – like the bizarre gaps in technology – or high-tech showing up in poor places – like the modern construction equipment in the Wave Country – but it provides enough of a framework for me to play in.

Ultimately, though, the point is – as Pete Zaitcev also says – the characters and the story. Naruto’s are going that I’m willing to think too hard, handwave, and so forth about it, and in fact enjoy doing it.

Lain… not so much.