Naruto Cosplay Brings Pain Back to Life

Naruto is now in the midst of celebrating the anime's 20th anniversary , and one awesome cosplay has brought one of its biggest villains, Pain, back to the spotlight. Masashi Kishimoto first launched Naruto in the pages of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in the pages of 1999, and the anime then launched in Japan in 2002. With the franchise kicking off a new 20th anniversary celebration for the anime a few years ago, it's been a great time to be a Naruto fan with all sorts of new projects and releases now in the works for the future.

Over the course of its run , Naruto has introduced fans to all sorts of memorable allies and foes that Naruto himself had come face to face with. The series put Naruto at the center of so many massive fights that it all ended with a massive war that saw even more characters at the center of the fights. But even with all that happened after, there was really no villain that had a bigger impact on the Hidden Leaf Village than Pain. Maybe through aesthetics alone too, and an awesome highlight of the villain's look comes through cosplay from artist @artistjodysteel on Instagram. Check it out below:

Naruto: Who Is Pain?

Naruto: Shippuden really ramped things up in the franchise as following the time skip from the end of the original Naruto run, the Akatsuki were introduced as a deadly group of rogue ninjas who were each out to hit a goal of their own. This came into play in many ways following the time skip as Naruto and the others faced off against these deadly ninjas, but the real biggest challenge came during the Pain arc as Naruto was facing a villain with an ideology that wasn't entirely wrong.

Fighting Pain came with a lot of mystery behind it too as the villain initially appeared as one of many, who were all seemingly connected in some mysterious way. Thanks to the power of the Rinnegan, Pain was a deadly foe that threatened the entire Hidden Leaf Village to a new level of destruction that had not been seen to that point. Making matters even more prominent was the fact that it all started with Pain killing off Jiraiya, who was not only Naruto's mentor but a fan favorite character to that point in the series.

Naruto's Creator Reflects on Pain

Funny enough, Naruto series creator Masashi Kishimoto recently reflected on the toughest moments during his serialization with the series and noted the Pain arc as one that was difficult to resolve. Noting that there was an issue that the creator had to resolve and work through, it was revealed during a much earlier interview that Kishimoto was struggling with Naruto and Pain's conflicting viewpoints. It wasn't enough for Naruto to just defeat an opponent like Pain because it would only continue that cycle of pain and strife.

Naruto instead needed to do the much tougher thing and forgive his foe for everything that had happened thus far. It was a much more difficult path for Naruto to walk down, and it showcased a real showing of leadership that helped the rest of the Hidden Leaf Village to see Naruto in a different way than they ever did before. It's also why this fight is still held in high regard all these years later.

If you wanted to see more of Naruto, you can find the anime now streaming with Crunchyroll. The newest series, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex , is releasing chapters with Viz Media's digital Shonen Jump library and Shueisha's MangaPlus service.