Ow.
Something definitely was lost in translation between what one ardent original-character Narutoverse cosplayer at Comic-Con 2008 was saying and what made it into this Reuters article. I definitely do not expect reporters assigned to cover Comic-Con to know everything about the (relatively obscure) subject matter involved, but it's a bit painful for an ex-Naruto-fan like me to read about what apparently is a Narutoverse gone wrong. Like the "uncanny valley," nothing is as disturbing as something that nearly hits the mark but doesn't, and the closer you get to the mark while still being off, the more disturbing it is.
If I were going to be canon-picky, I'd take this article to task for getting the village name wrong ("Hidden Village of the Sand," not "Village Hidden in the Sand") and suggesting that there are somehow scores of nine-tailed demons out there wreaking havoc instead of just the one Kyuubi (and one is far more than enough, thank you). And is "Uchia" there a typo or bad transcription of "Uchiha"? It's hard to hear that second "h" sometimes...
There can be only two interpretations:
1) All of this is 100% solid reporting, so any distortions and inconsistencies from Kishimoto's Naruto universe are intentional, sort of like an alternate universe for the original character. That's fine; it's within one's rights to create whatever they want for an original character.
2) The poor reporter assigned to this beat had no clue what was going on and scrabbled something together that sounded like what they thought they heard. Of course, this not being a supreme matter of national security or something like that, it's okay if things are off. But if they were approaching this article as professionally as possible, and this is the result, I shudder to think of what must happen to the bigger news.
If I were going to be canon-picky, I'd take this article to task for getting the village name wrong ("Hidden Village of the Sand," not "Village Hidden in the Sand") and suggesting that there are somehow scores of nine-tailed demons out there wreaking havoc instead of just the one Kyuubi (and one is far more than enough, thank you). And is "Uchia" there a typo or bad transcription of "Uchiha"? It's hard to hear that second "h" sometimes...
There can be only two interpretations:
1) All of this is 100% solid reporting, so any distortions and inconsistencies from Kishimoto's Naruto universe are intentional, sort of like an alternate universe for the original character. That's fine; it's within one's rights to create whatever they want for an original character.
2) The poor reporter assigned to this beat had no clue what was going on and scrabbled something together that sounded like what they thought they heard. Of course, this not being a supreme matter of national security or something like that, it's okay if things are off. But if they were approaching this article as professionally as possible, and this is the result, I shudder to think of what must happen to the bigger news.