The Naruto manga/anime has an impressive collection of shinobi characters, the most prominent of which is Gaara’s appearance.
Gaara was initially introduced as a character with a cold exterior, hiding his troubled, almost insane interior. After this, Gaara underwent an intense emotional transformation, becoming one of the most beloved characters in the series. What’s interesting is that in the first character sketch, Gaara has an appearance that is very different from what we know
Gaara’s original appearance
In “Naruto Secret: Scroll of Formation Character,” author Kishimoto gave fans a glimpse of early sketches of several characters, including the Sand ninja Gaara.
In the image above, it can be seen that Gaara was initially accompanied by a large dog. His appearance has similar characteristics to the character Shinki in Boruto, especially the detail of his outer cloak.
Kishimoto said that the first look at Gaara was so varied, that it was difficult to recognize him. Perhaps this initial design choice was intended to reflect the complexity of Gaara, a character always immersed in difficult inner situations, through a slightly scary appearance. Clearly this original design of Gaara evokes a completely different aura.
In addition, author Kishimoto once intended to name the Suna boy Kotarou Fuuma. However, the editor advised him to call this character Gaara. Later, when he learned about the idea of the name Gaara being named after a ski resort in Japan, the author felt it was nonsense.
In addition, the Naruto author also said that he was inspired by some elements from the costume of the character Neo in the movie The Matrix played by Keanu Reeves to develop the image of Gaara.