Do we like them?

Do we like Gaara?

A character from Naruto (1999–2017)

Our score: 8 out of 10. A feared loner who does the hard work of changing. He ends up one of the most trustworthy, selfless leaders in the story, so yes, we'd back him.

Gaara is a young ninja of the Hidden Sand Village, with a huge gourd of sand on his back and the power to control it. He is introduced as a cold, frightening figure. The village fears him, and he has grown up isolated and lonely.

His story mirrors Naruto's. Both are outcasts shaped by how others treated them. That parallel is what makes Gaara so compelling: he is a villain-adjacent threat at first, but the story keeps asking what made him that way and whether he can choose something else.

After meeting Naruto, Gaara slowly turns away from violence and toward protecting others. He later becomes the Kazekage, the leader of his village, and puts his people and his allies ahead of himself. The score reflects the real harm he does early on, which keeps him below a perfect 10, and how convincingly he earns his redemption.