Naruto Anime/Manga (Manga Spoilers Not Tagged) [WSJ]

[X-SOLDIER]

The filler arc about Kakashi's past in the ANBU looks like it could be awesome as hell: http://www.saiyanisland.com/2013/12/kakashi-shadow-of-the-anbu-black-ops-drawings-and-pictures/



X

 

[T@ctic]

SORRY SORRY SORRY GUYS COULDNT GET ON THE COMPUTER I WASNT IGNORING YOU BRILLIANT GUYZ.

Yup. Unlike the rest of the internet, we have surprisingly good taste.
X

the rest of the internet? you sure about that? because i can haul up a ton of naruhaters for yeh.......XT

I'll sound extremely rude and confrontational here but if you don't like Naruto, don't go piss on the parade of those who like it.

I mean, what's the purpose? Looking for a fight?

actually, yes

really, just a good conversation. : P

its kyoote looking at narufans talk

Also... FFVII and Naruto have a lot in common with the style of plots. They're both over-complicated, inter-connected plots that depend on flash-backs to tell the story. And their plots are very, very long-term and depend mostly on why people do things, not just what they do. And the themes they deal with have a lot of real-world parallels. The odds that people who like FFVII will also like Naruto (and Bleach) is pretty good.

ok this. i highly, highly, HIGHLY disagree. :T unless you are talking about Part One, i have no idea what you are talking about. naruto Part 2 is terribly bad. well, nowadays. now, im not trying to flame up, im trying to speak my mind here.

VII and Naruto's plot is like SO far away. VII stayed on point ("save the planet for shiva's sake!") while Naruto....where is it now? naruto's personality is completely different than his Part 1 version. and not in the good way, either, like he got character development. he has character degradation. from what i've (and TONS of others) have seen is just killed off characters for the sake of lesser animation, naruto is STILL obsessed with sasuke, and as a matter of fact sasuke has COME BACK and gets absolutely not judgement for the terror and murder he has done for years. its extremely hard to understand, let alone relate with the characters now. well, those who are alive anyway.

Part One started off with a MUCH better premises. you could actually have a bit of love for naruto and rooted for his dream. in Part Two his dream for hokage has exceedingly decreased to the the terrible idea of adding his parents in. 'moto, in case you havent noticed, that's the point of orphans. they will never see their parents, and the most they can know of them is what they see from pictures and hear from others.

Naruto Part One (btw when i say Naruto i mean the show and naruto i mean his name) it had characters (im not sure to use the word "relate" but whatevs" to relate to, be interested in, to make sure they all reached the goals they wanted (including naruto). to be perfectly honest, what is Part Two ABOUT? what are the goals? sasuke apparently has lost nearly all of his will for evil/corruption and is now wanting to be hokage????

???????????

i mean, i hope im dead wrong because this seems too silly to be true.

Naruto, Part One, loves. Part Two.....someone is going to have to explain to me about it please...i just....i cant understand what's going on.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Well... This'll be an interesting discussion... IWOT

VII and Naruto's plot is like SO far away. VII stayed on point ("save the planet for shiva's sake!") while Naruto....where is it now?

Well... the Naruto world is a lot more developed then the FFVII world is. If FFVII were to go into the level of detail Naruto does, it would get way more complicated, I'd love it even better if it did. At the very least, we'd probably get the entire history of Shin-Ra, and the Science Department, and the Turks and whatever it was the Cetra did to Jenova, and Zack and Rufus's childhood, not to mention the mechanics of the Lifestream and materia... you get the idea. The thing is that in real life, everything is connected to everything, so people and events have a lot of effect on the world. In video games, you're limited to the size of the disks, so you can't show everything something effects. In literature though, you don't have that limitation, so you're free to explore whatever effects you want. Naruto could just explore how Naruto himself is effected by events, but instead it explores how most of the major players in the world are effected. This gives a much richer understanding of the world and narrative, but it causes things to go "off track" so to speak.

naruto's personality is completely different than his Part 1 version. and not in the good way, either, like he got character development. he has character degradation.

Examples? If anything, we've seen him mature from a kid who wants a pipe dream, but has no clue how to get there, or what the dream even means, to someone who knows what that dream really calls for. Actually, this has happened to about ever character in Naruto. By the time we see them in Part 2, they are OOC compared to Part 1, but since we've seen what they've gone through and what they learned from it, they have become OOC in ways that are very IC. Thing is, that's how people usually are in real life. My personality now is different then my personality was three years ago, but it's changed in ways that are "in character" for me. TBH, this is something that bugs me about a lot of literature, both Western and Eastern. Many times characters go through events that really change them, only to not have it change them at all after the event is done.

from what i've (and TONS of others) have seen is just killed off characters for the sake of lesser animation,

Wait? What? Could you please give me an example where someone's death didn't directly affect the plot or was "wasteful"? 'Cause just about every death has been meaningful, especially when a lot of shonen doesn't have anyone important or with tones of backstory die. And most of the time, we know when people are dead or when their faking it. And death is for real in Naruto, unless you're using forbidden jutsu, in which case they'll still be dead by the end of it.

naruto is STILL obsessed with sasuke,

It's more like he's obsessed with keeping his promise as well as keeping his best friend from making the wrong decision, but anyway...

as a matter of fact sasuke has COME BACK and gets absolutely not judgement for the terror and murder he has done for years.

It's kinda hard to judge people when they come back in the middle of a battle verses a worse person then them and they're fighting on your side. I don't see anyone trying to judge Orochimaru at the moment either and most people hate him more then they hate Sasuke. That said, we don't have a good idea about what Sasuke was doing during the time-skip... but figuring out how to off Orochimaru does seem to have made that list, so at least he wasn't that far gone.

Part One started off with a MUCH better premises. you could actually have a bit of love for naruto and rooted for his dream. in Part Two his dream for hokage has exceedingly decreased to the the terrible idea of adding his parents in. 'moto, in case you havent noticed, that's the point of orphans. they will never see their parents, and the most they can know of them is what they see from pictures and hear from others.

One of the themes Naruto runs on is that it subverts/inverts a lot of shonen tropes, often in ways nobody has ever done well before. To be honest, the odds that Naruto was going to meet his parents again were pretty good. We've known that people can be resurrected/zombied ever since the Orochimaru/Sarutobi fight and that happens in the first half of Part 1. The entire manga is an exercise in "how has this trope not been used yet" coupled with just about variation of Chekov's Gun that can be used in the manga medium.

Naruto Part One (btw when i say Naruto i mean the show and naruto i mean his name) it had characters (im not sure to use the word "relate" but whatevs" to relate to, be interested in, to make sure they all reached the goals they wanted (including naruto). to be perfectly honest, what is Part Two ABOUT? what are the goals? sasuke apparently has lost nearly all of his will for evil/corruption and is now wanting to be hokage????

The way I see it, Part 1 poses a bunch of questions that the characters are going to have to deal with, and Part 2 is how they answer those questions. Part 2 is based on Part 1 and can't be separated from it. The characters in Part 1 never really reach any of their goals, if anything, they realize how much further they'll have to actually go to reach them. Part 2 can be summed up as characters trying to get a handle on what they want really means, and since the Naruto world is based on deception and secrets, what they want is a lot more complicated then they thought. Fortunately, most of them aren't letting that stop them from achieving their dream and don't make the habit of rejecting information they don't like.

 

[Alex Strife]

its kyoote looking at narufans talk

Awww, you're cute as well. *Pats head*


That's the problem; cathegorising people as "narufans" when I am pretty sure that every single one of those who post on this thread love many other things, other than Naruto. The problem, as it is often in life, lies with those rabid Naruto fans who only see Naruto and nothing else, and refuse to acknowledge any problems the series may have.

Naruto (series, not character) is not perfect, and it doesn't try to be. It's good at what it does, and it has a few shortcomings that stem from it being a shounen manga. I'm not getting into detail here because I'm sure we all understand what kind of problems shounen mangas tend to have (friendship and effort conquers all!!). Naruto actually did a good job of mixing those "typical" shounen elements wth new things, giving both an old and new feeling.

Of course, you do not like Naruto and we like Naruto, so both parties are biased, in a way.


I'll be simple. I like Naruto because it entertains me. I'm not trying to justify it's the "zOMG best manga evar" nor I'm unwilling to discuss stuff, when it's done properly. When I look for a manga or anime series to read/watch, I look for different things but one of them is an engaging storyline. Naruto had a good premise and it evolved in a rather organic way that kept me interested. Of course, there is a point of nostalgia since I started with Naruto a freaking decade ago, but that's part of its charm as well.

Also, I'm not saying it's your case but one can't just watch the present episodes / read present chapters and state the series is bad. One of the reasons Naruto is good is how it's tying everything together. Things from many, many years ago. It's good to read it all.

And while Naruto had a moment where it had grown a bit stale, before the Great Ninja War started, it was later on proved that the author was pretty much gaining momentum for everything that would come later. And I think we've been treated with a great few years of Naruto, as of late.


Also, @thread, I've just realised the Great Ninja War started on November 2010 and it's 2014 already . And I remember thinking "wow, the end is near"; yeah sure...!!

 

[Super Mario]

I am unsure if he is looking for a debate or simply trolling. Whatever it is, no need to feed it. Let's enjoy whatever's currently on chapter.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I am unsure if he is looking for a debate or simply trolling. Whatever it is, no need to feed it. Let's enjoy whatever's currently on chapter.

The lack of a chapter last week isn't helping...

 

[X-SOLDIER]

the rest of the internet? you sure about that? because i can haul up a ton of naruhaters for yeh.......XT

...I was implying that the large majority of the rest of the internet has bad taste: i.e. there're a lot of people who dislike Naruto for really myopic reasons, so the fact that you could easily find more of them is exactly my point...

its kyoote looking at narufans talk

Rule 1: If you want to start a real discussion, don't be patronizing. If you are, we're likely to ignore you, and instantly think much less of your opinion. TBQH, right now you're kind of skating around on a lot of folks' nerves - mine included - and not just specific to this thread, so take this as a kind word of warning.

...to be perfectly honest, what is Part Two ABOUT? what are the goals? sasuke apparently has lost nearly all of his will for evil/corruption and is now wanting to be hokage? Naruto, Part One, loves. Part Two.....someone is going to have to explain to me about it please...i just....i cant understand what's going on.

So, it's pretty clear that your issue with Shippuden is that you don't have an understanding of the basic concept of what's happening and where the story's going, to which I'd suggest just re-reading it. You're also more than welcome to search around this thread, because we've done a metric shitton of in-depth analysis all through this thread about any number of facets of the story.

Brief summary: Shippuden is about the Shinobi World itself and the reasons for the social strife that's been generated between the various nations, and an analogy to the different approaches of securing a greater peace are achieved that often parallels real world conflicts, and allowing that to shape the characters as they go through their "coming of age" part of their lives.

Sasuke has never, let me restate this, NEVER been a character focused on evil or corruption. He's always been solely focused on vengeance for the person who was responsible for the annihilation of his family AND someone else has always been using that single-minded drive of his towards their own ends. Itachi wanted to manipulate Sasuke to be the hero to Konoha by sacrificing his own life to his brother and becoming the villain. Orochimaru manipulated Sasuke's quest for power to be strong enough to defeat his brother in order to secure a host body for his own purposes. Tobi manipulated Sasuke to show that the people who were responsible for his family's (and his brother's) annihilation were actually the elders of Konoha.

Then it comes full circle to Edo Itachi confronting and forgiving Sasuke, and Sasuke FINALLY being out from any other third party's manipulation, at which point he needed to figure out for himself what Clans/Villages really mean to him, and what he is or isn't willing to compromise and where he stands - which is what happens when he talks with the past Hokage. His statement about potentially being Hokage is analogous to Madara/Hashirama both wanting to create a world that's for the best of what they care about but having conflicting view in how to do that. There's no reason Sasuke wouldn't want to be in a position to protect all the people that he cares about, but he's equally fueled by the need to wipe out the people responsible for the injustices of the world, whereas Naruto isn't.



X

 

[Dark and Divine]

Chapter 661 is up!

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Well that was an unexpected turn of events. It felt a bit like the first part of a two-part chapter, so I'm expecting follow-up to both of their fates in the next chapter.


X

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Additionally, the new ending for the anime right now is pretty awesome:

X

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Aaaaaand triple post, but you NEED to go watch Episode 345 without question. Right now.

It's the one where Obito spends time trapped underground undergoing physical rehabilitation and then encounters the Hidden Mist shinobi, Kakashi, & Rin. It's probably one of the most flat out brutal episodes they've done, and the animation is fantastic - especially during the key moments.

Episodes like this are the reasons that I go back and watch the anime.

Spoiler: This may be my favorite piece of animation they've ever done

X

 

[X-SOLDIER]

http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/662


Woah... This was not the part two that I was expecting to read this week. And a week hiatus to top is all off. (The colored art was amazing).



X

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Kishimoto: Let's celebrate 15 years of Naruto by killing off the main protagonists!

Fandom: WTF!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

This is the most I've liked Sasuke in quite a while --

Spoiler

that his concern for dying is because he doesn't want his brother's efforts to have been in vain.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Jaw-dropping interview with Masashi Kishimoto.
Holy wow.



X

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It was cool, I guess, but what did you find jaw dropping?

 

[X-SOLDIER]

It was cool, I guess, but what did you find jaw dropping?

Just the sheer amount of time that it takes and that he spends - especially how the WSJ Mangaka basically do it all themselves, and how he doesn't really "see" the impact of Naruto being a big manga most of the time.

Also, I was really impressed with how he described Sasuke.


X

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

New one's up:

http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/663/3

Let us read together.

EDIT: Now, that shit was jaw dropping. And a little nasty.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Oh boy... Orochimaru has yet another curse seal to fall back on...

And Madara's new form...

Kishimoto so loves to tease...

 

[Drax]

Sakura, that's not how you perform CPR. O_o

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I'm very curious how this other half of Kurama will act, since it's an entirely different type of chakra (Yin. vs. Yang). I'm wondering what'll be happening with Sasuke now. This was a damn good tease chapter, and full of unexpected "holy shit" moments.


X

 

[Obsidian Fire]

http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/664/3

Not expecting it to go this way...

Then again... that's a pretty normal feeling for this manga... why am I surprised exactly?

And Minato/Kushina interaction always gives me warm feels...

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Speechless.

Utterly speechless and gutpunched in the best of possible ways. Holy shit.



X

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I feel like I'm missing something. What's got you guys so floored?

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Minato tried to put his Kyuubi's chakra into Naruto, but Obito/Zetsu managed to steal that chakra before Naruto could get it. So now Madara has all the bijuu.

And something's going on over where Sasuke is and even Orochimaru thinks he might be done for.

There's also a huge Checkov's Gun in the form of the Sage of Six Path's ninja tools being abandoned by Madara...