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Comments
I like /u/ (surprise surprise), despite the annoying people on it.
/adv/ is good for a lark, though. And I've occasionally considered posting in a /soc/ ratethread or two, to see if I'm actually ugly and haven't realized it.
I want to agree with this. But /tg/ has been bogged down with annoying quest threads for a while now.
Just going to cut in and voice my disappoint with Toonami's decision to add Inuyasha to the block and replace Casshern with....an old Tenchi Muyo show.
Neither Inuyasha nor Tenchi are particularly bad, and it's clearly just filler until they can afford something better, but I'm going to have the block running in the background for the most part now, which is sad.
Oh well.
@fourteenwings: The title is a terrible English/German mix.
I have a friend who lurks on /lit/ and /mu/ a lot.
@Vanity: /a/, /b/, etc. are board names on 4chan.
@fourteenwings: Why is Sky Girls such a a dumb title. Then again, that's the name they got in-universe too. And somehow I can actually imagine that happening rather plausibly...
I like Sky Girls (as a title).
Kojiro?
Bleach can be awesome in chunks, Naruto is consistently mediocre. But this week's Bleach chapter really was something else...
The Sky Girls logo is still far cooler than the title.
Naruto can be pretty great sometimes, too.
Jiraiya's death hit pretty hard, for one.
You gotta give the show respect for actually keeping many of its dead characters dead (Impure World Resurrection Reincarnation aside, as it's temporary).
It's just... mediocre 90% of the time.
I liked Part 2's beginning a lot, the Rescue Gaara arc was fun and the little Hebi side plot was cool. The problem is the little Hebi side plot ended up taking over the show, and so did the rest of the Ichihas.
Naruto has some really good characters (Jiraiya, Sai, Hinata) and there are always consistently good fighting games to enjoy from CCCorp, so I don't really mind.
Gaara was a really cool character too, implausibility of his character inside (Pretty sure you die if you don't sleep for years, man).
And Naruto has what is probably the best concept of all the main characters in the largest shonen shows (his father died sealing the Kyuubi into him, his mother died giving birth to him/releasing the Kyuubi, his father intended him to be a hero for his sacrifice in holding it, but the villagers ended up hating it- and Naruto ended up using that to fuel the usual shonen archetypes of getting into fights all the time and befriending villains by virtue of wanting to be acknowledged on his own strengths, rather than reviled for being a jinchuuriki,)
I do feel that in concept, Naruto is the strongest of the main shonen (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, maybe Fairy Tail and Soul Eater if you stretch it a bit). It's the execution that falls flat.
In fact, that goes for many of the characters, too. Kakashi was great on paper, Hinata was cool in concept and would have been cool if anything was done with her ever, Neji was a great character, Jiraiya was really cool. Hell, even Sasuke was pretty cool on paper.
And the show wasn't afraid to give them fuck-ups and make them have lasting consequences- Sasuke's flaws ended up making him one of the main villains, Jiraiya's lack of self-confidence was heart breaking during his death scene, and even Shikamaru's laziness ended up fucking him over when Asuma died.
It's just that the manga took those awesome concepts, and then laid them flat in execution. Blah.
I'm just keeping along with it because I've invested too much time in the manga already that I want to see how it finally ends. I keep feeling like the final stretch is here or approaching.
^ It is. Naruto and Bleach are both (supposedly) very close to ending, thank God.
I've heard the Rock Lee spinoff manga is okay, though.
EDIT: Now that I'm at the computer, I can clarify: Bleach and Naruto both had some pretty great concepts, and sometimes (mostly earlier on) they were well-executed. They also had some cool characters (Naruto's in the sense that they had cool abilities that Naruto didn't have, and in the sense that they were eventually allies; Bleach's in the sense that it had some delightfully fucked-up villains and decent classmates. Actually, Chad and Uryu were really cool for a while). But everything just became marginalized eventually; so few characters in Naruto matter anymore, and even the Kages are completely ineffectual now because of Uchihax; and in Bleach Kubo didn't bother establishing any precedent for this most recent arc of enemies (though the big bad is actually interesting in that he's not cartoonish like Aizen eventually was), even though they're jobbing captains left and right, and the Hueco Mundo arc dragged like hell, Arrancars as an interesting concept be damned.
The bits about Naruto are probably just retreading what Nova said, though, and for that I apologize.
Depends on which chunks.
I'm actually willing to cut the show slack, even if having every Uchiha with a name be somehow tied to the Big Bad's plan in every way possible hurts suspension of disbelief, because the war is a valid thematic conclusion to naruto's quest for ninja peace. While the Uber Quincies were not alluded at all.
@fourteen Yes, that's the one that I'm thinking of....I think. Kojiro doesn't interest me.
At least, the Naruto fights are still awesome. And every once in a while I get epic feelings from it. Like when Madara brought a meteor down on a division.(Which then turn turned into a meteor sandwhich.)
I agree for the most part with what Nova said except add in Itachi's death as well. Or rather, Tobi's story about Itachi.
I do feel that this somewhat ties into the themes of the story and Naruto's characterization.
A big part of Naruto's character, for a while, has been that he hates sitting on the sidelines when he could be out there helping. Similarly, he hates the very concept of war.
Thus, the manga has been marginalizing much of the protagonist's supporting cast, because Naruto is deliberately trying to tackle the villains alone- because if it's a thousand on one, you can't call it a war, and nobody except Naruto gets hurt that way.
Unfortunately, even that isn't written well, and it relies on a lot of supposition because none of that is stated in the manga.
I'm just waiting for the inevitable Naruto vs Sasuke/Naruto AND Sasuke vs Tobi/Madara/Obito/Whatever the fuck and Naruto choosing to be hokage or not when they inevitably ask him.
Also, I don't know WHY I was the least bit surprised when Itachi ending up basically being on Naruto's side.
We all know it will happen.
He wasn't. He's on Sasuke's side, and he wants whatever is best for Sasuke. He's also on Konoha's side- "I'm still the Leaf's Itachi Uchiha."
He figured that Naruto was his best shot of saving Sasuke from himself while still leaving Konoha (relatively) intact.
I guess that's one way of looking at it all. Unfortunately, there's no real excuse that I can think of for the Uchiha's continual plot domination, except that there's a lot of potential in eye powers. Nor can I excuse Nagato's mass revival, not that I think many people do.
Nobody has excused Nagato's mass revival (although it should be mentioned that it was only characters killed within the Shinra Tensei that were killed, not anyone previously- Jiraiya is still dead, for instance, and so is Asuma.
I don't know what's up with the Uchiha's plot domination myself. Unfortunately, there's still way too much up in the air at the current time; my guess is, at some point in the future, Naruto will be shown to be related to the Senju, and that will lead to a showdown with Sasuke that will mirror the first Hokage's fight with Madara, only because Naruto doesn't suck, he will be able to achieve true peace with the Uchiha.
It should be noted that I just really, really like a lot of the concepts in Naruto.
Kurama is cool, and the idea that he lends his power to Naruto because Naruto was willing to actually listen to him is cool.
Kakashi is cool, and I dig his character arc, and the way all his little quirks build up to make him a really strong character- like his tardiness being due to constant visits to the Memorial Stone.
Naruto is exactly the type of hero I like, although he's a bit stupid for me. I like the types of heroes who go out of their way to save everyone they can, though.
I like much of the supporting cast- Hinata, Shikamaru, Jiraiya, Itachi.
The rest of it is just dumb.
I like the whole legacy trio thing. I've always liked that. Especially when it comes to how they train future generations.
If only Sakura getting trained by Tsunade mattered at all. It would be a lot more interesting if this was a constant Naruto and Sakura vs Sasuke kind of thing. But then again it was never about her.
I've read some very interesting theories about how Sakura represents human weakness through emotion.
Ever since the very beginning I thought they were going to do some REALLY big thing with Sakura, having some super important hidden potential. I think my first clue was when Kakashi would be training the three of them, and he wouldn't have Sakura do it, or talk to her in private. Yeah, those ended up coming up, but it wasn't as big a deal as I wanted it to be.
And then Part 2 rolls along and I'm like "Yes, Sakura is kicking some ass! I approve." Then it stopped mattering.
Now it's too the point where if Naruto was fighting Sasuke to the death and Sakura tried to intervene, she would die pretty quickly.
Sakura nearly did kill Sasuke with a poisoned kunai, remember.
And in terms of sheer strength, Sakura does nearly match Tsunade, and she knows healing jutsu.
What she lacks is combat experience. If she had more experience in combat, she would probably actually be able to hold her own against Sasuke- Susanoo can be shattered with liberal application of super-strength, as we've seen with Tsunade.
Sakura did have a lot of potential, combat-wise, in the fact that her natural chakra control was great- that was great for both genjutsu and medical ninjutsu, both of which would have done great to combat Sasuke currently.
But the author doesn't really seem to have a plan for her, so blah.
I don't like to sound cocky about these kinds of things, but it comes to a point with Naruto where you just think "This would be a lot better if they did this..." a lot.
Like you said, there are a lot of good ideas in there that I like.
Still, though.
Me too. At least Kakashi is still relevant somehow, because he's probably my favorite character. Either him, or Gaara.
Out of any character to push under the bus, I can't say I miss Sakura. She was just never interesting enough to seem worth the screen time.
That point has been since the end of the Chuunin Exam arc.
It is pretty annoying, and gets rid of the consequences there. Although I guess it would have broken Naruto to return and find nearly everyone he cares about dead and the village he wanted to lead nuked. It probably would have been better if Pein hadn't used Shinra Tensei on the village.
It is definitely Kakashi for me.
I think that Sakura could have been, which is why I'm disappointed.
I dunno, man. I mean, yeah, it probably wouldn't actually work out if everyone stayed dead, but it would have been ballsy enough on Kishimoto's part that I would have excused it out of turn.
I don't remember anything really bad about the Sannin arc, and I don't remember the Rescue Sasuke arc being completely horrible, concept and characters who should have died but didn't aside.
I think the ball was on the ground as soon as she was introduced as a character. Very annoying at the beginning, with little to redeem her as time went on. I think she would have had to be a different sort of character altogether, to be interesting.
My favorite characters are probably Kakashi, Naruto, and Shikamaru when he is there.
I remember watching the anime when Naruto beat Nagato and everyone was cheering him on and everything and I thought, "Hmm. add in a conclusive Naruto vs Sasuke fight at the waterfall and this might have been a good place to end."
No, I agree. If everyone had stayed dead, that would have been fine. It's more the symbolism of coming back and finding the village itself broken that would have crushed Naruto. He probably could have dealt with either one or the other, but both?
... Blah, I got my timelines mixed up. Mixed up Jiraiya's training with the toad summons with the Sannin arc.
It's after the Sannin arc that everything started becoming just that little bit illogical and stupid. The Rescue Sasuke arc wasn't bad, exactly, but it hardly did anything except showcase a bunch of fights, although the end fight with Sasuke and Naruto was pretty cool.
It's only after the timeskip that everything got really illogical, with the introduction of super-Sharingans and all.
She completed the trio, something that has been pointed out at many, many turns- Naruto mirroring Jiraiya, Sasuke mirroring Orochimaru, and Sakura mirroring Tsunade.
Only, while Naruto and Sasuke actually had relevance to the story, the same way the three Sannin did, they forgot to give Sakura the same relevance.
If they had actually gone anywhere with Sakura's determination and eventual inability to kill Sasuke, they could have made her into a fairly decent character. But no, it was ignored.