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REVIEW: Naruto GN 42-44

Josh7289 wrote:

Mad_Scientist wrote: Josh7289 wrote: Yep, for sure, Naruto is my favorite manga, and one of the best stories I've ever experienced. Kishimoto is a true genius. Are you serious? No, I am not mocking you are anything, it's just that from my experience on most sites on the internet, it is very rare to find anyone who is more than mildly appreciative of the series as a whole. So your comments, with their extreme praise, caught me off guard. You're putting too much stock into the small (but vocal) online minority that doesn't like Naruto.

But even then, calling Kishimoto a "true genius" is a little much. I mean, sure, Naruto is (or was, if you're unhappy about where it's ended up like me) a fun story with a lot of excitement, but it's still pretty typical shounen-fight-series fare. When I hear the word "genius" I think of storytellers like Urasawa Naoki or Osamu Tezuka, or artists like Takehiko Inoue and Hiroaki Samura.

Son-kun wrote:

The revelations of Kohona's past and the Uchiha clan have really made it all the worth while.

...except that he clearly just made that up out of nowhere. The whole retconning on Itachi was the first of many things in this that made me decide this story had lost its direction (if ever it had any).

This reads like a press release, not a review

this is the beginning of the part of the manga that made me quit in disgust over some of the plot decisions Kishimoto made.

As for the claim that it was a "retcon" spoiler[to have Itachi be a good guy, please. The hints had always been there in the flashbacks ("I'm always going to be there for you, Sasuke, even if it's only as an obstacle in your way" HINT, HINT!), it explains the multiple occasions Itachi had failed to capture Naruto and once even deliberately left, Kishi did a great job tying it into previous events (why Itachi and Kisame showed up at Konoha when they did, what the Uchiha meetings in the flashbacks were truly about, why that side-image of Itachi in the beginning of the manga had not yet been seen in any flashbacks, etc.). People just cry foul when they don't like a twist, but it does work with what had happened before.]

But even then, calling Kishimoto a "true genius" is a little much. I mean, sure, Naruto is (or was, if you're unhappy about where it's ended up like me) a fun story with a lot of excitement, but it's still pretty typical shounen-fight-series fare. When I hear the word "genius" I think of storytellers like Urasawa Naoki or Osamu Tezuka, or artists like Takehiko Inoue and Hiroaki Samura.

Son-kun wrote:

The revelations of Kohona's past and the Uchiha clan have really made it all the worth while.

...except that he clearly just made that up out of nowhere. The whole retconning on Itachi was the first of many things in this that made me decide this story had lost its direction (if ever it had any).

vashfanatic wrote:

But even then, calling Kishimoto a "true genius" is a little much. I mean, sure, Naruto is (or was, if you're unhappy about where it's ended up like me) a fun story with a lot of excitement, but it's still pretty typical shounen-fight-series fare. When I hear the word "genius" I think of storytellers like Urasawa Naoki or Osamu Tezuka, or artists like Takehiko Inoue and Hiroaki Samura. Son-kun wrote: The revelations of Kohona's past and the Uchiha clan have really made it all the worth while. ...except that he clearly just made that up out of nowhere. The whole retconning on Itachi was the first of many things in this that made me decide this story had lost its direction (if ever it had any).

Clearly out of no where? I don't think so. Fangirls have been latching onto all these little "hints" for years now that Itachi isn't as "evil" as we've been led on to believe. The childhood flashbacks of Itachi we got early on, outside of the massacre, were always rather loving. It didn't make SENSE, and we were obviously missing a giant piece of the puzzle. Itachi didn't just snap one day and decide to kill his whole clan for nothing and just leave his little brother alive. Kishimoto has throughout the series showed a rather good understanding of psychology, and to have a character just killing to kill would have made the character not on par with the rest of the series.

Shonen manga usually suffers from lack of depth to their villains. You have some big bad psychopathic bad guy the hero has to go up against, and all he (the villain) wants is to kill, or gather power of some kind. It's a shallow plot device used to death in fighting manga, but Kishimoto is brilliant because he gives humanity to a lot of his "villians" so much in fact that at times you don't even know if he's evil or not anymore. Garaa is a perfect example of this, and now Itachi has joined the ranks making him for a while one of the most complex characters in the series. Kishimoto gave humanity to the monster, and it only made the story even better. It doesn't justify his actions, but it explains them.

Naruto is really the only manga I'm left reading at the moment with the occasional one shot volume here and there, and I'm a huge reader, particularly in the fantasy genre. Naruto gives me everything I could want in a fantasy story, and more: Classic archetypes, twists, backstabbing, a slight touch of romance, and a large variety of characters, all great ingredients for a great story. Plus, again, it’s EPIC. Kishimoto has weaved a modern heroic tale in the vein of old mythology highlighting the best and worst of humanity.

But like I mentioned earlier, which is also the reason I think Naruto is so successful is Kishimoto’s use of psychology. He’s used it so well to give all his characters depth and character development that I sort of think of Naruto as shonen manga’s answer to Fruits Basket. He has developed an insanely huge cast, and yet has somehow managed to make each and every one of them so interesting to the point that I really don’t care when it veers off from Naruto or Sasuke, and that when one of the supporting side characters suddenly get a chapter that progresses that character’s development that suddenly I find myself so touched by what we’ve just learned that I have new favorite character. To say the characters are shallow shows that either you haven't been paying attention, or just haven't gotten to the chapters that focus on the character.

Yep, here’s another person not afraid to call Kishimoto a genius. The current story is absolutely brilliant in my opinion, and now is getting even more interesting with pulling philosophy into the limelight while also not pulling the punches on several characters. Naruto has had its low points,(I consider the Chuunin arc as the lowest point in the series), but Naruto in my opinion is currently in its prime at and I find myself eagerly awaiting the Thursdays/Fridays when the next chapter is released.

CLAMP's Tsubasa is one of their biggest piles of crap ever produced, and I'm as big of a CLAMP fan as you can get. That manga lost me long ago, and I continue to believe they came up with the idea while playing Kingdom Hearts high. Just my opinion of course, but story-wise Naruto is superior.

It's Naruto that's ruined Narutofor me. He's the worst character in the whole series, and the fact that right after spoiler[Kakashi, my favorite character, is KILLED] we just cut back to Naruto training with frogs (seriously?) so he can yet again power-up miraculously...like I said, I'm bitter. Once you've stopped liking the main character, there's no point in continuing a series.

vashfanatic wrote:

It's Naruto that's ruined Narutofor me. He's the worst character in the whole series, and the fact that right after spoiler[Kakashi, my favorite character, is KILLED] we just cut back to Naruto training with frogs (seriously?) so he can yet again power-up miraculously...like I said, I'm bitter. Once you've stopped liking the main character, there's no point in continuing a series.

I'm hoping this "power up" is the last one we're going to get, but it was necessary to get him to Jiraiya's level. He had to get to his sensei's level at some point, and this is a shonen series. But to each their own, I'm still loving Naruto, and he's really starting to mature... as much as Naruto can mature.

But on spoiler[Kakashi, it's not confirmed yet he's dead. It's insinuated, but I have my fingers crossed.]

littlegreenwolf wrote:

vashfanatic wrote: It's Naruto that's ruined Narutofor me. He's the worst character in the whole series, and the fact that right after spoiler[Kakashi, my favorite character, is KILLED] we just cut back to Naruto training with frogs (seriously?) so he can yet again power-up miraculously...like I said, I'm bitter. Once you've stopped liking the main character, there's no point in continuing a series. I'm hoping this "power up" is the last one we're going to get, but it was necessary to get him to Jiraiya's level. He had to get to his sensei's level at some point, and this is a shonen series. But to each their own, I'm still loving Naruto, and he's really starting to mature... as much as Naruto can mature. But on spoiler[Kakashi, it's not confirmed yet he's dead. It's insinuated, but I have my fingers crossed.]

My friends who've read further on in the manga online say that it's been confirmed.