However, this chapter did a good job of showing how useful the puppet technique could be in battle.

Other than that not much happening here.

 

Why the hell would Kabuto know or care about Sai's brother, much less resurrect him? This is just ridiculous. And the lack of a fight between Kabuto and Anko is disappointing.

 

Fanfiction. Many, many steps ahead of Kishimoto.

 

Er...no, I don't remember any such time in the manga outside of a couple scenes where she scared little genin by bullying them. Anko has had very little role to play in the series and frankly I couldn't care less about her fights.

I'm much more interested in seeing what Omoi can do. The first strikes have been made and I want to see how the ambush team of the shinobi alliance will deal with the 4 immortals (or is it zombies who can think?)

 

^Totally agree. The fact that Anko got no screen time reinforces the fact that she's not nearly as badass as everyone always thought.

The whole resurrection of Shin has me seriously worried. If Kabuto resurrected some character that we know nothing about, then there's gonna be some serious emotional bitching from all the main characters. Kishi is realy turing this into one major botch job. Resurrecting the big bads was kind of cool for a few minutes, but all this minor character bullshit needs to stop.

I want Naruto, not all of the supporting cast.

 

The focus on the minor characters is what makes this arc actually more interesting. Sai's brother is only the start. I can't wait for the eventual team 10 Asuma match up or even a rematch of Haku/Zabuza v Kakashi/Naruto/Sakura. What about the previous Kage's and their families?

I'm remaining a skeptic however. Kishi aways starts arcs with huge potential but fucks up and gets lazy halfway through. 10/10 for minor character drama that part 2 has been lacking for a lot of the time.

 

Well, going by databook she never was badass. Her stats are worse than Naruto after his training with Jiraiya and he wasn't impressive then by any standards (at least without the Fox).

As for Kabuto resurrecting random shinobi who are important to support characters, we can always assume that he did spectacular job with getting information on people who are fighting against him and prepared for them. Of course I still don't understand why bother with it when he could just resurrected Jiraiya or Minato or The Third (I'm still not sure if these last two can be resurrected) and be done with almost everybody (could be it a hint that Ero-sensei is still alive? that would be quite a surprise or could be if we didn't see massive return of dead characters already).

 

Okay. Whatever. Anko wasn't going to win and we all knew it. Doesn't make me any less disappointed.

I don't care about Omoi. I don't care about Sai's brother. I read Naruto for Naruto. But he's been hidden away for the duration of the war. Wonderful. Surprisingly, I found myself rooting for Kankuro after his speech mid-air.

Sure I've got complaints - everyone probably has at least one - and the story is alright, if poorly executed, but I just can't stand how absolutely overpowered the Edo Tensei is. Pulling souls back from wherever, binding them to a body, making them indestructible, then dominating said souls at what appears to be no cost other than a spare body.

If it wasn't canon, I'd say it's the most Swiss-cheesed, asinine idea to ever come from a fanwanking twelve year old idiot.

Since it is canon, I'd say it's the most Swiss-cheesed, asinine idea to ever come from a money-whoring 36 year old mangaka.

 

Actually, pretty good chapter. A chapter that I really liked in a very good time. The last chapter that I liked that much was two years back. It's just what I've wanted. Fight scenes and cool use of abilities, techniques and characters. Kankuro dominated this chapter, the techniques were cool and people actually died.

If Kishi can continue this, this can actually turn out to be pretty good.

I never expected Anko to defeat Kabuto, we all knew she would get beaten down offscreen.

Also, maybe I'm the only one here but I don't read Naruto for Naruto. he is actually a pretty piss-poor Main character; annoying, aggravating and disappointing. I read Naruto for the side-cast that is simply awesome. Naruto sucked so hard for such a long time because the focus was taken away from the side characters and concentrated on both, Naruto and Sasuke.

Well, those two sucked. I like Sasuke but Kishi really screwed him up, not to mention of Naruto. But here, with cool characters like Kankuro, Sasori, Sai and Omoi using their interesting techniques and abilities and facing people from their pasts, it became really interesting.

So, suck it up and enjoy it. Focus on minor/side characters is the best thing that could've happened in Naruto and the only thing that can salvage that mess.

 

I'm of two minds on how this is headed.

One is that it's a ninja war. Finally. Fucking awesome!

On the other hand, though, I would be incredibly disappointed if this devolved into what the last arc of Bleach did. I don't need to sit through 100 chapters of characters grandstanding.

Though, so far Kishimoto seems to be alright with killing characters with abandon and moving fights forward.

 

While I actually did like the chapter overall, the most appealing part of it was clearly the introduction of "Older Naruto, but with a Goatee."

Like...was that intentional? An accident? How does one go about unknowingly creating an exact replica of your main character in a series where, somehow, the characters DON'T all look identical?

 

You mean Ittan? Didn't get the big a Naruto vibe from him. Maybe if you added in whiskers or something...

 

So yes, Ittan. This just looks damn near identical from my perspective. A few years and a (strangely dark) goatee, but otherwise just Naruto without the whiskers.

 

^ Ima have to agree on that one--it's exactly what I thought when I saw him.

Aside from that, I have to admit I didn't even see Anko until you guys mentioned her. So I basically scanned that panel, I guess. What the hell kind of ambush was that, anyways? Looked more like a picnic with roast pits or something.

Other than that I liked it. Although I do wish Naruto was even a little bit involved. Even if he was knowingly removing himself from the action cause he needed to--anything would be better than having him oblivious. Bah.

 

There is only one thing better than a dead Anko for me, and that is a non-existent one. I loved this chapter for that alone if nothing else.

 

That wouldn't be a rematch. It would be slaughter. Only Sakura would have some trouble defeating either of them.

 

The only problem with that would be that Zabuza and Haku are immortal zombies (or will become zombies as Kabuto exerts more control over the technique).

I'm hoping that the alliance has some sort of plan on how to deal with the zombies and all the squads (atleast the captains) have been briefed on it. If this is the case, then yes, Zabuza/Haku vs Kakashi/Sakura would be a real rout.

 

Naruto and Kakashi have ways of dealing with the Zombies. Kakashi can use his MS technique and Naruto can use Rasenshurikan which ripped the different Pains to shreds, Im sure it will do the same to zombies. I would think anyone with a technique that physically tears the body apart could stop a zombie.

 

Eh, I figure Juugo and Suigetsu are going to pop back up out of nowhere and face turn at some point during this arc, giving us Juugo vs Kimimaro and Suigetsu vs Zabuza. I'm going to echo Howdy and hope that this whole thing doesn't balloon into 25874897587578 filler fights that drag on for six to eight months.

 

Kakashi's technique maybe, but the RS I reckon would be negated. IIRC, the the RS works on fucking over living tissue and cells and you know, cutting people in half. If hey can regenerate from anything and have no living tissue, how is it supposed to defeat these zombies?


Also, I have feeling now that I thought about it, that Naruto will end up OHKO'ing them and sending them back where they came from with his new magical power. :facepalm