The pedant in me is irritated that this is under the “Anime” category, but the sane part of me knows that having separate “Anime” and “Manga” categories would be silly.
This post is a sequel to my previous post of why I didn’t like chapter 340, though in patent-pending bulleted list “Thoughts On” format. As with that post, all real content is after the cut due to ZOMGSPOILERS.
- The two-page “Naruto vs. Sasuke” color cover image is probably the best part of this chapter. The rest is fairly dull.
- This chapter makes the previous chapter entirely redundant and pointless, except as a way to stretch things out. Either Naruto managed to master the “Fuuton: Rasen Shuriken” in a handful of seconds, or the time limitations seen last chapter aren’t particularly limiting.
- It seems as though Naruto’s limit is to do three Rasen Shuriken in quick succession, even using Kyuubi chakra. Assuming that that’s why he’s exhausted and beat up at the end, and not just that he got caught in the backlash of his own technique.
- As a commenter pointed out last time, it wasn’t quite accurate to say that the Rasen Shuriken was just like the Rasengan, only it has a new visual does 400-600 points of damage instead of 300-500 points.
- It would be accurate, however, to say it was just like the old Rasengan, only it has a new visual does 3000-5000 damage instead of 300-500. It’s still not a fundamentally different technique; this whole fight could have gone exactly the same way with just the old Rasengan. That’s just boring. (The area of effect stuff isn’t really relevant, since the new technique still has to be delivered just like the old one.)
- Am I the only one annoyed that all the stuff about elements was ultimately utterly irrelevant? There’s nothing particularly windy about the Rasen Shurkien that wasn’t already present in the original Rasengan. It could just as easily been explained as a super-charged Rasengan with way more chakra involved.
- It’ll be… interesting to see how Kishimoto handles this technique in future fights, since it’s hard to imagine anything vaguely human surviving a hit by it, and it doesn’t have the same built-in reasons not to use it that the four-tailed form’s Black Bullet of Doom has. Then again, Kishimoto (unfortunately, IMO) seems to have lost his taste for vaguely human opponents lately.
- Kazuku goes down, and to all appearances is really dead. The only question is: will we see Hidan and he be quickly replaced like Sasori was or is this the beginning of the end for Akatsuki as a major antagonist? My bet is on the later, but that various members of Akatsuki (including, of course, Itachi) will persist as major villains long after Akatsuki as an organization is no longer an issue.
- Poor Ino and Chouji. Sakura and Sai (Who have been suffering from lack of panel-time throughout this plot arc) will have plenty more chances to do something significant since they’re always around Naruto, but it could be three of four plot arcs before we even see Ino or Chouji again, and they didn’t get to do anything this time. Well, chouji got in a couple of random moves that ultimately did nothing, but I don’t think Ino did anything except stand around and have the fact that she knows some medical ninjutsu referenced.
- Prediction Time: If Kishimoto’s pattern holds, the next plot arc will involve Orochimaru. (He and Akatsuki have been trading turns since Akatsuki’s introduction.) Either that plot arc or the next will likely feature Team Eight (Hinata, Shino, and Kiba). There will be a little bit of Naruto/Hinata fanservice, but many folks’ hopes to the contrary no significant development of that relationship.
- It’s highly unlikely, but I would really like to see a short-to-medium plot arc featuring the new Team Seven on an ordinary mission with no or only minor connection to Orochimaru or Akatsuki, just so we could get a better grasp on how the new team fits together and get a significant Sai fight scene so we have some measure of his abilities.