Anime

Not much to say on this week’s chapter; most of the stuff I would whine about I’ve already whined about before. The Shikamaru scenes that made up the bulk of the chapter were nicely done, and it seems like my prediction as to the nature of the next arc will be correct. Just one thought:

• It’s kind of amusing to watch how Kishimoto (understandably) struggles to avoid definitively establishing Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura as having killed someone, despite in the context of the world it not only being okay but expected for them to kill.
• And of course, because in context it would be silly otherwise, all those characters have shown themselves not only willing to kill but actually have tried to kill people over the course of the manga. Which makes it all the more amusing how things never work out that they land a killing blow.

Okay, so it was one-and-a-half thoughts. I rounded down, all right?

Shikamaru of Leafninja, I salute you:

Episode 220 has aired in Japan, this marks the last Naruto episode. Yes, I know it’s sad. This is the last Naruto episode ever, it was a good run, the last two years have been beyond awesome. How can you forget the time Naruto peed on Ino or that time Akamaru went rabid and humped Naruto’s butt? So many awesome moments where Studio Pierrot took the series to the next level. Characters like Raiga and the multiple Houki’s, all fully-fleshed out characters with great emotional subtext and motivation. Who can forget the times Naruto took on powerful enemies and chose to attack them with kunai rather than Rasengan, or that time he chose to use Rasengan when his boat lacked a motor? Who can forget all those new exotic lands, like the Bear Country, with it’s power hungry Hoshikage or the Vegetable and Bird Countries, with their cross-dressing female leaders? Who can forget those evil groups full of powerful ninja, like Shinobazu, the Fuuma trio, the Kamizuru, the Criminal Brothers, the Shitenshounin and all those wandering ninja. Such a good run. We salute you Tiger Mizuki, may your orange fur never fade and may you cereal always be GRREEAAT!

Gah. It’s hard to believe just how many filler episodes Naruto has had.

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.
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It seems like most of my posts here are about why I didn’t like something. I suppose it says something unflattering about me, but I find I have much more to say about things I didn’t like than things I enjoyed.

Ah well, enough introspection. Rant after the cut, consider yourself spoiler-warned if you haven’t been following the Naruto manga.
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