ciardha

No, this isn't natural in Japanese manga at all. I've been reading manga for over 30 years and sorry, I don't recall even one manga that had an ending that made a complete travesty of the whole story- I'm not just talking about the nonsensical pairings, but look at Naruto- he's stern and clearly unhappy (no smile like he always had for everyone), an alcoholic (whiskey bottle right out in the open at his desk,along with stacks of instant ramen cups- another point he's ignoring his mother's advice on) who avoids his so called family as much as possible, physically and verbally puts his son for wanting him to be a father. This  is a Naruto who acts like Sasuke... Note as well Kishimoto did not write this epilogue nor will he be writing the part 3 limited series- one of his assistants is doing both. Kishimoto talked about how his assistants hated Sakura even back in part 1, remember as well. Plus there's been quite a bit of noise in the Japanese Naruto fandom about how wrong this ending is and how it was forced by the huge number of fans that Nana Mizuki has- voice actor for Hinata and also a very popular idol singer. (Far more popular than any of the other Naruto voice actors, including Junko.) Only the voice actor for Shikamaru comes anywhere near Nana Mizuki's fanbase. But her fans have no real ties to Naruto fandom, it's just about Mizuki's idol singer popularity- they'll buy or see anything she does, as long as she's the star of it. Japanese fans are thanking Kishimoto for what he wrote, but are making the same critical reactions about the complete nonsensical chapter 700.

Okay, was figuring out which one of my Tumblr posts expressed my feelings best to post here, I think it's this one:

I’m going to throw all my Naruto cosplay costumes in a closet and never wear them again, and the one that used modified real clothes- the top and pants of a Konoha ninja uniform- I’m seam ripping those Konoha ninja patches off tonight and tossing them in the trash- converting the clothes back to regular use.. Also I’m removing my Naruto and Sakura and other Naruto character customizations from my ABJ dolls tonight- going to have several dolls now open to becoming new character dolls.
Seriously, I thought the lowest I’d see a writer go was Moffat not following through with what he repeatedly made clear- the Doctor Capaldi is playing was meant to be River’s most beloved face of the Doctor. He was supposed to be the one that wooed her back into being deeply in love with him…
Moffat’s done nothing onscreen to show this though, other than vague hints the Doctor still loves her as much as always. But he did already make clear on screen that River was the only woman the Doctor was: in love enough to actually seriously propose to and marry, and the only woman he married he truly felt he was married to- the greatest love of his entire life. Plus Moffat repeatedly vaguely hinted River is the mysterious mother of the Doctor’s children (and once pretty strongly hinted she is Susan’s grandmother- in River’s own words) and point blank- for him, said that River and the Doctor did have children- he just wasn’t showing them. Moffat at least did half ass do part of what the narrative promised…
I think Kishimoto’s father’s death back in January made him completely lose himself as a writer-  everything written after his father died was rushed and much less well written…from about 667 onward. He was so disinterested in the story anymore that he didn’t even write the absolute garbage can liner that was chapter 700, nor will he be writing part 3 of the manga. All the characters were completely off, including the title character- he  literally became a crap father that physically abused his lonely neglected child.It was the complete antithesis to 15 years of his character. development.
Here’s the contrast- I still have my River Song and 11th Doctor ABJ dolls, I still happily cosplay as River Song. I will never, ever cosplay as a Naruto character again.
Actually, no there was something I shipped that the company that owned the characters screwed over nearly as bad- but still the characters did get together as a couple, and in one timeline had two kids together, and still to this day they get thrown through the endless cycle of get together and break up that is the set structure of “romance” in superhero comics- Gambit and Rogue from X-men comics.
Because I know it’s bs Marvel policy I still defiantly and proudly ship Rogue and Gambit, and customized two of my ABJ dolls as  Gambit and Rogue long after Marvel initiated their bs policy and long after I stopped reading the comics- except when they decide they need to up their comic sales by getting Gambit and Rogue back together again. I just point blank ignore the bs that was done to the characters during their break-up portions of the endless cycle.
What Kishimoto allowed to be done to his story is a far sight worse than even what Marvel does to Gambit and Rogue.

 

 

I would believe that if Kishi didnt insist in NaruSasu or Obito being Tobi when so much in the fandoms were against such concepts and honestly I don't think pairing fandoms are that important to begin with, most people just don't care about pairings.
Also I still don't think NH is canon or that Hinata will be a central part of the plot until I see it, most of what we got are teasing and marketing nothing concrete, I'm keeping an open mind but it seems to me they are pushing NH too hard, way too hard which is suspicious. Only time will tell.

 

Remember SP hyped nh/ss the same way on the poster and trailer for RTN and it had zip all to do with the actually plotline. Naruto ran away from scary crazy deluded stalker Hinata- with Sakura, and Sasuke turned out to be a jerkish playboy user that Sakura rejected. RTN was all about narusaku's growth and about Naruto and Sakura's emotional bond with their parents.

 

That's probably the only scene in the whole movie where Naruto says anything to Hinata, and it's pretty obvious it isn't anything positive. And looks like Kishimoto didn't even bother to do a costume design sketch for Hinata, and just let SP come up with something. Looks like they reused Tsunade's tunic (without the jacket) along with Sakura's belt and shorts design for The Last

we could make the case that since its a red scarf, Sakura gave Naruto it because Sakura wears red. Thats how dumb NaruHina fans are they search in desperation for any clue to throw at us and claim it means Naruhina but, its a load of BS

 

Yeah it's completely bizarre to make the leap to Hinata.

 

1) Naruto's favorite color is orange why the heck would Hinata make a red scarf for Naruto

2) Sakura's mission uniforms have and will be red in The Last- it's also one of her family colors (Mebuki wears the colors just flipped from Sakura and has the symbol on her clothes too) and even Sakura's pink hair is a tint of red.

3) Hinta's colors have been beige, purple and white, her hair is black no red there.

 

Nope, I had absolutely no problem with it either. I actually thought it looked cool.

I was annoyed because Sakura should have been riding her own horse, being the manga's heroine. Missed opportunity there to show her in that light.

Another ship was ended by it's absence in either Shikamaru's or Ino's dream fantasy- ShikaIno. Made it clear that Ino doesn't think of Shikamaru that way and Shikamaru, although a completely lazy passive guy, makes it clear he knows he's romantically attracted to Temari.

Sasuke would need to have a teleportation jutsu to do that. 

 

And I agree with most of you, it's obvious Obito will save Sakura, probably just by pushing her at the beginning of next chapter. If something big was supposed to happen, like Sakura being hurt by Madara's shot, it would have happen at the end of this chapter, and that would have been the cliffhanger. Her not having been hurt in this chapter, makes me think she won't be in the next one. 

 

I think the focus of the next chapter will be a confrontation between Obito and Madara, maybe with Sakura's help for Obito. 

 

I agree

 

1) There's no evidence that Sasuke even saw Madara jump there

2) It makes narrative sense for Obito to save Sakura by sending her out of the kamui dimension- he couldn't save Rin, but he does Sakura, giving him a bit of emotional closure on that trauma

3)Obito needs to have his final confrontation scene with Madara. This gives him that chance.

4) It brings Sakura back to the main point of action

I found Dai to be a very endearing character. That's what I like about Kishi. He's really good at making people care about his characters. 

 

The saddest part about this chapter is the fact that Gai will most likely die though. 

 

 

I am opposite to a lot of you here...

 

In terms of story this chapter was beautiful, motivation heroism and dare I say YOUTH.

 

when else would Kishi present the backstory of Gai 

 

loved this chapter 

 

Definitely, I found it a very powerful chapter. Really don't get those that reacted so negatively at all. There's always an important point in the flashbacks that it's meant to make you think on that adds another layer of depth to the story.

I can understand the opening poster's feelings. Having read so many manga over 30 years, Naruto is indeed one of the best written manga stories I've had the pleasure of reading. For me, the manga really hit it's stride in part 2. This has been amongst the best manga stories for really examining the big questions humans have philosophized about probably since we first evolved into creatures that told stories. Kishimoto makes readers think about those questions, at least for the time they see the characters struggling with those questions. Riyoko Ikeda's shoujo classic "Rose of Versailles" challenges the readers in a somewhat similar way, but on a smaller scale (it takes place in France just prior to the French Revolution, when it begins the readers don't know Ikeda will get them to think about social inequality, etc... but then as Andre and Lady Oscar see these things, and react, the readers do as well. Ikeda was one of the first manga writers to do something like this)

 

Yes, there are numerous other manga where the question of war and ending it comes up, but Kishimoto's take has been the most realistic and indepth I've seen. He also has taken real events in our world's history and put them in Naruto's world making them fit into that world, but hit you with the effects of those events on the people of those countries. The Rain Country story was an altered Vietnam in the Cold War story- used as a battleground between the two superpowers, etc...

 

Kishimoto's storytelling style reminds me of Gene Roddenberry's, but Kishimoto actually does it better than Roddenberry did.

So Naruto is turning 17 the next day.   Kishimoto has now given us a definite point in time during the war arc.

But the school year in Naruto is not the same as in Japan. It appears in Naruto's world anyone born in a year enters the Academy the same year. Note Rock Lee was born in December the year before Team 7, 10 and 8 members,  but he's in the same class as Neiji and Tenten. While Shino, born in January of the year Naruto is, is in the same class as Naruto. Chouji was born May 1 of that year and is in the same class as Naruto. If it followed Japanese school schedules both Sakura and Chouji would be in the following years class. Hinata was born in late December of that year and is in the same class. It looks rather clear in Naruto's world the entrance year is January 1- December 31.

 

Note, Tsunade was also several months older than Jiraiya...

Yes, they do. If you know how to navigate the Japanese versions of google, excite, etc... browsers they are easy to find. Like the blog of the lady who went to the Memory of Chakra show (she's a major neiji/hinata shipper but also likes narusaku) I have her blog favorited on my other computer, but scroll back through the earlier pages of the Road to Ninja thread and you should see the link to her report of the Memory of Chakra show. There are lots of fanart pages too if you know how to navigate the Japanese versions of our browsers. I think you can find them on the English version of Google's browser too if you change the webpage search engine to include pages in Japanese.

No, Sakura seemed quite aware as far back as when she made her confession to Sasuke in part 1 that Sasuke would never have any romantic feelings for her- "You must hate me...." that confession was out of desperation to do anything to save him from the destructive path she knew he was choosing. Her heart was breaking with every word, and even moreso when she begged Naruto to help her- she already knew Naruto was the only person who could reach Sasuke. She would have been content to never be with Sasuke, just to see the bond between Naruto and Sasuke back, and Sasuke again acting like he did at his best point due to Naruto's influence, and doing everything she could to strengthen and support their bond. Sakura knew, even then, the only thing that diverted Sasuke away from the destructive path that he was already on even before his parents were killed- once he started the Academy Fugaku and Mikoto were grooming him to be what Itachi refused to be...



There's a context you are missing there. It's a situation where a guy she has no interest in whatsoever makes an unwanted, uncomfortable and hopeless confession. She isn't reminded of the bud of her growing mutual love with Naruto in that context, but of the foolish young girl who fell in love with a boy who had absolutely no interest in her. This guy is praising her to the skies and it just reminds her of how less than stellar she thinks she is, and how ashamed she feels for the remnant of her feelings for the monstrous person she knows Sasuke is. It makes her feel sick and ashamed of herself. She's beating up on herself for failing to do what she whole heartedly believed she had when she told Naruto she had rid herself of any feelings whatsoever about Sasuke.



See my paragraph above and below...

Kishimoto tends to not repeat things about feelings that he thought he already made clear to the readers- not only was it made explicit in the manga that Sakura is in love with Naruto, but he even outright made it clear that he was writing Sakura believing she was being 100% truthful about her feelings. And look at how Sakura looks at Naruto when he rescues her, there's a very vulnerable open loving gaze she gives him as she says thank you. Naruto's response- including the lingering touch on her shoulder after he sits her down... there's an unspoken romantic vibe between them. Note how overtly he closely echoes Naruto and Sakura's poses with Minato and Kushina's in the flashbacks that come pretty soon after. Note as well Naruto's mental image of Sakura at the end of that arc- Sakura's gaze is loving and encouraging and completely on him- she is the only person in Naruto's mind who's gaze is 100% on him.




see my comment above.

Writer grossly bashes main female (completely misunderstanding the tsundere trope as "abusive", pretending the female character's initial irritation [and being rather unimpressed with the male character who was attracted to her] was actually virulent hatred, pretending the main female character consciously and coldly [with a verbal rejection of the male character who has feelings for her] leaves that male character in a dangerous situation just because she wants to flirt with a different male character) because she doesn't worship and submissively adore the male character who is in love with her, then has said male character:

1) Decide he he'll get revenge and emotionally break the female character (until she plays the fanfic writer's repressive idea of the proper female role) and does one or more of these things- verbally abuses her or sexually abuses her, or the rival male character does this leaving the female character psychologically shattered and again now acting submissive and adoring toward the male who is attracted to her

2) Abruptly decides he hates the girl he loves in story canon and immediately becomes involved with either a storyline character who is submissive and adoring toward him or an obvious author self insert character who again is submissive and adoring toward the male character. (Not content with just doing that, the fanfic writer often has the actual canon love interest female character begin to act mean to the fanfic writer's female character in a fit of jealousy that makes the male character despise the canon love interest character even more)

Of course lots of shonen romance couples- it's a plotline type-
not just Inuyasha and Kagome from Inuyasha but also Miroku and Sango
yes, Kaoru and Kenshin, and Akane and Ranma, also
Misato and Kaji from Evagelion (Asuka and Shinji to a degree as well)
Hime and Yuu in Brainpowered
Priss and Leon in Bubblegum Crisis
Keiko and Yusuke in Yuyu Hakusho
Ryo and Kaori in City Hunter
Sayaka and Kouji in Mazinger Z

It's also a plotline type in shoujo:
Lady Oscar and Andre from Rose of Versailles
Tsukushi and Tsukasa from Hana Yori Dango
Sakura and Li from Card Captor Sakura
Makoto and Motoki from the live action adaption of Sailor Moon
Subaru and Tokaki from Fushigi Yuugi
Maron and Chiaki from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
Sana and Akito from Kodomo Omocha
Himeko and Daiichi from Himechan no Ribbon

Some western fictional couples that have character romance plotline similarities:
Margaret Houlihan and Hawkeye Pierce from MASH
Princess Leia and Han Solo from Star Wars
Maddie Hayes and David Addison from Moonlighting
Ice and Guy from Justice League
Rogue and Gambit from X-men Comics
Buffy and Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
K'ehleyr and Worf from Star Trek Next Generation (she was Alexander's mom)
Anita Blake and Jean Claude (and also Anita and Jason to a lesser extent) from the Anita Blake series

What seems to be the real life origins of this type fictional romance (yes, the strong willed girl "tamed" by an Alpha male goes back hundreds if not thousands of years, but the man who falls in love with the strong willed woman as she is and stands behind her, and has an equal partnership relationship) appears to have been sparked by the very public romance of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and their story of how they fell in love with each other (In nutshell the key points- they met November 1966 and both noted with stunned surprise that they had met someone who thought like they did but was the opposite gender, he begin making overtures in early 1967- that she rejected because she thought they were crude and obvious, but yet she couldn't get him out of her mind anymore than he could her, she began to make subtle overtures (in poems, art pieces) to him (spring 1967) that he liked and found fascinating and some times confusing but didn't understand had romantic undertones. It was he that made the move that brought them together- he invited her over to his house and they made an experimental record together- Two Virgins (called that because they both felt like innocent kids falling passionately in love with each other) and made love at dawn. From that point on they were a couple- very public with their romance and being equal partners. Despite the ugly attack on them in the media, their revolutionary (at that time) type relationship caused a massive culture shift amongst adults (both in the west and in Japan, and even reaching into the Soviet Union- Mikhail Gorbachev and Raisa were strongly influenced by John and Yoko's relationship and based their marriage on that equal partnership model. The Gorbachevs even visited with Yoko Ono whenever they were in New York City) in what a romantic relationship between a man and woman could be like, even adults of my parents generation (born in the 1930's).

In the fictional influence, east and west the female's strong will is played up somewhat overplayed comedically into a hot violent temper- to show her passionate nature as well.