Derock

If you guys hadn't heard months ago, IDW comics pull a shocking announcement with the popular franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whom had already did crossovers with other franchises, such as Batman, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and even Street Fighter,  now crossing over with Naruto, making it for the very first time, a Japanese manga series crossing over to a Western comic book. While both have ninjas and Japanese themes all over, it's kind of ironic to pair them as while one set of audience saw it as the greatest idea of all time, others are not too keen, especially on the Japanese side. And plus, how would it fit as TMNT is based more on real-life settings, while Naruto is more of a fictional Japanese-based setting? 

It just so happens, they somehow fit.  New York City, with the Statue of Liberty and modern setting and all, is renamed "Big Apple Village"... well, Big Apple is the nickname for NYC, so... we'll find out later. Let's just say for this crossover, Big Apple "Village", is located at The Five Great Nations, at the Northeast, similar where NYC located in the USA.

Anyways, on to the summary!

End of Issue 1. Issue 2 will be out in January.

So far, I'm impressed with the characterization, action scenes though short and the artwork. Hardly any childish traits and flaws from Naruto and Sakura's as shown since they and Sasuke are in their Part 1 designs, which is very good. However, because of the conflict of two different universes, especially TMNT realistic universe somehow landed in Naruto's fantasized universe, it is very awkward. Plus, since this is a Western comic book, we jumped right into the major scene instead of how having both universes make sense with April and others having western names (well, with the elephant in the room, we do have a few in the Naruto universes, i.e. Rock Lee and Might Guy, but they would not appear in this crossover event anytime soon.), and how April actually came to Konoha to seek help. So, pacing will be an issue. Another thing that this crossover event last for 4 issues as it will make things worse for pacing. We'll see what happens on the next issues.

Meanwhile in the video game industry, looks like Bandai Namco is cancelling projects involving One Piece and Naruto (yes, that's include Boruto), while Dragon Ball gain more success due to Sparking ZERO surpassed in sales by over 3 Million sold worldwide within 24 hours after release! That beat Capcom's Street Fighter 6, which managed to get 3 million in sales in only for a couple of months and also Mortal Kombat 1.

 

And it's SO bad because of how other manga after Naruto ended are being seeing like that too! MHA had that same issue with its finale.

No Bryon, MHA didn't suffer the same fate as Naruto. The only reason why people assumed that because shipping fans were pissed off of the fact that Izuku didn't hook up with Ochaco (by ignoring hints, placements and BTS stuff on the reasons why they didn't happen) and the finale parts were rushed for "certain reasons that were beyond Horikoshi's control". MHA's saving grace was the themes of its story was still in place, unlike Naruto's.

Simple or not, the reading comprehension is STILL f-ed up because many fans and the people BTS complained about and for Hinata, as like she was really that important to the franchise. When we know in actuality, she wasn't.

Well, there goes the true reason why Naruto felt pity for Hinata and they became a couple because Masashi SUDDENLY felt sorry for her. Wow. 

It's best to ditch the project and make a live-action series instead like One Piece.

Makes sense, though I hope no boruto characters

I don't think any Boruto stuff will be present because Naruto is showing in the Part 1 era on the cover.

The Hinata heartbroken bit, that can be solved easily: have Naruto being honest with her in a private conversation, he is not interested in her romantically. It can benefit her to move on and find someone to be with her. She was never important in the first place. It was her fans (and some inside help) that were pushing her which resulted on how the franchise ended up now.

Just don't watch it, and it'll quickly die off like Cowboy Bebop and the Titans.  One of the "virtues" of Netflix these days is that they are rather trigger-happy with cancellation if the audience reception is poor after the initial season. Especially for LA adaptations for anime and comics.

Well, it didn't stop me with the One Piece live-action series. Shockingly, I didn't care for the franchise back in the day, even during the 4Kids era, but watching it now, it is really good.

Live-action is currently on the works... oh boy.

Can't say one piece isn't huge anymore, that's for sure. Which was always one of the arguments you heard from naruto fans

That argument was only for the US because of how One Piece was handled through 4Kids before moving to Funimation. I can say its popularity skyrocketed thanks to online streaming and recently, the live-action series on Netflix.

I didn't realize Arise is getting an DLC continuation! Can't wait for it!

The hell is Saruto? WTF?

Recently (well, a couple of years ago), I started to watch The Witcher. I stopped for a moment as I recommended it to my mother, so we both got into it.

Geralt x Yennefer was so freaking obvious! Lots of banter, great chemistry, even during Yen's "betrayal" so she can get her magic back, they were meant for each other. I especially like them being foster parents to Cirilla. 

A shame that Henry Cavill left the series though. I'm not sure if Liam Hemsworth can keep up as Geralt for Season 4.

The only reason why many people believed Sasuke was Masashi's alter ego because of the damn screen time he hogged up for majority of the story. Remember I stated back then that because of Sasuke's screen time about the Uchihas, there wasn't a balance and it made Naruto a bit more inferior, which led to the jokes and memes that the franchise should be named "Sasuke". It was that reason I stated someone on his writing team or editor (if they weren't on Hinata lust mode) should had suggested to make a Sasuke spin-off so Naruto, Sakura (especially her) and Kakashi would've gain more screen time on the main franchise while Sasuke get his in his spin-off until Masashi decides to bring him back for the major fights. That would've guarantee money and income.