Bail o' Lies

It feels like a continuation of why the SS and Mirai manga are being produced. They don't know what made Naruto popular or how they can make it popular again. So they are putting out feelers to find out.

Honestly, I think this would be the best time for someone to write a letter to Shounen Jump explaining; why Naruto is no longer successful and what made it successful. As they are clearly questioning it themselves.

https://twitter.com/...CJf9OXItdQ&s=19 apparently this is the results so far

 

1. Minato

2. Shisui

3. Itachi

4. Kaguya

5. White Fang...? Sakumo Hatake

6. Sasuke

7. Sakura

8. Hinata

9. Naruto

10. Fugaku

Feels like a joke. Oh. "For the people wondering why popular characters like Naruto Itachi kakashi sasuke etc are so low is because the winner of the poll gets their own manga which is why characters like white fang, shisui, Minato etc are winning so we can get more about them."

Huh, if that is the case. I was wrong. Looks like if Hinata did win, she would get a manga.

Wait if the true love thing doesn't affect someone that means Sai doesn't really love Ino not Shikamaru with Temari

Shikamaru only seems to not be able to harm her. Out of and compared to everyone else he doesn't seem that affected. But, yes if they reveal it is the case. And remember, their true love is Boruto. As for the InoSai stuff. Ino is the only old cast female Ikemoto puts effort into drawing, besides his favorite character Moegi. I wouldn't be surprise if he thinks she shouldn't be with him, but in a harem for Nail/Kawaki/Ikemoto.

So, Shikamaru's case the reason probably is, "Yes, he loves Temari, but even he, as a man, must admit that Hime is the most beautiful woman in existence; as she is Ikemoto's type."

Uh, Wow. Just wow. I cringed at the entire thing and nothing was engaging. AT ALL.

I get through them by noticing a problem each chapter and thinking on it. This one, I focused on Ikemoto's favoritism towards his characters.

If a Kishimoto and Ikemoto character are talking. The Kishimoto one will talk normally, while the Ikemoto constantly snarks at and acts better than them, and the Kishimoto one will never say anything back because they are right in whatever they say.

Its a trope often found in fanfiction. Where the fanfic writer will act as if their original characters are better and smarter than the original characters of the story they are writing a fan fic about.

As for how it effects the actual story. In general, you want all your characters to follow the same "rules." For example, lets say a story has, "Explain your powers to the enemy," if that's the case you have all your characters explain their powers when they fight while their opponent politely listens; reader hopefully understand this is part of the story and accept it instead of complaining about it. Of course, the writers can have characters break these rules. Such as lying about their powers or attacking during the explaining. However, that should be rare and should be given a reason why the character does it. Fanfic level writers will just have characters, "break the rules," to show they are better, but without the justification; it breaks the flow of the story.

Boruto's plot is very generic most of the time, until he has one of his characters 'breaks the rules.' The best one I can think of, is Nail's use of the shadow clone to prevent being re-infected by karma. Clever, but the story has had to spend three years justifying that rule breaking. 

Here in this chapter, it feels like Nail's confronting of Femmy still being active in Bolt isn't because he figured it out naturally. But more Ikemoto thinking, "My characters are smarter than Kishimoto's. They would instantly notice this, figure it out, and wouldn't waste any time on Bull kitten."

DragonBall Super is back with 88. Seems to by the cover decide to focus on Goten, Trunks, and the Scientist, Dr Gero's grandson, from the movie. They are Saiyaman X 1 and 2. So this arc is them playing superheroes in a high school setting.

They lament for one thing, they are ripping their pose off a character from a Video game they play, and because the world is peaceful; there is not much chance to beat up baddies. As most of the crimes are things like Identity theft. Turns out Trunks is bad with computers while Goten has a phone. They also want to keep this hidden from their parents. So, they don't have transforming watches like Gohan does.

Trunks has become friends with Pilaf and made deals to allow him to use the dragonballs. He also has the crush on Mai now. Oh and Bluma has cameras on the dragonballs, which she had during the Broly movie, so she knows Pilaf stole them, and wants them back. He seems to be constantly late for class, and has some high school friends...one of them looks like a fat nerdy gohan. Oh Trunks also doesn't like Ghost.

So the plot of this chapter is Doctor Gero is having his zombies take control of capsule corps latest robots, so they can make store sushi lunchboxes. This is forcing Mai to work late so Trunks can't take her out on a date. They take some disk of his which means he has to hunt them down to get it back. Since he is not working for Capsule Corps the movie may not have happened yet. As I recall he has just got out of jail at the start of the movie for turning corpses into his androids. 

Most of the chapter is focus on reintroducing Trunks. Since, he is going to be the main character of this arc. Also somewhat Goten. Guessing since the success of the Super Heroes movie. They want to see if they can focus on arcs that don't involve Goku and Vegeta and focus on the rest of the cast.

Wrong. I'm very inside the news.

The last Naruto official Poll that i Remember was between 2012/2013.
Nobody cares about the Boruto polls since Boruto is a almost dead franchise who only survives thanks to Naruto's Hype. This specific poll  is almost a war between the Fanbases and Pairings to gain the short manga made by Kishimoto. Hinata fandom are crazy to win this against Sakura in Twiiter.

A manga focused on Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Naruto or any other important/Controversial character especially centered in the Pairing aspects   gains much more atention than a random Mirai Novel. I'm certain this manga/anime will have some impact in this poll especially with others fandoms being dead...

 

Let's be sincere nobody cares about Mirai or secondary characters.
I don't know Mirai  Numbers in japan but certain is much lower than the Sasuke one.

These novels were adapted to anime 6/7 years ago when Naruto franchise was still alive. Sakura novel aren't adapted.
Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura/SS Fandom was hungry for new content who aren't boruto related and this manga give this to them.

Fair enough, but I remember a poll last year and the one before that. And, I do believe that there were polls after Naruto ended in 2014/15. Granted, they might just be Boruto polls. I don't feel like checking. Granted, if that's the case, I see it as one of two things 1) there is likely an anniversary going on and they want to focus on that...is the anime 20 now? Or, two they completely lost faith in Boruto and want to see Naruto characters' popularity.

An online poll is not likely, if Hinata should win, lead to her getting a spin off manga. As she already got one call Boruto, as well as a movie called The Last Naruto Movie, and look how those turned out. The poll is to show off how popular Naruto-Boruto still is and to convince executives not to end it. It really doesn't effect us. If SS and nH are at each other throats again, let them at it I say.

Mirai is important because, why did they decide to adapt it along side the Sasuke manga? If the pairing battle is so important and who is the better girl Sakura or Hinata? Why did they not do a Hinata story instead? So, they could directly clash in the charts? I have said on this site since we have heard of these two getting a manga adaptation, that they are both checks. The Sasuke manga is to see if SS -which has been financially supporting Boruto for years- can be profitable on its own.. Mirai is to see, if its just nH's Boruto that's the problem, and Naruto can still be profitable, if its just separated from Boruto. If a random character, as you said, can do better than Boruto, then what about the rest of the cast? Its the difference between getting Naruto again and just getting smutty dreamy bad boy 'I' (or more accurately Naruto did all the work) barely tamed stories with SS.

I'm pretty sure the Sakura novel was adapted.

Global poll would be a statistical nightmare since one will face challenges separating noises from the true signals. You would want to hear inputs from your customer segments that actually gave you money. Not some anonymous that contributes nothing to your business.

Either they know what they're doing, hence these are all PR stunts.

Or they are so clueless and desperate to get validation externally from the internet, that the franchise is still going strong. News flash: it isn't anymore.

At this stage, Boruto series is a sunken cost. The new others are desperate experiments. Take the Sasuke manga for instance. Its a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If they sell better than Boruto, it means the whole franchise depends on old fandom. That means they cant expect significant growth from new generation readers. If they sell worse than Boruto, that means it only proof once again that the whole SS/NH pairings popularity as a hoax. Nothing but a rumour spread around that single-handedly killed this franchise.

They have no other choice, else they'd be jobless. Moving on to new series wont work, since people remember names. Look at Samurai 8. That's what'll happen to Kishimoto, Ikemoto and others should they attempted to start fresh. They're primarily illustrator first, and story-teller later. Hence new series would be tough to launch under their names.

I took the poll when I saw Derock's post. It only asks for your age and gender. I assume my email was checked, so one can't just spam vote, but I don't feel like checking.

I say its both. Its a PR stunt since they hope a large number of people will vote. But, it is also to convince themselves and more importantly the executives that Naruto is still popular. So, they shouldn't consider cancelling any current projects and instead support more. I still think that the recent stuff is because series like MHA are ending. Which is making the executives look at Naruto-Boruto and ponder whether to end it or support it till the new IPs come out.

Boruto has been that way for a couple years now. Kishimoto's return was its last chance to break out of it, but it wasn't capitalized on. The Sasuke manga can easily do better than current Boruto, since it has sunken so low in sales, but it really needs to do at least end of Naruto level of sales for it to be a success for the franchise. As manga and anime have gotten a major boost in sales since Naruto ended because of streaming. If it can't, well there is a reason its getting adapted as filler in the Boruto anime instead of its own spin off.

WSJ officially has a three strikes rule. Samurai 8 was the first strike. Granted it was a big strike due to both them putting a lot of promotions behind it, and Kishimoto going on about how it is the manga he has been wanting to do as well the one he ended Naruto for. The big problem for Kishi right now, is that his artwork style of his hit manga is easy to copy. The two manga are getting a lot of praise because they look like Naruto instead of the mess Ikemoto does. So, he is unneeded unless he can write a decent story.

Well the thing is, that even if Hinata made the top spot, hopefully they have learned from last time that it is useless because all her supporters are pirates.

all I'm Gonna say TEAM RAPY!!

...Please use Rappy instead. Y can be replace with I or E since they all sound the same. Replace that Y with an E.

Well thank you for clarifying. Are you going to be doing summaries of those light novels in that topic you just made?

Again, the Hinata one was the only one they did not adapt because they know now, she doesn't sell.

As for the Sasuke manga story defense. I assure you, the complaints I have had so far are well within that story. I doubt the other two will solve them, else they would have been adapted along side it. Also kind of a problem if it takes three stories to make one work.

Listen whatever personal problems that are happening in your life right now. Doubling down on consumerism is not the answer.

Not gonna lie I lost all hope for the action scenes and have no more expectations for them. The slice of life stuff is okay to moderately decent if you ask me Mirai being the center of focus is nice, but not much else to say since well, remembering details and plot elements for this series is an effort I no longer want to put any into

No, I completely agree with you. The second half of this chapter is filler, and I don't have high hopes for any action in this manga. Both this and the Sasuke manga are ok at best, I think this one is better because it flows better and there isn't any structural problems.

...Have there been much details and plot elements? Mirai is Asuma's and Kurenia's daughter, she lives in the shadow of her father, she puts high expectations on herself, Shikamaru is some sort of mentor but not her sensei, and she was assigned to guard Kakashi and Guy to an inspection mission/vacation instead of guarding Naruto during a kage summit. Other then the hot spring with Kiba in the last half that's it. To me, this has been a very simple story so far, especially compared to the messy Sasuke manga.

If I think of an overview of Sasuke's feeling towards Sakura. He probably hated the fact he was stuck with one of the random girls that used to fawn over him, but at least felt she was better than that idiot Naruto because she had good grades. Then, after the bench talk he thought she is an annoying spoiled brat that doesn't appreciate what she has. He also thought once he gotten to know Naruto more and respect him. That she wasn't doing enough compared to Naruto and that she was worse than Naruto despite initially being better than him. Eventually, with time spent on team 7 she became one of the few people Sasuke cared about which allowed her to help him suppress the curse seal when he looked into her terrified eyes. However, those feelings did not outweigh his desire for revenge nor did she understand him enough to keep their bond from severing at the end of part one like Naruto was able to.

After that she became an annoyance that he would kill without hesitation if she got in his way. Also as his before final battle rant said; he doesn't get what she actually likes about him because he has never showed her any affection, and think she delusional even living in a dream world if she think he would ever love her. Then, out of guilt, and to appease Naruto; he ended up with her.

The one time he ever said anything nice to her or about her. Was during the chunin exam because he could tell she was depressed, realized that he probably was going to work with her to pass the exam at some point, and so he needed to restore her confidence...which he originally destroyed in the first place. 

The person that has complete faith in her and constantly praises her was Naruto. So the manga is awkwardly making Sasuke fill in the Naruto role in Sakura's relationship, just like Hinata has to be Sakura-like in Naruto's. Which again is because neither couple interacted that much in the manga so eventually they have to go back to a relationship that did NS.

It was rare for Sakura to be allowed to show off her intelligence due to it being a battle focus manga, she not getting many chapter focus on that aspect, and Shikamaru taking over the role of the smart member of the cast. So it is nice but the story is always twisting itself for these scenes to happen instead of letting the scene happen naturally.

Also, "I can memorize playing card decks, since I used to have to do it when I was training under Tsunade," is a nice moment but nothing really that big that Therece was hyping it up as. 

Well. Saw the SS moment in chapter 4. Sasuke gives Sakura a ring he made and she stares at it like a smitten teenage girl like Phantom said. When I'm talking about the story I'm talking about Boruto. But since Chie has taken a leave due to medical reason Sakura probably not going to be use often in the anime.

As for Sasuke I would used mandatory required affection showing for how he behaves. The problem is that we haven't seen him bond with Sakura like Naruto did with her. So him trusting her or having faith in her, or anything else feels off. We haven't seen the build up to this.

If they were going to introduce "stronger enemies  that are out of Naruto and Sasuke's league" in the first place I fail to see he point of it in the first place. It wasn't necessary to kill off Kurama. It wasn't necessary to rob Sasuke of his Rinnegan powers. They needed those more than ever if anything. Forget handling power scaling properly, they don't even know what are good power scaling elements in a half way decent story. This is just beyond incompetency. That is if they were NOT overhyping and hyperboling the villains and their powers at all at all 

I'm split between two possible reason for why they did it.

One) Drama. He wants the fights that Bolt and Nail have to be epic, and doesn't want people in the back of their minds thinking, "oh no Boruto is in trouble, Naruto should come in a save him by defeating his foe in a single blow." Oh course this is a bad idea since. This is a sequel to Naruto fans are used to the kid ninja fighting some apprentice while some adult fights the big bad, and Boruto shouldn't be until his time skip. Also this limits the range of people you can have fighting. Naruto and Sasuke were already the world's strongest men, if they are useless, then most of the world is. Leaving Nail and Bolt to fight Otsutsuki aliens and any cyborgs Madoc's has stash away somewhere, because those are the only ones that possess shinjutsu, the new tier of power that no one beneath it can match.

Two) Spite. Ikemoto may be bitter towards Kishimoto. So he may want to drag down Kishi's characters so it be easier for his to shine. Also why he decides to rehash SNS because he wants to prove he can write better than Kishi. Problem is that many mangaka of the current manga scene grew up with Naruto and have added their own; how they would tell their Naruto inspired story better than Naruto was told: MHA, Black Clover, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw man off the top of my head. And, all of them are better written than Boruto.

MangaPlus published the chapter earlier. Original date also was 2/12. They realized their Mistake and removed.

I'm a Sakura Fan. But i don't mind SS, NS, Ino or Tsunade as long Sakura is doing something.   Although I prefer originally preferred NS. It's been 8 years since the ship sunken.
Also I'm simply don't deny SS popularity and some development the pairing had from Part 1. C'mon guys the pairing popularity, thousends of fanarts,fics and their fans don't come from nowhere or Kage Summit arc.

Also the most interesting thing in the chapter isn't the SS scene
But the Tsunade mention and finally some Tsunade/Sakura relationship as a Master and Student.
I know who much sensitive some NS fans are here and put spoiler Tag from SS...

For Sakura and SS. I like Sakura as a character, but I don't like the pairing. The story of Naruto was showing how bad they were for each other, how it based on lies and misunderstandings as well as abuse. The backstory of Boruto is, Sasuke was so indifferent to Sakura and the daughter they had together he didn't bother to see them for 12 years, and even made a meeting point for Naruto just to make sure he never saw them. That's not a healthy relationship. I don't mind you liking it but you come off -and I hoped I was already making clear- that you wanted us to embrace it as well. I don't want to. So, stop. Talking about it is fine, but curb you enthusiasm.   

As for anything about the story, I will see it tomorrow. 

Lets assume this was Kishimoto's intention. Do you think this is good writing and why?

 

For a manga that doesn't focus on romance and pairing development, he sure spent a significant amount of time on it with respect to the pairing that did not happen. He can do whatever wants; it's his manga. But my issue is (and always will be) good and bad writing. Pairings/relationships are utterly meaningless; the question should always be how something enhances the quality of the story. I would submit to you that NS fits the themes and respective character arcs of the original 700 chapter manga better than any other pairing. As for karin, she comes across as someone solely created for the sake of being in Sasuke's new team/posse. Whether they got together would not have affected the story, but I can see potential sequel scenarios it would have helped.

 

Since you're simply a Sakura fan, let me ask you a question: If a new Sakura focused side manga came out and the manga exclusively consisted of Sakura dating Orochimaru, Sakura gaining significant amounts of weight and Sakura getting a sex change, would you be happy about the new content simply on the basis that it was new Sakura content?

It is a weird consumerism belief now a days were people are suppose to support product no matter what, like an abuse victim or an addict. Look at Star Wars fans, it made pretty clear that Kennedy hates what Star Wars is and what's to change it to its very core. But, show some fans a half decent show and they forget that and proclaim that star wars is back. When instead it just becomes a justification for more of her kitten. Once she destroyed the movies that nearly killed it as a franchise, but then Mandolorian came out was well received. But, now Star Wars is a TV-streaming franchise producing Kenndey's shows. Hell, a new Indiana Jones movie is coming out and the story is there is a dial of time that will allow a Woman to travel back in time so Indiana will die, so she can replace him. They are expecting people to go see it because they have no respect for them.

Its better to walk away from a franchise than to continue to support it. If they make something that appeals to you at least wait or be cautious before fully embracing it. Because, is it them truly changing or is it just appeasement? 

As for Kishimoto's intention for SS and how it relates to this manga and the light novel it was based on. SS was a pairing of the spares for him. He was told for years the fans wanted nH. He gave it to them and made SS happen because it put Sakura somewhere once she was no longer the heroine, and they did know SS had fans. So, it would augment the money they would get from that supposedly large nH international fanbase. The light novel was made as just drivel to get some money from SS fans. While the manga was a check to see if SS was really popular, are other parts of the Naruto franchise popular, and is it just nH/Boruto that are unpopular?

Can only speak for myself, but had no issue with your posting. Any vitriol I would have I would direct at the manga publisher for reminding me that Naruto exists while I'm trying to live my best life.

Live, this manga will be done in a couple of weeks anyways. But, enjoy that thought in your head that this and the other one are doing better than Boruto the manga built on the pairing that said Sakura wasn't good enough to be the love interest or heroine.