I remember this community. I quit visiting shortly after Naruto ended. 

 

How is everyone? What have you all been up to for the past 2+ years? 

You know. Just the usual. 

When's the last time a new page was posted?

Early on when he started the doujin it was a page every 2-3 weeks or so. Now it's more like 1 a month.

Hinata is the most generic moe character ever created. The problem is that she was so generic that the anime, and her fanatics were able to fill her with their fantasies to make her their dream girl.

Still can't forget the fapfest that was the anime rendition of the Pain Arc. They dedicated an ENTIRE episode to her "Confession" when in the manga it was merely a few slides/panels. Not to mention the animation was top notch and silky smooth whereas Naruto vs. Pain later was goofy, comical and downright horrendous.

Also if I remember right, those high quality animation episodes in Naruto cost hundreds of thousands of dollars just for around 22 minutes. But priorities are priorities right? 

New page is up. Brace your eyes and take proper precautions. Thou hast been warned.

Link: https://tokai2000.de...-p-12-748788562

 

Hey look at the bright side, there is no English dub for it yet. That probably means something given how popular Naruto is in North America In Japan some other factors would have to play out for it to completely tank and get cancelled unfortunately

Pfft, back in like 2005-06, CN would air like 3-4 Naruto episodes during the DAY (usually between 4-6pm). And on Sunday they would feature the movies, especially Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom. Best of times! 

I'm kinda getting vibes SP is going to try and give it another big push to be honest. It really, really looks like they screwed the pooch with Black Clover, and are trying to save the lesser of two dumpster fires.

Are you kidding, Asta's voice sounded like a car starting, or dying. Glorious laughs were had!

I think I remember months ago someone saying Naruto forced himself onto Sakura, and that same person was a SS fan.

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This is another qualm I have with the SS side of the end pairings. Sakuras basically saying: "Ill keep confessing my love until he accepts me!" Isn't it hypocritical to say Naruto was forcing himself if Sakura was doing the same thing? Keep in mind this was from the book so shes an adult during this. Her character has been "developed" from her 13 year old self. Supposedly.

I remember start of Part 2 Naruto manga serialization, I and a lot of others were so surprised at how well Kishimoto was developing Sakura, and gave her opportunities to shine, especially during the Sasori arc. And then after the Tenchi bridge, he just started blatantly ignoring her, tried to make her relevant during the war arc, and then brought her right back to her 13 year old self in the last 10 chapters.

Artfully crafted I'd say!

Male: 1) Madara (pre-Sage), 2) Pain (English VA), 3) Jiraiya. I'd say part 1 Naruto but his character has just been diminished too much to care.

Female: 1) Kushina, 2) Konan, 3) Part 1 Anko. Early Part 2 Sakura is my favorite rendition of her. Shame Kishimoto pushed her aside.

Now I know you didn't ask but I'll also list my 3 least favorite male/females just for fun!

Male: Obito, Obito, Part 2 Sasuke.

Female: Kaguya, Kaguya, Kaguya.

It would have been a near perfect ending if Kishimoto had decided to end the series after the pain arc. Naruto becomes the beloved hero of the village and gets accepted by the girl of his dreams.

But, but!! We wouldn't get to see a once greatly beloved story take an intense nosedive straight into the dumpster. I'm also glad I got to see the idea of Chakra Nature/Elements and Sage Mode be abandoned in favor of glowy, explosive nukes and 150 ft tall paper mache samurai.

Also glad to see Naruto reach a level of maturity fighting Pain only to sit there getting ridiculed and beat to a pulp by Karui in the name of Sauceke.

Also glad to see the notion of achieving your dreams when you start with nothing in life was replaced by the "prophecy of the chosen one" and the reincarnation of the sons of the Sage.

Also glad to see an entire war arc based on fighting plants and zombies only to culminate with ninja aliens from space!

Also glad to see Naruto mourn and defend the one responsible for the death of his parents and call him "the COOLEST guy".

Oh and uh, also glad to know the manga never ends with a Hokage ceremony (aka his main driving dream for 15 years of serialization) and gets to marry his stalker who he fell in "love" in a scarf genjutsu because the author "forgot" to implement it in the manga.

/sarcasm 

Been so long. This needed to be posted again!

Don't mock the COOLEST GUY EVER!

Hiya nice to meet ya!

I am not here to debate. I suck at debate and I hate conflicts even more. So I just came here hoping to discuss how much narutos ending sucked balls and maybe even reflect on the good moments this manga had.

Almost 4 years later and it still stings. Well, about 9 if you consider anything good the series had left went into the trash after 2009ish.

That's not being a troll, that's being a terrible kittening writer.

That too. But the thing is, the Hinata-sama movie must've been in production since 2012-2013 so it could release in 2014. Which means NH and SS were supposedly already planned by then to accommodate the script. 

So why then didn't Kishimoto use that time to develop NH and SS throughout the war to give them some dignity and viability by the end? I mean even in the last 50-70 chapters it was straight NS moments and to top it off we have Sasuke blatantly saying he doesn't love Sakura and kills her in a genjutsu.

It just doesn't add up and it feels like a waste of time making all those panels. Seems pretty "troll" to me!    Or he just didn't care and the manga was maybe a joke for him by that point. Anyways, it's funny to look back at these things and try to add logic! 

I remembered the "Sakura's hug was sign of friendship/sibling/platonic love" argument.  Mind you, does friends even hug like that?! Never in my life had ever seen someone pull that to a friend. Not even to my own siblings either.

She was trying to be as close to him as possible. She had her entire body pressed against his and even had a hand on the back of his head. And Naruto was just in the hardest battle of his life. He would have been really sweaty and dirty. His hair and face were probably soaked but Sakura did that anyway. If she only viewed him as a friend, she would not have touched him like that. No way. She would've found it inappropriate if not disgusting to do so. But she not only did so but did so with abandon. So she loved him. It's really that simple. It doesn't matter what they did afterwards. Kishi and the sycophants at SP can never change what happened.

I agree. The hug was WAY too close and intimate to represent "friendly/platonic love". Especially the way she holds on to him. Besides it's not the first time Kishimoto has thrown in such instances. There's the part where Sakura puts her hand on his cheek, telling him to snap out of it after Itachi's genjutsu, or when she holds on to him as he collapses from overexposure to the 9tails mode fighting Orochimaru.

In the earlier chapters of part 2, she acts more tenderly towards Naruto (which honestly coming from Part 1 Naruto, I was amazed to the lengths Kishimoto went). This all goes away the same moment Kishimoto stops giving Sakura any relevancy and pretty much sits in the village. Of course, Kishimoto being the person to plan 15 years in advance; he has Minato compare Sakura to Kushina, Naruto refer to her as his girlfriend, Sakura afraid to lose Naruto and have his dreams go to waste when he's on his deathbed.

Not to mention the obviously dedicated panels for Naruto Sakura and Sasuke Karin. *cough*

Oh and the finishing touches; like less than 10 chapters before the ending Kishimoto has Sasuke stab Sakura in a genjutsu and coherently say "I have no reason to love her, nor see any reason she should love me". I swear Kishimoto is a serious master troll! 

5. Vikings (but ONLY Season 1-3. After that it just gets downright terrible. Sounds familiar *cough*)

What's your favorite hobby/pastime?

Whoo! Next page is finally here! 

https://tokai2000.de...-p-08-734162001

5. Chicken Parmesan with Linguine!

What's your favorite pizza topping. (There are NO wrong answers....except pineapple  ).

I have been a long time lurker, since about 10 years ago. While I realised the flaws of the manga early on such as lack of characterisation and plot development, I still enjoyed watching episodes here and there and reading threads discussing the progress of the manga.  Some of the things I enjoyed was the macro development and continuity of the arcs, and of course, the development of the friendship and presumed relationship between Naruto and Sakura.

 

That being said, I have been looking for an epic manga series to read. Despite its flaws, Naruto stands out overall. I have already caught up with Hunter X Hunter, however, the long hiatuses leads me to find something else to read. Would it be a good idea to plod through Naruto, despite the horrendous ending? As long time fans of the manga, would you have read it, now knowing what happens in the end?

A teeny tiny bit late to this!   Naruto once had the potential of being one of the best stories ever. If I knew it would deteriorate into the mess of a cash cow it is today, I don't think I would have laid a finger on it. Not only was the story thrown into the gutter, but the characters strayed off their previous growth & development and power ups got ridiculous. (just downright silly and funny to look at...  )

The thing is though, the more attached you are to something after spending multiple years following & investing, the more it hurts to see it diminish into a joke. I remember being initially introduced to early manga pages of Naruto back in 2002-03 by friends, and was very interested in the story and unique designs but didn't think that much of it. It wasn't until the Anime premiered in 2005 that I fell in love with it. Again, the English VA's played a great deal in my enjoyment of the series and they fit each character perfectly!

That said, Part 1 was wonderfully great, Part 2 was rocky to start but peaked perfectly up to the Pain Arc. Up to Volume 48 is where I'd put a a finish line, because beyond that it only goes downhill, hard. I only wish Kishimoto could've kept on his original track and not have been misguided by battered fans, biased editors, and persuasions from the studio. Only thing left nowadays is to hope for a better doujin ending. Or maybe someone out there in 10-20 years will try to rewrite the story after the Pain Arc with tech and programs getting exceedingly easier to work with. Who knows, one can only dream!

Le new page: https://www.devianta...-p-07-729930938

Hmm, extra focus on Hinata lately coupled with lack of Naruto and Sakura last few pages. Dying to see something happen since that crab-genjutsu scene. Argh!

But it's still wonderfully drawn, especially considering how long he's been working on the doujin (like 2 years now?), I really hope he gets to finish it!

Last comment wins the game? Hmm...

1. Kingdom Hearts (1&2) 

(at least the 1st two original games were masterpieces. It's become a milking fest by Square Enix after 2006 sadly. Also what was once a respectable franchise is slowly gaining a cancerous fanbase close to Naruto's) 

Didn't grow up with any "actual" arcade games, but I had the good ol PC CD-ROMS! 

1. Pac-Man 

5. Phoenix!

Name 5 board games you enjoyed playing as a kid? (Hope this Name 5 hasn't been done yet)

4. Ichigo (Vasto Lorde) vs. Ulquiorra,

(minus the 100x Kurosaki-kun of course) 

(Manga wise) Naruto vs. Pain (but studio blew that to crap... shocker!)

So I'm kinda late to this, but I wanted to write up my own feelings on this film. I saw this with a large group of people in December and we shared similar sentiments after we left the theatre.

I was never a big Star Wars fan, but I digged The Force Awakens, it was definitely a step up from the prequel trilogy, while still holding true to a lot of elements from the original trilogy.

So given that, I was pretty excited to see The Last Jedi, and I had very high hopes for it. I always want to give my honest opinion on anything.

So. How can I say this in a nice way? It was just...disappointingly *cough* bad.

It didn't feel like a 2017 movie, it felt like it belonged with the prequel movies. Most of the animals they showcased gave me phantom menace vibes and they looked outdated. Yoda looked like a puppet and unnatural, considering the CGI tech they have nowadays (Hell even animals in Avatar 2009 looked 100x better).

Pros/Cons:

-That part where Leia seemingly dies to the explosion felt perfectly done and was very emotional, until she wakes up in space (frozen and should be dead in a vacuum devoid of oxygen), flips over and starts flying through the debris to the shuttle. Also it might be "fatigue" but I'm tired of huge, fortress-like ships/death stars being taken out by some tiny ships b/c plot reasons.

-That Casino world also felt like it was straight out of the prequels. A lot of unnecessary and cringy extras. I also didn't understand the importance that Rose had to play in this movie, and they dragged Finn with her. A lot of this felt like a politically correct film to be honest.

-I expected more from Snoke and back in TFA he felt like a threatening force with a lot of potential behind his motives. In TLA they made him kinda goofy looking and he just goes out like nothing, not at all memorable.

-And that dialogue between Kylo and Rey felt super cringe at times. Especially about the "no shirt".

TLDR: A lot of the movie felt cringy, the story was kinda clunky/weak at points and while sitting in the theatre a lot of people were whispering/snickering. Now on a bright note there were parts I enjoyed. Luke was played amazingly and everyone of his scenes was great, and I loved when he trained Rey. The fight scene in the throne room was also amazingly done. But other than that, the movie was also throwing all these clumsy, cutesy creatures in my face in an attempt to market toys (understandable but, gee, a little overboard) and a lot of this most likely has to do with Disney owning practically all franchises now.

That said this one left a bad taste for a lot of us. The Empire Strikes Back still remains the best out of all films. I thought they would take tips from it when making this film like TFA was "copy" of a New Hope. Guess I was WAY wrong though.    

It's almost over for most, but Happy New Year's all! 

I remember Kishimoto stating that in his earliest, earliest ideas for Naruto, he planned a wizard/magic type of manga. Then he switched it to that first draft about making ramen. Until he got more editors and went with a ninja theme.