neoshadow

One of the things that upset me is that Kishi ended like SS doujin.

I think that may have been the point, if what myself and many others have said is true with thinking that the ending was changed at some point this year then it makes sense that it would get changed to SS it is the most popular hetero pairing in both Japan and in the west so at least some parts of the new ending were changed to reflect positively on SS that being 699.

NH seems like an afterthought because I think it was an afterthought if Naruto wasn't going to get Sakura then that really only leaves Hinata so in the interest of not having Naruto being alone it got pasted into the epilogue and any development they needed was pushed to the movie as a way to explain it.

サスケは散々サクラを傷つけてるんだからおまえは身を引くべきだバカヤロー何でったってサクラちゃんはそんなにサスケが好きなんですかナルト良いじゃないですか素敵じゃないですかあんなにもサクラちゃんのことを思って支えてあげてるのにそれはちょっとあんまりじゃないですかおこなんですけどおこお

 

Sasuke support I thought that because I'm hurting a terrible Sakura so much also of Sakura-chan Do thou and Tatte Tsu what Bakayaro you should step aside Sakura-chan is not the matter nice, is not it so much good either Naruto I like Sasuke if you place up Te it'm kinda Oko is not it so much Kedooko

 

ナルト終わったけど、お前ら新時代を築く子供の物語見たくないか？

 

I was over Naruto, or do not want to see children of story to build you guys a new era?

 

原作に沿っていて一番関係性のあるカップリングに惹かれていったのが始まり。もちろんナルト→サクラ→サスケの三角関係は最後まで続くと信じてましたし…ただ二部後半からのサクラについてはいい加減にしろとしか…

 

It starts and that were being attracted to most relationships of certain coupling If you are along the original. Of course Naruto → cherry → it to Sasuke of the triangular relationship was believed to continue until the end ... it only with white to irresponsible for Sakura from just two-part second half ...

 

女子「うちナルト最初のほうは興味あったけど大蛇丸の性格が面倒くさくて大蛇丸が出てきた瞬間からみんなが大変なことになってごちゃごちゃしだしてイライラして見るのやめた〜」

 

Women's "Of Naruto ~ everyone that you have retired to watch impatiently by catering mess is supposed to be great from the first moment better is that came out personality and is Mendokusaku Orochimaru Orochimaru I was interested."

Agreed with Atheck. Thank you Shadow for keeping Japanese fan reactions updated, they really are the only hope to get some answers behind the ending.

I guess since everyone is posting their thoughts on the ending I'd do so too, ultimately this is a repost of the thoughts I had when the spoilers were coming out but I thought I'd add a bit to it.

Warning this gets a little long and rambly yet even then it doesn't even scratch the surface of how complex my feelings for the ending are.

I was never really that active on this site, honestly I got heavily into shipping and out of shipping within a year and a half, I'm not sure why it brought joy to so many people but I after a period I could never really commit to it like I wish I could, maybe it was the fact that my time zones and work hours never aligned with when the site was most active limiting my enjoyment but more probably I think I just grew numb to shipping in general, not the people here, not this site and especially not this community but just the concept of shipping in general.

Not to say I didn't want Naruto and Sakura to end up together, I believed they were the best pairing in the series and I still do and I wish oh god do I wish they were canon but sadly they aren't. I consider myself pretty perceptive when it comes to character interactions and details which will become important later so for that reason I don't feel I was wrong to think they would end up together no one on this site should feel that way, they had development and interactions, they had parallels that though lazy as a storytelling technique were effective to convey a message but in the end that's not what Kishimoto felt and all I want to know is why?

I've seen many bashing Kishi and not without reason, I can't blame them and maybe I'm alone in this thought, even though his writing has dropped considerably in quality from Part 1 to Part 2 and again around the Pain Arc  I do believe the man knew what he was doing and broadly where he wanted the series to end up which makes it all the more jarring at how it didn't happen which in turn makes me question it, this does not feel like a natural storytelling decision, this does not feel like what's right for the story, in all honesty this reeks of some kind of outside interference.

• Maybe it was editorial or tied to the upcoming movie? It makes sense plenty of authors have had their wishes changed at the whim of the editor to please the fans and as much as we all like NaruSaku here I don't think we can deny that we weren't the most popular of the main ships.
• I heard that his assistant who is also writing Part 3 wrote Chapter 700 but I doubt Kishi didn't have a say in it but maybe he left the pairings to his assistant, romance was never the most important part of this series and Kishi resolved the main Naruto and Sasuke plot so maybe everything else got left to another?
• Maybe Kishi just wanted to end it or changed his mind? He began to doubt his own intentions and no longer liked NaruSaku's dynamic or wanted to appeal to as many people as possible, as I said we weren't the most popular, better to go with what will please 2/3 of people as opposed to 1/3.
• Or maybe he just simply wanted to keep people guessing to the end and surprise people and have a shocking ending for the sake of it?

Whatever the reason was I believe it had to have been recent, within this year at least even up to the end we had Minato compare Sakura to Kushina immediately after we had Naruto and Hinata hold hands, we had Sakura perform CPR and have a page solely consisting of Sakura and Karin worrying for Naruto and Sasuke, at that point I could see anyone being convinced of what direction the series was going so why have that if it wasn't your intention to have them end up together?

Maybe I'm being a Kishi apologist but I do want to give the man the benefit of the doubt at least for now.

Maybe in a few years when everyone can look at the series with fresh eyes and unbiased opinions they can notice how it doesn't add up and question it, I would love to hear Kishi's reminiscent thoughts on the ending and what he wished he had done or regretted doing or not doing over the course of the series once all this is over I think it'd would be very interesting.

• NaruHina - by the looks of it The Last will deal with Naruto and Hinata's romance but that should not have been relegated to a movie it should of happened in the manga if it was planned because right now we have 699 chapters of barely interacting a then bam they're parents. One positive I can give is I always thought they couldn't work as parents because there wouldn't be a firm hand to their children, I didn't imagine Naruto as a hard ass father but honestly I find it kind of funny, it's like he has a son who's exactly like him at that age and it annoys him and then that positive is immediately taken away by the implications of Naruto being a neglectful father which I don't like. Plus I know this is mean but I really don't like the look Himawari, it's those whiskers they bother me.
• SasuSaku -  given time I could easily like a SasuSaku development that deals with Sasuke trying to regain Sakura's trust and love after what he's done after his change of heart because I actually quite like 698 and post Sasuke but sadly that's not going to happen, Sakura literally jumps right back into his arms as though nothing happened and it ruins Sakura's character in the process.

I have to say AU because even though it's possible that the manga will be finished by December, I don't think there's any way the anime will be finished by then too and ultimately the movies are extensions of the anime even if it does have Kishi's direct involvement.

Like take RtN it had Kishi's involvement too and in it Tobi appeared as one of the main villains but in the film he is referred to as Madara even though the movie came out around the same time as Obito's unmasking and even without knowing it was Obito those who had read the manga had known he was not the real Madara for a while, but the anime was not up to that point yet so he remained Madara in the film.

I think like RtN it will be a place for Kishi to explore things he can't put in his story like Naruto and his parents family life in a non-canon environment. Also to me it makes no sense for Kishi to have his canon epilogue in a completely different media to his original story, if there's going to be an epilogue surely it makes more sense for it to be drawn by Kishi's hand in the manga?

Gotta say I really enjoyed this chapter, Naruto being an idiot and the Sage continuously trying to dumb his speech down to a level that Naruto could understand it was pretty funny. The Sage looks nothing like I imagined him to or I think anyone expected him to but I like it, he has an otherworldly appearance to him which makes sense as he is pretty much a God.

I'm not sure how I feel about Naruto being the younger son's reincarnation, though I like that it isn't what everyone was expecting that Naruto would be the Sage's reincarnation but overall I'm just not a fan of reincarnation stories in general, to me I find if it's handled poorly it's a very easy way to diminish the main character's accomplishments.

I guess it depends on how it's handled if he is literally Ashura's reincarnation than I don't think I'm a fan but if he is more someone that shares the same beliefs and that has led Ashura's essence to find a place in him then it's not so bad. The way Naruto likened it to being possessed by a ghost leans more towards the latter,

I'm pretty confident in my belief that Sasuke will gain the Rinnegan, the embodiment of the Sage's power since it's obvious that Sasuke will be the reincarnation of Indra. Sasuke was born into power, is a loner by heart, doesn't like working with others and has all of his power ups literally handed to him or as a result of the power he was born with. Naruto wasn't born with anything, works hard but isn't talented but makes friends easily and inspires confidence and trust in himself. Sasuke inherits power, Naruto inherits ideals and will.

I find it interesting how Indra looks almost exactly like Madara, it makes me wonder if Kishi is attempting a bit of a red herring as to who the reincarnation of Indra is?

Though could this imply that contrary to Naruto's wishes he will not fight Sasuke by himself? Since Ashura had to train and surround himself with people who believed in him to be as strong as Indra and with the shot of them staring at each other it doesn't seem as though Ashura fought Indra alone.

It's weird that the Hagoromo's brother never appeared til now, especially with how much Kishi likes to parallel Naruto and Sasuke but with them being the reincarnations of Hagoromo's sons instead and not the Sage and his brother doesn't it make his appearance a bit redundant now? And what of the Juubi was sealed into his brother if the Juubi got split into the Tailed Beasts?

Honestly I miss when Sakura was also a big part of these parallels, though I find it funny for all the flak Kishi gets by certain parts of the fanbase for "weak" female characters, the strongest character canonically is now confirmed to be Hagoromo's mother.

Also at the start of the chapter did anyone else get reminded of Neo meeting The Architect in Matrix Reloaded?

This was quite a good chapter, though my attention is immediately drawn to the line for next week "Gai finally uses that forbidden technique" if that doesn't hint at the use of all 8 gates I don't know what does and as much as I don't want to see Gai die I am curious to see how powerful one becomes using them, though 2 members of the same team dying seems a bit too much isn't it? Poor Lee losing both his rival and then his sensei.

Kakashi and Obito working together was great and Minato's pretty stubborn (like his son), he loses both arms so he just uses his mouth but I'm not sure if he actually did anything?

I really hope others comment on Madara's aura apart from Sakura because I like the idea of him being so powerful his adversaries are frozen and ever since he gained the Sage's power he's encountered only a handful of people  but if no one else comments on it all that will happen is it will be used as proof of Sakura's weakness or whatever.

It's a perfectly valid question given the circumstances but Sakura's "Can i trust you?" I found pretty funny, I just started thinking how does Obito answer something like that "Well i plunged the world into war, formed the Akatsuki that destroyed your village, hunted the Tailed beasts that include your teammate and recently killed your friend... so yes you can trust me". Maybe its not quite an accurate translation, something like "How can I trust you?" would work better I think but that's just me.

Honestly I'm still trying to recover from the massive mood whiplash. The absolute last thing I expected coming into this chapter was an extended comedy routine with Team Guy, I understand the need to have some levity in the story to balance out the darkness but to me it just felt out of place, or at the very least it went on a little too long.

I would be happy to see more of Tenten but it's definitely too little too late, she's barely been a character for so long that her showing up now doesn't do much, though wouldn't it be the absolute pinnacle of irony if Tenten was somehow involved in the defeat/sealing of Madara.

I do agree that Madara spitting out and dismissing the Sage's ninja tools is Kishi spelling out his way to beat Madara in bright neon letters and possibly a way to revive Naruto if the Kyubi chakra possessed by Kinkaku and Ginkaku can be used. I fully expected the situation with Naruto to go from bad to worse this chapter so Minato failing didn't shock me, but his flashback with Kushina was enough to make me enjoy the chapter and I wish we could see more of them more often.

It's funny coming into this chapter how certain it was felt that the mysterious man was Kabuto and now it's not quite as certain, why would Karin not recognize him and I doubt his ascension to a Sage changed his chakra much at all but I wonder what was the point of teasing the mysterious man last chapter if it wasn't payed off this chapter and we're left wondering a while longer.