Bail o' Lies

Kaisei and Akane duel each other with the story God of Death. The story Shiguma performed during his event with Akane. On a cruise event for Issho branch of the Arawaka School. Kaisei will be done next chapter but I wanted to give my read.

God of Death. Some destitute man decided to commit suicide but before he does, he encounters a Shinigami. Who tell him he has a long life and not to waste it. So, tell him the secret to save lives and become renown as a great healer. If he says a phrase a Shinigami at the bedside of a sick person will leave. He should only do it when the Shinigami is at the foot of the bed not near the head. So the main character set up a business and quickly becomes rich as a great healer. Eventually he is asked to save someone who has a Shinigami near a sick person's head and is promised great wealth if he does so. He worries as he remembers the warning but he decides to play a trick. He will have the servants move the patient bed around so the Shinigami would be at the feet. After he does it the Shinigami appears and chastises him. As what he had done was swap his lifeforce with the sick person and he is about to die. MC begs and the Shinigami gives him a chance. He is given a unlit candle if he can light before the old one goes out he will live. He fails.

Its a dark comedy about human greed and stupidity. He was given a warning by the god of death. Yet, for a handful of gold, he traded his life away without a thought...well beyond thinking he can trick death.

Akane performed the God of Death straight with the only twist being that the main character managed to light the candle of life but sneezed dying as a result therefore showing the capriciousness of death. There were several times where Issho was shown to be amazed at her performance. Also they make a call back to her Master Shiguma who once gave a performance that so enraptured the audience that they didn't even notice a fire alarm going off; in this case a storm.

Kaisei decided to play the son of Akane's main character as his story's main character and make the character himself. A sweet innocent boy who father left his mother once he got his wealth. The boy works as at clinic where a doctor is training him; who is representing Issho. Then one day a shinigami appears and gives him the same phrase. He uses it to become a great healer like his father but doesn't take money because of the lesson the doctor gave him. To avoid gaining too much money too young. When the doctor got sick with a Shinigami near his head the boy uses the power to save him despite the danger because he owes the doctor so much. Changing the story from a dark comedy about greed to a story about love, sacrifice, and gratitude. Everyone, but Issho was moved by this story.

It is very likely in the competition he will declare Akane the winner. He focuses on the art of the performance and not buttering up the audience with sentimentality to move their hearts to support the performer.

Akane is constantly said to be Issho's ideal student by others and I think it clear Kaisei probably would have worked better under Shiguma. As this emotional storytelling is more inline with Shiguma the Tearjerker.

Oh it came out. I just stumbled upon it or I wouldn't have read it for two more days. Eh. Well, my Issues with Boruto topics is both done and not. I'm fine with it as it is but more can be added or improved upon. Would like it if people read it and maybe spread it around.

The Mando movie flopped. Disney should not have released the Mando movie at this point. It should have came out at the latest in 2024. It been 6 years since the Baby Yoda fad was at its peak. People moved on. So instead of getting a money showing how Star Wars is still popular. They have one showing how far it has fallen. I think it is about 85% drop from The Force Awakens. Disney have been relying on investors not understanding streaming to hide how badly it has been doing. Now they have a metric to check. Let's say Mando has 1 Million Hours watched and that it made $200 million. Well that means every hour watched is $200.

Akane Banashi first season ended. It was good, it could have been better. It didn't spend enough time showing the Rakugo, instead it was characters' internal thoughts about how good Akane was. Also a bit more facial morphing to show different character in the Rakugo story with different expressions.

Summary Time: Chapter 35. Cute...Well someone must think its cute to release this on a Thursday. 

Cover page is Tree-Sasuke (Hidari which means left handed)...well he is certainly not cute.

Tree-Jenga and Tree-Sasuke talk about Tree-Bug being dead. He rambles about love. Tree-Sasuke ask Tree-Jenga, "why did he only rescue his Sold Bulb and not the others?" Apparently, because he would feel sad if he was gone...also its too early to bring back Sasuke. Ew, they are bonding and becoming friends while Hime watches.

Salad goes to get new glasses due to her worsening eyesight. When Bolt drops a kunai from the sky in front of her. So she would look up so he could motion to her they should talk...yes, he can fly.

Blond Sai and CJ talk, because they actually can work together with out one (Bolt) having a hissy fit, CJ tells him to keep the toad on him at all times in case he needs to summon him.

Nail goes to Madoc's lab where he shows Nail that he made his own collection of SNT-Toads. He calls them cute for the title drop. The reason he brought Nail to his lab and to show off the toads is because he is going to use the toads to adjust Nail's combat parameters without him coming to the lab. Normally, his parameters will be set to 100% defense so he can't be killed, and then during battle Madoc will adjust it to attack...this isn't a bad idea all things considered. It does mean he is in complete control of Nail's combat parameters but after part one I have become completely indifferent to whatever nefarious schemes he may be plotting. As he could be plotting nothing again, like in part one. Madoc and Nail note this is perfect for him because he doesn't really train...Hard work and effort are more alien concept to this story than the Tree-People. All he asks, is for him to help him with something. That is not restoring his daughter because they had already agreed to wait till after the current crisis is over.

Oh Bolt and Salad finally have a normal conversation... in the first time in what, 115 chapters. Bolt asks about her eyesight, she ask about as well as apologizes about his right eye that Nail cut while he was protecting her, and he doesn't mind because he thinks it makes him looks cool...get a better haircut and outfit then one can talk about that. Salad is either told or guessed Punk is going to come after her. Apparently, during the fight with Tree-Bug he used the opportunity to places his claw marks all over the village. So many that it would be difficult for Nail to deal with them all with his shrinking powers. So Bolt has a plan...oh boy, at least he's finally proactive. Let Punk capture Salad...remember he might take her to the Tree-People who have Tree-Sasuke who wants to eat her. He gives her some of his pins and tell her to keep them on her at all time...this the third time this chapter someone was told to keep something on them at all times. Then to drop them after Punk relocates her through his belts. He will sense that and will come right over...can she also drop them if she wants a nice evening with you? Maybe Bolt, you should keep some flowers and chocolate on you at all times. 

Back to the two Tree-People. Tree-Jenga wonders what Tree-Sasuke has been reading for a while. He has been looking at a book filled with cat pictures...so he wants some pussy? Now we know he is not Sasuke!

Oh god this chapter is still going on...well for once people are getting the page worth out of a chapter but honestly. This just feels like it would have been better if they did my suggestion of splitting the last chapter; so we have one focus on Bug's death. Madoc after asking if he has worked with CJ gives Blond Sai a Scientific Ninja Tool: Scroll Memory to give to CJ. Blond Sai ask why isn't he giving it to Bolt instead? He says that this will be quicker...and with less whining from Bolt always a good thing.

Ah, right, they are Ikemoto characters so they are allowed to be smart. So what Madoc wanted Nail's help with was capturing CJ. He shrunk himself down with his Shinjutsu. So he ride on the scroll. Grew back to size. Then Madoc used his shutdown code on CJ. So he can bring him to the village...of course he was in hiding so the Tree-People couldn't find him. Now that they can learn about him and that he is in the village. Which means they can kill him. Is this to end the future sight to make the story more dramatic? Could work, if the story didn't have so much power creep.

They always intended a sequel as the corporations didn't want the money they got from Naruto to end. Either Kishi would have done it himself as he wouldn't of been as worn out or disinterested. More likely Ikemoto would've still taken over. There would have been a lot of the same problems due to Ikemoto. Look at my Issues with Boruto topic, almost all of that is problems that came from Ikemoto's choices. But it wouldn't had a bad of a start since everyone knows how NS would have been. So no Kishimoto accidentally destroying the appeal of the end pairings.

It would've been less, "Dear God, this has been a flaming train wreck from the start. Only Sunk Cost Fallacy is keeping them from turning it about and trying something else. Or even just admitting they killed the Golden Goose and just ending it." To instead, "Dear God, Ikemoto is so ****ing lazy. He is barely doing anything other than coasting off the Naruto name." Granted that second part is still the case even now, but he wouldn't had the excuses the mess called Boruto constantly gives him.

Did the intro found interesting info.

Ew they picked the Baryon/Suicide Nuke Mode for their image.

Anyways. Remember Boruto exist because they wanted to keep making money from the Naruto Franchise. It is still, even twelve years later, TV Tokyo's highest grossing anime IP. While they had to cancel/suspend the Boruto anime, the manga has slipped to 50,000 volumes sold, and it is clear to anyone that looks at this franchise; Ikemoto cannot turn this around. Boruto only value at the moment is its licensing fees because its tied to Naruto. So the only way to make money is to go backwards. The biggest complaint from anyone that has even heard of Naruto, is their endless filler. One of the main things people want is for them to do is a Naruto Kai to get rid of them. Of course that removes all their Hinata scenes they made to build up their preferred pairing. If they just continue from the end of the War arc; that won't work because they already did that as filler in the anime to stall while they prepared to adapt Boruto.

The Ninja Storms games were a huge successes, especially for an anime games. That Boruto connections game if not a flop was disappointing compared to their earlier works and that was with the player playing as Naruto for like 75% of the game as well as making it a nostalgia trip as much as they could. Also CC2 had to make an original story for their game instead of adapting the manga like they used to do, that Kishimoto even praised them for because they were able to enhance his story, because there was so little story in Boruto. 

A Four Episode Miniseries has taken an extra 3 years to come out.

So this screams that they are tired of Boruto not making money and they want to go back to Naruto. Will they fix anything? Who knows.