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Naruto Appreciation Thread: 15th Anniversary and Finale

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Fbh

Member
Naruto started really good but ever since the time skip it kept getting worse and worse. Once the powers truly went from supernatural to just ridiculous (post the whole pain saga) fights became uninteresting and the whole final saga (great ninja war) was just terrible in almost every way.

At some point it just lost focus and it became quite clear that Kishimoto was just trying to keep milking it. Which was quite apparent with the bad guys "orochimaru is the main villan, no wait it's actually akatsuki, well basically pain, ok no it's actually Madara oh wait no it's the magic alien ninja mother woman thing"

As for the ending.
I enjoyed the new time skip, it was nice seeing a ton of characters I grew up with...well, as grown ups. But the previous chapters and the whole final battle with Sasuke were incredibly dissapointing, on the fighting side it was really short and on the plot side it was the epitome of bad shonen writing cliches with ridiculous levels of "power of friendship and love"... even for naruto standards


Still, while it went from great to crap, I'll remember it fondly. I had fun with it for a big part of these last 10 years and this was one of the shows that got me into anime and manga which allowed me to get to know things like Full Metal Alchemist, Berserk, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Gurren Lagann, Fate Zero, Vagabond and many other shows/mangas I love
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Can we take a moment to remember the best character in manga?

original.jpg


Reasons why he effective as a villain:

-Air of mystery

-Love to hate nature that made the reader want to see vindication

-Powerful to the point of being better than most other people in the series

-Relationship with a main character

-Very unique style of fighting (Crows, illusions)

Reasons why he was effective as a tragic hero:

-The "big reveal" made for an extremely heartfelt moment and turned around his character completely

-Satisfying conclusion to a story that had been built up since the beginning

-Very admirable, selfless character

Uchiha Itachi is the best.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Really great ending, was kind of emotional for me even though I hadn't been following the manga for a few years, but I did read the last arc. This was one of the first mangas I got into, it's so weird that it's over! Last chapter was great, all the right couples, all the kids were cute, and it was sooooo satisfying to finally see Naruto as Hokage. After all those years. (Also, did Bolt graffiti his Dad's statue with the One Piece logo?!)

Both oda and kishi included references to the other's manga in the latest chapters. (Luffy is eating Ramen with Naruto, though Naruto is obscured in the panell... and there's a little kurama at the table), as a final nod to celebrate the end of naruto.

And no, Bolt did not graffiti his dad's statue with the one piece logo. Bolt and his dad graffiti'd the statue together :3
 
Can we take a moment to remember the best character in manga?

original.jpg


Reasons why he effective as a villain:

-Air of mystery

-Love to hate nature that made the reader want to see vindication

-Powerful to the point of being better than most other people in the series

-Relationship with a main character

-Very unique style of fighting (Crows, illusions)

Reasons why he was effective as a tragic hero:

-The "big reveal" made for an extremely heartfelt moment and turned around his character completely

-Satisfying conclusion to a story that had been built up since the beginning

-Very admirable, selfless character

Uchiha Itachi is the best.

The true hero of Naruto, and I'm saying that as someone who's very, very fond of Naruto as a character.

Itachi is amazing.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Can we take a moment to remember the best character in manga?

original.jpg


Reasons why he effective as a villain:

-Air of mystery

-Love to hate nature that made the reader want to see vindication

-Powerful to the point of being better than most other people in the series

-Relationship with a main character

-Very unique style of fighting (Crows, illusions)

Reasons why he was effective as a tragic hero:

-The "big reveal" made for an extremely heartfelt moment and turned around his character completely

-Satisfying conclusion to a story that had been built up since the beginning

-Very admirable, selfless character

Uchiha Itachi is the best.
Yeah, and then he made sasuke relive the trauma of his family's massacre , but in a much more graphic matter, from Itachi's point of view, for 3 days and 3 night, nonstop. He drove his brother to abandon the village Itachi wanted to protect, to become a rogue ninja, and to plot to destroy the leaf.

GREAT JOB, ITACHI. WHAT A LOVING BROTHER


DVQprMq.gif
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
The true hero of Naruto, and I'm saying that as someone who's very, very fond of Naruto as a character.

Itachi is amazing.
It's funny how a character who was painted to be such an evil, selfish bastard ended up portraying the "destiny means nothing/make your own path in life" theme better than Naruto himself. Itachi was the successor of the Uchiha clan, but he inherited the Will of Senju and rejected the Uchiha's radical philosophy/curse of hatred, choosing what he thought was right out of his own free will even when it required giving up everything to do so. Part of the reason I love his character so much.

Yeah, and then he made sasuke relive the trauma of his family's massacre , but in a much more graphic matter, from Itachi's point of view, for 3 days and 3 night, nonstop. He drove his brother to abandon the village Itachi wanted to protect, to become a rogue ninja, and to plot to destroy the leaf.

GREAT JOB, ITACHI. WHAT A LOVING BROTHER


DVQprMq.gif
Yeah, I can't really defend this. He definitely took it too far there.
 

Mengetsu

Member
Can we take a moment to remember the best character in manga?

original.jpg


Reasons why he effective as a villain:

-Air of mystery

-Love to hate nature that made the reader want to see vindication

-Powerful to the point of being better than most other people in the series

-Relationship with a main character

-Very unique style of fighting (Crows, illusions)

Reasons why he was effective as a tragic hero:

-The "big reveal" made for an extremely heartfelt moment and turned around his character completely

-Satisfying conclusion to a story that had been built up since the beginning

-Very admirable, selfless character

Uchiha Itachi is the best.
Itachi is GOAT. He was the greatest bad guy who was good all along and gave up everything for the greater good. Bless him ;__;
 

Alchemy

Member
Life is strange. I was never a big Naruto fan, but its been something I've read every Friday for like 15 straight years or whenever it started showing up. My brain can't even understand the idea that it isn't going to be there next week or ever again.
 

alf717

Member
Man I lost track of this one. Use to watch it on TV but it moved to another station. Didn't bother after that. Would like to marathon it someday any idea on where I can watch it online?
 

Lagamorph

Member
As awesome as Itachi was, he was also a bit dense. He should've seen Sasuke's reactions coming. How did he think Sasuke was gonna react to learning his clan were wiped out on orders of the village when he'd spend his whole life wanting his family back and being blindly devoted to them?
 

KingJ2002

Member
Naruto should have died in a selfless act. That would have given him a really good arc. Sasuke would return to the village and become Hokage, and they would carve Naruto's face in Hokage Rock as a tribute.

It resolved itself far too neatly. "Yay, everyone made it" ... 'cept Neji.

Neji made it too... Neji was free of his servitude to the clan. Just like his pops.
 
Nicely done OP.
Seeing all the arcs lined up like that makes me think, even if part 2 trails off towards the end and has in my opinion the weakest arc of the lot with the Sai/Sasuke stuff it also has arguably the strongest run going from Hidan and Kakazu through to the end of the Pain Invasion, easily my favourite stretch in the series though Part 1 is of course much more consistent throughout.

Well it's certainly been a fun ride at any rate, part of me thinks that I mostly view the series as a vehicle for crazy superpowered ninja fights and it makes me not particularly judgemental on the plot even when I know its dropped the ball, which is to say I pretty much enjoyed the whole thing (okay, the Kaguya reveal almost got me).
There's things I'd change as I'm sure many would, more controversial things I'd leave the same (ah I still remember the reaction to Nagato's sacrifice, I personally liked how that played out) and it'd be nice if certain characters got more spotlighting but expanding the scope of the world in part 2 unfortunately left some characters behind.

Naruto isn't what introduced me to anime/manga but it is what helped cement it to me as something I could enjoy which of course led me to other series, it was the first instance of an anime series truly grabbing me, it'll always have a special place with me for that.

Oh and Shikamaru is the best, younger me chose well for a favourite character, a shame that he's always crap to play as in the various games but I guess you can't really translate that tactical angle to one on one fighters.
 
I liked it and was like "WTF" at the modern/futuristic city developed behind the Leaf Village. Seems like there were lots of technical advancements in that timespan
 

DJwest

Member
Can we take a moment to remember the best character in manga?

original.jpg


Reasons why he effective as a villain:

-Air of mystery

-Love to hate nature that made the reader want to see vindication

-Powerful to the point of being better than most other people in the series

-Relationship with a main character

-Very unique style of fighting (Crows, illusions)

Reasons why he was effective as a tragic hero:

-The "big reveal" made for an extremely heartfelt moment and turned around his character completely

-Satisfying conclusion to a story that had been built up since the beginning

-Very admirable, selfless character

Uchiha Itachi is the best.

Itachi is the real 5th Hokage. I loved that he was the genjutsu god of the manga. I was depressed when he first died. Then he came back, untangled Edo Tensei like a boss and ascended to the heavens ! The Sauce is my second favorite character. I loved him best when he had Oro's snake powers though. The Mangekyou ruined his fighting style. The Sauce needs to go back home and bang Sakura until he gets a son. Also RIP Jiraiya. You didn't get the treatment you deserved. Fuck I can't believe this manga has ended.
 

Mecha

Member
Can we take a moment to remember the best character in manga?

Reasons why he effective as a villain:

-Air of mystery

-Love to hate nature that made the reader want to see vindication

-Powerful to the point of being better than most other people in the series

-Relationship with a main character

-Very unique style of fighting (Crows, illusions)

Reasons why he was effective as a tragic hero:

-The "big reveal" made for an extremely heartfelt moment and turned around his character completely

-Satisfying conclusion to a story that had been built up since the beginning

-Very admirable, selfless character

Uchiha Itachi is the best.

Considering the large amount of better written manga, I seriously doubt he is. That's similar to saying a character in hollywood action blockbuster number 3821 is the best in cinema, it's a bit of an exaggeration.
 

Wazzy

Banned
I think this series went too far with Sasuke. It should have ended with him dying or they should have never extended him being bad for so long.

But Naruto ended up with
Hinata
so I'm happy.
 
Honestly you can tell from the very beginning that the premise of the entire series was Hiashi ensuring the future of the Hyuga clan. The guy looks commanding. You don't look like he does and not spend your days plotting things.
 
Loved part 1, hated a lot of part 2. I especially hated the beginning of part 2. Kishi made Naruto look like a chump and wasted tons of his time chasing after Sasuke over and over. The time skip got nothing done for Naruto at all.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
Itachi is an ok character, but Pain almighty does he have the worst fanbase in the history of manga/anime. Holy shit.
 
What a ride. I really liked how it ended. I've followed Naruto for just a bit over ten years, and when you have followed something for so long, and kinda begun seeing the characters as a friend because you know them so well.
In 2004, I tried watching an episode and decided it was dumb as shit. Someone on a forum called me out on my remarks and said I was talking shit. I decided to give it a chance since he was so fucking insistent, but it looked so incredible dumb. The main character was ugly and annoying as shit. A orange Ninja? Screw you. Ninja's are stealthy assassins not this magic whatever crap.
First episode I didn't care. I mean, okay, so what? I saw what he was doing. Character is ignorant and dumb so he can grow. Nice one, NOT.
Second episode, okay, who are these guys?
By the fifth episode I kinda liked the teacher guy. He had a good design. More explanations on Chakra. Okay, this is just a asian version of Naruto's force powers.
Someone online said, that the idea of Chakra was not invented in Naruto but has been a name for a life force for a long time. Interesting.
Like so many others, everything changed during the first mission. Zabuza and Haku is where you saw what the series could be. It had a good conclusion, it had great fights, and there was this interesting, yet bizarre mix of strategy, martial arts and these magic abilities. Sure, everything was strangely named, Naruto just wouldn't SHUT THE FUCK UP. But by that point it was already hooking me.
Hidden Village of the MIst? That's cool! Bloodline limit? Man that is pretty cool. I was already drinking the Shounen-cool-aid.

There was many amazing moments. Many memorable fights in both act 1 and 2. Kishimoto became better at character design as time went one, and he became great at bouncing between an incredible over-abundant amount of characters. Yes, the Ninja War had way too many characters and fights going on at the same time, but there were many times were he managed to keep momentum while bouncing between different things.
Naruto had an incredible amount of really fun and cool-looking characters. Also many wonderful villains.
This story also had a lot of bullshit. The 2 years of fillers was the stupidiest crap ever. During that point was when I got into Bleach and loved that up until its great natural climax in Soul Society. Bleach should have ended there.
Naruto had several Climaxes but also pitfalls. Shippuuden started out exciting but very little was happening after that. Interesting fights and conflicts always made it more interesting again though.



So at the end all the fans care about is who's kid is gonna fuck whose?

Yes. You will see this in Bioware games too. It's very interesting how the romance aspects take out such outragous amount of discussion and resources. The level of romance in Naruto have always been very limited, and speculative, but I bet that at least 80% of all the fanart, fan fiction and so on are based on romance.

Overall; TL;DR - Really happy with the conclusion. I feel like a part of period of my life is over. I've followed this with interest more than any other series I can remember. I loved the music in the anime, the art in the manga. So much fun, one of my all-time favorite fictional worlds.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
So sad to see it end. I started watching it when I was 8, and it was the first anime I have ever regularly watch (I would see the odd Dragon Ball Z, like one episode of One Piece, always Pokemon but I am not counting that). I am now 17. I have been watching something for more than half my life. I didn't know ALL of part 1 after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc was filler. Good, 'cause I never watched that except when it was on TV.

I liked Part 1. Its fights had a lot of action and were cool. Kakashi was good throughout all of Naruto, but I preferred him as the "Copycat Ninja". Gaara vs. Lee, Lee vs. Kimimaro, Naruto vs. Sasuke, and others were really good fights. Shippuden has Jiraiya vs. Pain, Naruto vs. Pain, Team Asuma vs. Kakuzu/Hidan, and later team Kakashi, Kakashi vs. Obito, and more (I really wanna see Gai vs. Madara).

While others downright hate Naruto and wanted it to end, I have liked it all. Sure, it got over the top and isn't as good as it once was, but Shippuden introduced the best character. I hope the mini-stories based on the future people turn out good. I also heard that side arcs similar to Kakashi Gaiden are being planned.

I am happy with the ending. Everyone got together, Naruto is Hokage, and the world is at peace. Do we know how many years passed? If the movie is 2 years later, I can see it chapter 700 being around 15 years later, assuming the kids were being made right after the movie ;)

Alas, it will be another sad day once movies stop being made, and side stories. It might go the way of Dragon Ball and have movies every couple years, which would be nice. I will probably watch through all of it in 2-3 years.

Edit: Oh yeah, the War is actually really long, like half of Shippuden. That is weird because it doesn't feel like the War has been half of Shippuden, but it has. I still remember when I saw the first episode of Shippuden, seems so long ago, unlike the start of the war :(
 
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