F*ck it, I'll start reading it. There are enough unanswered questions left that it should at least keep my interest for a while. If it continues to suck, I'll drop it (like I did Naruto).
As it stands, jumpsuit Ichigo doesn't infuriate me nearly as much as Sasuke did...
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
The good thing about Naruto right now is that we haven't seen Sasuke in a long time, and likely won't until the Zombie arc is over.
I lol'd. But it's probably true. I stopped reading when I realized I 100% didn't want to read the Sasuke panels anymore, because he was always doing something annoying. After the Pein battle ended, and they were setting up a Sasuke story I was like "Yep, I'm done!"
Plus, is he even powerful? At all? I mean, he has one of the worst battle histories in the entire series, but they always make him out to be some genius fighter. But it seems that he's always been horribly maimed even in the battles he's won. The only exception I can think of is the Orochimaru fight, and considering that was a sneak attack on a sick person in bed...
Itachi fight? I just felt sorry for him the whole time...
Even his fight with Killer Bee was a joke. If they didn't use ridiculous plot devices to keep him alive, he would have died 2-3 times.
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
You left out Sakura's only point of development in the entire first half of the manga, in which she offers to run away with Sasuke, but he tells her she's a stupid ***** and leaves her behind. She then makes Naruto promise to "bring him back." The second half of the manga thus follows up with Sakura trying to figure out wtf she ever saw in Sasuke to begin with, sort halfway falling for Naruto instead, confessing her love to Naruto and trying to go kill Sasuke on her own, and utterly totally failing. Naruto is still determined to keep his promise to Sakura and rescue Sasuke, even though Sasuke is long since past the Moral Event Horizon.
Well, sorta wrong. She never halfway fell for Naruto. She was very explicitly lying to him so that she would give up what she thought was his quest to retrieve Sasuke for her sake. However, Naruto wasn't attempting to retrieve Sasuke for her sake, but for his own.
That's also not why the final fight will be between the two.
The narrative framework of Naruto's fight is a quest against hatred. Pain's attack on Hidden Leaf was because of hatred, The villages couldn't work together before because of hatred, and Sasuke is entirely consumed and driven by hatred. The final climax will be the confrontation with Sasuke because Sasuke represents NAruto's goal. Once Naruto is able to overcome Sasuke's hate, it will be a representation of him defeating hatred as a whole in the story, which is the point of the entire second half of Naruto.
idiggory wrote:
Plus, is he even powerful? At all? I mean, he has one of the worst battle histories in the entire series, but they always make him out to be some genius fighter. But it seems that he's always been horribly maimed even in the battles he's won.
Yes, he is a powerful character in the story, and no he has far from a bad battle history. He has pretty much won every fight he's been in since the second half started, and in all of those he was murdering some of the most powerful characters in the Naruto universe, so you'll have to excuse him if he gets beat up a little. He killed Orochimaru (the big bad of the first half), He killed Deidara, He killed Itachi, he took on one of the most powerful Jinchuriki in the series (who did manage to escape, but just barely), he took on all the kages and lived, and lastly he killed Danzo.
You left out Sakura's only point of development in the entire first half of the manga, in which she offers to run away with Sasuke, but he tells her she's a stupid ***** and leaves her behind. She then makes Naruto promise to "bring him back." The second half of the manga thus follows up with Sakura trying to figure out wtf she ever saw in Sasuke to begin with, sort halfway falling for Naruto instead, confessing her love to Naruto and trying to go kill Sasuke on her own, and utterly totally failing. Naruto is still determined to keep his promise to Sakura and rescue Sasuke, even though Sasuke is long since past the Moral Event Horizon.
Well, sorta wrong. She never halfway fell for Naruto. She was very explicitly lying to him so that she would give up what she thought was his quest to retrieve Sasuke for her sake. However, Naruto wasn't attempting to retrieve Sasuke for her sake, but for his own.
That's also not why the final fight will be between the two.
The narrative framework of Naruto's fight is a quest against hatred. Pain's attack on Hidden Leaf was because of hatred, The villages couldn't work together before because of hatred, and Sasuke is entirely consumed and driven by hatred. The final climax will be the confrontation with Sasuke because Sasuke represents NAruto's goal. Once Naruto is able to overcome Sasuke's hate, it will be a representation of him defeating hatred as a whole in the story, which is the point of the entire second half of Naruto.
idiggory wrote:
Plus, is he even powerful? At all? I mean, he has one of the worst battle histories in the entire series, but they always make him out to be some genius fighter. But it seems that he's always been horribly maimed even in the battles he's won.
Yes, he is a powerful character in the story, and no he has far from a bad battle history. He has pretty much won every fight he's been in since the second half started, and in all of those he was murdering some of the most powerful characters in the Naruto universe, so you'll have to excuse him if he gets beat up a little. He killed Orochimaru (the big bad of the first half), He killed Deidara, He killed Itachi, he took on one of the most powerful Jinchuriki in the series (who did manage to escape, but just barely), he took on all the kages and lived, and lastly he killed Danzo.
The disastrous "confession" aside, (in which the manga-ka Kishimoto, btw, said Sakura was actually telling the truth but for the wrong reasons, which is why Naruto called her on the bullsh*t) it's definitely true that Sakura is beginning to wonder what the hell is wrong with her still liking Sasuke at all. The latest panel to cause a stir is the first page of chapter 540, in which Sakura is presented with the thought "anyone you like must be a great guy." We get a very disturbing image in the background, with Sakura looking vaguely upset. That's not the look of someone who is still deeply in love with someone she believes can be redeemed; it's more like the hopeless look of someone in an abusive relationship. Sasuke is a lot of things, but a great guy is not one of them.
Naruto's love quandrangle is not as complex as some shounen manga. Hinato's one-sided love is doomed to be unrequited, and she actually seems okay with that. Naruto is still crushing like mad on Sakura, although he's put aside his childish feelings to focus on protecting Konoha. Sasuke is gonna end up dead, or riding off into the sunset, or whatever. He can't be a productive member of Konoha any more, even if he does end up turning out to be an unlikely hero and one-upping Naruto by defeating Maura. That leaves Sakura to sort out her tangle of feelings - for Sasuke, who abandoned her, or Naruto, who never once doubted her.
Yes, he is a powerful character in the story, and no he has far from a bad battle history. He has pretty much won every fight he's been in since the second half started, and in all of those he was murdering some of the most powerful characters in the Naruto universe, so you'll have to excuse him if he gets beat up a little. He killed Orochimaru (the big bad of the first half), He killed Deidara, He killed Itachi, he took on one of the most powerful Jinchuriki in the series (who did manage to escape, but just barely), he took on all the kages and lived, and lastly he killed Danzo.
Many of those fights he got away with from sheer luck. And by luck, I mean plot armor. I understand what Kishimoto's doing with the hatred vs unification motif, and how Sasuke fits into that. Thus, he needs to stay alive.
But that's no excuse to have him only survive by invoking Mary Sue-ness.
I think my favorite was when Juugo leached his own life force into him. Which was gross. And didn't Suigetsu do something to keep him alive? Or was that Karin?
REALLY?
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
I guess that depends on what you're looking for from either of the mangas.
Naruto is unquestionably the better story, but honestly story isn't everything. There's certainly plenty of mangas available with better stories than either series. I think Naruto also has more interesting fights and abilities. However if you're looking for a very pure battle manga, Bleach does it better. Bleach is simple, but because it follows unfaltering along the DBZ path of strength progression and killing enemies in order of their power, it works. When the Arrancar are introduced I was genuinely curious about their ranks. It may be an arbitrary and completely unrealistic concept, but their is an appeal to it.
I'm actually sad they didn't work in the final getsuga form though. Would have been best if that was between the last ichigo and the hollow, with the last ichigo lacking a zanpakutou.
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.