pat's monthly review: Naruto 430-433

[patedecarne]

Hi, my dearest people ^_^
Hum, it has been a long timesince my last review, but I couldn’t make a proper one before. As I posted in the last one, the 430 was finished, but unfortunately I couldn’t make an individual review for 431, 432 and 433. So, I’m using a new format for the review: from now I’ll be using a monthly basis review, that is, after the last chapter from a specific month comes up, I’ll post the review for all the chapters in the specified month. Surely the review will be shorter than usual, otherwise it’ll be boring due the length, and I won’t detail all the stuff from all the 4/5 chapter from the month. My intention is just to make an overview from all the chapters, only focusing on the key points, the most important ones, and some that I consider relevant to the plot, or that deserves a comment or two. This way I can keep with the current chapters not making long reviews for each one ^_^




All the pictures provided by SleepyFans


Naruto 430 431 432 433


http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/796/narutojan01nd2.jpg
Minato v2.0



16 years ago, a legend, mounted on top of a giant toad, protected the village; now, another legend, mounted on top of a big toad mounted on top of a giant toad and with three more friends, has come. Unfortunately the village cannot be saved anymore, but Pain will get his payback. Yes, Naruto is back! Being the most reasonable choice so far, Naruto made it to the remains of Konoha, and to celebrate the new year, some noticeable things have changed, like the new coat. All these stuff, plus the beginning of the fight, will be further discussed in the following topics of the review.

First things first: definitely this was a hell of beginning, for Naruto and for the readers. During so much time, Kishimoto was teasing us, with some powerups and small fights involving the main hero, but nothing worth the wait so far. And now, look who’s here to stand as the last hope. The comeback was great and all, but it seemed to be a bit premature, not rushed. Not rushed because, story wise, the entire environment, the scenario, the training, everything was pointing to that. But it feels premature in a sense where Naruto, in his first big fight in part 2, is facing the Akatsuki leader. Usually there’s a whole process behind such development, where the characters will gain experience, fighting with lesser enemies, learning how to develop his powers, and through that, make his way to the big fishes. But with Naruto, it was different: he’s skipped some parts of his development just to fight with Narutoverse’s greatest enemy. While it isn’t totally wrong and off context, the “jump” from an ordinary genin to the newest legend, comparable to Minato and Jiraya lacks the mentioned aspects.

Fortunately, it was the only downside seen in the month’s chapters. If in one hand Naruto lacks some development process concerning his powers, in the other hand he’s fighting against Pain, THE Akatsuki leader, THE most fearful villain so far! This is the epicness all the readers were waiting for, and Kishimoto didn’t disappoint us, delivering some of the best fighting scenes up to date.





http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/5956/narutojan02vl6.jpg
Three men, three legends…



A new year for Naruto, and probably the entire year will be dedicated to him. To begin, there isn’t anything better than a new outfit, right? Well, not exactly a totally new outfit, as we can notice some similarities with another 2 genius from Konoha, but still a new nice fashion for Naruto. It’s acceptable that Kishimoto has decided to keep the old orange suit with Naruto: since the beginning of part 2, we haven’t seen much from Naruto with the orange outfit (fight-wise, of course). Then, to keep the old outfit, a red coat and a scroll were added. “I’ve seen these before”, some of you can say, and yes, this is true: The scroll is almost the same Jiraya used and the coat is similar to that one which Minato used!

In a first glance, the scroll is just a fashioned, useless stuff. But in reality, the scroll is used to reverse summoning! Naruto will bring the clones into the fight after they gathered enough natural energy through the scroll. As for the coat, it resembles Minato, his true father, and whether Naruto knows the truth or not, he also admires Yondaime. Usually, the red color is associated with fire, and being the case, the coat not only represents Minato, but the will of fire as well. It’s good that the orange outfit still is the same, it’s like a trademark for Naruto, and at this point, a sudden change would be risky, as he’d lose some aspect of his personality.

Even though red and orange don’t go well along, I must stress Naruto isn’t some fashion week: with the new outfit, Naruto is wearing something to make him unique. The cape and the outfit cannot be exactly something gorgeous, but it’s fair enough for Naruto.

If there’s a dramatic and beautiful panel in these chapters, it has to be the one with Naruto, Jiraya and Minato. Often we can see Fukasasu, Shima and Bunta comparing Naruto to Jiraya, and even saying he’s surpassed him. And with Tsunade is no different: she could sense the ominous aura, the same from both of the genius, as we can check from that panel. Even though I don’t think Naruto is ready to be a Hokage, he’s certainly Konoha’s strongest now, another legend, just like his father and his master.





http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4195/narutojan03gg5.jpg
RUN!!! Frogs’s attack!!!



It all began with Asura Pain in an attempt to kill the now exhausted and chakraless Tsunade. In a blink of eye, Naruto, who was standing on the top of Gamakichi, delivers a Rasengan, completely destroying Asura, using speed never seen before on him. And on the sequence, he throws a rhino, uses some bunshins against dogs, smashes Hungry realm with frog kata, delivers Fuuton Rasen Shuriken against Human and another version of Rasengan to get rid of Animal, ending with a spectacular sequence eliminating Hungry and Hell. All the mentioned stuff will be further discussed later. We sure got a lot of action, as expected from this fight. Naruto was able to take down 5 Pains for his own, but the frogs have an active role in this fight too;

All the most powerful frogs from the entire frog army came along him, and they aren’t in a good mood. The known chain fashion for “Strong summons must be represented by strong animals” was broken in Naruto: Kishimoto doesn’t use the typical stereotype for usually seen around the world: he doesn’t use tigers, lions, dragons and other powerful creatures often presented in others mangas. Instead, he’s chosen the frogs as a symbol of power, which is very cool and well done. Frogs aren’t associated with power, but this isn’t the case in Naruto: one more time, a warrior is using the frogs as tool, and not only a single frog, but 5 frogs! All of them were badasses in those panels, with high detailed panels, giving us the impression that they are truly omnipotent, which seems the case. Bunta, for example, look at its eyes, he’s so serious and this time he isn’t complaining about Naruto on its top. Almost like a déjà vu from 16 years ago, but this time with the son.

We were missing the frogs in actions: since Pain vs Jiraya’s fight we haven’t seen them, and now, they’re fighting against various summonses. Well, that’s the correct choice for them: It’s not of a deal if one of those Pains were to fight them. Naruto will have a backup (even though he must fight alone) just in case. It’s interesting to notice the total damage to Konoha, too: Those three giant frogs are building-size, and yet, they’re really nothing compared with that crater. The extends of the damage were worse than many people thought, unfortunately. Anyway, the frogs were nice to see again, and this time with style! The arrival of them was somewhat funny: they should have been teleported to Konoha, but they couldn’t find it, the army was summoned to the wrong place! Even though is still unclear where they would land if Konoha were intact…





http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4377/narutojan04we8.jpg
Death from above



Naruto has become the true master of Rasengan: Rasengan, dual clones Rasengan, Fuuton RasenShuriken, double Rasengan, and etc…

While some people would think it’s getting too boring and repetitive, due the lack of more jutsus, but in some cases, it’s better to specialize on just a short array of jutsus. IMO, Naruto mastering Rasengan and all of its variations suits perfectly for him. Until now, RSG was somewhat incomplete and imperfect, and its real usage couldn’t be measured by some past fights. And look what we got with the recent chapters: A perfect usage of his favorite jutsu.

Seems Naruto doesn’t need to use clones to make the regular RSG anymore, and that’s quite a progress. Against Asura there wasn’t enough time to use a clone, and against the dogs, the clones were there, but this time things were a bit different: actually, the real Naruto was the one helping the clones! And speaking of clones, it’s important to notice how they are assuming a more active role: essentially, the clones always act supporting Naruto. But now the clones are acting by their own, as can be seen on that showdown with the summoned dog. In one of the most impressive panels, two Bunshins are using another variation of RSG to get rid of the dogs. The bunshins were placed in another whole level. The clones have the same properties of the original, thus technically they can use all the jutsus from the original. What makes the usage really great now is the fact they are using jutsu from the original, like the new sage giant rasengan.





http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9590/narutojan05cg1.jpg
OK, what if this little toy could be thrown?



And an old yet cool jutsu made its comeback along with Naruto: the Fuuton, RasenShuriken, a.k.a. FRS, and this time even more deadly than before. Now he can freely throw it, as some people have already suspected, since his training at MyoubokuZan. Throwing it is the reason why the jutsu has become more deadly than before: with that, the self hurting issue was solved, as Naruto doesn’t have to make a physical contact with the enemy.

Now I think FRS is completed. Back in the fight against Kakuzu, Yamato has said that only about 50% was completed (though I don’t know how he’s figured it out), and with such destructive power, it was hard to think why such jutsu needed more power: it’s a 1 hit KO jutsu, with damage at cell level where no one would stand up after it, and even splitting in half (Human Pain’s case). But it had some downsides, like the physical contact. This was one of the aspects that should have been implemented in the past, and not the power one. Now look at this, probably it should approach from the final jutsu Yamato was wondering:
-Power: checked, too powerful to be upgraded – 50%
-Mobility and self hurting issue: checked, it’s now a throwable jutsu, can reach any target without hurting the user – 50%
Put these together and Naruto have a deadly S level jutsu that can virtually hit any enemy at any distance, where the only limitation is the chakra. Pretty powerful and deadly for every ninja in Narutoverse.

This time the FRS wasn’t impressive as in the past, though, but it’s acceptable, as now there isn’t much room nor time left for another showdown of the jutsu. Like I said before, Naruto mastering the use of a few jutsus is way better than a wide variety of them. With FRS and those giant sage modes rasengans he’s doing a hell of job with Pain, there’s no need for more jutsus other than these ones. More jutsus at this point would be just a waste of arsenal: there are no enough enemies to play with, and some jutsus would be shadowed by others, rendering them useless in the context. And Fukasaku and Shima already have noticed the power of FRS, almost not believing on what they were seeing; hence Naruto shouldn’t worry about more jutsus.





http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/4173/narutojan06eb2.jpg
you did well, Tsunade, now, please rest…



In my last review, I was commenting about the aftermath, how Konoha, the citizens, who they would react to these events, and the consequences too (here is where Tsunade enters). Even though these past four chapters don’t show a detailed overview from the consequences, there’re some points to be discussed in the review, like Shikaku’s comments about Sage Mode, the never-ending Kakashi stuff and mainly Tsunade.

What Pain did to Konoha was epic, no words to describe, but good for Konoha that its Hokage is Tsunade. From a destruction view, it was screwed up totally, now it’s just a pile of debris and junked buildings. But from the casualties view, the damage was near to 0! The chapters strongly imply that Tsunade was able to protect almost every citizen of Konoha with Katsuyu. What happened was good to clarify some points about Hokage’s role. Through the time, some people had the wrong concept about them: that a Kage must be strong to fight with the enemies. While this statement is true, let’s not forget about what’s most important than fight: to protect the people. And Tsunade was perfect, brilliant, protecting Konoha citizens. Thanks to her ability, she was able to succeed on a task where the previous Hokages possibly couldn’t. This doesn’t mean they’re weak, only that each of them has a specific way to rule, and instead of fighting, Tsunade has chosen to protect, and she did a hell of job. Such task qualifies her as one of the best Hokages up to date, and comes to show that not always victories can be accomplished through fights…

Mainly in chapters 431 and 432 we can follow Hokage’s drama: Even protecting everyone, Tsunade isn’t happy, as Pain is still alive, and she hasn’t more chakra left (noticeable for the missing mark on her forehead). The panels with Gamakichi carrying Tsunade at Naruto’s request were perfect, they illustrate perfectly her drama: she’s the leader of Konoha, she must protect and fight, but her current condition won’t allow. She’s feeling useless for being taken away from the battle, for not be able to fulfill her job as Hokage, even though all the Konohatians own their lives to her. Sakura holding her old hand and saying everything will be fine was touching too. Good moments for such occasion, which they were well fit in the context.





http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/9360/narutojan07rf4.jpg
NNNOOOO, again this!!!



And here we go again: this isn’t a soap opera, but it’s coming close to one. In one of the panels, we can see that Kakashi wasn’t affected by the nuke, Katsuyu has protected him, and she wouldn’t waste time protecting a dead body; but in another dramatic moment, Naruto, with his brand new chakra sensing ability, says he couldn’t sense Kakashi’s chakra, whereas he was able to feel the chakra of all the remaining citizens. Well, if he couldn’t sense Kakashi sensei’s chakra, this only means one thing: he’s dead. While we cannot say whether he’s dead or not, definitely it was a smart move from Kishimoto: he isn’t stating the obvious, thus keeping the reader’s attention and focus. At the same time, he’s teasing us with hints that he’s alive and dead as well! From this point, it’s impossible to say for sure his real condition, where the reader can only imagine, but this is important, we can only think about it without a clear answer!




http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8020/narutojan08xk4.jpg
you bet, papa




Shikamaru is worried about Naruto, and he’ll try to help him out, but he won’t be from much help, as his leg is broken. Surprising, Shikaku tell him to not worry, as Naruto now is a true Sage. Not only Shikaku knows about SM, but he knows the fruits of the training too. Probably Jiraya has showed one trick or two in the past, that’s why he says Naruto is on another whole level now. And if he knows the truth, we can assume the older jounins and chuunins do as well. At this time probably Naruto is the strongest of Konoha, and the people know this. In the 429’s review, I was commenting about the possibility of a coup d’état coming from Danzou, but I wasn’t expecting such twist of events with Naruto. Danzou has serious problem now, and he better keep an eye on Naruto, otherwise he’s done for.





http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1983/narutojan09vm3.jpg
One by one the Pains are falling…



Now it’s time to talk about the battle itself. All the panels with Naruto and Pain facing each other were epic: Naruto has the chance to avenge Jiraya and save the world, and Pain stands in front of the last piece of his twisted game. I’ve found the conversation about peace rather amusing: Pain still keep talking about peace, even to his primary target: Naruto has come, saw all the destruction and is intending to crush Pain once and for all, and still, Pain tries to convince him. I think Pain and Naruto are exactly the opposites, that’s why this is their fight. They must fight in order to fulfill their desires. Their goal, and one depends from the other. I must confess that I hoping to see this moment for a long time, and I’m not disappointed with we have gotten.

The “look to left and right at the same time” hint was a clear one that Naruto would use the clones to gather natural energy, and this come to be true. Naruto left two clones at Myoubokuzan as a backup. Using the scroll Naruto will summon one clone per time to use SM again. The clones aren’t in Sage Mode, thus it’s likely that they are only gathering natural energy, nothing else, and this energy is already accumulated in them; then Naruto will summon one of them and when he dissipates, all the gathered energy will be passed to the original, molding the natural energy into sage mode. This seems to be the most reasonable explanation, as the manga still doesn’t explain how works chakra transference from bunshins to the real. What bugs me is why Naruto left only 2 clones: with his chakra pool, he’ll be able to left at least 10 clones in standby, making things easier. I don’t know if only two clones are sufficient for the task, though.

During these chapters, Naruto took down 5 Pains, unharmed! And of course, this should be further discussed. Pain, whom was crushing Konoha, losing to just a single man? This would mean he was toned down a bit or even some fan service by Kishimoto. And while there’s really some fan service (as mentioned before in the review), Pain wasn’t really toned down. Pain is truly a kage level fighter, but only Yahiko and his godly skills. The remaining Pains are, at best, high jounin level fighters (as the 5 essentially use only 1 jutsu (Hell and Human have 2), they lack versatility, thus not being qualified to be labeled Kage level), hence Naruto’s victories so far weren’t a big deal. Individually (again, with Yahiko’s exception) they aren’t as powerful as the collective. If all the six were to fight together, I’m sure we’d see a completely new result for the fight. And Asura, Animal and Human didn’t have a backup from the remaining, thus it was just a 1 vs 1 fight(of course, with Hungry, Heaven and Hell was another story, but it’d be discussed in the following paragraphs.) To sum up, with these 3 enemies, the fights were fair, and like mentioned before, Pain isn’t much of a thread when the bodies are separated.





http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5204/narutojan10ya9.jpg
You… only you… this will bring either peace… or total destruction



And what happens when 3 Pains are fighting together? Problems, of course, but not for Naruto. In one of the best action packed chapters up to date, using an impressive strategy along with his brain, mixing jutsus, henge and bunshins, Hell and Hungry were taken down. Remind me from the old Zabuza’s days, when in fact, only strategy was applied. The main difference is that now Naruto is a powerhouse, but he still deserved credits for what he’s done, and with merits. First, Naruto was able to notice the Pain who was reviving the others, then he made some observation about the thread that is Deva and finally an excellent strategy came up. And even without SM, he’s doing well, guarding all Yahiko’s punches. It was good to see him fighting without SM, even if it for a few panels. Good to see another strategy based fight after so long. Thinking about that, Naruto thinks of a plan during the fight: thanks to his enormous and huge chakra pool and stamina, he can endure an enemy while thinking of a plan. This is something unique to Naruto, the ability to think on the fly.

Aside chapter 433, the fight had others good moments too, like the double rasengan performed by the clones and some glimpses from the frog taijutsu: the punch (or the wind caused by it) that send Hungry flying, without even touching his face, shows the level of someone able to master sage mode. In an overview, the fight is going smoothly so far, with a good balance of power (the super force, RasenShuriken) and strategy (tricking Hungry and Hell). If things keep this way, I believe this will be the best fight up to date, not to mention that Naruto was just warming up, the true battle an the true challenge will begin with Yahiko, the leader and the most powerful Pain. Let’s just wait to see if Naruto will stand against the power of God, because someone that can stop a FRS without moving a single finger is, at least, something…






Final Comments



Just one complaint about the chapter: the premature development of Naruto, from a genin to a legend status, skipping some development in this meantime. Other than that, fabulous and impressive chapters; Sage Mode is really something and Naruto is making the best use of it: fast paced battles against Pain, and even though the fight so far is just a 1 man fight, Naruto is doing well against the man who ruined Konoha. In all these 4 chapters, the art was pretty detailed; like the panels with Tsunade being carried by Gamakichi, where one could feel the tension and her feelings, and the lifeless eye of Yahiko, which still remains the same, even scaring at some degree. Seeing how this chapters were covering essentially a fight, there’re only a few dialogues, but I’m sure when the real fight begin, we’ll come to understand more from what happened in tha past to Yahiko, Nagato and Konan, thus bringing some dialogue into the chapters. But all the action was worth to see, and should Kishi keep doing this, this fight will rock even more :lool



Ps: yes, the review is a bit, hum, too colorful :XD

[The Closet Pervert]

I was bit afraid that you had stopped doing reviews, good thing you didn't! Even though there are 3 regular Naruto reviewers, you all have different styles so reading your reviews is great fun.

I like this new format of yours. No chapter lines: instead you talk about the 4 chapters as whole. I like that.

Yeah, this fight is pretty damn exciting. But equally interesting and exciting thing to see will be the aftermath of this fight: not only the reactions of Nagato and Madara to Pain's loss (Yeah, I think Pain will eventually lose here), but the reactions of people in whole Narutoworld! Anyway, love the fight, especially the "Naruto being smart" -part.

Chap 431 for the fact that it had the biggest shock value for me (after 429). I'm not saying other chaps were bad ;)

[ca23jlvin]

AWESOME REVIEW MAN. I ALSO AGREE WITH you on the premature development of Naruto issue especially going against pein but hey this is kishi story and he could do whatever he wants. i hope naruto goes into training in the future with sage mode but also utilizing the fox key so that he can become an ultimate power house.

[◆ T.D.A ◆]

I chose 433, because I like seeing good strategy backed with huge power.

[1TrueSensei]

^Co-signed. I've missed the strategy that Kishi used to employ regularly in his battle depictions. That's why I liked Kakashi vs. Pein, cause it was the first time in a long time that we've seen protracted strategy and planning like that in battle.

[rafazildo]

I was going to vote on chapter 430, but I think that's unfair... I just can´t pick one and say that's the best =]

This whole arc is total awesomeness!
It's impaired with the sasuke rescue arc
---------

Great review pat!

[laughing@you]

Awesome review friend like always...

But you are killing us man......why a monthly review?

[Natoma]

431 got my vote. Great review pat!

[The Flash]

You've done it again Pate, You just delivered the best review (even tho it was a monthly-review) i've ever read. Dare i say, the best review made to date? haha.

Well done, pate.

I thought naruto henging himself as Rasenshuriken, brought back some good memories in part 1 (hint: the fight againt zabuzza, where naruto henged himself as a shuriken - http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/15/01/)

The last few chapter was epic. Kishi is on a roll. Anyways, great great great review pate.

[ksfst]

433 FTW
I have to agree with T.D.A, good strategy + power = WIN

[ophidial]

Wow thanks for the review, it was a good read.
Not quite sure which is my fav chapter so far, I'm totally
loving this fight, though i'm slightly inclined towards 433.

Like you said seinen mode really was a huge power jump for
Naruto but i guess this was exacerbated by readers believing that
Naruto was weak rather than him actually being weak. I'm mean
kakashi himself said that powerwise Naruto was stronger than
him and kakashi was a possible hokage candidate.

To me the power of FRS is still the same, if you look at the top panels of chapter 432 pg 9 the expanding FRS is massive and
dwarfs the two pains in the corner, the next panel shows the
similar explosion.
I also found it interesting to note that the FRS almost got through
hungry ghost realms defence (433 lower panel page 10). The anime
is definately gonna make a much bigger deal about that fact than
the manga.

Anyways, thanks again. Here's to the next couple chapters
maintaining this momentum.

[◆ T.D.A ◆]

Though pat it seems you have a few spelling mistakes. ^^

[wing_gundam]

Nice review.

I disagree completely with the Genin-Sage in a day part. Saying he went from Genin to sage is like saying after the Zazu fight, he stepped into a bathroom stall, came out and was Sage Naruto. It entirely ignores the entire manga! Naruto being a genin was in title only.

His growth was through his teachings with Jiraiya pre-skip, facing off with Sasuke for power, skip maturity, training with Kakashi, kiking Kaku's arse and battling thru Sage training.

Each one of those showed his trials and tribulations where he struggled, pushed through the pain and persevered a little stronger.

Anyways, as I said, good review!

[Wind-shinobi]

Nice review.
Its great to see someone to put effort to create a review.It was interesting and easy to read. Keep it up :amuse

[Bucks]

^^ Nice review.

I don't think it was Sakura that said good job Tsunade. She wouldn't say Tsunade period. So I think it was the cliche someone is talking to her from the heavens stuff, most likely Jiraiya. But Hiruzen, Dan, Nawaki and even her grandad, might have been the one the bubble was speaking about. All if it was going to be a little more original, if only a little. Maybe something for the anime team to work on.

[hitokugutsu]

Great to see your reviews again!!
I have to disagree with your opinion on Naruto's growth though. During part II it seemed that Naruto was constantly inferior and now only trough sage mode Naruto looks powerfull. But I believe that Naruto was already quite powerfull, but initially inferrior to Sasuke, thus making him look weak in comparison. After FRS training people (Kakashi, Yamato) keep on hyping him. The point is, we never got to see that because of the short Kakuzu fight. But I think we have to accept manga claims even though no actual results are seen (for example; the "surpassed" Kakashi thingy). If you take all that in account I find his progress to sage mode and being Konoha's elite less of a jump in power.

Currently it seems that Naruto is superior to Pain. And this surprises me, because we haven't seen Pain use his Rinnegan skills, other than shared vison. Therefore I was shocked Pain didn't even notice the Henge (F*king E-rank level jutsu to fool Pain???). Also more surprising that Naruto was able to henge in A JUTSU. I'm pretty sure a Henge cant possibly copy all the qualities of the actual technique to fool a person??

[Belisar]

Surely the review will be shorter than usual, otherwise it’ll be boring due the length, and I won’t detail all the stuff from all the 4/5 chapter from the month. My intention is just to make an overview from all the chapters, only focusing on the key points, the most important ones, and some that I consider relevant to the plot, or that deserves a comment or two. This way I can keep with the current chapters not making long reviews for each one ^_^

c'mon, you are just lazy ^^

this review is everything but short ^^



I thought naruto henging himself as Rasenshuriken, brought back some good memories in part 1 (hint: the fight againt zabuzza, where naruto henged himself as a shuriken - http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/15/01/)
i have the feeling kishimoto red few of the previous chapters to inspire himself. he wanted to made something epic in naruto.

[Saifi]

i think the review was good , some pretty solid pts , but i also doubt that the monthly review will work when this battle is over , cause right now u can analyze the whole battle as one, but with individual chapters that arnt linked either the review will be HUGE or leave out stuff.

but so far soo good , i am also sad that so few people voted for 331 i think 333 got most votes cause its most recent :P.

i think the whole fight is pretty good so i vote for em all.

also 1 thing that i was confused about in ref to sleepy fans scans on OM, it says naruto infused the clones with sage chakra.

so does this mean that the clones collected the sage chakra or naruto collected it onto them and (as the word infused suggests) then since they were still the chakra remained collected around them. and since the KB was summoned and then released, maybe rather than returning chakra to the origional the Kb just left all that concentrated nature/sage chakra in the area and naruto could access it cause it was already collected and didnt have another place to go!

just a mini confusion/theory if u like, what say u on that ?
also i am torn about naruto's growth.

on the one hand i disagree with genin to legend statement made by you, but i also know that i was sure naruto would lose had tsunade called him when she did. the sage tech does put him on a whole different lvl , but i wouldnt put naruto beneath most jounins in konoha even without it ( and maybe a few degrees over the anbu , since they are now reduced to fodder)

[patedecarne]

Hi,hi , guys, sorry for the later response, I had a busy weekend, thus not having time to proper reply everyone here ^_^


@The Closet Pervert
Well, I’m a bit unpredictable sometimes, but I couldn’t quit the reviews, and I’ve found easier to make a review for 4/5 chapters instead of a single one: it gives a whole view from a different perspective!
Hum, yeah, now I’ve changed drastically my mind about Pain: in the beginning, I was thinking he wouldn’t lose here, but after seeing the “new Naruto”, well, I believe Pain is done, or at least, Yahiko, not to mention we need some progress in the story, like Nagato’s stuff and etc, so Yahiko have to lose here;


@ca23jlvin
Hum, I’m really worried about the toad key: Sage mode already provides an enormous boost on Naruto’s powers, in a level when he could fight equally against the most powerful members of Akatsuki; and that’s the question: why would he need the Kyuubi’s powers when Sage mode is already a Chuck Norris upgrade? Unless Kishi has something else planned on his mind, of course!


@T.D.A., 1TrueSensei, ksfst, The Flash
Hum, yeah, old days, huhu? Like I said before, this fight resembles so much Zabuza’s one, almost like a déjà vu: the FRS henge reminds me so much from that shuriken henge used by Naruto and Sasuke against Zabuza. It’s good to see that, even when some guys already have god powers, they’ll rely on strategy to fight…


@rafa
Hum, maybe I should have added a fifth option: all the above options! Seriously, all the chapters were great, pure awesomeness, and it’s really difficult to pick up one of them!

@laughing
I’ve been thinking about this issue for now, and two options have come to my mind
-Keep the monthly basis
Or
-Make a short, really short review every week, and in the month’s end I’d merge all the short reviews into just one; Well, this week I’ll think about it, I’ll think which one is a best option ;)


@Natoma
Haha, the first chapter with Naruto’s awesomeness: that sequence with Naruto’s stopping rhino and the double sage rasengan was priceless. Really a wise choice of chapter!


@Flash
Thanks for that, I’m really trying harder just to keep the level of the review; I think that’s why I’ve chosen a monthly review rather a weekly one. Of course, like I’ve mentioned before, there’s the possibility to make a shorter review every week, and I’m still considering such possibility ^_^
But of course, I’ll keep making review with the same level, don’t worry about it ^_^


@ophidial
You’re right, this is one of the most confusing parts, and thus should be analyzed carefully: I never believed or think of Naruto as a weaker unit, but probably some readers think that way: Naruto was a powerhouse in the past, if ha wasn’t he wouldn’t have defeated Kakuzu. This is the main point, because for about 200 chapters Naruto had never engaged on a serious fight, thus his thus force and power couldn’t be properly measured. And right now, on his first serious fight on part 2, Naruto is using Sage Mode, rendering any measures useless. To sum up my thoughts, the missing part of the development of Naruto was the lack of a single serious fight on his base level. Naruto cannot rely on Sage’s powers always, let’s suppose an enemy attempts to make an preemptive attack against Naruto. Naruto won’t have enough time to prepare for Sage Mode, thus relying on his raw power. This is one practical example, But I really want to see Naruto fighting with his real, raw power.

And yeah, FRS, when animated, will be good, and so this fight: they did a good job with the first FRS, and I’m sure they can make it again with this fight ^_^


@T.D.A.
Oh, c’mon, not everything is perfect :XD
I’m moderating Naruto section, working at my job and writing a review at the same time, huhuh, of course some spelling mistakes would happen; But they’re acceptable, as I’d make the same mistakes on Portuguese reviews!


@wing_gundam
Haha, maybe I have expressed my thoughts wrongly ^_^
Like I said before, I think the main problem is that we haven’t seen Naruto fighting with his raw power in part 2, at least in a serious fight: probably the words: “Genin” and “legend” shouldn’t be used here, as Naruto is a genin with kage’s power, but rather saying that Kishi skipped Naruto’s development because we haven’t seen him using his real power. Should Naruto fights against a strong and prepared enemy without the use of bunshins to prepare Sage Mode, his problems will truly begin if he hasn’t enough powers and skills outside SM…


@Wind_shinobi
Thanks, man, I’m giving my best on these review, and I’ll keep doing that!


@Bucks
Rather interesting idea: it’d be way more dramatic if some dead person was the responsible for that bubble. But a flashback panel or something like that would be interesting too, just to clarify that panel;


@hitokugutsu
Well, somehow what you have said fall into that category of: we haven’t seen Naruto fighting with full power without SM, indirectly. The “genin” stuff is just a title, of course, as he has alreaduy surpassed the most powerful jounins in Konoha, but I believe we need to see at least one fight without SM’s usage. This is the only way to check his true power >.>

Anyway, yes, where’s all the hype around Rinnegan? Wow, the most powerful doujutsu, can use 5 elements, etc, but the shared vision is the only stuff we have seen from it(there’s the ability to detect traps, too). But excluding these, Rinnegan is just doing absolutely nothing so far, and I’m waiting to see in what the hype was created and based…


@belisar
Lol, the review isn’t actually big: look, it has about 1.5 times of a regular review, considering 4 reviews are in: following this logic, the normal review would be almost 3 times bigger than this one, loool


@saifi
Yes, you got the point: I think I’ll keep this format for the fight, but after it, well, that’s why I’m thinking of a short review per week, merging all of them in the month’s end;

And about the chakra’s natural energy collection, that has to be the most confusing part: IMO, the clones were collecting Natural energy by themselves, but never triggering SM; let’s just say that after 5 min, for example, they would have enough natural energy to go into SM, but they would just be in stand by. Then, when they were reverse summoned, they go “pluff” and the Natural energy is passed down to the original. About the Sage’s chakra, I’d say that was a mistranslation, where the correct would be natural energy. If natural energy and chakra have different properties, it’s most likely that natural energy can be passed for the clones to the original, whereas chakra can’t

[◆ T.D.A ◆]

And about the chakra’s natural energy collection, that has to be the most confusing part: IMO, the clones were collecting Natural energy by themselves, but never triggering SM; let’s just say that after 5 min, for example, they would have enough natural energy to go into SM, but they would just be in stand by. Then, when they were reverse summoned, they go “pluff” and the Natural energy is passed down to the original. About the Sage’s chakra, I’d say that was a mistranslation, where the correct would be natural energy. If natural energy and chakra have different properties, it’s most likely that natural energy can be passed for the clones to the original, whereas chakra can’t

Chakra in the clones can return to the original, why not? It doesn't create plot holes.

[nat]

Talk about going all out, impressive reviews pat :D

I found the chapters a bit odd with the premature jump from gennin to legend as well.

I mean it is long overdue that Naruto gets Hokage level and beyond, but the way Kishi portrayed the change seemed more fanservice than actual character development (for me anywyas, I'm sure many many others disagree :))

But if it means we move to bigger fish to fry, then this development is most welcome. Hoping to see more to Pein's side other than getting kicked around. He is a self appointed god, might as well avoid getting smacked.

Ps, I think Madara knew this was going to happen (Pein getting smacked), That's why he said Konoha is too strong to be taken. Buildings fall but the spirit stays, and now there is a new protector.

[fremeer]

im just gonna butt in with an observation on shounen manga and what it implies for the naruto/pein fight.
Shounen fights always have a time when the hero is winning then the villian does something and then the hero needs to do something or try extra hard and so on till the hero win through sheer willpower.
Now naruto is easily kicking pains arse but this isnt really pain, this is 6 bodies that he is controlling so there should be one who is even stronger, also naruto knows all of pain's tricks and that has been a huge help(ie dont use ninjutsu on this dude or so on)and finally the magnet pain hasnt fought who is easily the most dangerous, not only because of his super massive bomb but also because he can stop rasenshuriken with ease and its makes it very hard for naruto to hit him. I think pain will end up 1 on 1ing naruto but b4 anything major is shown pain will leave because they have figured out octo dude still hasnt been caught and he is at a disadvantage to continue. Also dont forget about madara who is shown to be at least equal if not stronger then pain.
On kakashi's state, he didnt have any chakra left and i think maybe at the moment he is in that wierd place with his dad b4 his dad goes its not your time yet go back to konoha it needs you or someshit like that

[patedecarne]

OK, Flash, I haven’t noticed it before, I’ll drop by in ASAP ^_^

Naaat, dearest :love
Oh, yes, I agree with you about the big fishes stuff: Pain shall fall today in order to bring Nagato or whoever is the true “Pain”. Pain is on the block for about 200 chapter, it’s time to move in the plot ^_^. Thing is, to defeat the leader before his subordinates is kind of weird (Zetsu, Kisame, Konan), not to mention that we don’t have the slightest clue of the future in Naruto, and if anything, Pain will lose today, but soon Nagato will be able to replenish the missing bodies. To sum up, the best way to move on the plot is to defeat Yahiko right now, otherwise we’d be walking on circles >.>

And maybe Madara was aware from what’ll happen with Naruto’s return and growth, but being the case, I’d see it as a preview of Naruto vs Madara’s fight;


fremeer
to tell the truth, I’m a bit afraid from that: even though this fight is really impressive and great, Kishi may be pulling off some dragon Ball z elements: Naruto was owning Pain, and now that Yahiko will fight, he’ll own Naruto for some chapters, until Naruto gets angry and use some new jutsu to take Pain down. Normally I wouldn’t mind about it, but it’s just I want to see something different from the traditional shounen formula… but it doesn’t mean I’ll complain >.>

[rafazildo]

now that you have mentioned madara...

what if he already have planned/predicted the fall of yahiko in konoha by naruto hands?

it would be a hell of a twist

[griever83]

Hi Pat, nice review. A monthly review might be better to me. Not saying that your individual review is inferior. But a monthly review adds variety to the individual reviews already available.

Some opinions of mine:

1. Genin to Sage
I feel that the "sudden growth" still looks okay to me. The "sudden growth" is only the change in Naruto's title. Having the title Genin and having the capabilities of a Genin may not always be the same.
I feel that if wish to compare Naruto's development. We should look purely at his capabilities, not just his title. He is a Genin only in name. If he had spare time taking the exams, I am sure he will be at least a Jounin.
In terms of capabilities development, I am quite satisfied since we have seen Naruto undergoing lots of training (top notch training to be exact).

2. Not using more than 2 clones to gather natural chakra.
Two possible reasons for it:

a) Gathering Natural chakra need high level of concentration
In the chapter where Naruto is training to use wind chakra to cut the waterfall, he did complain of using more clones.
Kakashi's reply to that was interesting: Practising wind chakra need high level of concentration thus not advisable to have more clones.
In the training of Sage mode, Naruto has once again complained of using more clones. However Frog Pa has replied that this is not possible when gathering Natural chakra.
This shows that in practising high level techniques, quality is more important than quantity.
It seems like Naruto is still able to have the required amount of concentration if he split into 3 clones

b) More clones will split the chakra
In order to use natural chakra, you need to mold it even together with 2 other type of chakra (spiritual & physical)
Say example Naruto own chakra is 2 million points. Using 1000 clones will mean each clone will have only 2000 points (1000 spiritual, 1000 physical). Which mean each clone is able to gather only 1000 points of natural chakra (all 3 type of chakra must be in balance).
By using 1000 clones, Naruto will end up able to use SM 1000 times (1 time 5 mins, meaning total of 5000 mins/83hours), but each time Naruto could only draw out 3000 points of chakra (1000 spiritual, 1000 physical, 1000 natural)