Blackjack612's Review of Naruto 555: The Contradiction

[blackjack612]

Welcome all to this week's Naruto review of a chapter that continues the Allied vs Revived Kage fight. The pacing of this fight is odd in that the arc is too long to be contained in a single tankōban, but seems to be wrapping up too quickly to completely fill two. Last week I asked you how much longer you thought the fight might last and the majority of you believe we had only 2-3 chapters from the last or 1-2 left from this week's entry. Judging from how this week's chapter went, you guys are probably right, but more of that after the review...

Naruto 555: The Contradiction
As always, images in this review are credited to mangastream/binktopia.


Spoke Too Soon

The Contradiction continues from last week's cliffhanger as Naruto begins forming a Tailed Beast Bomb. However, the effort visibly strains Naruto and he is unable to complete the technique, either because he has yet to fully master the technique or because he's pushed himself into exhaustion. Meanwhile, the Raikage continues to cut through scores of nameless Allied ninja with ease, forcing Temari to order a temporary retreat. As the Allies gather their wounded to bring to the medic squads, Naruto decides that he really needs to speak to Killer B and the Hachibi. Dodoi, the Hidden Cloud ninja whose help has proved invaluable so far, happens to belong to the Comm Squad so he can quite conveniently arrange for that.

Use a Lifeline, Phone a Friend

Inconveniently, the Raikage launches at Naruto at full speed, although he aims to knock Naruto out with a punch rather than killing him with his Hell Stab Three-Finger Nukite. Dodoi acts with split second timing by using a jutsu to encase Naruto in a rubber ball and then discreetly ejecting Naruto from the ball. The Raikage's attack sends the ball flying, so he goes chasing after it while Naruto hides safely behind the debris left in the Raikage's wake. Then, Dodoi immediately creates a mental connection to the comm squad for Naruto. After a bit of confusion, they patch Naruto through to B whose been...

Naruto's Call vs the Call of Nature

..relieving himself in the woods while his comrades are locked in a life or death struggle with history's heroes. Truly, no situation is too important to take top priority when nature calls and call it did for Killer B. In fact, Killer B was so engrossed in relieving himself (for what must be an unnaturally long time - I mean the guy already missed the fight against Mū) that he passes Naruto's call along to the Hachibi so he can concentrate on the task at hand. Naruto asks the Hachibi how it was able to injure the Raikage before. The Hachibi thinks it was due to his Tailed Beast Bomb but can't be sure. All he really remembers is that the two of them collapsing to the ground jutsu in hand. This gives Naruto an idea and not a moment too soon because the Raikage cuts through the rubber ball he was chasing to discover Naruto isn't there.

Testing the Contradiction

Naruto enters Sage Mode, something we haven't seen for a while, and prepares a Rasengan. Dodoi takes Naruto's lead by signaling the sealing team to standby. It turns out Naruto uses Sage Mode for a very specific purpose. While Kyūbi-chakra mode makes Naruto exceptionally fast, Sage Mode has the advantage of letting him to sense danger more quickly and to a greater degree which is a valuable ability against the Raikage's potent Hell Stab. Elsewhere, Kabuto plans on immobilizing Naruto with the Raikage's ultimate blade. Naruto and the Raikage charge at one another, but at the last instant, Naruto uses his Rasengan on the Raikage's arm. The Raikage strikes himself with his attack in the same spot he has his scar and destroys a massive amount of his body, proving that the 'ultimate blade' was stronger than the 'strongest shield'. Naruto surmised that the titular contradiction was that one couldn't possess both the ultimate sword and the ultimate shield. One was bound to be weaker than the other. As it happens, the Raikage's sword was stronger and he couldn't bear the shame of a self-inflicted injury. Therefore, he never explained how his scar was obtained.

Sand Skies Falling

The sealing squad successfully seals the Raikage, leaving one remaining revived Kage on the field. Naruto doesn't think that Gaara should have any trouble facing the Mizukage because Gaara possesses what he believes to be the strongest shield. Yet in reality, Gaara appears to have been effortlessly pushed to his limits by the Mizukage, and so the chapter ends setting up next week's fight of sand vs. water.

This chapter featured characteristically strong art. The last few chapters have made grade use of the multitude of ninja to fill the background with fighters on standby or corpses to litter the battlefield. So to does this one, and it even seems like the remnants of Fourth Division increased in size since last we saw them. But I don't really mind when it gives us such stellar panels of the Raikage cutting through a sea of armored bodies. Likewise the angling was varied and dynamic. Usually I would go into more detailed on what specific angles accomplish, but for once, I'm going to let the art speak for yourself. I kept the size of some choice cuts (above-top) large, so click on it to enlarge it and study the way the panels were arranged. Consider all the other ways those same panels could have been drawn to illustrate the same scene and what would be lost.

The action was particularly well drawn this chapter. The Raikage left a trail of destruction in his path, providing the chapter with dust and splintered stone galore to litter the background. I thought the above panel was effective in highlighting the destruction the Raikage was capable of by completely forgoing any background in favor of the subjects, debris, and speedlines to focus the eye on the destruction. In addition, the characters were posed with Kishimoto's trademark style, and the action was fluid and easy to follow. Naruto's Rasengan (above-bottom) was my second favorite panel this chapter.

My favorite panel, though, was the (above) double page spread that took the space needed to illustrate the exact movement involved in Naruto forcing the Raikage to attack himself: Naruto pivoting around, Naruto striking the Raikage's arm/elbow, the Raikage hitting himself, the Raikage's body taking damage, the Raikage being knocked back by the force of the attack. Throughout, the page makes heavy use of speedlines to highlight the direction of action without excessively detracting from the action.

I really liked this chapter. The action and art was well directed with a degree of precision and care that I thought was a bit above and beyond the usual. There was humor from both Killer B and with the way in which Dodoi distracted the Raikage. And there was character development tied seamlessly into some interesting revelations. Dodoi should impressive use of his abilities against a superior foe, demonstrating why the Raikage would have wanted him on his team in the past. Naruto further displayed how he's grown as a tactician. The way Naruto defeats the Raikage by turning his strength against him smart and the way in which Naruto deduced how the Raikage got scarred showcases an intelligence that his goofiness sometimes hides. I also liked the way in which the Raikage's weakness was teased in previous chapters. Rather than coming off as a last minute save, his weakness was a result of his character. The Raikage was a proud warrior shamed by a scar that betrayed the internal contradiction behind his legendary abilities. And really, it was good to see Naruto make use of Sage Mode and his other techniques. There's been a worry among some fans that Naruto would become a one trick pony with Kyūbi-chakra mode, and thus lose a solid portion of his fighting ability if the tailed beast was ever sealed. And that tailed beast must eventually be sealed. The Jūbi is essentially a chekhov's gun. Madara mentioned it in act one of this Fourth Shinobi World War arc so we can expect it to make an appearance in the last act.

Overall, Naruto 555 The Contradiction was a thoroughly enjoyable chapter, which is why I'm giving it a...

5 out of 5.

Predictions

My predictions last week were entirely incorrect. We didn't get a real flashback, but a single flashback panel, and the Raikage was taken out this chapter.

I'm still hopeful that Mū will make a comeback. Onōki was suspiciously absent from this week's cliffhanger, so perhaps he's preoccupied with his predecessor again. At the rate this is going, I wouldn't be surprised if the Mizukage was taken out in the next chapter, so I'll bet the remainder of this fight will wrap up in the next one or two weeks. But where will we go after this fight finishes? Kabuto will have to fall back on his backup plan. Itachi is on the move, as is his younger brother, Sasuke. And it's been a while since we've checked in on the other divisions. I personally think that Sasuke will make an appearance, however brief, after the Revived Kage fight concludes and then we'll check in on the rest of Team Seven with Sakura, Sai, and Kakashi, which will give us a view of how the war is going on the other fronts.

My long term predictions for where Naruto is headed can be found in a previous review here.That’s all for now and see you next week space cowboy...

Stray Observations

• "When a man's gotta go...his will goes out the door"
• "A ninja with the ultimate shield and the ultimate sword...it is contradictory."
• "...is that it?"
• One Piece was entertaining this week as Oda continued to set up fights amidst the frantic plot complications. Similarly, Bleach continues to move quickly with Kenpachi's fight being refreshingly brief and same being expected of the other two captains engaged. Bleach was simultaneously enjoyable and frustrating as more cool Byakuya moments are on the horizon but plot motivations are slowly hinted at, albeit in a successfully sinister manner. One wonders if Soul Society is truly on Ichigo's side or if they are using him against the Fullbringers now only to discard him or take away his abilities later.

[mattiaildivino]

thank you Black! I agree with you,maybe this chapter wasn't much wonderful but I vote 5/5 because it surprised me. I thought this naruto was a clone,but he was the true one,I thought he would defeat the 3rd raikage with the biju bomb but it wasn't true, and I wouldn't ever imagine that S(this is how I call the 3rd raikage,A's father )'s scar was made but his own technique.

[jorped]

Awesome review as always. This chapter was very interesting and the way Naruto defeated the Raikage was very smart, but i am not totally pleased, cuz i still can't believe the fact that the Raikage was so strong. How the hell did that shield protect him from Naruto's Rasengan Shuriken. This technique is supposed to be one of the strongest wind techniques ... so how did a lightning shield managed to "defeat" it ?
And did this supposed shield even protect the Raikage from the Bijuudama or we won't really ever know if that happened ?

I find quite interesting your prediction about Mū. It would be awesome if he made a comeback and Onoki ... without really any chance of defence was killed by him. If Kishi used this and made an awesome panel for it .... i am sure everyone would get excited, cuz someone of the Alliance really has to die soon .... even if it is someone old as Onoki and isn't really one of the most loved characters. But we have to thing as this on a different way ... and understand that someone as strong as Onoki dying would create terror and confusion on the Alliance.

[blackjack612]

This chapter was very interesting and the way Naruto defeated the Raikage was very smart, but i am not totally pleased, cuz i still can't believe the fact that the Raikage was so strong. How the hell did that shield protect him from Naruto's Rasengan Shuriken. This technique is supposed to be one of the strongest wind techniques ... so how did a lightning shield managed to "defeat" it ?
And did this supposed shield even protect the Raikage from the Bijuudama or we won't really ever know if that happened ?

I think it was a combination of his natural physical endurance which was legendarily high (able to survive most types of chakra and physical attacks) combined with his Lightening Armour Release which boosted that even further. I don't think it survived a full Tailed Beast Ball though. The Hachibi and Raikage collapsed with their jutsu in hand, but Naruto deduced that the Hachibi collapsed without firing off his jutsu. What really happened is the Raikage disabled all the Hachibi's tails with his Hell Stab only to injure himself when the beast collapsed upon him. I doubt he could have survived the TBB though, given that he worked so quickly to cut off all the Hachibi's tails before the TBB could be fired.

[LanderZ]

Meh, you can clearly see the Raikage lost his Raiton armor after the FRS. It cleanly hit through, it's just that it did not disable the natural shield that is Sandaime Raikage.

[Knatz]

Another great review as usual.
I think the reason the frs did such little damage to the raikage is because its power is diistributed when it expands (At which point it ceases to be a cutting technique but a piercing tech using many microscopic needles).The Hell stab on the other hand focuses a lot of raiton chakra(The best piercing nature) at a single point.This does not mean the frs is weaker than hell stab it just means that Naruto needs a more focused futon release like the rasengan/chidori in this type of situation (Sasuke's chidori almost went through A's raiton armor for the same reason as hell stab)

As for the poll I voted for Other becoz I felt naruto used his mind as a last resort in this fight (which sucks!) but otherwise it was good thinking on naruto's part and good use of resources in the end.(Not Itachi level efficiency but rare for naruto)

[mattiaildivino]

I wonder,who was born first between Crocodile(one piece) and gaara? Gaara appeared in volume 4,but his power was being shown from volume 5 to volume 7. Crocodile appeared in volume 17. then did kishi copy oda or did oda copy kishi or did they make a character that fights with the sand independently? crocodile was weak against water,blood and whatever was liquid,and gaara?I guess this mystery is about to be revealed,maybe kishi is about to copy oda.

[Knatz]

I think next chapter will showcase Gaara's offensive skills because his defencive skills are already well established and we already know at least one weakness of the sand defence namely it's possible to mix things like poisons and explosives with the sand.
The sand weakness to liquid was used in part one fillers already so it would not be very surprising.

[mattiaildivino]

I think next chapter will showcase Gaara's offensive skills because his defencive skills are already well established and we already know at least one weakness of the sand defence namely it's possible to mix things like poisons and explosives with the sand.
The sand weakness to liquid was used in part one fillers already so it would not be very surprising.

for me it's a surprise,because I don't watch the anime,and the fillers are full of mistakes,then they don't matter.but what do you think about what I said about crocodile and gaara?

[Knatz]

for me it's a surprise,because I don't watch the anime,and the fillers are full of mistakes,then they don't matter.but what do you think about what I said about crocodile and gaara?

Naruto is the only manga/anime that I have interest in so I can't comment on that.