Gold Knight's Ten Comments (Naruto 353)

Gold Knight · May 16, 2007

Oh dammit, we can't read in the dark...

Sorry for taking so long this time guys. Especially on a chapter that merited so much discussion! I did say that I'd probably take until Mondays or Tuesdays for a while, but I'll try to make it Mondays most of the time.

That being said, I still didn't have much time to spare today. So if my review seems rushed this time, my sincere apologies. You guys are welcome to fill in any gaps with your own analysis, though.

The usual culprits, Hisshou, Kylara, and CeZ, all have my gratitude for providing all the necessary elements for this week's edition of my review

Onward we go.

* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Chapter 353: Akatsuki Gathers! * * *

How nice, Kisame helping the elderly get around...

1. Another One Down, Two to Go...! Well, finally, we see some results from Itachi and Kisame.

I had observed a few months ago that it almost seemed like they were beginning to lag behind the rest of the Akatsuki in capturing jinchuuriki. Of course, Itachi would later explain why they decided to wait for Naruto, but all the same it's nice to see them live up to their reputation by finally capturing a bijuu as well.

Even if it is inside an old man, heh. Though that probably made him even more dangerous, as he's probably had a heckuva of experience to have lived that long as a jinchuuriki! I wonder how old he really was, though. Would be interesting if the life-spans of jinchuuriki were longer than most normal people due to their unusual physiology.

In short: Shaddup dude!

2. How Times Have Changed...! Wow.

Seems to me like over the time-jump, Kisame's gotten a little more spunk in speaking towards his companion... disrespectful, even, almost. You can tell by Itachi's facial expressions that he's very displeased with Kisame's tone, too, so this must be a new development as he's not used to it.

Either Kisame's been hanging around Hidan and Kakuzu too much, or he's grown a bit disillusioned with his "famous clan-killer" buddy. Hmm. Well, maybe if Itachi's unable to depend on his Mangekyou Sharingan as much...

Incidentally, as for the Yonbi having multiple elemental abilities, that sounded suspicously a little bit different from what I had read about in Dyroness' "Legend of Tailed Beasts" essay at NF. Sounded more like what the Gobi (supposedly a five-tailed hound, remarked to have mastery of all the five basic elements) would have - so I investigated, and it seems as though Dyro's sources were a little off-base after all - Wikipedia claims that these folktales are actually fakelore from Chinese websites.

Well, it's obvious that there are still some similarities - the Two-Tails was definitely a cat, and the Three-Tails was a water-based creature - but I guess you can't blame Kishimoto for making his bijuus a bit different if the "Legend" we read about turns out to have been nothing more than another written version of the original mythology. If anybody could shed some more light on this matter, by all means post away.

Remember, all I have to do is
look funny at you...

Oh, yeah, back to the little squabbling going on here between Itachi and Kisame. I'm wondering if Kisame is more or less a little bit frustrated with Itachi's hesitation to fight anybody.

Being somebody who obviously loved to battle, Itachi has probably irritated him several times over the year. So, I predict some personality conflicts starting to spark between these two now. Hey, it's what all married couples go through...

And a final sidenote here, I have to say Itachi finally looks a bit different in his design from how he looked in Part One. His hair's longer, and so on. It looks as though Kishimoto has finally started to feel confident about drawing Itachi as looking like somebody different in subtle ways from his little brother. Which might mean we might indeed be looking at a final confrontation very, very soon...

Though, I note that Kishimoto missed Itachi's "face-wrinkles" in a couple of panels in this chapter. Heh.

Doesn't sound good.

3. Anal Retentive Akatsuki...! Alright, so we discover that the Akatsuki's plans for "world domination" are actually pretty fragile here. If they make even as much as one boo boo, their pet statue goes boom! I wonder if that's actually what Deidara joined up for - heh? No wonder they're all so high-strung.

Get ready to see this happen in the series, though. It seems more likely to happen than Naruto being taken and his Kyuubi sealed.

Wow! Itachi Talks!

In order to make the sealing easier, seems as though they have to save the Kyuubi for last. I surmise that the Ichi was taken in too early (since Itachi said Deidara screwed up?) for the same reason, but they were able to get past it. But the whole sealing bijuu process may have been made even more sensitive as a result. Well, that's just what I was thinking while reading this page, anyway.

That and the fact I feel as though Kisame's a dope for taking two entire years and a half to finally find out why they're waiting to capture the Kyuubi, heh.

I did get to say some cool lines to one, though...

4. Wanted: Alive or Dead. Yeah, this is Kishimoto's obvious explanation for why they didn't dare take Kakuzu back alive.

There must have been fans asking the same things about why they didn't keep Kakuzu as a prisoner to extract some information. Still, I wonder if this means somebody like Tobi will eventually be taken prisoner, though...

What are we doing having a transitional chapter, then? Let's Go!

5. Saying the Obvious...! Looks like we WILL get to see Team 7 chase after Itachi, because so far, Tsunade hasn't said a single thing to dissuade them. And Kakashi himself made the suggestion! That makes me happy, as he'll probably be going, as well. Instead of Yamato? Maybe with Yamato? Whichever is the case, I don't particularly care.

Anyway, I waited until now to talk about the possibilities of what will happen what with Team "Hebi" and Team 7 both looking for the same quarry. I think that they will both encounter different Akatsuki for now, and then confront each other, all with mixed and surprising results.

But Itachi himself won't be along for quite a while. Itachi is such a crucial element to Sasuke's backstory that the final encounter between these two brothers will be a major turning point in the series, so I think it won't happen until the very end of the arc. So don't hold your breath, even though we have been seeing more of him lately.

No dinner for you tonight.

6. The Last to Know...! Well, the Akatsuki finally gets to talking about the downfall of Hidan and Kakuzu. I don't know if the Leader's statements confirms that either one is officially dead yet, but it certainly doesn't sound like we'll be hearing from them again. Especially since Zetsu most likely did some foraging just to make sure.

I found the Leader's rebuke of Kisame interesting, here. Coupled with the Leader's understanding of Leaf religion, I can't help but start to feel like the Leader is from Konohagakure.

The bastards!

And so the Legend of Team 7 grows...!

Heh, but you know, Zetsu neglected to say Shikamaru was a driving force behind Hidan's death - might be that Zetsu only managed to catch the latter part of Kakuzu's last stand.

Well, the Akatsuki are certainly going to be super-cautious about fighting Naruto now. That's possibly not good news...

Tobi was only making a funny!

7. Like Water and Oil...! Tobi is a "good boy," huh?

Funny that Deidara used to be the one who made his senior angry, and now it's him getting pissed. But Tobi certainly doesn't like he knows the meaning of subtlety!

I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to be seeing more of Deidara and Tobi both soon. They seem to be the "heir apparent" to Hidan and Kakuzu right now, too, as far as comedy relief goes, too.

Let's give him a medal!

8. Oh Noes, Oro's Dead...!? Again, I don't think this should be taken as confirmation at all that Oro is dead. They're only going by hearsay, most likely - like everybody else right now.

But now Sasuke has definitely lost the element of surprise. I'm sure Sasuke isn't going to be happy about that when he finds out - Suigetsu made a HUGE mistake by broadcasting Sasuke's victory to the world!

And that's actually beer he's drinking, by the way...

9. A Child Prodigy...! This reminds me a bit of the second X-Men movie regarding the character Mystique. Sure, Mystique was cool enough on her own, but Magneto would add some details about her that made her seem even cooler.

Here we see Kisame do the same thing, with a short description, he fleshed out who Suigetsu really is to the readers, and making us think of him as being even more twisted and dangerous.

On the other hand, for me, these little grisly details about Suigetsu's macabre enjoyment reminded me of Shira, from Blade of the Immortal, one of the most evil psycho killers I've ever read about, and he enjoyed basically much the same thing! Is Suigetsu really that despicable?

P.S. Did ya note that even though they ALSO mentioned Juugo - somebody who's been locked up for years - they didn't say one thing about Karin? Ouch!

Time to make some pretty lights...!

10. Dei-Dei Entering the Fray...!? The final scene of the chapter here, with Deidara showing his hand, makes me really think that Deidara and Tobi are going to take the initiative against Sasuke's team.

Especially since both Deidara and Tobi have already captured their jinchuurikis. They are likely just bored right now. What else do they have to do right now?

RATING: 4 of 5 - Pretty nice chapter, though I feel as though the Akatsuki isn't as impressive as they could have been - here, they almost seemed like a group of spoiled children bickering back and forth.

PREDICTIONS: Yeah, well, we're going to get to see what the plan is for chasing Itachi around the world.

A man of few words...!

Not you, too, Kisame...!
Comment! ^^

conan · May 16, 2007