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Ultimate jutsu: Celestial Comments!
It's just like old times...! My Ten Comments being late that is. Terribly sorry! I had hoped to get to a faster start in my return to reviewing, but maybe next week I'll do better.
Also, I'm very sorry for how ridiculously long it took for me to finally come back to reviewing. My originally planned two-week break inexplicably turned into, let's see... ouch, a three-month break. Nearly twenty chapters (2+ volumes) since my last chapter analysis! Oops. Long vacation indeed. I guess I'll have to be more careful of taking breaks in the future! (Although the series is still on the SAME arc since then...! Kishimoto sure takes his sweet time finishing his stories.)
Make no mistake, however, despite my coming back, I am still concerned about Kakashi. That uncertainty on my part was the main reason for me taking a longer break. I had to get over the terrifying shock of his "death scene" and due to that, well, there was no way in the world that I was going to be wholly unbiased on my thoughts for at least a month!
Hai, I admit it - I am a Kakatard to the core! However, I've come to the conclusion that Kakashi is NOT dead. Can't be. Won't be. You heard it here first. (Ok, maybe you didn't, but anyway...) Want an explanation for why I feel that way? I'll try to be brief here. We don't even know how he got his Mangekyou Sharingan. And Kishimoto DID say in the third Databook that he would explain that eventually. I can only see that as a glimmer of hope indicating that he'll indeed bring Kakashi back for the occasion. (Anybody who pipes up and mentions the possibility of a Kakashi Gaiden 2, I never thought I'd say this, but I don't want to hear it! xD)
Anyway, let's all hope Kakashi'll be fine. In retrospect, I suppose it was a good move on Kishimoto's part to take the focus away from him for such a long while - I had nearly forgotten all that had even happened until I got down to reviewing this week! And I have to admit Kishimoto has been delivering some pretty incredible chapters of late. This week was definitely no exception, and is the prime reason why I decided to make a new review this weekend. =)
Credits time! Thanks to Binktopia for the nice Edited Manga, and my old friend Fnuckale for cleaning and typesetting my header, as well as a special image for the fangirls. (You'll know which one when you see it.) I forgot who provided the RAWs (I miss the simpler days when it was just Touch or Kylara), but anyway, thanks to them too. As always, comment on anything you'd like to~!
* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Chapter 439: Chibaku Tensei! * * *
Don't make me go get the whip, woman!
Don't make me go get the whip, woman!
1. The Odd Couple. Ah, Nagato. Kinda sad-looking and frail, isn't he? Oh yeah - his appearance was one of these new revelations lately that I haven't talked about yet. O.K., here goes. Any long-time reader of my reviews will probably already know that I wasn't really surprised that the hidden force behind the 'six paths of Pain' turned out to be none other than Nagato. I mean, hello? What else was the point of showing the flashbacks that Jiraiya had anyway, right?
This was probably what Jiraiya was thinking at his death: "Oh! I KNOW WHO HE IS! It's the kid I thought he was all along! Damn! But the guys back home won't know him from Adam, so I gotta warn them to watch out for the dude in the shadows." How did he know? Well, all that tripe about "growing up" and "knowing pain" kinda gave it away, didn't it?
Now, about his appearance. I also wasn't surprised at the appearance of his face, although I couldn't have predicted his head being on on top of an emaciated body stuck in a mobile chair. That part did make my eyebrows raise slightly! But back to his face which had a striking resemblance to a certain other antagonist's mug... yeah, there were many people who complained about that. Well, guess what. Back then when Jiraiya was having these flashbacks, I had attempted to draw and re-imagine little Nagato as how he might look like as an adult, and there was NO getting around it, folks. He was going to look just like Orochimaru when he grew up. Or close enough to be mistaken for him... besides these weird concentric eyes and the lack of Oro's infamous slithering tongue, of course.
So, did I still like Nagato's design in the end? No, not at all, I'm sorry to say. Unfortunately, Nagato is one of Kishimoto's least inspiring and most underwhelming character designs, and it's actually really disappointing to me. I think I would have preferred Yahiko (Deva Pain) being the actual puppeteer. Yes, he bore some unoriginal resemblance himself to Minato and especially Naruto, but these similarities would have made better sense seeing that Pain and Naruto were both "Children of Prophecy" and were going to have a clash of personal philosophy. And he had a much more sinister presence especially when he was still known only as the mysterious "Akatsuki Leader." Ah, these were the days.
And the chair? It just makes him seem even more like a cliche "mad villain" - you know, like one of these frustrated old masterminds that you'd see in American comics who were stuck to their wheelchairs, angry about it, and wanting eternal revenge on mankind. Although, I suppose I haven't seen this brand of villain appear in manga yet - so it'd be new to Japanese readers. Still not my cup of tea, however.
Okay, back to the chapter itself and this scene specifically... Konan's worried about Nagato, but the latter brushes her off almost noncommittally, only bothering enough to tell her to be quiet and let him concentrate. One of the initial translations in the Spoilers thread even had Nagato whispering "shut up, bitch."
Well, although that didn't quite turn out to be the truth - boy would have that caused a widespread reaction! - even so, it did make me wonder: did Konan actually care more about Nagato than he does for her? Did Nagato care at all for her? I could be way off-base, but as crazy as Nagato seems to be, I wouldn't be surprised if he's the abusive type...!
I mean, he DOES harp on about the benefits of pain quite a bit... S&M anybody? And furthermore, Konan seems to be the typical "I can't live without my man" type of dependent spouse, which would explain her strange development from a sweet girl to an Akatsuki member! The possibilities are endless!
Might just be my imagination, though - and the initial translation certainly didn't help! Ha~! In any case, Nagato obviously isn't concerned with his own health at this point and is determined to see the capture of the Kyuubi to its conclusion, despite Konan's protesting. Nothing more really to be said here. Let's move on, shall we?
That thing is just so irresistible!
2. Chibaku Tensei! Another reason that I really would have wished to see Yahiko as the true Pain... I gotta say, he's proving himself to be one of the most ridiculously over-powered shinobi ever to appear in the entire series.
I mean, first, we saw Deva Pain destroy Konohagakure, an unbelievable act in itself, simply by seemingly causing - at the time, I thought - some sort of gravitational force to emit from its center that crushed everything in its way, like a force field gone berserk.
And now we see him whip out a jutsu that becomes a floating black globe armed with a phenomenally powerful magnetic field. Thereby attracting everything from the ground and I do mean EVERYTHING, towards it, with the intention, of course, of trapping the Kyuubi within all its ponderous mass. Quite a snare!
It's pretty clear now that Deva Pain/Yahiko has become the Magneto of manga. People who have watched the X-Men films and read the comics will know who I mean. There's even a certain parallel in their backgrounds, too. Erik Lehnsherr, or Magneto, was a character that suffered through the anguish of the Holocaust in his childhood. To Yahiko, no doubt, the destruction of his village would have had a similar impact, although we have yet to discover what he was really like after Jiraiya left his former students in Amegakure. I'm sure we'll find out in due time.
I guess for some reason the similarities didn't seem very obvious at the time when Deva Pain first used his powers, probably because I assumed his powers had more to do with gravity than magnetism, in part due to his affinity for water and rain. Oops.
EDIT: Okay, in retrospect, glasskatana convinced me it could still be gravity. I seem to remember Kakashi actually flat out referring to it as 'gravity' in a previous chapter, right after I had predicted it was gravity in the previous chapter's review. I don't think Kishimoto would write that if it wasn't the truth. In American comics, that would mean Yahiko would be more alike 'Graviton' who is a relatively obscure Marvel Comics villain. Anyway, I digress.
In any case, if this was how powerful Yahiko used to be in his prime before he was killed... I wonder exactly what or who was so superior in terms of ninjutsu to have actually killed him! I doubt it was Nagato, because he was so fervent in his promise to protect his friends that I just can't see him being Yahiko's executioner.
Or was it actually anybody at all? Could it have been disease that killed him, perhaps, just like what happened to Sai's brother? Hmm...
DIE MUDBALL! Grraar!
3. A Desperate Demon...! The Kyuubi's an intelligent beast, right? Right, I thought so, too.
And I still do, actually. I believe the Kyuubi at this point acutely realized its sudden dilemma. Everything around him was being pulled up towards that black hole in the sky, including itself, and he was trying to destroy it as best as he could. Due to the magnetic field, he couldn't even move away. His speed was rendered useless. So he had few other options.
However, the sight of the little black six-tailed demon repeatedly shooting destructive blasts out of his mouth at nothing but flying rubble was pretty hilarious! It looked as though it had no idea what to do and was just trying to demolish whatever it could. At first, all that lashing out made me think that the little bugger was having a temper tantrum. Ha!
But in actuality, no, I think the Kyuubi wasn't really being a mindless engine of destruction here, he was just trying to pierce and destroy the black core within the large globe in the sky, and finding the going extremely tough. Even with six tails, his diabolical powers simply weren't enough to counter the strong magnetic force that attracted right back everything that was blown away from it. Pretty much an exercise in futility.
Up, up, and away we go...!
I dub thee... DEATHSTAR3!!!
4. It's a Bird! It's a... WTF!? Well, whoever's the assistant that usually does the backgrounds for Kishimoto, he needs a raise after this chapter. He did an absolutely beautiful job here on the doublespread!
And Pain has created yet another crater in the heart of Konohagakure. Seems to be a recurring theme for him - the local environmental agencies can't be too pleased at all.
Look at just how much the mountains below are dwarfed by Pain's little sphere, too. Now imagine ALL that falling. That's going to cause some crazy destruction, as well... geez. Imagine a meteorite THAT size hitting our world from outer space - ouch!
No wonder Pain fancies himself a god, I guess...! Anybody with that much power has some leverage to be a bit arrogant...
Time for me to take a nap now...!
5. The Sage of Moons! Well, we got a few interesting revelations here in these two panels.
First of all and the most important: Nagato referred to the Sage of Six Paths, the originator of the Rinnegan, as a separate entity from himself. That's good. Now we know Nagato probably wasn't possessed by his ancestor's spirit as some theories out there had said - even I had entertained the notion at one point!
Second, apparently the Sage was a truly legendary figure, but I cannot believe that he would have created the moon of the Naruto world. That would require far too astonishing a level of power for my own tastes... yes, unrealistic even for this manga, heh! I'm going to treat Nagato's little anecdote here as nothing more than that - just a legend.
And not every myth in these stories should always be taken literally, after all. But yes, there's probably some root of truth in Nagato's story - as there is in most fables. The Sage likely was more powerful, and could probably pull off an even more impossible feat. Wonder if the world of Naruto has a 'Grand Canyon' anywhere thanks to him?
Thirdly, not only is Nagato supposedly sitting on the peak of some giant mountain somewhere, he also seems to be hidden behind a large wall of paper, no doubt due to Konan's powers. Why? Well, maybe the paper IS supposed to look like a snowy peak in order to avoid detection. Odd though.
Finally, seems like Nagato is finally at the end of his ropes. I don't think he has anything left at this point. He surely must have had a tremendous amount of chakra to have coordinated so many different bodies and powers during the entire invasion!
I'm also a bit surprised. I used to think that Nagato's chakra was only used to control each of his living corpse, and each of their personal chakra, in turn, created all their various ninjutsu.
But on the other hand, Nagato seemed to expend quite a bit of his own personal chakra in order to build a gigantic floating cage for the Kyuubi. That in addition to engineering the destruction of Konohagakure (after all, as Konan warned, the side-effects of that jutsu affected Nagato's own lifeline).
Perhaps Deva Pain's own chakra has been nearly used up (wouldn't be surprising, seeing how much he had to defend himself against Kakashi and others earlier on), and Nagato's having to channel all his chakra through him in order to do anything else with Yahiko's ninjutsu.
Or maybe it's been Nagato all along. All his chakra being channeled through each of his six Pains. If that's the case, he must have had as huge a chakra capacity as even Naruto...!
Looks like he needs some aspirin, doesn't he?
6. Know Despair...! Well, looks like Pain's words from their talk a few chapters ago had a definite dramatic impact on Naruto's psyche...! Poor kid, I guess he's not having a good day.
Which brings me to something I had already explained before in my Ask Me thread here, but I might as well copy what I said here within a proper review, since it seems like a good place.
If you've been following my thread, you've probably already read this, so just skip to the end if you like.
Pain's talk to Naruto was pretty interesting to me.
It seemed to me as if Kishimoto was beginning to use Naruto as a platform to speak out on the politics of today's world. Hiroshima, the Cold War, and even today's war on terrorism - I think they all had to do with his decision to go in this direction for Naruto.
As you guys all know, the world went through a peaceful but very scary period during the Cold War, which is exactly what Pain is trying to conceive here between the Five Great Countries, although with semi-peaceful intentions.
Additionally, Pain himself would be seen as a terrorist for what he did to Konohagakure, but like all the terrorists today, he sees himself as a freedom fighter of sorts, with eventual peace being his agenda. Interesting parallels to ponder upon!
It's also interesting to see that Naruto had no immediate answer for Pain's accusations of the Five Countries' encroachments on his little country. No usual declaration of "when I become Hokage, I'll change everything!" I think Naruto is maturing in that he now fully knows that he won't have the answer to every question out there.
But I guarantee that Naruto won't just forget the problem and he'll continue to try to find a good answer to it. I'm 99.9% certain now that Naruto won't have his final conflict with Nagato until a later date. Hell, in some ways Naruto already has been working on a resolution - by reaching peaceful negotiations with at least one of the other Five Countries, namely Sunagakure! If he can do likewise for the other Three, he's going to solve Pain's problem in a much more peaceful manner than the threat of nuclear warfare ever could.
Of course, people might consider that a bit of wishful thinking for any leader, but Naruto's world doesn't seem as politically complicated as our own world does (no racial hatred or anything like that as far as we know), so who knows, it could happen.
Pain's methods would ultimately only breed more enmity. The quest for REAL peace - where people truly understand each other - is much more honorable than forced repression, don't you think? Pain's taking a defeatist attitude by claiming that people will never understand each other and that they have to forced to stop fighting by incredibly radical means. Naruto is, I think, going to develop a much more positive approach, as I've already mentioned. ...As befitting of a "Child of Prophecy...!"
Obviously, here we're seeing Naruto continue to be bothered by Pain's tragic story, and he's trying to come up with an answer and finding none right now.
Can't help much that he's probably been emotionally scarred by believing Hinata to be irrevocably dead. No, not a good day for him at all!
...and hey, what better opportunity than for the devil to strike?
This one's for the fangirls. :P
7. The Devil's Lure...! Funnily enough, I've observed that Naruto's female readers reacted VERY favorably to Naruto kneeling in the water here. First Sasuke and now Naruto... whose sex appeal seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. Guess Kishimoto's good at that stuff.
Anyway, the Kyuubi obviously plays devil's advocate here (or IS he the devil?) in persuading Naruto in embracing oblivion and forget all his present dilemmas. By doing so, he'd certainly give the nine-tailed beast free rein to destroy all his problems... but, as it of course doesn't mention, also ravage everything else in sight! Always read the fine print on the devil's contract, kids.
Looks like he needs a bit of Pepto-Bismol...
Right after the seal on Naruto's stomach broke and started bleeding, though, he almost seemed completely hypnotized here. Either that or he was drippin' mescaline.
EDIT: eni mentioned the possibility of Naruto's stomach not really opening up and bleeding here, but instead it's just ink. I don't know whether it really matters as it's all inside Naruto's mind anyway...
Did his willpower become so weak at this crucial juncture that the Kyuubi actually was able to impose its own will on him? Seemed like that very scenario just happened...!
Consequently, I'm not so sure that Naruto was in his right mind here when he started to walk towards the Kyuubi's cage. It's as if the stomach seal turned inward and in the process, the Kyuubi had taken complete control of its young host's body.
I HUNGERZ!
8. Rage Unleashed...! This is, again, a very extraordinarily beautiful double-spread... two in one single chapter! Kishimoto has certainly out-done himself this week!
Although the Eight-Tails Kyuubi itself certainly isn't very pretty to behold. Its rippling muscles have already formed across all its body, his skull and snout are ghastly, and it seems like it's duplicated or even triplicated in size, and it certainly looks mean and angry! Boy, you can just feel its malicious aura radiating everywhere in this panel. It's only ONE more step away from becoming the Nine-Tails again, at which point Naruto's life would end and the Kyuubi's would being anew, and in which case, the world had better beware!
Nagato (through Deva Pain) certainly seemed surprised. One translation had him saying, "I can't believe it," but that wasn't *really* accurate. Pain was simply remarking that "it had actually advanced that far"... but he was probably still expressing surprise even so - either way, it doesn't matter. Yahiko's totally screwed if the Kyuubi breaks completely free.
I certainly can't think of a way Pain can stop the Kyuubi if it does totally burst free. The most Nagato could probably hope for at this point is that the Kyuubi doesn't discover his true body's whereabouts.
*Suspenseful music*
9. Yamato's Horror! Heh, it was somewhat funny to see Yamato going nuts. Poor guy. But I guess it's become evident now why Kishimoto so abruptly re-introduced Yamato into the storyline last chapter. It certainly makes for good drama!
Furthermore, I've noticed most fans and readers have already assumed that the Kyuubi has grown its last tail, due to this same sequence of panels, where the kanji "nine" starts to appear on Yamato's hand.
No, I don't think so. It was about to happen, just as Naruto was reaching for the seal, and if he had pulled it off, the ninth tail would definitely have formed entirely. And Naruto's life would have been over.
EDIT: Maybe? I've made a quick investigation and it doesn't look like there's any evidence of it ever being said that Naruto would die if the Kyuubi reigned supreme. The most is that his lifeline would be shortened, but that was in a discussion about his "Kyuubified" state with less tails. I guess at the very least Naruto would be the prisoner instead of the host.
But at this point, the "nine" on Yamato's hand is STILL faded. It hasn't become concrete yet. In some Edited Mangas, I've noticed that the typesetters went as far as to put in a solid nine. So no wonder people are getting confused.
But no, don't go crazy and panic just yet! It hasn't happened yet. (I hope. >.>)
You're my father? Yeeeeees!
10. Now Appearing... Minato! This was just a stunning development... not just to me, it seems, but to just about everybody on these forums. The reactions on Tuesday when it first became apparent that Minato was not only going to appear in Naruto's mind, but to actually declare himself as Naruto's father... you couldn't have found a more overjoyed fandom at that moment!
Just for fun, here's some of the immediate reactions by members right here at MH right after the spoiler images appeared, all collected into one list of posts by yours truly. (Be warned, however, there's bad language galore.)
polaris said:
Alen said:
Exodi said:
Shing02 said:
Alen said:
Jeodlahr said:
Federicoxxx said:
AnimeHERO said:
Exodi said:
Frostal said:
godaijutsu-no-hito said:
coworlando said:
SacredNic said:
EDarkness said:Holy crap!! I never saw that coming. Damn, looks like I'm picking up this weeks Jump.
Serger980 said:
mestizo311 said:
ameya730 said:
Exodi said:
Fairy Vearth said:
Federicoxxx said:
Mack said:
1TrueSensei said:
Alen said:
-Kane_King23 said:
piscesking said:
keencole said:
lawlord said:
jebebs said:
Yondaime Uzumaki said:
Konoha Hurricane said:
Setsunin said:
wooticus said:
Evil3ye said:WTF? Minato?! Has Kakashi fetched him?
polaris said:it must be hard for naruto, I mean kyuubi inside, itachi's crow inside, yondaime inside...
Toby_Temple said:
hossam88 said:
Pure Evil said:
Ruhina said:
warbandit66 said:
Alex_1 said:EPIC
Now Naruto knows who his father is. So much for all the folks that insisted he already did.
Parth said:
T.D.A said:
Xiraiya said:
broken1i said:
jdw112 said:
bighawke5 said:
g1534 said:
infamy said:
Itachi08 said:I guess saying I am surprised would be a bit redundant at this point in time.
Who would of thought that Minato would actually show!!!
fastfonz said:
carcina said:
sarry said:
UrbanCW said:
hhv94 said:
WaveBossa said:
Necron said:
avantasian said:
checkyoulater said:
TheLoneWarrior222 said:
Proxy said:
What about my own reaction, you guys ask? Sure, why not... I'll copy and paste it.
Gold Knight said:
I'm not sure that I've reacted like that over a Naruto chapter in months. Very many months, in fact. My friend's own reaction was even more amusing:
So yeah... seems to be the general reaction. =P
Anyway, back to being serious. This is a pretty monumental moment for Naruto. Now that he's going to know the truth of his ancestry, that he's the son of the Fourth Hokage, everything should fall in place now for him. Knowing about his own legacy, the entire circumstances that led to the sealing of the Kyuubi within his stomach, and maybe even the guidance of only the greatest hero in the history of Konohagakure - yeah, things should take a very interesting turn here...!
A few things I want to comment on, as well. There are some people who erroneously still think Yondaime is alive. No, sadly, I don't think he is still living. If so, he wouldn't have been able to seal the Kyuubi within Naruto at all via the God of Death. That required Minato's life to be sacrificed, so he's probably actually dead.
What I believe we're actually seeing here is simply a default jutsu placed upon the seal that - let's say - probably made a clone of Minato to appear within Naruto's mind when the eighth tail ever appears. For just a situation like this - where Naruto almost seemed helpless to resist the Kyuubi's beckoning. The purpose of Minato's appearance, then, is to snap Naruto out of dooming himself.
I don't think Minato's meant to continue his existence within Naruto's mind very long, so this is, in my opinion, going to be the first and LAST meeting between father and son. Unless, of course, the jutsu's time duration is pretty long... which it very could be, but I doubt it. There's also the possibility that Minato would reappear again if the eighth tail is released again later on, but I doubt after this experience, Naruto will ever let that happen.
Unfortunately, I think Minato's continued presence would somewhat cheapen the story. What I'm hoping to see happen is that Naruto will realize just how important his own life really was to Minato, and learn the hopes that his father had placed into him to be succeed him as a great savior, as well. I'm hoping the experience will mature Naruto into a better leader. And to become more self-disciplined and be less reckless to jump into action. I think he'll be far better off for this experience.
To people who believe Naruto will learn the Hirashin (body flicker jutsu) that happens to be his father's specialty, while I'd love to see that happen myself, I don't think the time is right for such a training period to take place, nor do I think it will happen. Besides which, Naruto would become so ridiculously powerful with the combination of Hirashin and his Kage Bunshin, there'd be no real competition for him anymore.
But Minato MIGHT hint at some way that Naruto could learn Hirashin at a later date, near the series' completion, perhaps just before he becomes the Hokage. You never know!
RATING: 5 of 5 - Absolutely fabulous chapter. Drama, surprise, and great art all in one. Haven't seen a Naruto chapter like this in a very long while.
PREDICTIONS: Well, what else? Probably a heart-to-heart conversation between Minato and Naruto. For once, people are actually waiting for a talky chapter!
Of course, I wonder how long Minato and Naruto will allow the Kyuubi outside to run amok, though, but I suppose as long as Pain is the only one on the run from it, it can't be all that bad a thing right now.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to comment. =)
Comment, or I'll nosebleed all over ya!
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