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The terrific trio! All suitably pissed off!
Alright, we're back to normal now. Images aplenty in this one, as well as me having some time to think about the chapter. Although for such an action-packed chapter, there wasn't too much to digest, I guess.
Alright, credits! Thanks goes to Heiji-sama and [Ju-Ni]Vicissitude for the RAWs, cnet128 and Hisshou for the translations, and Binktopia for the excellent Edited Manga I'll be using this weekend. And also to Fnuckale for doing my header as usual. Now let's get started.
As always, comment on anything you'd like.
* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Chapter 442: The Final Gamble! * * *
So Nagato is a redhead, you got a problem with that?
So Nagato is a redhead, you got a problem with that?
0. Hi, Carrot Top! So yeah: we get a new revelation this week about Nagato's character design - he's a redhead. Now it all begins to make sense!
Now we have the true reason why Nagato went crazy. All his childhood, he must have been mocked and belittled by his fellow peers to the point of madness, not unlike poor little Gaara.
Then, just when Nagato couldn't take it anymore, he shook his fists at the heavens and decided to teach the world the meaning of TRUE PAIN!
No, my dear sirs and ladies, it had nothing to do with his village and family dying. No, no. I tell you, it's ALL because of that most damning of stigmas for a male - fiery red hair. That's why he's taken on the mantle of being a divine being, because well, he figures he'd be a better "Maker," right?
He wants to spit in God's eye. "Why red hair, Kishimoto!?? Screw you!!! I'd be better as God, so I'm taking over!"
Hey, good thing he didn't have freckles, too. Then he might've REALLY been mad.
Okay, I'm done kidding around, but this just confirms Nagato as one of the weaker character designs in the series for me. He doesn't work as a redhead. Even if the coloring had been an attempt to make him resemble Orochimaru less, why red hair? Why not white, gray, or even blue? (I mean, since Konan and Nagato came from the same village, it wouldn't have been a big deal. Although it would have started a theory of them being siblings, I suppose.) Anyway, Nagato still doesn't work as a "master villain," but rather just a tragic, sympathetic figure that looks like he ought to just lie down and die instead of causing anybody any more trouble.
It's ruined the image of the once-formidable-seeming "Akatsuki Leader" in my head now, even though he still has the power to possibly claim that title. (We'll never know for sure now, though, as I assume he'll never have to face Madara in battle now.)
Now we know that "puppetmaster in the shadows" was actually nothing more than a corpse that's a puppet - its strings pulled by an emaciated guy stuck in a chair who seems bent on destroying the world just for a little peace of mind.
With red hair. Ouch.
...to wear such an uncomfortable bra to make your boobs look better...
1. What We Do For Love... So yeah, okay, sure, this panel does scream "look at Hinata's bust!" with plenty of glee and fanfare.
But is it just fanservice? Maybe, and it probably doesn't hurt sales over in Japan at all. But, I happen to think it's more than that. As an art history major, I've seen a LOT of ancient statuettes with big breasts, quite a common characteristic for "mother goddess figures."
Since Kishimoto apparently enjoys drawing from history sources, I believe Hinata is then being modeled after a fertility figure (minus the love handles, thank you very much) in an obviously conscious effort to make her easily seen as an eventual housewife and ultimately a good mother. After all, that's what breasts are primarily for... Shh, all ye perverts.
So I think Hinata's going to end up in a similar role as Chi Chi - for these not in the know, Chi Chi is the wife of Goku and mother of Gohan from Dragonball... a manga Kishimoto liked, if you'll recall.
And yes, before you start asking, I'm starting to be convinced Hinata and Naruto might be destined to be together. This arc has done a lot to make that pairing seem inevitable to me. First, Hinata confessed her love, and Naruto certainly got angry at Hinata being hurt, and well, no wonder. He did fight for her sake against Neji once, after all. And Hinata's the only one alive who really believed in Naruto from the beginning, even before Iruka took him under his mantle.
And where does Sakura stand in all this? Well, she did almost sacrifice herself to save Naruto one time, too - and almost lost an arm because of the Kyuubi. Might she be thinking about that incident and wondering about her own feelings for Naruto that caused her to go to such extremes, as well? Does she feel a certain kinship with Hinata because of what she did? Is Sakura starting to realize that it's love she also feels for Naruto as well, but perhaps not as clearly manifested as Hinata's?
Actually, I'm starting to think Sakura's quite a bit confused. Not that she doesn't feel any fondness for Naruto now, but I still feel she actually has a thing for Sasuke more than she does for Naruto. And that it's her own guilty conscience propelling her to try to stop Naruto from overburdening himself, since he's done so often in the past. That's why Sakura tried to train hard under the Godaime, so she could help more. And Yamato might have misunderstood that and mistook her concern for Naruto as love.
Either way, you can tell by Sakura's eyes, she's clearly pained by her own confused feelings. And no, I don't think it's just because she's concerned for Hinata's life here.
Bummer, as a green beast he should've trained better.
2. Farewell, Old One. Well, it would seem poor Fukasaku is a goner, as we all thought. That's another sensei down for Naruto.
Boy, has Naruto had sufficient reason to be angry at Pain. If ever somebody ever needed to utter the words, "You killed my master, you bastard!" it'd be Naruto right now. I mean, if Jiraiya AND Kakashi weren't enough... though, yes, I still maintain belief that the silver-haired jounin will probably be saved. Hopefully.
There's more, though. When Naruto finally encounters Tobi, he'll now have good reason to say, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. You killed my father. Prepare to die." (A cookie to the person who knows what movie that quote's from!)
Looks like Ma Frog's still alive, though worse for wear. I never thought that she was dead, though. She was just blown away by Pain's Shinra Tensei, that's all. Whether she'll still have a role later on in the story still remains to be seen, though, but I personally think it's over now... I don't want to see another Chiyo-baasma in her, if you know what I mean.
Okay, how can we have faith, when you say "I think?" >_>
3. More Faith? Looks like Tsunade must have had a talk with her big ol' slug at some point and either convinced Katsuya that Naruto had what it took to defeat Pain, or she came to that conclusion on her own.
I suppose Katsuya was there when Naruto saved Tsunade from Orochimaru and Kabuto and witnessed all that first-hand. So I guess that figures...
Either way, once again I'm extremely disappointed here. Team Gai has been introduced into the story twice now as potentially having a major role, and this time they don't even get as much face time as they did during the Rescue Gaara arc. Very frustrating.
What was the point of even bringing them back? Was it just to tell the readers, "this is what they were doing during this time of crisis," as the case seems to be with Yamato and Sai as well?
And don't even get me started on just how Team Gai got to Hinata before Sakura. At least, I guess, we've seen that Sakura didn't just go off to get lost trying to find Yamato, but stayed where she could help most. But boy, she must have taken on the properties of a snail as far as speed.
And I've got to wonder just how much chakra does Sakura have left to heal people? She's been running around in a hospital all day, and I'd think that would drain anybody. And Sakura was never known for having a whole lot of chakra - she was exhausted far sooner than both Naruto and Sasuke during the whole "tree-climbing" exercise back in Part One, remember. Is Tsunade still somehow channeling her own chakra into her? I don't see a slug on her, though.
Well, back to Team Gai. Kishimoto did say in an interview that "Rock Lee doesn't need to grow up anymore." Now, it's really seeming like all Gai and Rock Lee are fated to be making from now on are "guest star appearances" - cameos here and there, but adding nothing of real significance to the story.
Neji may still have an expanded role at some point, though... but I don't know, I think his own "growth" was also finalized after his battle with Kidoumaru. And as for Ten-Ten... yeah, right. No hope for her, is there? Nah...!
Now now Narutards, there's enough Pain for everybody!
4. Oldest Trick in the Book...! So we do get to see Naruto add a twist to his "shadow shuriken" trick (which as pointed out by wing_gundam last week was actually Naruto's idea, even though we've seen only Sasuke use it to this point).
Of course, it's no big surprise that the improvisation would be Naruto's best and most dependable ability - Kage Bunshin. Deva, if he had been like most opponents, would probably have been cut in half due to being firmly held in place by the two Narutos, so quite a bit of clever strategy, there...!
Unfortunately I don't think having Naruto clones disguised as rocks would have been as effective as, say, Jiraiya's "Swamp" ability, which could have gotten the job done. That's one trick Naruto could have used learning one of these days to save him a bit of trouble here. For the life of me, I don't know why Jiraiya didn't teach him that one during their two years together!
EDIT: And now I feel sheepishly dumb, because one of our great members here pointed out exactly why Jiraiya didn't teach Naruto that technique.
Still, if not for Deva Pain's odd ability to magically conjure up his black chakra blades out of nothing, he'd have been heading to nirvana about right now. Speaking of that, let's head to our next comment...The reason is because Swamp of the Underworld is an Earth technique. Jiraiya was an Earth and Fire user.
Naruto's a Wind user. As an aside, his second element will probably be water since a) it negates Sasuke's Fire Element just like Naruto's wind negates Sasuke's Lightning element, and b) Shippuuden = Hurricane Chronicles.
Water + Wind = Hurricane.
Ha, missed me!!! Noob!!!
5. And Now For My Next Magic Trick...! If you'll look closely... there's no way Deva Pain could have pulled a black chakra blade out of the left side of his robes.
Why? Because that side of his robes was ripped off in a previous chapter! So where did that blade come from that he used to help hoist himself over the rapidly spinning Rasen Shuriken? O_O
Only thing I can think of is that he summons them not unlike how Sasuke did his array of shurikens and various sharp weapons in his battle against Itachi. Remember the tattooes on Sasuke's wrist?
Other than that, I have no idea. Sure I might be a bit nit-picky here, but doggone it, I don't want plot holes in my stories, Kishimoto! Yes, you can rationalize just about anything if you just put on your thinking cap for a while, but if people have to suspend their belief more than they'd like to, it can be a detriment to the story for sure.
Meanwhile, I'll use the STARE OF DOOM!
6. Tick-Tock!! Some people complained about just how much happened in the first second it was taking for Pain to recharge his jutsu.
In that first second, yes, only one single second, the two Naruto clones jumped out at Pain's feet, at which instant he, of course, "summoned" his blades and used them in order to heave himself safely over the RS.
Some people find that kind of speed pretty unbelievable, but I actually don't in this universe of amazingly fast shinobi. For example, both Sasuke and Rock Lee both probably didn't even require one-tenth of a second to jump behind Gaara's sand defenses! And Yondaime required absolutely no time at all to teleport between his victims.
Granted I don't think Deva Pain's that fast, but he was quick enough to avoid a particularly wicked strike of Kakashi's Raikiri by turning his head to one side.
And at a later point, he was able to react quickly enough to suppress Kakashi's underground Raikiri uppercut with his Shinra Tensei as well.
So taking all that in account, yes, I can believe this scene only took one second to happen.
One issue, albeit minor, I do have though is the caption boxes recording each second as they pass. We really could have done without these (as I think they interrupted the nice flow of the art) and I think it wouldn't have been a problem if Pain had just "thought" a second here and there. "Any second now... one more second now!"
I SAID THERE'S ENOUGH ALREADY1@$!@$!!
7. Three's a Crowd, 1000's a Massacre...! Ah, sweet!
Now this is the kind of scene we've been missing since Naruto Part One. I mean, when was the last time we saw such a nice doublespread of so many Narutos all attacking at once?
Not since Kimimaro remarked "...interesting" at all the Narutos flocking around him! (If there's a more current scene, feel free to correct me.)
Either way, I'll admit, yes, this made the chapter so much better for me. It was glorious to see Deva Pain suddenly surrounded by hundreds of Narutos all lunging at him. That's the kind of power that can awe even the most cold-blooded opponent, and I think Kishimoto likes to save it for the most dramatic point in any important battle.
Also, not only was Kage Bunshin used here, they were also used in an original way. They were all disguised as rocks...! f Naruto wasn't a ninja before, he surely is now...!
It was at this point that I also realized that they were fighting on the rocks that had collapsed from the Chibaku Tensei. That made for quite a nice apocalyptic setting for their battle, too!
That's why I don't use deodorant!
8. Away With You, Gnats! Of all the scenes we've had with Deva Pain so far, I think this one is by far my favorite.
Of course he was very surprised at all the Narutos surrounding him, but then he quickly regains his composure, knowing that he's nearly fully recharged for the next Shinra Tensei.
In this panel, then, he looks much the part of the deity he's been fancying himself as - his arms out wide almost in a regal posture, intending to "swat" away all the infidels attacking and trying to knock him down from his high perch.
And of course, he does. It made for a very nice dramatic scene which I'm sure must have taken Kishimoto and his assistants quite a while to fully draw out. I'll give them bonus points for that this week.
Speaking of Pain's powers, remember the debate a few weeks over as to whether it was "gravity-based" or "magnetism?"
It's kind of funny that I referred to Kakashi calling it "gravity" as evidence back in Chapter 423 because, well, this month, in American Shonen Jump magazine, the same chapter was published, with Kakashi's line instead being instead translated as... "His jutsu allows him to pull in or push objects away, similar to the magnetic laws of attraction and repulsion"...!
Talk about different interpretations!
Of course, Viz's never been one to be trusted on translations. I still think it's more or less gravity, but I suppose we'll have to wait until Databook 4 for further confirmation on that.
"No way, hose, because my motto is 'NEVER GIVE UP!' And also, 'Eat Ramen Every Day!'"
9. Brace For Impact! The rest is pretty self-explanatory, so I don't have much to say here, besides a summary of what happened...
Naruto was able to withstand the Shinra Tensei with the help of all the clones behind him, and Pain is obviously losing his composure fast and becoming a bit desperate (probably because he's actually running low on chakra), and starting to demand surrender from somebody who he still hadn't decisively defeated.
Of course, it has to be mentioned that it was yet another creative approach to the usage of Naruto's Kage Bunshin in that he was able to use his clones to help himself stay upright. It's obvious that Naruto is becoming a master at that technique and he's beginning to be able to use it defensively as well as offensively.
"Why!? Because our motto in Akatsuki is also 'Never Give Up!' and let's not forget 'put on new nail polish for every fight!!'
Oww...!!! My groin..."
10. Fastball Special! The X-Men reader would probably understand this reference, but since I can't count on all of you being X-Men readers...
From Wikipedia, the "Fastball Special" is a special move in which a hero with superhuman strength literally throws a willing partner toward a target. In the X-Men's case, it's usually Colossus throwing Wolverine.
I guess in Naruto's case, the "superhuman strength" of two of his clones were enough to throw him all that distance to Pain... either Naruto's been working out, or boy! That's some nice chakra manipulation!
Nevertheless, though, that was classic Naruto. Here's a Rasengan right at ya, buddy! Booooom! One terrorist down.
And Naruto was obviously quoting from Jiraiya's "Legend of the Gutsy Ninja," as well - "give up on making me give up!"
How about that as a tribute to his mentor - and as a kind of revenge, as well!
RATING: 4.5 of 5 - Good chapter overall, there was of course a few problems I had with it, but it was still entertaining enough to very nearly grab a "5" rating.
PREDICTIONS: Yahiko's probably done for now. Next, Nagato?
Thanks for sticking with my review to the end!
Please comment!
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