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"Angel" Konan, once again by the spectacular graphic artist [user]Amaretti[/user].
Hey, guys. How's it going?
Well, I had some time on my hand last week, so I was able to work on this review a bit earlier than usual. Let me know if doing half of a volume review at a time is more convenient for you guys or not. I'm going to try my best to do them like this from now on... it's certainly easier to write about only five chapters at a time than all of it at once.
Just keep in mind that once the volume is complete (in four weeks or so from now) to come back here a week afterwards because the review should be complete as well then. Also, I might add to some of my observations for previous chapters with blue text... so check for these too!
One final note about the future of these reviews (ie. news on my life) - Graduate school's just around the corner for me, so I may be attending classes again by the next time I write a review for the next volume. But from all indications, and this is the good news, I'll still be able to have time to write further reviews because I should still have a lot of free time between classes.
However, and there is still a chance of this happening - if I still happen to disappear for a looooooong time, at least you know what to blame it on now! So, if you are an aspiring reviewer, be sure to keep in practice around here! You never know when you'll be the only one here for a while.
Once again, many thanks to Kylara, our translators, and Japflap for all their great work in bringing us a great Naruto chapter every week, and all the artists as well for coloring some great stuff this time around.
Well, that was a short introduction, wasn't it? Guess it's time for the review.
Feel free to make any observations of your own as always, of course.* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Volume 41 * * *
* Note: This is only half of the current volume's review. The last five "Comments" will be added at a later point.
370: 胸騒ぎ
1. A Premonition
* Note: This is only half of the current volume's review. The last five "Comments" will be added at a later point.
370: 胸騒ぎ
1. A Premonition
Aha, so that was the deal. The Toad Sage catches the flies, and lets Ibiki feed on them for the most part. Who else but the unquestioned master of interrogation? No wonder Jiraiya extracted so much information from the Akatsuki! Good ol' Ibiki. Do you reckon he's still pissed about Asuma? We never did see Kakuzu's dealer after that - hmm, I guess accidents will happen.
Heh, even though Jiraiya didn't get the information he wanted from the other guy, though, Ero-Sennin has also never, NEVER seemed more intimidating than when he was evilly grinning here and saying, "Now tell me everything you know. Or you'll be eating flies for the rest of your life!" Kishimoto actually did a great job of turning what was initially a lame-seeming technique into something of a relatively frightening prospect here!
Moving on to the major topic of the chapter... which is, of course, Naruto's seal and its "key," which obviously took on an even more of a material shape than we all thought in the form of a living and talking amphibian "Scroll" with an attitude! (Just when I thought Naruto couldn't get any weirder.) There's a lot of stuff to cover here, so let me just take a deep breath first. .....Ok, ready? Here goes.
Well, according to what we've learned so far in the series, there's no question that Minato AKA Yondaime - Naruto's daddy - had really big plans for his kid. We already knew back at the beginning of the story that the Fourth Hokage had intended for Naruto to be a savior for the Leaf.
Despite Naruto being resented by just nearly everybody in the village for being the container of the dreaded Nine-Tails, he wasn't exiled or put in a prison, nor was he put through rigorous training and brainwashing therapy, as many other villages could have done (especially the Mist, and perhaps the Cloud, as well). That would have been against Yondaime's wishes... as Naruto's growth would have certainly been more than a bit stunted in any of these cases. (Not that it wasn't, but even more so, at least.)
Instead, while Naruto may still have been treated with contempt, he was still allowed the freedom to live as an orphan child that could make his own choices, even as far as being allowed entry into the Ninja Academy. Minato and Sandaime wanted Naruto to at least have the chance to grow to love the village on his own and surpass everybody's expectations.
Now we have even more reason to understand why Yondy may have wanted Naruto to grow normally... that is, as normal as possible, anyway, for a kid in his circumstances.
Okay, please bear with me here, I'm about to go off on a bit of a discourse. I think we mostly suspected, early on in the series, that Minato's seal was made primarily to try to contain the Kyuubi from taking control of Naruto and to never let it emerge again, and that was all.
However, when Sasuke apparently died against Haku, the seal started breaking almost by itself due to Naruto's emotional state, and the Kyuubi leaked out and was able to take control of Naruto enough to change his appearance, strength, and speed.
Yet, while Kakashi obviously knew about the Kyuubi having a bit of a presence at that fight, and probably reported the situation, Naruto's seal was still apparently left alone in its flawed condition. Nothing done about it at all, not even an investigation!
In fact, Orochimaru, of all people, was the only one to ever put a conker on the Kyuubi's chakra in Part One, by forcibly placing an additional seal on Naruto's stomach as so to repress it even further and render him less of a threat. Yet Sandaime never did such an additional seal, nor did he ever seem that concerned about the Kyuubi chakra, at least until the Chuunin Exams, after Jiraiya had removed Oro's seal himself and trained Naruto to control his chakra better for use in his classic battle against Neji. Even there, though, Sandaime seemed to think of it as something that would have happened eventually, just not so soon.
When Jiraiya had first taken up Naruto as his pupil, too, we actually did get to see the inside of Naruto's mind - and the "prison" of the Kyuubi - and it did still seem relatively secure. You could even see the seal itself, still in place and undamaged, right on the gates. So I thought maybe at that point Jiraiya improved on the seal, so now that only with Naruto's willpower could he open these gates slightly in order to draw out the Kyuubi's chakra, but never for long. I thought he was actually going against Minato's wishes a little bit, as evidenced by his mental apology in this page. (Though, maybe he was just apologizing in advance for throwing Naruto off the cliff, heh.)
With this chapter, we now know that Jiraiya had nothing to do with the seal, and that it was all Minato, instead. There had been a secret key all along, being kept safe for Naruto to inherit someday from Minato through Jiraiya. The gift - a means of finally drawing out all that powerful chakra gave Naruto the possibility that he could, one day, be able to control it all to use for some heroic purpose.
What a dad, huh?
So it's seemingly obvious now that Minato must have meant for the Nine-Tails' chakra to be able to leak, slightly, as to have Naruto's body slowly get used to controlling that chakra. And Jiraiya was simply trying to train Naruto to the point where he could control all of it that much better. Especially during the timeskip.
[gk]EDIT: And it's become even more obvious! Thanks Kaylee![/gk]
As for the making of the seal itself, Minato had evidently thought it out - he wasn't just going to put a monster into his son's belly without taking some precautionary measures.
According to Jiraiya, Minato must have figured that by stripping the Kyuubi's chakra of its "YIN" aspect - apparently the more undesirable aspect of the Kyuubi's being that was sacrificed to the Death God - a human container would then have the opportunity to eventually more easily control the rest of the "YANG" chakra, as long as he was given a chance to actually learn how to use it without dying in the process.
(At least, that's how I finally saw it anyway, after numerous re-reads. Y'all are welcome to disagree with me if you want to. ^^ )
Anyway, the Kyuubi must have been a real beast, when its original chakra was all together. We've already seen the destructive properties of a Kyuubified Naruto - now just imagine it multiplied by five, at least. No wonder the Nine-Tails must have caused such widespread destruction whenever it appeared. It's amazing the Kyuubi didn't blow up the world when it still lived. Maybe he could have - but he didn't want to be destroyed too in the process!
And boy, Minato must have had tons of faith in his son. This was a kid that he never lived long enough to see grow, never seeing how his temperament might have been like, and all that. He must have been trusting enough that somebody of his own blood would have possessed the strength, gentleness, and self-discipline necessary to have been able to contain the Kyuubi on his own and to be able to use it for good. It's a lucky thing that Naruto wasn't given the key already, though, he would have already been lost by now. He definitely hasn't shown an aptitude for controlling the chakra at all. Yet!
Hopefully, someday, when Naruto does inherit this key, he'll be at least understanding enough to know that he needs plenty, and I mean PLENTY, of self-training, before he's ever able to control it fully without sealing his own doom! (Did I just make a pun...? Sorry, sorry.)
And now we know, I suppose, why Jiraiya concentrated so much on trying to help Naruto with his "red chakra" over the last two and half years. That training may not borne any real fruit yet, but you know, it may still have very significant impact on the story soon enough! I like that VERY much. I enjoy the prospect that Naruto's training exercises with Jiraiya might not have been a complete waste of time, after all. Is the best still yet to come...?
But wait, there's still more that we learned in this chapter. We, of course, also got our "Premonition" of the chapter, as per the title - we found out that Uchiha Madara was able to command the Kyuubi! No wonder the Nine-Tails seemed to have a such strong distaste for Sasuke's ancestor. He likely didn't enjoy being on a leash, after all.
Anyway, this revelation created even more questions, though. Mostly importantly, how and why. And maybe a little who is Tobi, really.
How did Madara gain such mastery over the Kyuubi, and why did he want to use the Kyuubi? And why did he rebel against Konohagakure in the first place, if he did indeed use it on his village? He must have had some bad history with Shodai Hokage!
As for the latter question, I still think Tobi isn't Madara. Who in his right mind would sit on the head of a statue made in his honor, cackling? Though Tobi being in his right mind at this point is still certainly debatable.
By his own admittance, though, he possessed the "power of Madara." Even if the translators insist he was calling himself Madara, I still wonder if Kishimoto didn't intend for that line to be a bit vague. Obviously, Jiraiya's words here were highly indicative that Tobi will be able to control the Kyuubi when the time comes. (That's a scary thought for Naruto.) Did Tobi then mean that he could control the Kyuubi, just as Madara did, therefore he could be said to have the same powers?
Ah, sure, he does appear to have the Sharingan, so he does appear to be a Uchiha. I'll confess that my Danzou theory in the last review had all kinds of holes in it, so here's a new and probably better theory that I've come to believe in the last few weeks.
I've come to suspect now that Tobi is actually Uchiha Shisui, otherwise known as Itachi's "best friend" that apparently "drowned" and left a suicide note. We'll see if there's any truth to this though, but for now, let's move on to the next chapter. If you would like to vote on who you think Tobi is, though, and discuss it further, feel free to head over to my Ask Me thread and vote in the poll there.
Good chapter, even if it was somewhat confusing!
Rating: 4.5/5
371: 旧知...!!
2. An Old Friend...!!
2. An Old Friend...!!
So, did Sasuke know that Naruto was actually just a bunshin, or did he actually try to kill him there? What do you think?
I'd like to believe that he was so wrapped up in his "revenge lust" that he didn't even bother to think about Naruto's life at that point, he just wanted to get through him, plain and simple. Whether his former comrade was real or not.
That would indicate that he still has a bit of a dark side that's definitely coming out right now after he had just seen his own brother - the very goal of his vengeance. Is Sasuke about to fall even further into darkness?
We also got our first glimpse of Pain's new body in this chapter that arose from the second pod. Apparently, this must be some brother of Deidara's, because they certainly look similar.
When Konan brought the news of Jiraiya's presence to Pain, I found their subsequent conversation pretty interesting, as well! First of all, of course, the revelation that Jiraiya was once a mentor to them both was pretty intriguing. But, while Pain's always seemed more human than most of the other Akatsuki to me (especially in his cynical humor), here he was actually emotionally so!
He just stood there, seemingly dazed, as he was obviously recalling all the memories that he had with his former sensei. One would almost think he was torn between whether to bake his old friend a welcoming cake or kill him dead on the spot.
Konan, while she seemed to be able to mask her emotions better, was obviously even more shaken. She was so hesistant and unsure about what to do that she ended up having to actually ask Pain what their next course of action was. Then when Pain responded that they were to kill him, Konan actually said that she could leave it to him. No, she definitely didn't want to battle her old teacher.
But of course, Pain saw right through her and didn't want her to become all sentimental on him, so he did tell her to kill him if she got a chance. Can't have an emotional kunochi on one's hands, after all, right?
This was definitely a refreshing change from all the other cold, emotionless, or merciless Akatsuki that we've seen so far. These guys actually act human. Almost even more so than when Sasori realized his grandmother was coming to give him a good spanking!
And, finally, we got some action!
To recap, Konan used her nifty "origami" ability to blind Jiraiya's captive, thinking it was actually a henge. Then she formed a paper lance in order to try to kill him with it.
I hadn't thought about Konan's abilities too much to that point, but this proved that she was indeed deadly with her control of paper. Forget papercuts. These are nothing. Being blinded by paper, on the other hand... just imagine all the openings that'd leave! If that had been any normal ninja, he would have been dead before you could have said "Crom!" (If you got the reference, have a cookie.)
Luckily, though, Jiraiya wasn't just any bum off the streets. Taking a hint from the Nara family, he had actually used his captive's shadow to his own advantage - by hiding in it. How he did that, I have no idea, but Konan referred it to as "Toad-Silhouette Control Technique." Now, I have two problems with that.
1) Why would the toads even have any techniques associated with shadows?
2) If Konan already knew about this technique, why didn't she suspect it when she knew she was fighting her old mentor? Did her memory just become fuzzy? But there was that tell-tale scroll of Jiraiya showing up in the shadow.
You'd almost suspect, especially given her earlier hesitation, that she knew, and let Jiraiya off the hook. And he threw oil up on her. Nice.
And figures, the first thing Jiraiya does upon seeing one of his old female students for the first time in nearly twenty years, was to ogle her! What else?
Rating: 5/5
372: 泣いている国!!
3. A Crying Country!!
3. A Crying Country!!
Ever noticed all the analogies lately that Kishimoto's been writing?
"I always thought you were dead, but all this time, you were just a bunch of papers scattered in the wind..."
"Ahh... you're God's angel..."
"I must kill you. That is the will of God."
Heh. Sometimes I wonder if Kishimoto's getting a bit too carried away with all that poetic writing. He must have really been proud of himself after he compared Sasuke to a hawk, too, because he commented on that again, via Tobi, just last chapter. Not that I really mind that, but I just found it amusing.
Anyway, Konan's "angelic" look was truly stunning in this chapter, though. I don't often comment on Kishimoto's art (mostly because I'd probably always be rambling about how good it is - I did that once for my Chapter 341 review - and so many people already agree it's great, anyway!) but this time, I just have to.
Even when not colored, this double-spread looked magnificent. And when colored by the likes of Amaretti... oh man. Now you're talkin' art, pure and simple.
Though I just have to comment on what I think Kishimoto might have been inspired by in drawing Konan like an angel, and especially after she shed all these "feathers" to use them as lethal weapons. That is, if he read American comics at all, but who hasn't tried X-Men? How about this X-Man? Archangel.
Hey, it's possible. But I won't hold it against Kishimoto if he purposely recycled that idea, Archangel was an awesome character!
Then Jiraiya went and threw oil up on her, as already mentioned last chapter. Eew. Well, whatever gets the job done. Konan certainly found herself in quite the hairy situation, though, after Jiraiya unleashes the amazing growing power of his hair.
(By the way, I should have expected all of Jiraiya's hair techniques after seeing how he defended himself against Orochimaru with porcupine hair - somehow, I didn't, ha!)
Did you guys notice that when Jiraiya said the rumors that Konan's two companions were dead must have all been lies, she looked slightly sad? I wonder if that's a hint that one of them, at least, did die. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself here...
So we got some pretty cool flashbacks here - our biggest glimpse into Jiraiya's former life as a young Kohana shinobi so far! You know, I'm beginning to think that these flashbacks aren't omens that he's going to die, after all - they're just there to give a glimpse into Pain's life and hint at why he might have become the leader of the Akatsuki. But it might just be wishful thinking...
I found it clever of Kishimoto to initially point all the signs at Yahiko, the spiky-haired kid, as the future Pain. His face was the first one we saw after Jiraiya said, "Then Pain... must be him." And Yahiko did strongly resemble the first adult body we saw Pain using when he came out of the shadows. (So much for my theories that Pain must be related to Naruto, though, in that case.)
I've always found the possible dynamics of the Legendary Sannin pretty interesting, so I was pretty pleased to see Tsunade and Orochimaru also in the flashback, and how they each reacted to the Rain orphans' plea for some ninjutsu training. Orochimaru's response, I don't think anybody was surprised by that, but Tsunade - well, she definitely isn't one for mothering, even with her healing abilities. She was visibly upset that Jiraiya decided to take them with him.
Well, not that I blame her. These were children of an enemy nation. Jiraiya's more of a softy than I ever realized - and I don't think anybody would argue that now.
In a way, Yahiko was remarkably more practical than Jiraiya in their difference of opinion on the possibility of peace. Almost reminds one of the Middle East peace talks that always seem to break down. Jiraiya's a dreamer - he hopes for peace and tranquility between all nations. Yahiko's the realist - he has less faith in people than that, and he's probably right - there'll always be wars as long as one nation is stronger than the other.
In accepting them for training, he was more or less taking pity on the Rain country for not being as able to defend themselves against foreign powers as they could have, and especially these kids. Even at the possible expense of his own country. What a softy, huh?
Still, I somehow did expect that kind of reaction from him. He also, probably, took pity on Naruto and agreed to train him even though he knew Naruto was a bit too obsessed about bringing Sasuke back.
Rating: 4.5/5
373: 師弟時代...!!
4. The Student-and-Teacher Era...!!
4. The Student-and-Teacher Era...!!
First off, of course we know now that Nagato would be the future Pain - or is he? At first, I thought that maybe Kishimoto might be fooling us all, and that Yahiko might actually have inherited Nagato's abilities, a la Kakashi and Obito. But all the evidence in this chapter certainly seems to point at Nagato. I'll get to all that in a bit...
About the Rinnegan. Though we now know that it possessed the ability to do all forms of ninjutsu, I'm going to have to say that there was probably a misunderstanding from one of the translations we had here.
Instead of "most powerful" doujutsu, it could also be said to be "most venerable." This personally makes more sense to me, because if Nagato's ancestor was the one to have created modern ninjutsu, of course the Rinnegan would have been incredibly respectable.
Anyway, I have to say that I'm pretty pleased to see that a new challenger to the Sharingan has finally appeared. Whereas the Sharingan only copied the jutsus, the Rinnegan actually gave a personal ability to be able to manipulate any form of jutsu, regardless of whether the owner was naturally more better at one element than the other. I'm looking forward to more from the Rinnegan.
About the "Sage of the Six Paths." More Buddhist stuff, huh? I think it's already been widely discussed by now, but I might as well throw in my own thoughts. By the way, since the Six Paths of Buddhist fame are doubtless roads that one does not want to travel if they were trying to achieve enlightenment, this Sage must have been a terror to be known as that!
Now, about how the Six Paths might pertain to Pain himself - since we saw six bodies in Pain's chamber, I do think now that the real Pain must be one of the six bodies now, instead of some other body in a distant room - as I first thought.
So which one is the real Pain? Or rather, Nagato, in the possibility that Pain might actually be Yahiko.
I do believe now that the first body is an adult Yahiko - and the description of the first path as "hell, intense suffering, and despair" could definitely apply to how Nagato might have felt if he had failed to protect Yahiko. To him, Yahiko had become the embodiment of hell and suffering.
In the case Yahiko really is Pain, and Nagato is the dead companion, it'd probably be no difference, besides it being more of a matter of self-reflection. If either did fail to protect the other, he'd certainly have suffered a crushing blow - just as Naruto would if he ever loses Sasuke. Young Yahiko did resemble Naruto very strongly on that point as well in appearance. And Nagato, he did seem to take the loss of his family the hardest, so losing his best friend would probably have been just as terrible to him.
So that leaves five more paths for Nagato himself - (2) hunger, (3) animality, (4) anger, (5) humanity, and (6) heaven.
Ordinarily, I'd have said "heaven," but since the sixth body we saw definitely did not seem to be of Nagato's build - unless he's been eating a whole lot of biscuits since we saw him last! - I'm going to say "humanity," the fifth path, is Nagato's body.
In the description of "humanity," it's stated that it aims for temporary balance and tranquility. After what we learned in the next chapter about Pain's goals, that definitely seems to be what he is trying to do in general. (I'll talk more about that next chapter.) In which case, it's a strong argument that Nagato is indeed Pain. Right?
Of course, all this is really assuming that Kishimoto is going by the same Six Paths of Buddhist fame. There's a really, really big possibility that he might make them something entirely different. He's been known to take writer's license with such things in the past, especially when Chinese mythology and the tailed monsters were concerned - this might not be any different. But hey, it's fun to speculate.
Anyway, back to the flashback! So Jiraiya ends up becoming their sensei and he has a very personal and touching conversation with Nagato, where he comforts the kid on what he did to the dead nin out of self-defense, and emphasizes that he did it for a good reason: protecting his friends.
He also apparently gave the speech that would seemingly spur on the twisted "growth" of Pain into a self-proclaimed "god," out of a desire to make everybody feel the same pain that he did, to have everybody else be more "kind" to each other as a result. Oops. (This is the best argument yet that Nagato is Pain.)
Here, I might need to remind people, since I still see Pein being used here, that Pain's name is just so obviously Pain, not Pein, judging by Nagato's line here, "I just wanna protect them, no matter what kind of pain I have go through." It's just a nickname in the end, anyway. So don't worry about how awkward it sounds as a name.
We soon see 'em all growing insanely powerful, even managing to beat one of the Ero-Sennin's bunshins. At that point, Jiraiya decides he's done enough for them and says his good-byes to them.
Now, is it just me, or did you also definitely sense some resentment from Konan and Pain after the flashbacks in how they referred to Jiraiya as an "outsider" who knew "nothing about what happened to them?"
Looks like Jiraiya did make a big boo-boo by leaving them and not staying in touch with them. And training them in the first place. Ah well. Life and learn and all that jazz. I haven't lost my respect for Jiraiya - he was kind to these kids, perhaps too kind, but he did what he had to do to ensure that they would survive, and probably overdid it.
But by the same token, if he had let ol' Orochimaru have his way with them, he wouldn't have been able to live with himself, that's for certain. Jiraiya did what he had to do, but he didn't forget his country. And it was too obvious that Yahiko intended all along to stay behind as a protector of the Rain, so he couldn't just have taken these kids back home with him.
And Jiraiya certainly couldn't have foreseen any of them having anything to do with the most infamous criminal organization in the whole world!
Good story, I actually liked it.
Rating: 4.5/5
374: 神への成長!!
5. Growth Into a God!!
5. Growth Into a God!!
In this one, we sure got a lot of action right off the bat, and then a whole lot of talking.
First, Pain uses his "crab summoning" to wash Konan away from Jiraiya's oil, and distracts him enough that Konan could escape safely.
Jiraiya then retaliates with a technique called Ranji Shigami no Jutsu - "Raging Lion's Mane Technique," which basically consists of his hair growing like wildfire to apparently banish the crab back to wherever it came from, and to tie Pain up - or what turned out to be a bunshin of him, anyway.
Well, that technique is going to be fun for all these Naruto video game developers to incorporate into their games, if nothing else. That's really going to look so impressive in a fighting game - Jiraiya with his hair flying in all directions! Perfect for a guy who likes to have so many dramatic poses. I already can't wait to see what an Orochimaru vs Jiraiya square-off looks like in the next one!
Anyway, upon being asked about Yahiko, Pain seems to recall him and his apparent death in a dismissive way, which makes Jiraiya realize that if it is Nagato, it's not the same one he once knew.
And since Pain does clearly seem to be reflecting on what Jiraiya told little Nagato to do - namely "growing up" and "suffering pain" - I think it's no longer any doubt that Pain is Nagato at this point.
Pain, or Nagato, here, also seems to confirm that he is indeed seeking to "conquer the world" - something he had told the Akatsuki before. This time, he adds a new dimension to that plan, though. Instead of going over how he would simply build up an army of mercenaries that all nations would be dependent on, he goes into his own motive for doing such a thing more keenly.
He would use the combination of all the bijuu as a "nuclear weapon" - partially to cause widespread chaos that would result in what he hoped to be mutual unity and peace - but also to stifle any more devastating wars.
Well, I can't blame Kishimoto. Japan to date has been the only nation to suffer the devastating side-effects of a nuclear bomb, so I'm pretty sure they've been reeling ever since from that. It also effectively ended World War II for good. And despite the aftermath, which was the Cold War, if America had remained the only country to have nuclear weapons (the Soviet Union would come up with their own), who knows what the world would have become by now? America would probably have had far, far more power and control.
So, without any opposition of any kind like what America had, Pain really could have the world in his hands with such a nuclear weapon. He could force everybody to live in peace. But to become what he truly considered a "god," eternally in control of this weapon, he'd also have to be immortal. No wonder he's gotten together with so many others who are trying to be immortal, huh?
The problem, though - who really wants to go through that kind of pain? What Pain is threatening means potentially tens of thousands of people could die, whole villages and towns would be razed, the landscape would be dramatically changed, and he'd really make everybody miserable. He's clearly overdoing the whole shebang, and he doesn't even realize it. America would likely not have made any friends if they had constantly bombarded the world with nuclear explosions.
What Pain is doing is actually self-defeating to himself and could result in the total doom of his own country. Nothing unites people more than a common enemy.
No wonder Jiraiya called him a comedian. He's definitely right there that the fighting would only escalate. Nagato's really not thinking this through, and it's also so obvious that Kishimoto is pretty much setting up this scenario: a certain somebody is probably going to end up converting him over to the Church of Naruto at some point!
At least it still makes for an interesting conflict, anyway. Pain's a much more global threat than any other that Naruto's ever fought.
Rating: 4/5
Quick Thoughts on Chapter 375:
I'm definitely guessing that each of the six bodies possesses total domination over a certain kind of ninjutsu, and Pain's current body is that of summoning. Since he's using it without doing anything else, and he's able to summon just about anything, it seems. Whereas his first body, "Yahiko," apparently can control any kind of water-based jutsu (giving even more evidence that it is Yahiko, since we saw him doing suiton jutsus in the flashback.) The question is, with the Rinnegan, why does he have to do that? I really don't have a clue on that though. We'll have to wait for more chapters will tell us the answer.
As for Jiraiya's "Hermit mode," more stuff for the video games to adapt from the manga, it seems to me. It sort of looks lame to me, but hopefully Kishimoto will prove me wrong, as he did with the earlier "toad transformation" jutsu.
Hope you enjoyed!
OVERALL VOLUME RATING: To be determined later. Check back in a few weeks from now!
Credits:
All Edited Mangas used in this review were by Japflap.
Fan Colorings used in Images:
Chapter 370 Konan Cover by Dynamic Dragon
Chapter 371 Naruto Cover by Dralaquan - one of the best Naruto colorings so far.
Chapter 372 Page 4-5 Konan by Amaretti (also used for the header) - beautiful work!
Chapter 373 Jiraiya Cover by Dralaquan
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