Naruto 525 review...

benelori · Jan 28, 2011

Hello, fellow fans, members and lurkers! It’s a pleasure to present you another great chapter of Naruto.
Things started to get a more serious tone last week, but I have to admit, that this chapter surpassed the last one in certain areas.
Gather around the fire and let me share my reasons with you.

The title is kind of obvious. I mentioned last week, that one of Kishimoto’s styles when leaving us with a cliffhanger is just not showing us everything. And I was right. But the of course my ability to predict(which is almost 0) hasn’t played much role in it. And I say this, because we’ve seen most summons when Kabuto showed them to Madara, and it was kinda easy to predict that Gaara will face his father.

So nothing out of the ordinary. We’ve been shown that 3rd Raikage, 2nd Tsuchikage and 4th Kazekage were the ones that have been summoned.

And here they are. However we have a new guy here in the mix. Before we jump to the conclusion that he is a Mizukage, because I admit I’ve read the whole chapter as well

, let’s take a look at his character design. The first clue doesn’t really convince me that he is the Mizukage, because his face shows that he is French

, which is kinda…well let’s say we haven’t seen French people in the manga…yet.
But if we take a look at his clothes, we will see that he has some stripes, similar design to what the swordsmen wear as armbands for example or on their legs. To be honest when I first read the chapter I had a strong feeling that those clothes…I had seen them before, then it all became clear, when I saw that he is a former Mizukage, and I made this relation with the swordsmen.
Raikage is Raikage, we’ve seen him before. His son is his spitting image, and he has a Cloud tattooed on his right shoulder. 4th Kazekage…he is also a familiar face, courtesy of Gaara, and even Kankuro shares similarities with him.

Kishimoto describes them as history’s heroes, and soon we are shown that there’s a rivalry between Mizukage and Tsuchikage. They killed each other in the past, and that speaks a lot about Mizukage’s abilities. Defeating an invisible foe is something to be feared, and we’ll see later on that there’s more to the skinny, mummy-like Tsuchikage than it appears. The conversation is interesting, rivalries always produce entertainment for the readers, and this time it’s no different. Muu mentions that he recognizes the technique as the one Nidaime Hokage used back in the day. Just hearing bits and pieces of Narutoverse history is amazing, it has a feeling that we live among legends and that the current powerhouses are just cheap imitations of ninjas.

The other jolly pair is Raikage and Kazekage. They recognize each other, which says something about Kazekage. I doubt they were kages in the same period, but if they were, then Kazekage must’ve been exceptional and must’ve seized the title at a very young age. If not then it’s just enough that Raikage knows about him. A Kage from another country recognizing somebody who wasn’t even a Kage himself, means that Kazekage managed to spread his name quite a bit.
Also he is the one that seems the most serious in the group. He also recognizes the technique, which means that Orochimaru must’ve used against him as well. Unfortunately they’re both wrong, but I doubt they’ll ever know. The reason why I say that he is the most serious in the bunch, is because he is the only one that noticed a giant eyeball among the cliffs. Now how hard is that, I mean an eyeball isn’t necessarily the part of your usual landscape. But he sees it, and recognizes it as well.

This is quite an image for Gaara. We can clearly see that he is disturbed by the scene as he counts the foes. And the entire panel reminds me of old murderous Gaara. The scene is perfect, as he has one eye shut, because we know that this technique was mostly used, when he encased himself in his absolute defense shell.
So poor Gaara knows what he’s up against, well emotionally at least, but let’s not forget that Temari is there as well, so Kazekage’s presence will have a double emotional impact. But fortunately Shikamaru is there as well, and as possible husband he will be there for Temari, of that I’m sure. So most probably many members who are hoping for strong relationships and developing romances during the war will be satisfied

We also see that Chouji is getting kinda scared, which denotes his lack of experience, but we will observe this in later scenes as well, and we will comment on it even later on.

The scene changes, however the event which is focused on is still the newly summoned shinobi. Raikage is enraged by the fact that his dad appeared on the battlefield, but what’s more important in my eyes that and Ao agrees with me, that Muu was able to bypass the HQ’s sensor system, which was set up by Inoichi himself.

I love the hype that surrounds Muu, and we’ll see that this will be taken to another level soon. But the horror of the war, which is Edo Tensei and plant opponents reaches Daruis as well. He is calm as usual. He kinda reminds me of Genma Shiranui from Konoha, the demeanor and attitude are exactly the same.

But I guess this image will make him feel uneasy as well. Amongst the summons that we’ve seen earlier(Kakuzu, Dan, Hizashi and Asuma) we are introduced to an infamous brother duo from the Cloud: Kinkaku and Ginkaku. The information that is given in the manga, is that their chakra resembles or carries nuances of Kyuubi’s chakra. That is huge and I think their story will open up a new chapter in Konoha vs Kumo conflict. They also have whiskers, which could be an important clue that they had some contact with Kyuubi in the past. Maybe they were amongst the people that tried to kidnap Kushina?

I don’t know about that, and I certainly won’t make any guesses, but thanks to Aikidoka who delivered similar information in the past we know that their character design, their names and probably their abilities as well are rooted in Chinese folklore.

What’s the most important in this scene and it clearly shows that when Kabuto intended emotional impact, he wasn’t kidding. Raikage, Hiashi and the Hyuuga, the unknown shinobi from the cloud, Tenten and even Tsunade are all displaying disturbed emotions, fear and even anger. Raikage being a man of action, wants to go out there himself, though it’s unknown which battlefield he has in mind. I would guess that he would like to face his father, because Darui should have the necessary intel on the Kin-Gin brothers. But there’s also the possibility that he wanted to go to reinforce Darui. The reasoning is that, Kin-Gin have Kyuubi chakra, or some of it, and Raikage can manifest Bijuu level resources, opposed to ones who are facing these opponents.

But it seems it like there’s plan to fight all these overwhelming opponents. But the main player is not Raikage, he’s just the one who agrees and gives the command. Let’s all hail Nara Shikaku, a strategist on a whole different level than his son.

This is a great moment in the chapter, and personally it's my favorite one as well. I've been waiting for somkething like this since Shikamaru lost to his dad in a Shougi game.
The level of the planning is on another level this time, but Shikaku makes it sound simple. However while in theory the strategy sounds great, Shikaku doesn't have intel on the enemies forces, which is a great deal in combat. So many times we've been shown that sometimes intel is just enought to turn the tides of a battle. But of course this is not Shikaku's problem, because the efficiency of this plan rests on the troops themselves. Will they have the necessary skill to execute the timings perfectly, while still keeping the number of casualties as low as possible. But let's see the plan...

The core of the plan they way I see it is the arrangement of the divisions, and now I see the reason for their locations as well.
We have Gaara who is in charge of the long range fighter division, and they are placed on a barren landscape, favorable to launch long ranged attacks, and to avoid entangling in close range combat situations.
Darui is placed on the rear, and he is the head of the midrange fighting division. That means that he can engage the enemy from the sea, with both midrange and close range tactics, basically we can picture him like he is defending a fortress, or if we want more recent event then we can just remember the beaches of Normandy.

But this time he faces a far stronger enemy, so the reinforcing, special ops division, which is led by Mifune will be aiding him, but will commit more troops to Kitsuchi as well. However Kitsuchi will will slowly turn around and will reinforce Darui from the back, clustering the enemy and dealing the finishing. blow.

Gaara's division will commit to a tactic that was used against the romans, during the Punic wars. They will form a V while retreating, so they can invite the enemy inside, and crush them from the 3 directions. But as certain point in time, the right side of the V formation will break down, and will assist Darui. They will show up the last, but they are long ranged fighters, so I think it's logical that their place is the farthest from the enemy.
This should create hesitation among Muu's forces, but Gaara and his troops will be actively stalling them, and after Darui is finished they will strategically retreat and encircle Muu and his troops.

So there are some few important things that need to be noticed. First is what Shikaku said about concentrating on a location first and stalling the other, in order to raise the chances of defeating the enemy. The second is the placement of the divisions. Kakashi's troops as close/midrange division engaged the enemy in a forest, Gaara on barren wasteland, and Darui defending the shore. The third is the mobile unit of Mifune, which stretches along like a belt and is able to provide solid defense until all troops are in position and are able to execute the tactic.
In the end, Shikaku mentions the Ino-Shika-Chou formation. Could he refer to the current strategy, which is Ino-Shika-Chou on a grand scale?

But as I said earlier taking the enemy's ability into account is a vital part, and this is where Tsuchikage butts in.

Kishimoto is using Tsuchikage to introduce us a new type of ability, which is called Bloodline Expansion. This Bloodline Expansion appears in this chapter the first time, and the reasons are stated by Shikaku. Tsuchikage is the only one who possesses this kind of ability. However he tells us that Muu, the second Tsuchikage is his former master, he taught him Dust element techniques and is able to combines earth, wind and fire elements. No wonder it's called Bloodline expansion.
Bloodline Limit is the ability to combine two elements and creating an entirely new one, however Muu and Oonoki are able to combine 3 elements, so this is very rare.

So Tsuchikage is the one that will reinforce Gaara, so we can go ahead and predict some match-ups. We will definitely see a battle of the Tsuchkages, and a battle of Kazekages. Depending on whether Kabuto will kill their personalities, I think we might see a father-son reconciliation in the upcoming chapters. What will happen to Raikage and Mizukage? Well only time will tell, but they will definitely kill lots of Alliance shinobi, but it's certain that the outcome is still far ahead. I mean we have Kakashi's fight, Darui, Kitsuchi, and who knows what will Kishimoto insert. Even the purpose itself is to stall, so be sure that we won't see the end anytime soon.

And this is something that just backs up my predictions. Kishimoto twists the story a bit and moves the plot a bit forward. I did mention in a previous review that I'm hoping to see the Daimyous involved in the war, because they could be precious hostages, decoys or even traitors.
I think this is a good move by Kishimoto, as it portrays the war in a more realistic way, so it's not just battles and battles.

So I think I milked this chapter pretty well, but if I missed some details, then please be sure to point them out. Also warning! wall of text is inbound

Overview

I would start this part of the review, that each time a new chapter appears, it looks like Kishimoto has a certain plan in mind, we can call it the core of the chapter. Last week, he was aiming for double cliffhangers, and he pulled it off by showing Gaara, hyping Muu, but most of all Kakashi. Another thing that we could notice, not just last week, but on previous chapters as well is that Kishimoto like to build the chapter around a character or characters. Just put the said character in an exceptional situation, and show his emotions. And from that he describes the battlefield, expands Narutoverse and draw some cool fighting scenes.

This time I think the core of the chapter was: how do people react when they are being overwhelmed. There lots of mugshots, single panel appearances of certain characters that made me arrive to this conclusion. Beginning from this idea we can see how certain events, which in fact are just the appearances of the Edo shinobi, are wrapped around this core idea.

That's why I think in the area of characterization Kishimoto did a very good job this week.
The first to show a painful reaction is Gaara and I chose that panel earlier in the review. It's clear as day his feelings and most importantly his calm attitude was disturbed at the sight of his father. Then we have...

We see fear in this case, which denotes the lack of experience of the Konoha rookies. What's interesting is that these images are in total contrast with what we've seen from the Ambush squad. While in that case Omoi had some troubles, he quickly overcame them, not to mention Kankurou who showed extraordinary capabilities as squad leader in war.
We have anger and anxiety from Raikage and Hokage, as they both have their loved ones summoned by Kabuto.

However Shikaku takes the crown, with his calm attitude and his planning ability. What's another impressing feat is that he is there to predict situations, which will occur from minute to minute, so his data processing skills are amazing.

This time Kabuto didn't kill the personalities, so we have some character development from the zombies as well. The rivalry of the kages, was both hilarious, but it also offered a bit of insight into the history of this world, events in the past. This was well timed with the rivalry and tense remarks from the living kages, so along with core theme, we have something running in the background: I will call it the rivalry theme. In this case it's a little bit different from the personal rivalries that we've seen in the manga(JiraiyaxOrochimaru, NarutoxSasuke), this time the rivalry represents the attitude of the different shinobi nations towards each other.

The structure of the chapter is nothing special, as we have 2 battlefields presented and HQ's reaction to the developments, but if we consider thw core idea of the chapter that I mentioned earlier, then we can that the evolution of the chapter is closely tied to the characterization that was shown

ain -> anger, anxiety -> calmness -> action(by showing Shizune and Mifune preparing to mobilize).

The cliffhanger is something that it is a necessity for these chapters, because the interest needs to be fed until next week. With this cliffhanger however, the plot is being added a new direction, and it feels like Kishimoto just moved it forward a little bit. Also by finally engaging all troops in battle, it can be said that there has been some plot development in this chapter, even if the pace isn't impressive. However we don't want rushed chapter do we?

The action lacked, but I think in this department, Shikaku's lecture and the details of the Alliance's strategy makes up for it, a bit.

The art was nothing special either, because as mentioned before, there were no dynamic fighting scenes to portray, and no epic entrances, that would've deserved double-spreads. This time the focus was on the characters and their feelings, reactions, so from art point of view I think this is the highlight of the chapter.

In the end, judging by how the chapter was built up, the amount of characterization or development, plot development and cohesion, action and art, the chapter receives 8.5/10.

Predictions/Want to happen

I think Kakashi will definitely show up in the next chapter, either as focus character or just a cliffhanger. And we should see the first exchanges of the troops, while we are shown the mobilization of the different divisions.
The highlight of the chapter should be Gaara, and his interactions with his dad, and expanding on this idea, another possible cliffhanger would be Oonoki arriving on the battlefield.

I don't know if I'm asking too much with this, since I already enlisted lots of stuff, but I definitely want the plot to move forward. The best way would be showing Zetsu and his sneaky action regarding the Daimyous, but I wouldn't Madara, Kabuto, or even Naruto to be shown with a little bit of detail.

Before we wrap up everything, I have to apologize if I was anything but clearing up things in the Overview part. I'm still not used to this format, and ideas are swirling around in my head, in addition to my tired post-exam mind.
But it's not tired enough to forget thanking Binktopia for their good job again this week.

In addition to these thanks, we have another round by thanking all the people who voted in the poll last week, and nobody got what he or she wanted

. I guess being unpredictable is a good thing right? :tem

See you around, thanks for reading this! :beer