Regarding Samurai 8...
So, I love samurai stuff. Gintama and Rurouni Kenshin are among my top favourites. I don’t enjoy sci-fi at all (Gintama kept me solely due to Gintoki as a protagonist) but I decided to give the series a chance despite Kishimoto screwing over my best girl Tenten. Mifune was a cool character and I did want to see more of the samurai in Naruto...
Unfortunately, the series was an absolute mess. Massive lore dumps and terminology introduced at really strange moments, earlier issues with Ōkubo’s artwork and a lack of compelling characters and cohesion of theme really killed the series for me. There were certain interesting ideas like the non binary character Nanashi and video game combat explaining Hachimaru’s prowess but they were just handled clumsily...like most of the series.
An was the best character in the series, but having her be an energy source and damsel in distress most of the time was...a really poor decision. I know I shouldn’t be hoping for much in a shonen series, but it felt backwards. Even worse, Daruma’s master was a female character and we probably won’t even see her in action...
The last thing that bothers me was the lack of a powerful theme that really drew me in. To be honest, I didn’t like Team 7 in Naruto. Normally if I don’t like any main characters, I drop the series. It was the world in Naruto and side characters that got me to keep reading/watching it, but the Haku and Zabuza arc was fantastic. From seeing Naruto freezing up on his first mission to ending the arc on him finding his ninja way? It was fantastic, and I never felt anything like that in Samurai 8. There weren’t even any villains on Haku and Zabuza’s level (Sanda’s master was an absolute joke).
If Kishimoto does give WSJ another shot, maybe they should consider giving him an older editor instead of the younger one he got.
Sorry if this is so scattered, I have to type on a cell phone for now and I’m not really used to it.
