Naruto - 640

With Cynical returning to the land of terrorists, and Bleach being on a 5 week hiatus, I thought 'Naruto needs to be covered, and I have the spare time'. Where does this spare time come from considering I've had to delay many reviews substantially recently? Well, my summer holidays have just begun, hence I can do more productive things asides from sitting in a class listening to lessons (and catch up with everything I'm behind on). With the absence of Bleach, and One Piece, this Wednesday seemed particularly bland. I don't remember being so bored by a Weekly Jump Release (recent Yamada-kun to 7 Nin certainly didn't help), and the latest Naruto abysmally failed to alleviate my mood.

Obito trying to pierce Naruto and Sasuke's brains
(Not that it'd work on our Naruto)

First off, I can't follow any of this action! Sure, when the scene is animated, anyone can get away with the 'Being too fast for the eye to catch' vanishing trick (*cough* Dragonball *cough*). However, this is a mere manga. No matter how good the content is, you can't just leave giant gaps in the battle everywhere, especially when the scenes don't converge into one solid flow. Manga is frozen into a section of time. It will never flow, though the trick can be used to a successful degree in moderation. But... I think Naruto is beginning to overdo it, which is why I severely disliked the action here, as it felt too shoddy, and dismal to have come from the pen of such a talented mangaka. Naruto these days is just booooring. Bring back the good times!

Oh no! I was 'Made in China'!

However, one thing done right was the emotional development. What does that mean? To be honest, I don't quite know if I've got the right term or not. Basically, we're shown despite how warped, and depraved Obito has become, he still retains his human heart (and in an essence, the Will of Fire). By clinging desperately to this one shining memory he has, in particular of Rin, Obito is able to muster the conviction to reassert control over the Ten-Tails. Quite odd though, seeing as at the moment, he hates most of them, and doesn't have a real motive whatsoever to start this war, or obtain absolute power. He could be trying to resurrect Rin, although I highly doubt that's possible.

An accident happened in Naruto

Finally, Obito shows his true colours as the most OP villain in all of anime and manga (in contrast with the protagonist). Not only is he 500 billion times stronger than Naruto, it seems he's taken on the mantle 'Sage of the Six Paths'. Being the baddy and all that, he decides to test out his newfound powers of evil on the first person he comes across. Oh, that's his teacher, Minato. Sticks a mini-nuke to him, and blows it up when he returns to Naruto + Sasuke. As of now, it seems impossible Jiraiya's prophecy (the one about the student who can change the world) will be fulfilled. Unless he secretly taught Obito, or Naruto pulls of the most bullcrappy lecture of all time, Kishimoto has a lot of 'Steer the story back on track' to do.

Minato's small prick is no match for Obito's long black di-stick

As my senpai said: "I can understand that the manga becomes your day job for the mangaka of such Shonens, but that's severely lacking in artistic integrity, which inevitably leads to a lesser product. Why don't Shonen mangaka use shorter stories to make some money, and to get some acclaim, and then creating a new manga, where they can go in a different direction, allowing them to learn from the different experience. If it fails, return to the cash cow as a "triumphant return". But if it succeeds, you have the previous option as well as the options of a) continuing this new series, if it turns out to be more popular/interesting to make or b) start the process all over again. If it is the publishers that are holding back this sort of diversification for the mangaka, then I can understand, but it still sucks."

Ooooooh, shiny!