Naruto

Have you seen A?

The guy is an actual warmonger.

The hidden villages are all "What if we based our biggest cities around the idea of being armies/mercenaries? And your family's place in society was largely decided by if you hit the genetic jackpot or if your ancestors were really good at killing and spying?"

None of them are going to come out all that spotless if you look at it.

There’s only one real consistent theme of the story as well as the universe and that’s really just the importance of bonds. That’s about it.

Everything else seems to revolve around that or is ancillary.

Edited by MadSkillz on Aug 24th 2021 at 12:05:48 PM

Yeah, hard work vs talent isn't a theme for the series as a whole, just a theme for Lee's character arc. True, characters like the Indra and Asura reincarnations constantly have one being more talented, but it's more to show the more powerful one being alone and above others becoming an antisocial douche while the weaker one gaining strength through bonds becomes a good leader. They aren't competing to be the best ninja like it's a sports manga or anything.

I wish I had known that watching the series. It would have saved so much grief, hindsight is truly 20/20.

I wanna point out that the whole "great saviour/great destroyer" prophecy is a bit more complicated than simply "naruto is destined to save the world". Specifically, no actual confirmation of the prophecy is given beyond the Old sage (who is notoriously forgetful and is mocked by Ma Toad for being shit at prophecy) telling jiraiya a half-remembered dream that is so vague as to be nigh-useless. Like seriously, the first half is telling jiraiya to travel the world and write a book, the second half is that he will encounter someone worth teaching that will change the world, either as a great savior or a great destroyer. That's a shit prophecy.

But more than that, Jiraiya no less than three times encounters someone he thinks is his supposed pupil, drops basically everything to teach them, considers them the saviour, and three times changes his mind. First Nagato, then Minato, then Naruto. Eventually the characters reason that the prophecy is actually about two people (which, if true, is a pretty big fucking omission from a supposed telling of the future). But really, the underlying narrative is that Naruto capable of greatness because people believe and trust in him and are willing to supposed and assist him. He's not a chosen one by fate, but simply someone chosen by other people to be great. People make their own future. Naruto can do what he can not because of fate or prophecy, but because people enabled him.

As to Rock Lee being a genius of hard work, that's still true. He may not accomplish a lot on page, but he's still a kid with no talent for ninjutsu, that's able to fight on par with some of the most skilled ninja in the world through nothing but hard work. That's impressive. In part 1, he is able to pressure Gaara to the brink, which nobody at that point was capable of doing; the next person to succeed is Sasuke, who is notably someone who is enormously gifted. Not bad for a kid with no other talents.

Lastly, while the reincarnation thing is messy, it does not contradict the larger story. While it gave Sasuke and Naruto immense potential, that potential was rarely realized. Madara and Hashirama were basically the only legendary ninja that we know of. Naruto wasn't born with innate strength or skill; he still had to fight his way to the top. Sasuke was gifted, but he still couldn't compare to Itachi. He still had to train and develop his powers to be able to actually do anything.

Actually lastly,

''>There’s only one real consistent theme of the story as well as the universe and that’s really just the importance of bonds. That’s about it. ''

It amuses me that people miss the main theme of the story. It's literally Naruto's ninja creed. Never give up on your dreams. Those that gave up o fell on their way and became villains. Those that never gave up stayed heroes. Neji's story is that he never wanted to try because destiny. Naruto's is that he tried no matter how hopeless it seemed.

Edited by devak on Aug 27th 2021 at 8:19:00 PM

There is the prophecy by the sage of six paths though, and for being bad at prophecy, Gamamaru sure was accurate at the "mischievous blue-eyed boy who calls out the names of the nine beasts" thing he told the former.

Looking back on it, Neji dying to save Hinata is maybe the worst possible way his character arc could have ended. Some real unfortunate implications there.

The prophecy of the Sage of Six Paths (that the anime attributes to the toad sage) is a different one, and simply says that a blue-eyed boy would play with the Biju. It's more straightforward, but it isn't specifically about Naruto either. Blue eyes don't refer to anything special. It could've been anyone. And the same is still true: the biju cooperate with Naruto in part because he gives a shit, and in part because they believe Naruto to be the child Hagoromo talked about. Essentially the outcome is what marks him as being the target of the prophecy, and nothing else. That, and the fact that it took nearly a thousand years to come true rather suggests it too was a shitty prophecy. Vague and broadly applicable.

As to Neji dying being a shitty way to end his character arc, the answer is simply yes. After all, his wish was to see reform in the clan, and dying to save Hinata doesn't change anything. Though this is made worse by the fact that no apparent change seems to have taken place within the clan, at least none that we're shown. So Neji dies, mostly pointlessly to both his arc, Hinata's arc, and the overall themes of the story.

Edited by devak on Aug 28th 2021 at 4:02:34 PM

I brought up this Japanese channel in the Bleach forum. They made a video examining the reasons for Orihime’s hatedom, and just did the same for Sakura. Again, it’s interesting how much the Japanese and Western audiences agree on things.

• She’s a bitch early on. They point out her trivializing Naruto being an orphan and treating Lee with disgust, but acknowledge that she gets better.
• Not a particularly impressive track record in battle, especially not in Part 1.
• Her obsession with Sasuke, which they consider her biggest flaw.
• People preferring Hinata.

At the end, they acknowledge that she does mature, and seems to have less haters in Part 3.

This was a pretty good episode of Boruto.

Baryon Mode looks really good animated. I’m glad they went with red rather than orange.

Spent last week catching up on the Boruto anime. Haven't watched the newest one yet but I'm enjoying it. Don't know why it's called the Kawaki arc though. This arc started 29 episodes ago and only the first 7 episodes are actually about him as a character. Otherwise he's just a plot device.

Edited by Chariot on Sep 19th 2021 at 11:29:17 AM

@Chariot That's definitely not true. Half the arc has to do with developing Kawaki's connections with the Uzumaki family.

Like they even had an entire episode of Kawaki bonding with Himawari back in episode 209.

And even the Delta fight serves to heal the animosity between Kawaki and Boruto when he saves Himawari. And that segues into Kawaki asking Naruto to be his sensei which is followed up Kurama having a chat with Kawaki where Kurama shares Naruto's story with Kawaki and tells Kawaki that he could become like Naruto. And even then that's followed up with Naruto-Kawaki training and Kawaki exploring his bond with Naruto when talking to Sarada after Naruto is trapped.

Edited by MadSkillz on Sep 20th 2021 at 1:23:30 AM

I disagree. Up until Delta shows up the arc is about him becoming part of the Uzumaki family but once she does he becomes nothing more than a plot device. Why did Delta attack the village? To retrieve Kawaki. Wby did Jigen show up? To retrieve Kawaki. The fight with Boro wasn't even about Kawaki himself but about saving Naruto and the followup to that was about bringing down his cult. Hell the only reason the current fight is happening is because the bad guy wants to use Kawaki as a vessel and we know Kawaki isn't special in that regard, he's just the most convenient. Aside from the episode with Jaggy he's barely grown at all as a person since the fight with Delta.

But that's apart from the development he gets.

The fight with Delta happens before he asks Naruto to be his student and his talk with Kurama which are important turns for him as a character

We even see some development going between Kawaki and Sarada during not only the Boro fight but before the Boro fight as well. And after the Boro fight, he starts becoming friendlier with Sumire and asking her questions about her.

So he starts opening up as a character. I do think the first half is more blatant about it but this stuff is still going on afterwards just less in your face .

I just saw this

So... anybody want to fill me in.

Baryon mode looks a lot cooler in the anime's colour scheme.

Sure. Naruto's using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique granted by Kurama to stop Isshiki from getting into Kawaki's body, with a cost. And that's all that needs to be said.

I need to watch the episode, but apparently Boruto tried the Compression Rasengan and couldn't even damage Isshiki's cubes.

Chris Hansen no jutsu, got you.

Okay, so wasn't Boruto about how Naruto would eventually get beaten by Kawaki? Are we still leading up to that.

Okay and what even is-

-googles-

It's a Rasengan where you put your hand on top of an oscillating sphere of air sharp enough to tear through most solid objects. Which somehow makes the Rasengan stronger.

Mmmmmmk.

Edited by FOFD on Sep 21st 2021 at 1:33:03 PM

We don’t know what happens actually.

But we know so far that Boruto has Momoshiki inside him, he takes out Sasukes eye to remove his powers after Naruto loses Kurama as a power boost and the only person loyal to Isshiki is trying to get revenge.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Sep 21st 2021 at 10:33:38 AM

Oh my god.

yeah the old guard has a real bad time in Bort

I shouldn't have read that spoiler. I thought I was safe as an anime only.

It doesn't help that the very first scene shows Boruto and Kawaki fighting each other and using their Karma which makes everything happening now rather pointless (Outside of expanding the lore of the Otusutsuki.).

Edited by Chariot on Sep 21st 2021 at 2:51:05 PM

That's part of why I just can't get into Bort. I want the Naruto characters to have a relatively happy ending, and ending with The Last accomplishes that fine.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Sep 21st 2021 at 1:51:01 PM

Some people on twitter have been pointing out that the way the anime portrays Naruto's glowing fists while in Baryon mode look a lot like their interpretation of Hinata's twin lion fist. It's pretty neat.