@tarrin4ever:
Eww, the Naruto hate has turned stale in here. It use to be ok, but now you'll just make a post consisting of any plot point whatsoever and adding a lame snark about it.
The chapter's not that good, but it wasn't that bad either.
I like and enjoy the series, and for the last two weeks have given it props for being a good chapter, and any problems I had I've explained in detail. I consistently make posts talking about or discussing the good aspects of Naruto, and I always challenge those that liked what I see to be bad parts, to explain why they are good, and change my mind. Usually the best they muster is "it wasn't that bad" or they ignore all my points entirely, which is dissapointing. I WANT to love the series and appreciate the good stuff. Feel free to adress any of the points I'm about to make, and convince me otherwise. Thats what debate and forums are all about after all.
The consensus in general has been that Naruto showing up and kicking ass was really good in standard shonen fashion, but the shortcuts execution and payoff Kishimoto took to get there, were not. In the last 20 chapters, we've gotten this.
+Naruto is off on a training mission. Nothing new or unusual about that, but its with frogs, and he's going to master Juraiya's techniques, which is kinda cool. (why he didn't do this during the 3 year time skip, I dunno.)
-The entire village doing a lousy job defending itself, surprise attack or not, they had a much better showing during the Orochimaru invasion
-Kakashi's final fight, despite being in the series since the start and one of the elites, and one of the best characters, was pathetic and short. Roughly six pages and two attacks over three chapters or so.
-The complete lack of any competant fighters, with anbu and Chunin alike failing to do much of anything. None of the previous central characters, like Shikimaru, Rock Lee, Kiba, or Neji, even get fights
-ten year old Konohamaru EXACTLY copying Naruto's fighting style with rip off moves
–---somewhere around this point, Naruto realizes he can somehow cheat at his training using his copies. The specifics have not been explained yet, but the exact same phrase of "look left and right at the same time" sets it up. Incredibly lame because thats how Naruto cheats at everything. This bad execution gets extra negatives.
-The entire village respecting and admiring Naruto, and counting on him as the next hokage and their only hope, despite there never being an onscreen instance prior where they displayed such respect or assurance that Naruto was by far their superior. At best up till then, Naruto had been on several risky missions and shown the ability to learn difficult moves quickly, nothing on the scale of him being more capable than an entire village of ninja.
-This sudden respect is especially bad, since Naruto earning the respect of the village is one of his key motivations, and one of the major points of the entire story. For all the respect to slide in off camera in one chapter of flashbacks instead of along the way is bad execution. It really should have been happening along the way.
-Kakashi dies (maybe) but Choji's father survives, wha?
-Pig girl is randomly killed in a single panel, just because? wha?
-Pains sidekick Konan, despite a cool looking power... doing NOTHING
-Pain being a lackluster villain with little to no personality, motivation, or interesting design. (Except Sock Pain. If all the Pains had that amazing crazy grin, he'd be a WAY more interesting and fun villain, sewing chaos for fun... instead of emo.)
-Hell Pain being super cheap in that he keeps undoing the work thats already been done by reviving already beaten opponents.
+++Characters that were once central like Lee, Shino and Kiba (and their similar ability parents/mentors!) FINALLY show up and are reintroduced in one chapter, promising to show off and have grand battles as the badass elite reinforcement main character that they are, that we've been waiting nearly 200 chapters to see back in action again!!! Bonus pluses there, we've been waiting since the Sasuke retrieval arc to see these guys do stuff again! GREAT!!!
----...only they are to be forgotten about completley in the next chapter when....
-Pain uses an all out self damaging nuke move to destroy the village in what was basically a last resort maneuver... even though he had completley owned everyone up to that point
+(notice the pluses in this general area) the nuking of Konoha is VERY visually impressive to look at,
-The nuking of Konohoa has no heart, drama or worry to it, as we see Sakura is fine in the same chapter, and apparently the only injury sustained in the entire city wide blast was Shikimaru broke his leg.
- Naruto shows up and proceeds to one hit various Pains in satisfying fashion
+Naruto shows mastery over moves he failed with before and actual strategy
+Naruto makes some awesome visual spectacle fun to watch badassery
+kickass giant frogs
=Naruto uses up all his energy with flashy fireball attacks, apparently no plan to compensate for what happens after he runs out, when it SEEMS like he could have done the same with hand-hand. This is acceptable, as it would be boring if he completley hosed the battle like he did against 5-hearts guy and its a shonen back and forth. This is still a wait or see, depending on how he fares next week. If Naruto completley sucks again after, this becomes a negative.
-Shikimaru is specifically told "Stay away, you'll just get in the way, he's past our level" in the SAME chapter Naruto loses that advantage. If others jump in and help Naruto after specifically saying not to, extra negative.
So... yeah. I like the series. Its done some good stuff in the last bunch of chapters. But its also wasted a lot of potential and done quite a few things badly. We all liked the series at one point, enough to read it this far. If we're critical of it, its only because its dissapointing and not living up to its potential. On the good weeks, we compliment it! Fair is fair.