Hello minna!
Welcome to the weekly review of the weekly manga Naruto. I'm in a great mood these days, so sorry if I rush things.
Speaking of which, Kishimoto must feel the same way as I am. This week he shared us some good ol' Naruto humor, with funny scenes and light events. He even picked up the pace of the story in a way that it gave me a feeling like:"WHOAH, SLOW DOWN!"
The only ones who deserve praise for their speed are the guys from Binktopia and Mangastream. I just wish I could be quicker, but when summer comes, reviews will be out sooner than the chapter
.
So thanks to everybody who provided the chapter, so let's begin in our usual fashion.
This sounds very dark, as in prison or something, but we know that the Kages agreed that the remaining Jinchuuriki should be hidden somewhere untouchable by Akatsuki. The reason is the purpose of the war. Madara's purpose is to gather Bijuus, so it's only obvious that the villages need to protect them.
What's a surprise though, is that in the previous chapters we got the prediction from Ogama Sennin and how Kyuubi works, and this week we already witness Naruto and Bee meeting.
Three days period of time is long if one considers there's a war approaching and important preparations are to made in order to fight in it.
Let's just browse through the chapter and we'll see what preparations are made.
Cover page is Bee one of the remaining Jinchuuriki's and one of the funniest characters introduced since...let's say Tobi.
He finally gets the cover page, so he decides to "spill" some rhymes for us. I wonder how will Naruto appreciate his efforts
, since he never appreciates creative stuff, like Icha-Icha or Sakura's soldier pills.
This page is the first proof that the dark, evil faces will be absent in this chapter.
The continuation of the chapter is in the same fashion. We share some funny moments with Naruto trying to swallow the Key Frog, and Fukasaku kicking it in. I must remark the fact that he is underaged, therefore the art of using mouth and swallowing is not his thing, yet. We saw sandaime barfing out earth, even Jiraiya, he had the Key Frog stored inside himself as well, and when it appeared there was no problem. Not to mention Orochimaru, the White Cobra King of swallowing and spitting. Unfortunately this is shounen manga so the heroes are male, therefore these mouth actions are done by male characters. Is Kishimoto sexist?~no offense intended~
On a more serious note, I wonder why the Key Frog has to be stored inside somebody. I agree that it is a safe place, but is there a possibility that the Key Frog will land in the same dimension where the Kyuubi is? So when Naruto will try to gain access to Kyuubi, he will do it after a talk with the beast? If not, then why couldn't the Key Frog remain home, at Myoubokuzan, and be simply summoned when needed. I guess we'll find out, since the moment of his use is near.
Since I can't decide which is the correct answer, let's just head on with the story, Naruto swallowed the frog, then he asks for some indications about the octopus' whereabouts. He's answered by Ogama Sennin that the place where they will meet, it's a resort-like paradise, which should be a good sign, since Myoubokuzan itself is paradise-like, as we saw in a previous chapter in some colored panels.
He's summoned back to Ichiraku, with the help of a Reverse-Reverse Summon(?). This is the first time we see a technique like this. Usually the summoned character goes back by itself, so this is indeed new. First there's the usual summon where the ninja summons whatever, for several purposes. We've seen reverse summon where the animal, in this case frog summons the shinobi. The only thing similar to this Reverse-Reverse Summon is Yondaime's ST nijutsu where he places a seal somewhere, or as he said a ritual, and he appears in that place, somehow summoning himself. But even this one is something different, but I guess ninjutsu can be used in various ways, and most definitely the frogs should be pretty good with Summoning Jutsus.
Naruto finally gets some time to eat, and in the meantime he's asked to sign an autograph for 2 shinobi as they recognize him as the boy who is capable of making miracles. It's interesting how the commons villagers are changing their opinions just like that. Even the owner of Ichiraku notes that not so long ago, Naruto was the most hated boy in the village. I guess these villagers have their reasons, but their sure didn't try to bond with Naruto, so shame on you Konoha weaklings!
And just like that three days are passed, we get no info on what Kakashi is doing, what Naruto is doing, not even the Madara or Kabuto.
I mean those guys were followed by Anko what happened with them, Sasuke hasn't appeared in a while, so this seems a bit abrupt to me.
Well the kages are discussing about Akatsuki, not before exchanging a few stingy lines. The main concern is that they don't possess the necessary info in order to engage Akatsuki. As Tsunade notes that Konoha managed to find something like a base, the Kages agree that an intelligence gathering team should be assembled. I wonder who will lead that. I'm not familiar with other shinobi from the other villages, but Kakashi is a pro at tracking, he has great combat capabilities and experience as a leader, he was even near to take the mantle of Hokage, so I vote for him. He should be able to get some screen time this way, so let's hope he will end up with this responsibility.
The second topic is the hiding place of the Jinchuurikis, and Tsunade explodes from anger as she acknowledges their fighting force, so she considers they should be present on the battlefield. Gaara once again lives up to his reputation as a calm and intelligent Kage, and he proves that he is peer of the other Kages at the table. Naruto is considered as a reckless shinobi who would do anything for his friends, so from this point of view that's the exact opening Akatsuki would exploit. After things calm down Raikage reveals the place where they will be hidden, and he says that it is an island where he and his brother trained together.
If we analyze tha panel a bit, we see that there are some new faces behind two of the Kages. First is Raikage's secretary, who appeared only a few times, without any great influence, and the second is a shinobi fro Iwa who is the escort of Tsuchikage.
Seeing these faces I dare to say that this war will introduce these people's capabilities, and furthermore I hope we will see Shikaku's full capabilities as he is the escort of Tsunade.
Mifune as always is the moderator of the talks and we see the bald samurai behind him as guard. The last time we saw the guy was when they apprehended Juugo and Suigetsu. I mean I think they apprehended them. Basically I wonder what's up with those guys. Will theire fate be the same as Karin's rotting in a cell, never ever appearing again, or we will get to see their ugly faces in action?
As we think about this let's check out the place Raikage proposed
Not the paradise Naruto expected I guess.
His reaction is natural, this island is like Konoha's Forest of Death, but probably a little bit more extreme than that as the Kumo escort explains. He continues with the explanation and he says that there's something else on these shores, that needs attention. Ironically that something else appears scaring everybody except Naruto who's in awe as he thinks that he finally met his enlightment in the form of the octopus.
We witness some funny scenes as he starts to number the tails of the creature, which turns out to be a squid afterall. But there's no disappointment, because the real octopus appears and repels the attack of te squid.
I love and hate what Binktopia did with Bee's rap rhymes. The first one, where he addresses te squid is super-funny and a nice translation. The second one where he greets the crew of the boat sucks as hell, but I guess it's difficult to find a good translation to something like that. So applause to the translator who tried to spill somw rhymes for us. Cheers!
Quick summary/OpinionsWell...just like the rhymes...I love and hate the chapter as well. I from character development POV, story progression point of view and action point of view is a dud.
We started out with the exact same event as last week's ending. The issue is to find Bee. Than we skipped three days of development which in times of war, has to potential to be highlighted, to witness a meeting where the decision already existed, beforehand. The meeting's probably only good point was the decision of forming a team of spies, who would search for Akatsuki.
Than we get to see Naruto and Bee meeting, but there's no real meeting, they just see each other.
But what can people expect from 15 pages, which have 3 doublespreads.
What's the positive in this chapter is the humor and the light events that are happening. We sure needed a break from all this responsibility, plotting, preparing for the war thing, but of course I think there was no need for entire chapter to be consumed for this purpose.
The faces Naruto makes are memorable, each page has a different mood, and presents Naruto in his usual mood.
The art is not be ignored as well, the doublespreads are great, I love when they exist(they are easy to crop to get images for the review
). Bee's entrance is also great, and it adds to the importance of the moment.
Basically a 7/10. The thing is these chapters are setting up the war, and each character's role in it. Naruto doesn't know that he will skip most of the war, and I bet even Bee is not aware that he is hidden, though I don't think he would care. But in my eyes a chapter has to accomplish some standards, and even if this time the humor and art made up for the lack of other elements it's still not enough.
Predictions/Want to happenI though about the interesting skip of three days Kishi performed. And I think next chapter will show us what Sasuke or Madara has done in this period of time, or at least show them in paralell with Naruto meeting Bee. I don't know if the Alliance meeting will continue, but there's this espionage team issue. As we've seen the countries already planned the use of their forces, so a quick overview of that plan should be showed as well.
But the main attraction of next week's chapter will be definitely the meeting between Naruto and Bee. So funny moments are expected between the two, but I expect Yamato to join the convo, since he was absent for a while(we thought he would be still sitting in that house).
There's nothing more I have in mind here except probably the fact that I'm 100% sure that we won't see Sasuke's EMS.
That's all folks. Appreciate the work Binktopia and Mangastream did, and maybe appreciate this review as well :sweat. If not than read the chapter again and enjoy the humor while it lasts:D
Mata ne!
