On the other hand, Naruto...
...is bad again (surprised?). I'd feel bad about blatant copypasta here, but damn if it isn't easier than ranting about a series I'm just reading to see it to completion.
"Its been a couple weeks, time for one of my patented long posts. I liked the last couple chapters, I really did, but this one puts me back at pissed off. I won't even dwell on Naruto being captured, he's still got another clone yet, (and kudos to Kishi for setting a limit on that, he can only make 2 sage mode copies, even his chakra only goes so far) its not over by at least 2 chapters yet.
The problem is, everyone else put in a piss poor showing, or none at all. This is probably the last arc any of the secondary characters had a chance to do anything, and a perfect opponent for it too... a guy with SIX bodies, and a whole shitload of different strengths and weaknesses, attacks their village where they ALL ARE. One that can't deal with physical attacks? Perfect for Lee! (one that was immune to physical attacks would ALSO be perfect for Lee, for different reasons.) One that summons animals? Perfect for Kiba! One that does... uhm...soul stealing? That mighta been interesting for Shino, who can summon thousands of bugs to sacrifice and screw up the technique. Or Ino, who can send her spirit and mind off into another body temporarily. I haven't thought about it at all, but that right off the top of my head.
You know, honestly, I don't even remember what the different Pains did anymore. They never made enough of an impression for me to bother finding out.
And Naruto one-shotted so many of them, its just meh. The point is, it was a great chance, and in the same ammount of space, to utilize the long neglected other characters. They could have all gotten grueling great fights pushing them to the limit. They didn't even have to *win*, just find weaknesses or stall. (But Konohamaru gets to KO the guy that KILLED KAKASHI?)
Instead, everyone is standing back while Super Saiyin Naruto one hit ko-s everything, and everyone is BLATANTLY saying "He is so far beyond our level we'll just get in the way, we are useless and there's no point in trying to do anything but hide." Which is the bullshit part. Kishi is completley pulling the Dragonball moment where Goku arrives and kicks ass, which is satisfying, but he's misisng out on the best most dynamic part.... He's unfortunatley pulling from the Cell saga, where it was entirely one man shows, instead of the much better Saiyin or Frieza sagas where everyone contributed.
In Dragonball, where EVERYBODY took on Nappa, or Frieza's 4 forms, and gave their all, used teamwork and every move in their arsenals, falling one by one, until Goku showed up. And then, goku suffered for an entire extra volume using EVERYTHING in his arsenal, including Kaikoken 20, hiding underwater, fireballs galore, techniques that requires his friends to stall some more (spirit bomb) failing,, and THEN, only when his closest friend was killed, only THEN did he go Super Saiyin and start kicking Frieza's ass easily. (Or during the Vegeta fight. Yajirobe hid behind rocks the entire time for a panel here or there, but still paid off in the end when he had a shining moment of cutting off giant monkey Vegeta's tail. While taking up a total of maybe, 6 panels in the course of 20 chapters. Or Krillin got the spirit bomb energy at the end, and Gohan ALSO got to shoot it)
Naruto skipped the steps where all his friends failed and Naruto struggled a little,. And its not because Kishi didn't want to take the time to do this, he just neglected it, because there were like, TWENTY CHAPTERS OF PAIN INVADING KONOHOA BEFORE NARUTO ARRIVED. PLENTY of time to do what I described. And now, all Naruto's FRIENDS are whimpering and hiding and saying we'll never be useful in a fight again, ever. Which is the ultimate insult to the characters, who have already ben neglected for 200 chapters. Its not even as if we're asking for a Dragonball Z level of epic, or standard Bleach pacing where every sidecharacter gets 4 chapters to fight. ALL I want, is each of Naruto's friends, making an attempt, for TWO pages. Thats enough time to do a technique, and then get knocked down, making the villain nastier and more impressive. Could burn through everyone in a chapter or two, instead of having them stand there, MULTIPLE times, going "We'd better not get in the way!"
Can't at least ONE of them defy their parents and say "Screw you and your caution, I care about Naruto, he's my friend, and if I can buy him even one second of extra time he needs, then its worth the risk!" Especially when he is, you know, desperatley trying to stall for time now.
If Kishi *has* to play that card where they'd just be in the way, have one of them actually run out to help, and ACTUALLY get in the way. Taken hostage or distract Naruto at a crucial moment. If, instead of Hinata complaining "I want to help Naruto" "No don't, he's beyond us" "But..." I'm just using Hinata as the example here because she showed up this chapter, this can be Kiba or Sakura or anyone you pick, the example is the same. Instead, have Hinata run out, try to punch Pain in the back once, where he then turns and smacks her down, Naruto then goes wide eyed and furiously punches Pain in the face with the half second that bought. OR Naruto rushes forward and takes a critical hit to the back he wouldn't have otherwise while protecting Hinata from a deadly blow. It would take 1 page, maybe a page and a half. Exactly the same ammount of time taken here for them to say "No, don't do anything." and certainley less time than its taken to be told "No" 3 times.
It would be a better showing for Naruto's friends, it would make Pain seem nastier and more powerful, it would strengthen Naruto's resolve more, AND make him seem more badass for protecting his friends and fighting harder while he screams "Get away from here! I appreciate the help but I don't want you getting hurt!"
Same exact page count. Way more character, personality and depth. ESPECIALLY now that its down to the last strongest Pain.
This fight isn't over yet, so maybe the other characters will come into play yet and it'll be more satisying by the end, but given Kishi's track record all of part 2, I'm not counting on it.
Doesn't help that Pain is the most bland nondescript Naruto villain ever. He even had 6 bodies but they didn't have different personalities. Pain's emotionlessness doesn't make him cool or emo, it just makes him... really... REALLY boring as a villain. He has no wicked glee or empathy, no hopes or dreams or jokes or banter with sidekicks, I'm not feeling ANYTHING as he gets beaten down. Sure he caused a lot of destruction, but he didn't gloat about it, he didn't feel bad about it. I don't empathize with his grand scheme and think "he may be right", and I also don't hate him for what he's done, because he's just not... caring about what he does. Nappa, Vegeta and Frieza enjoyed hurting people and destroying cities and worlds. Zubuza cared about Haku. Bone guy knew he was dying, but did it for lord Orochimaru. Deidara was having fun showing off his artful creations and had color commentary from crazy Tobi. 5 hearts guy relished in te fact he was immortal. Pain is just sort of... doing it. Because. its just like killing mindless robots, which is dull.
Villains are one of Kishi's strongest points, and Pain is just... easily... the most boring out of the entire manga. (I still say if all of them had Sock Pain's crazy grin, this would feel ENTIRELY different and scarier, as opposed to the bored emotionless-ness.)"
...Annoys me a little that it's as popular as it is, yet every single other series I read weekly is just worlds better (One Piece, HunterXHunter, Fairy Tail, Air Gear, Tenjo Tenge, Eyeshield 21, Bakuman, Claymore, GANTZ, JoJo (Steel Ball Run, 'spefically), Kurohime... and onward)... 'cept maybe Bleach. I just can't be sure, 'cuz it's boring me to tears right now.
---
Funny things I hath encountered in my travels on the internets!
THE GREAT FINAL FANTASY VI BREAST CHALLENGE
...This is kinda like that Lazytown remix K' posted the other day. I can't be sure if this is proof of how awesome the internet is, or how unremittingly horrible. I think this falls pretty soundly in the latter category. With a BOIN'.
Literally, Zero Punctation
On the other hand, this falls squarely in the former category. With fast-talking-angry-brit-aussie-and-stick-figure-action!
And THESE blow EVERYTHING above out of the water.
LET'S DESTROY METAL GEAR
The rest follow from the bottom of this page up, if you're too much of a neanderthal to navigate it on your own: (let's continue to destroy metal gear) Keep reading them, they only get better as the comics progress.
...But who the hell am I trying to entertain? No one reads this! (*drops pants, moons monitor*)
Now, back to brainstorming for Hanvinren (which has been going surprisingly well!) which is fast becoming FILM NOIR / LAW & ORDER (chunk chunnnnk), and studying those reference materials 'Tina gave me. And writing my turn. And workin' on that shop I've been neglecting. And workin' on my poor neglected short stories. And...(etc.)
"Its been a couple weeks, time for one of my patented long posts. I liked the last couple chapters, I really did, but this one puts me back at pissed off. I won't even dwell on Naruto being captured, he's still got another clone yet, (and kudos to Kishi for setting a limit on that, he can only make 2 sage mode copies, even his chakra only goes so far) its not over by at least 2 chapters yet.
The problem is, everyone else put in a piss poor showing, or none at all. This is probably the last arc any of the secondary characters had a chance to do anything, and a perfect opponent for it too... a guy with SIX bodies, and a whole shitload of different strengths and weaknesses, attacks their village where they ALL ARE. One that can't deal with physical attacks? Perfect for Lee! (one that was immune to physical attacks would ALSO be perfect for Lee, for different reasons.) One that summons animals? Perfect for Kiba! One that does... uhm...soul stealing? That mighta been interesting for Shino, who can summon thousands of bugs to sacrifice and screw up the technique. Or Ino, who can send her spirit and mind off into another body temporarily. I haven't thought about it at all, but that right off the top of my head.
You know, honestly, I don't even remember what the different Pains did anymore. They never made enough of an impression for me to bother finding out.
And Naruto one-shotted so many of them, its just meh. The point is, it was a great chance, and in the same ammount of space, to utilize the long neglected other characters. They could have all gotten grueling great fights pushing them to the limit. They didn't even have to *win*, just find weaknesses or stall. (But Konohamaru gets to KO the guy that KILLED KAKASHI?)
Instead, everyone is standing back while Super Saiyin Naruto one hit ko-s everything, and everyone is BLATANTLY saying "He is so far beyond our level we'll just get in the way, we are useless and there's no point in trying to do anything but hide." Which is the bullshit part. Kishi is completley pulling the Dragonball moment where Goku arrives and kicks ass, which is satisfying, but he's misisng out on the best most dynamic part.... He's unfortunatley pulling from the Cell saga, where it was entirely one man shows, instead of the much better Saiyin or Frieza sagas where everyone contributed.
In Dragonball, where EVERYBODY took on Nappa, or Frieza's 4 forms, and gave their all, used teamwork and every move in their arsenals, falling one by one, until Goku showed up. And then, goku suffered for an entire extra volume using EVERYTHING in his arsenal, including Kaikoken 20, hiding underwater, fireballs galore, techniques that requires his friends to stall some more (spirit bomb) failing,, and THEN, only when his closest friend was killed, only THEN did he go Super Saiyin and start kicking Frieza's ass easily. (Or during the Vegeta fight. Yajirobe hid behind rocks the entire time for a panel here or there, but still paid off in the end when he had a shining moment of cutting off giant monkey Vegeta's tail. While taking up a total of maybe, 6 panels in the course of 20 chapters. Or Krillin got the spirit bomb energy at the end, and Gohan ALSO got to shoot it)
Naruto skipped the steps where all his friends failed and Naruto struggled a little,. And its not because Kishi didn't want to take the time to do this, he just neglected it, because there were like, TWENTY CHAPTERS OF PAIN INVADING KONOHOA BEFORE NARUTO ARRIVED. PLENTY of time to do what I described. And now, all Naruto's FRIENDS are whimpering and hiding and saying we'll never be useful in a fight again, ever. Which is the ultimate insult to the characters, who have already ben neglected for 200 chapters. Its not even as if we're asking for a Dragonball Z level of epic, or standard Bleach pacing where every sidecharacter gets 4 chapters to fight. ALL I want, is each of Naruto's friends, making an attempt, for TWO pages. Thats enough time to do a technique, and then get knocked down, making the villain nastier and more impressive. Could burn through everyone in a chapter or two, instead of having them stand there, MULTIPLE times, going "We'd better not get in the way!"
Can't at least ONE of them defy their parents and say "Screw you and your caution, I care about Naruto, he's my friend, and if I can buy him even one second of extra time he needs, then its worth the risk!" Especially when he is, you know, desperatley trying to stall for time now.
If Kishi *has* to play that card where they'd just be in the way, have one of them actually run out to help, and ACTUALLY get in the way. Taken hostage or distract Naruto at a crucial moment. If, instead of Hinata complaining "I want to help Naruto" "No don't, he's beyond us" "But..." I'm just using Hinata as the example here because she showed up this chapter, this can be Kiba or Sakura or anyone you pick, the example is the same. Instead, have Hinata run out, try to punch Pain in the back once, where he then turns and smacks her down, Naruto then goes wide eyed and furiously punches Pain in the face with the half second that bought. OR Naruto rushes forward and takes a critical hit to the back he wouldn't have otherwise while protecting Hinata from a deadly blow. It would take 1 page, maybe a page and a half. Exactly the same ammount of time taken here for them to say "No, don't do anything." and certainley less time than its taken to be told "No" 3 times.
It would be a better showing for Naruto's friends, it would make Pain seem nastier and more powerful, it would strengthen Naruto's resolve more, AND make him seem more badass for protecting his friends and fighting harder while he screams "Get away from here! I appreciate the help but I don't want you getting hurt!"
Same exact page count. Way more character, personality and depth. ESPECIALLY now that its down to the last strongest Pain.
This fight isn't over yet, so maybe the other characters will come into play yet and it'll be more satisying by the end, but given Kishi's track record all of part 2, I'm not counting on it.
Doesn't help that Pain is the most bland nondescript Naruto villain ever. He even had 6 bodies but they didn't have different personalities. Pain's emotionlessness doesn't make him cool or emo, it just makes him... really... REALLY boring as a villain. He has no wicked glee or empathy, no hopes or dreams or jokes or banter with sidekicks, I'm not feeling ANYTHING as he gets beaten down. Sure he caused a lot of destruction, but he didn't gloat about it, he didn't feel bad about it. I don't empathize with his grand scheme and think "he may be right", and I also don't hate him for what he's done, because he's just not... caring about what he does. Nappa, Vegeta and Frieza enjoyed hurting people and destroying cities and worlds. Zubuza cared about Haku. Bone guy knew he was dying, but did it for lord Orochimaru. Deidara was having fun showing off his artful creations and had color commentary from crazy Tobi. 5 hearts guy relished in te fact he was immortal. Pain is just sort of... doing it. Because. its just like killing mindless robots, which is dull.
Villains are one of Kishi's strongest points, and Pain is just... easily... the most boring out of the entire manga. (I still say if all of them had Sock Pain's crazy grin, this would feel ENTIRELY different and scarier, as opposed to the bored emotionless-ness.)"
...Annoys me a little that it's as popular as it is, yet every single other series I read weekly is just worlds better (One Piece, HunterXHunter, Fairy Tail, Air Gear, Tenjo Tenge, Eyeshield 21, Bakuman, Claymore, GANTZ, JoJo (Steel Ball Run, 'spefically), Kurohime... and onward)... 'cept maybe Bleach. I just can't be sure, 'cuz it's boring me to tears right now.
---
Funny things I hath encountered in my travels on the internets!
THE GREAT FINAL FANTASY VI BREAST CHALLENGE
...This is kinda like that Lazytown remix K' posted the other day. I can't be sure if this is proof of how awesome the internet is, or how unremittingly horrible. I think this falls pretty soundly in the latter category. With a BOIN'.
Literally, Zero Punctation
On the other hand, this falls squarely in the former category. With fast-talking-angry-brit-aussie-and-stick-figure-action!
And THESE blow EVERYTHING above out of the water.
LET'S DESTROY METAL GEAR
The rest follow from the bottom of this page up, if you're too much of a neanderthal to navigate it on your own: (let's continue to destroy metal gear) Keep reading them, they only get better as the comics progress.
...But who the hell am I trying to entertain? No one reads this! (*drops pants, moons monitor*)
Now, back to brainstorming for Hanvinren (which has been going surprisingly well!) which is fast becoming FILM NOIR / LAW & ORDER (chunk chunnnnk), and studying those reference materials 'Tina gave me. And writing my turn. And workin' on that shop I've been neglecting. And workin' on my poor neglected short stories. And...(etc.)