Naruto Shippuuden Episode 96

[Kraco]

Ugly opponent no jutsu:

Episode 96 480p (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=50276), 1080p (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=50277) - HorribleSubs



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Wasn't such a bad episode, but the scouting team was made underpowered. There's something wrong when old, named characters are almost killed by some nameless filler enemies, without a chance to land a single good hit. Especially when the said named characters already fought better than this before the time jump.

Oh, well, it wasn't such a bad episode otherwise. The extras at the end are a nice addition to the episodes - way better than the regular Naruto filler arcs. Based on this one even Hinata knows how terrible food Sakura cooks; one more reason for Sasuke to stay away from Konoha.

[Assertn]

Apparently Sakura became a notoriously bad cook...which is strange because I don't recall there ever being any reference to her cooking in the manga

[Kraco]

I reckon it started no earlier than during the time Naruto was establishing his wind alignment and Sakura supplied him with those notorious pills.

[Penner]

Ok ep... i kinda liked the way Sakura made her entrance at Narutos training place, dropping in from the sky and all, looked kinda cool tbh, other than that nothing special in this :P

And the weirdo subbers are at it again...i would have replaced "inconcievable" with "no way" but i thought sure whatever, i can roll with that....then i think i heard one of the bad guys call another one aniki and they went with "broseph"...what the fuck? :P

Also, this made the whole Konoha crew look like weak ass pansies.

[Azonalanthious]

I don't know that Konoha performed that badly. Its bad (ie typical filler) writting that the just happened to face foes that could blanket smell and were immune to Hinata's style of attacks, but given those limitations they performed reasonably well. Kiba took one hit while blinded, then fell back, found away around the smoke which was limiting his abilities, and rejoined the fight - a decent response. Hinata, who is (in my opinion) the weakest of the bunch to begin with matched her foe blow for blow - 2 hits to 2 hits - and got her hits in first. If it weren't for the bad character design in making her foe immune, she would have likely won that portion of the fight. Shino we didn't see in the fight, but sounds like he almost pulled of an good ambush. And Kakashi's foe was the strongest of the lot (remember they said in the fight for survival, he made it fighting by himself while the other four had to work as a team), and even so he beat him cleanly without using sharingen if he had just stuck the kunai in instead of holding it at his neck. And even afterwards, he clearly landed a blow with his rakuria even if it wasn't a fatal one.

All in all... still a filler ep, but much better then the last few.

[DarthEnderX]

I thought this episode was pretty good. I mean, okay, it's filler character, but just because a character is in a filler doesn't mean it has to be weak. It mostly just seemed like Kiba and Hinata lost their rock, paper, scissors matchups, and both got hit by powers that were especially effective against their specific abilities.

The villains powers are neat too. The big guy has a strong mode/fast mode, one guy has a smoke cloud that also blocks scent, and another has yoga stretchyness. It's a good mix I think.

[Kraco]

Um... Yeah. So, it's okay for filler characters to be adaptive but our old, named heroes should be left helpless if the opponent happens to be immune to their main attack..? I don't think so. Surely at this point, being chuunin and all, they should have secondary attack forms, which would allow some degree of resistance even if inferior to their primary one. Why didn't Hinata have a single kunai, for example and for heaven's sake? The dude looked like a gum sausage, so she should have been able to cut it easily enough (no bones) into nice slices fitting into a frying pan perfectly.

And since it's obvious a dog man like Kiba relies on his nose, it should be of utmost importance for him to be able to cover that weakness if ever needed. Even if it meant fighting at partial power. Now he could do nothing but leave Hinata behind and run. A really nice choice, considering the enemies had a number of men out there, who could have ganged up on Hinata and made her unsuitable for marrying anybody anymore (like they always say in anime).

[RyougaZell]

They are clan members. Despite Hinata being more 'noble' than other Hyuuga... she is still one and relies heavily on her techniques, leaving other kinds away. Inuzuka's seem to be the same way. Simply put... clans are arrogant and don't seek to cover 'weak spots' since they themselve want to believe they have none.

[Abdula]

They are clan members. Despite Hinata being more 'noble' than other Hyuuga... she is still one and relies heavily on her techniques, leaving other kinds away. Inuzuka's seem to be the same way. Simply put... clans are arrogant and don't seek to cover 'weak spots' since they themselve want to believe they have none.
What are you talking about RZ. The Hyuuga came up with Kaiten just to make up for the blindspot they have in the back of their heads. Ino, Shika and Cho fight as a trio to cover each others weaknesses. Even the Uchiha don't just rely on the sharingan, so where are you getting this from?

[Kraco]

Yeah. Sorry, but that just sounds too hilarious, RyougaZell. You become an elite clan by being unbeatable, not by vainly believing you have no weaknesses even though you yourself know those weaknesses the best. When you reach that point, you can become arrogant, but not before. Seriously, you think Neji wouldn't have beaten this rubber fellow in less than three minutes?

[Penner]

Exactly what i thought aswell, if Neji was there instead of Hinata, stretchy would have gone down quite fast.

[Azonalanthious]

Um... Yeah. So, it's okay for filler characters to be adaptive but our old, named heroes should be left helpless if the opponent happens to be immune to their main attack..? I don't think so. Surely at this point, being chuunin and all, they should have secondary attack forms, which would allow some degree of resistance even if inferior to their primary one. Why didn't Hinata have a single kunai, for example and for heaven's sake? The dude looked like a gum sausage, so she should have been able to cut it easily enough (no bones) into nice slices fitting into a frying pan perfectly.

And since it's obvious a dog man like Kiba relies on his nose, it should be of utmost importance for him to be able to cover that weakness if ever needed. Even if it meant fighting at partial power. Now he could do nothing but leave Hinata behind and run. A really nice choice, considering the enemies had a number of men out there, who could have ganged up on Hinata and made her unsuitable for marrying anybody anymore (like they always say in anime).

Hinata not pulling out a kunai is an excellent point. But Kiba I don't agree with - while important in other aspects of his ninja skill set, his sense of smell is not in any way required for his fighting style EXCEPT to help serve as a backup messure for when he can't see his foes. If there was no smoke, him not being able to smell would have made no difference. If there had been no sight but smell, he would be in the fight at partial power point you mentioned. Now, there is nothing wrong with having a backup for a backup (ok, I can't see so I'll smell, ok, can't smell either so I'll ...) but thats more the type of thing I would expect to see out of Shikamaru, with plans within plans within plans. Kiba is a brawler and a scout, not a tactition, and only one layer of backup seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[DarthEnderX]

Um... Yeah. So, it's okay for filler characters to be adaptive but our old, named heroes should be left helpless if the opponent happens to be immune to their main attack..? I don't think so.Except that no character in the series does that in the NON-filler episodes, not just in the fillers. Characters strengths get stronger, and their weaknesses become even more pronounced as the series progresses. Kakashi is pretty much the only well rounded ninja in the entire series and he still has the weakness that he runs out of gas very easily.

So yeah, filler suck. But I hate it when people bitch about something in the fillers that's in the main series as well.
Ino, Shika and Cho fight as a trio to cover each others weaknesses.That's a terrible example that proves RZ point rather than disproving it since it's 3 poorly balanced ninjas with huge weaknesses grouped together to make up for their weaknesses. They work because of group makeup, not because any of them has worked on secondary skills to remove their own weaknesses.

[Kraco]

EXCEPT to help serve as a backup messure for when he can't see his foes. If there was no smoke, him not being able to smell would have made no difference. If there had been no sight but smell, he would be in the fight at partial power point you mentioned. Now, there is nothing wrong with having a backup for a backup (ok, I can't see so I'll smell, ok, can't smell either so I'll ...)

Um... Based on the video there was several meters of visibility (the closest trees were all the time in sight). While it certainly would have meant you can't see somebody throwing a kunai or shooting an arrow at you from 20 meters, for these folks it should have been enough for tolerable defense. Why, Akamaru as a dog has so excellent hearing that he could have warned those two of anybody approaching.

[Abdula]

That's a terrible example that proves RZ point rather than disproving it since it's 3 poorly balanced ninjas with huge weaknesses grouped together to make up for their weaknesses.
I agree that wasn't a very good example but it doesn't prove RZ's point at all. What RZ said was that the clans are far too arrogant to even acknowledge their own weaknesses and here we have an example of just the opposite. Three clans who are well aware of their own weaknesses and work together to make up for them.

They work because of group makeup, not because any of them has worked on secondary skills to remove their own weaknesses.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Can you clariry?

Except that no character in the series does that in the NON-filler episodes, not just in the fillers. Characters strengths get stronger, and their weaknesses become even more pronounced as the series progresses. There is a shred of truth in that statement but come on, you're generalizing way too much. What do you mean no character in the series does that? That is just completely untrue and as far as strengths and weaknesses go I would argue that the stronger a character gets the less pronounced their weaknesses are. The only time we really notice a characters weaknesses is if they are fighting a stronger opponent that is good enough or skilled enough to be able to exploit their weaknesses, if not just overpower them completely.

[DarthEnderX]

I was certainly overgeneralizing. There are other balanced ninjas in the series.

I'm saying that in general, characters in the start of the series each had just a couple of moves that made them very task/battle type specific and most character in the series could be beaten by a generally weaker opponent if that person was a poor match up for them. the rock-paper-scissors effect we've called it.

As the series progressed, rather than these ninjas learning different abilities to cover their weaknesses, they almost always just learn more powerful versions of the same abilities. Making their strength stronger, but leaving their weakness exposed.

Kiba is a perfect example. His big attack early on was turning his dog into a clone and the two of them making a spiral attack. So when it came time for him to show his new power later, it was his dog combining to make a BIGGER spiral attack...

Lee just has "more taijutsu!"(granted, he doesn't have any other options), TenTen just throws "more shit!".

Hell, Chouji doesn't actually do ANYTHING new, he can just do stuff now normally what he used to have to take pills to be able to do.

And Naruto...Naruto is "MOAR RASENGAN!" to the max. It's ironic that he's finally trying to diversify his moveset to gain some long ranged attacks and its filler.

In fact, the only characters that have actually developed powers that changed their dynamic are the two medical chicks. In fact Sakura developed TWO completely new sets of abilities to cover her weaknesses(medic and super strength). Although in her case she would almost have to because she was all weaknesses before.

[Abdula]

Ah, okay then. I agree with you, that is part of why I always say Kishimoto is not a very good writer. He has some very underdeveloped and underutilized characters that are pretty much just fodder and to balance that out he has some extremely overdeveloped characters that fall just short of being gods, a few of them might actually be gods.

[Archangel]

Ah, okay then. I agree with you, that is part of why I always say Kishimoto is not a very good writer. He has some very underdeveloped and underutilized characters that are pretty much just fodder and to balance that out he has some extremely overdeveloped characters that fall just short of being gods, a few of them might actually be gods.

He's not that bad -_-

But i do agree that he had this tendency to develop certain characters just to pretty much forget all about them in the following arcs.

PS: I see what you did there, clever.

[poopdeville]

A show about epic battles would be pretty boring if everybody was like Shizune.

[DarthEnderX]

Like her in what sense?

[Archangel]

Like her in what sense?

Pathetically weak i suppose.

[DarthEnderX]

I don't know how weak he thinks she is. She took on Kabuto and didn't get her ass kicked and he's supposedly Kakashi's level.

Medical jutsu + shitloads of poison attacks.

[poopdeville]

She didn't "take on" Kabuto. She tried to get him with a surprise attack, and Kabuto literally caught Shizune's poisoned dart in mid-air, with his bare hand. Tsunade told Shizune to calm down.

Oh, I read through the manga, and they did fight. While Jiraiya and Orochimaru were fighting. She got her ass kicked after making 0 effective attacks, and in about 6 panels.

[DarthEnderX]

Hmm, I should watch that again. All I remember is her shooting needles at him and him blocking with his forehead protector and then her breathing a cloud of poison gas.

[Assertn]

yeah, if kabuto didn't have his forehead protector, he would've been hit with a poison dart

[RyougaZell]

I totally forgot I had posted here... duh
My point maybe was not well explained.

I meant like... Clan members may know their weaknesses, but they try to cancel them in ways known to their clan, like Hyuuga's Kaiten. But do we see a Hyuuga learning any ninjutsu based on elements? If Jyuuken was proved useless against rubber guy... then use fire jutsu on him.

Kiba... "wow, I can't smell... I know, I'll use my Tsuga to break the trees and make the wind blow"... uhh... wouldn't a Fuuton Jutsu work better and use less stamina and chackra?

That is my point. Not that they are total arrogants who ignore their weakness. More like they don't bother learning techniques outside their own clans.

[Abdula]

Was it ever confirmed that ninjas can simply just learn other elements?

[RyougaZell]

I was under the impression you can. Your 'element' is just the jutsus you learn the easiest.

I mean... we have seen Kakashi do all five elements, yet he said his element was just Raiton.

And even if you could only do one... what... does the Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Yamanaka, Akimichi, etc have no elements? They never use elemental jutsus.

[Abdula]

So it wasn't then, so we just don't know. Btw I don't want to get into this again but we've only seen Kakashi use 3 elements in canon material. Lightning, water and most people count earth too even though I've said that I don't.

As for the other clans I just don't know. Its been hinted that Ino's clan and Shikamaru's clan use some form of light-dark/yin-yang manipulation and medical jutsus are thought to also use some form of yin/yang manipulation but nothing has been confirmed so its all just specualtion.

Oh and as Naruto has proven thus far, there is alot you can do without using any nature manipulation whatsoever.

[RyougaZell]

So we don't take this too far... Im not saying they are important, heck... all Clan members don't use them. I just wished they did not just center on them and learned other things. Lee is an exception because he can't use them, but what stops all this clan members to learn techniques outside their own clans?

[Abdula]

Kishimoto. There are alot of interesting possibilities he has yet to explore which I guess is why the studio likes to play around so much with their filler material, they just go too far off the reservation sometimes.

[poopdeville]

I was under the impression you can. Your 'element' is just the jutsus you learn the easiest.

I mean... we have seen Kakashi do all five elements, yet he said his element was just Raiton.

And even if you could only do one... what... does the Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Yamanaka, Akimichi, etc have no elements? They never use elemental jutsus.

They already explained that a bloodline limit is the combination of two elemental chakras. So they Hyuuga do use elemental chakra. Kishimoto has put off explaining how things like medical jutsu and the shadow bind work. Still, there might be a "shadow element" that hasn't been properly introduced. Cloning seems to be "elemental" -- there's the water clone and earth clone and wood clone -- and the shadow clone? The shadow bind might use it too.

But I don't think you can learn an element outside of your "affinity". Kakashi might be an exception, since the Sharingan might give him two more elements. Kakashi himself said that most jounin can use at least two, but also said that using more than 3 was very very rare (when he fought Kakuzu). Maybe learning them is so time consuming as to be pointless, since you could pull off a higher level attack with your talents in less time (like in Hunter x Hunter)

[Abdula]

They already explained that a bloodline limit is the combination of two elemental chakras.
Kakashi said being able to combine two elements to form a new one is a bloodline limit, that doesn't mean every bloodline limit is a combination of two elements. What was particularly telling is that as an example of a bloodline limit Kakashi specifically mentioned Haku. Not Neji who Naruto is familiar with, not Kimimaro or even Sasuke and the sharingan that Kakashi himself has. He specifically mentioned someone who had the exact same type of bloodline limit that Yamato does, one that is born from the mixing of two elements. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this but I think its very likely there are different types of bloodline limits.

[Azonalanthious]

I meant like... Clan members may know their weaknesses, but they try to cancel them in ways known to their clan, like Hyuuga's Kaiten. But do we see a Hyuuga learning any ninjutsu based on elements? If Jyuuken was proved useless against rubber guy... then use fire jutsu on him.

Kiba... "wow, I can't smell... I know, I'll use my Tsuga to break the trees and make the wind blow"... uhh... wouldn't a Fuuton Jutsu work better and use less stamina and chackra?

I think a large part of this is that ninja techniques are pretty tightly held. Think about it - we know there are clans that are basicly exclusive practitioners of their basic techniques (heck, Hyuga, whole branch family basicly there to help keep their secrets), forbidden techniques that you aren't supposed to learn, rival villages who don't want to give away their secrects to others, ninja dedicated to retreving bodies just in cast something can be learned from them...

The impression I've gotten is that the creation of truly new techniques is very rare, so a ninja is unlikely to create a new ability to fill in a gap in their existing ones. So they look to what others can teach them instead. And even in a close knit village like Konoha, those who can and will teach them are often going to be their own elders, who use similar techniques but with much greater refinement. And those elders can't teach what they don't know. And even when they can get someone else to teach them, it has to be something they can master.

Take Kiba for example - he hasn't had all the training Naruto had to master chakra control and Naruto needed that to master elemental manipulation, and even with the billion clone technique it took a while. So it would probably take impractically long for him to learn a wind elemental technique starting from scratch. But he already understands the basics of dog ninjitsus, so would have a much easier time picking up additional tricks there.

Sasuke goes the other why - he already was familar with elemental manipulation from his work with fire. So it was comparitively easy for Kakashi to train him in Chidori, since it was just another form of elemental manipulation. But if Sasuke wanted to learn Kiba's techniques with animals, it would take far longer since he has no base to start with.

So while most ninja probably do work to fill in their blind spots, its probably a lot harder to master an area you aren't experienced in them it is to pick up a few new tricks with something you already know. So as a consiquence, we see the few new tricks far more often then the major addition to a skill set.

Bah, that ended up far more longwinded then I intended... :rolleyes:

[Archangel]

Oh boy...

- The animation was bad

- The subbing was bad

- The enemies were weird

- Konoha looked like a village of losers

Probably the biggest failure in the whole episode was Hinata's performance.
Yeah ok, so she's no Neji but here's a thought:

- Jyuuken doesn't work? How about using some of those nifty ninja tools you learned about in the academy? Don't just keep using a fucking attack that you know doesn't work ffs...

I'm so done with these fucking fillers...

[Assertn]

I just couldn't bring myself to watching this ep until half a week later. It's just so boring....

[RyougaZell]

I wonder how clan members graduate from the Academy if they never bother to learn techniques outside their own clan.

And on that topic... how the hell did Lee graduate?

Kishimoto made a big thing of Naruto failing three times for not making a bunshin. The only other ninja to make Bunshins has been Sakura. None of the clan members have ever use them.

Yes... its more fun to discuss how bad this clan members are when crippled from their clan techniques instead of the episode itself.

[Psyke]

I've not watched Naruto since the beginning of the current fillers, but I've just got one point on learning from other clans. In most Chinese martial art stories where there are different sects and clans, once you join you are not allowed to learn from other styles of kung-fu or whatever. The pride instilled in the clan forbids you to use other types of skills not recognised by the sect too. Hence, perhaps this is the reason you don't see the characters learning new stuff (apart from the fact that this is filler).

[Kraco]

Yes, that would make sense in the real world but not so much in the Naruto world. The potential in Naruto is much bigger and more varied than in real life (or real history), thus also making weaknesses more pronounced. I suppose the only relevant real life comparison would have been to forbid students from learning any weapon handling. After all, a decent man with a sword can still beat an excellent unarmed man, thus creating a weakness somewhat equal to those shown in this episode.

And, well, I suppose it's getting a moot point by everything we have seen, but these fellows aren't supposed to be honourable martial artists but ninjas... For a ninja completing the mission succesfully should be more important than staying pure in your teachings and techniques.

[GreatLimmick]

Sasuke goes the other why - he already was familar with elemental manipulation from his work with fire. So it was comparitively easy for Kakashi to train him in Chidori, since it was just another form of elemental manipulation. But if Sasuke wanted to learn Kiba's techniques with animals, it would take far longer since he has no base to start with.
Sasuke also has the Sharingan. Presumably, he can learn any technique he's physically capable of learning (that is, anything but bloodline abilities and, possibly, elements he has no affinity for) just by watching someone perform it. Notice he's always got the Sharingan up when he uses Chidori? Probably because he learned it by watching Kakashi do it. Which is also how Kakashi "the Copy Ninja" apparently learned a lot of his tricks.

[DarthEnderX]

What also I find weird is that every elemental user seems to have their own version of the shadow clone. From Water Clones, to Wood Clones to now Crystal Clones. It's alot of fancy words for what is essentially all thing-that-looks-like-me-and-dies-in-one-hit-jutsu. I wish they would explain differences between them because they always do that and I'm like "why didn't you just learn Shadow Clone?"
I wonder how clan members graduate from the Academy if they never bother to learn techniques outside their own clan.

And on that topic... how the hell did Lee graduate?

Kishimoto made a big thing of Naruto failing three times for not making a bunshin. The only other ninja to make Bunshins has been Sakura. None of the clan members have ever use them.It's a pretty big plothole honestly. I mean, granted, graduation is pretty freeform and if a kid was obviously a taijutsu genius while being deficient everywhere else he could still probably get a pass.

But wasn't Lee shitty in everything before he got into Gai's squad? So like you said, how the hell did Lee graduate in the first place?

[Azonalanthious]

Sasuke also has the Sharingan. Presumably, he can learn any technique he's physically capable of learning (that is, anything but bloodline abilities and, possibly, elements he has no affinity for) just by watching someone perform it. Notice he's always got the Sharingan up when he uses Chidori? Probably because he learned it by watching Kakashi do it. Which is also how Kakashi "the Copy Ninja" apparently learned a lot of his tricks.

It was mentioned back when Sasuke first learned the technique that the core of Chidori was based around a straight thrust attack and sharingen was needed to read the enemy's responses well enough to get a straight forward attack to land. Which is why, I would assume, you always see Sasuke having it up when he uses Chidori. But certainly sharingen would have made it easier for him to learn the technique. However, to the best of my understanding, sharingen lets him see exactly how the technique is done - if he can't do the same thing though, he still isn't going to be able to copy it. Hence the fact that it can't copy bloodline limits. So if he had been unable to perform elemental manipulation, he would have had to master that before he could learn chidori even if he saw it with sharingen. As it was, even with sharingen, he still spent a month working on it before the fight with Gaara.