The Depth of the Manga

[ricefarmer]

i felt the emptyness went away after the zabuza/haku saga.. never felt quite the same after that... there were times were i didn't really anticipate a naruto eps anymore sadly... http://www.gotwoot.net/forum/html/emoticons/sad.gif

[Mut]

the story is fine. if not, better than the previous storylines.

[Power PMV]

some sad episodes will probably come later, but definitely Haku's saga was pretty deep and touching.

[Trip]

so 3 freidns (Choji, Neji, Kiba) gettting killed trying to save a team mate isn't sad or touching?

[Power PMV]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Trip @ Feb 18 2004, 01:27 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> so 3 freidns (Choji, Neji, Kiba) gettting killed trying to save a team mate isn&#39;t sad or touching? </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
first, they aren&#39;t dead yet.
second, who the heck wants to save Sasuke? They are wasting their lives meaninglessly
third, Haku&#39;s saga was much cooler, cuz Haku is a badass (Neji is too, but I don&#39;t believe he will die)

[jing]

not really... not as as sad as haku saga.
i agree that hes definitely wussing out on us. perhaps something good is coming up

[PSJ]

what you think just, im sorry to say this but it sucks. if they made the story that way i would stop reading... i think its fine as it is no need to complain about it.

[kaigan]

ok, haku saga is the deepest so far. there is no doubt about that.

as for sasgay, he is no longer cool, but a whiny little biach.

[Power PMV]

he has always been a whiny little biatch except when he fought Orochimaru.

[Insomniac]

you cant tell me that these fights wont be the coolest thing ever when animated?
just imagine this arc animated and then be happy.
Naruto is an action anime mainly so this arc is appealing to that.

Shika also has several emotional speachs during this arc but if you just skim over it like its nothing then of course you&#39;re going to get nothing out of it.
the fact is that people have GROWN since the Zabuza arc, you cant expect them to be the same the whole series.

[Power PMV]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Insomniac @ Feb 18 2004, 02:05 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> you cant tell me that these fights wont be the coolest thing ever when animated?
just imagine this arc animated and then be happy.
Naruto is an action anime mainly so this arc is appealing to that.

Shika also has several emotional speachs during this arc but if you just skim over it like its nothing then of course you&#39;re going to get nothing out of it.
the fact is that people have GROWN since the Zabuza arc, you cant expect them to be the same the whole series. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
actually the fight I&#39;m really looking forward to, is the Naruto v. Gaara fight, that was badass.

[DeathscytheVII]

I was thinking that too, but Gaara&#39;s childhood past at least revisited some of those deep plots, especially Naruto&#39;s sympathy for gaara and his lonely childhood. Almost nearly made me shed a tear reading it http://www.gotwoot.net/forum/html/emoticons/smile.gif

[Legendary Nin]

I really don&#39;t care for this last arc (I rather call it saga) in the story.Its being dragged out too much.It has had its good points,but Kishimoto just seems to be slapping things toghether to get a chapter out.

[Power PMV]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Legendary Nin @ Feb 18 2004, 02:17 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I really don&#39;t care for this last arc (I rather call it saga) in the story.Its being dragged out too much.It has had its good points,but Kishimoto just seems to be slapping things toghether to get a chapter out. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
I agree with that, it is getting repetitive.

[Mut]

3 people that should be never be heard/seen from again:

hinata - wuss
gaara - talks about his personal problems too much
shino - doesn&#39;t talk

[iraki]

You are right Kakashi, I also think the Wave Country episodes/chapters were the best, not only because of Haku/Zabuza, but the teamwork between Sasuke and Naruto while first fighting Zabuza and later when they fought Haku in the Ice Mirror thing. And as you said, the story about the Hero of the Wave Country was really touching.

You also mentioned some scenes that you also thought was quite good, and I want to add one, It&#39;s when Shino fought Zaku during the Chunin Exam, and we had a chance to see about Zaku&#39;s past, I really loved that moment, the music were great and it were really touching/sad.

[XwingRob]

Hmm...I always thought the &quot;Neji&#39;s bird in the cage stuff&quot; were really deep.

Edit: But yeah the whole Wave Country arc was cool becaused they worked together, we haven&#39;t really seen much teamwork since then.

[Slain]

i agree with insomniac http://www.gotwoot.net/forum/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[Insomniac]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>actually the fight I&#39;m really looking forward to, is the Naruto v. Gaara fight, that was badass. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

if you&#39;re saying that this arc is drawn out then you wait till Naruto vs Gaara gets animated, prepare for 8+ episodes of JUST this fight.

the sound nins fighting will be the highlight of action in Naruto, although it may seem &#39;boring&#39; to some because its not seemingly to go anywhere storywise there are links of friendship being forged and the team starting to trust each other.
in terms of animated fights this arc will definately be one of the best for anime watchers, we as manga readers expect deep storyline in each chapter and when that doesnt happen we start comparing the arc to the rest of the series?

i say enjoy it for what it is, not what it isnt.

[jing]

personally i thought that if they ended naruto at zabuza saga it might have been oerfect.
so does anyone wanna think of an alternative ending which might occur after zabuza saga??

[Death BOO Z]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (jing @ Feb 18 2004, 07:32 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> personally i thought that if they ended naruto at zabuza saga it might have been oerfect.
so does anyone wanna think of an alternative ending which might occur after zabuza saga?? </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Sasuke stays dead, everybody&#39;s happy.

[Raven]

I personally wouldn&#39;t be happy if Sasuke died, don&#39;t generalise like that.

Hatake Kakashi, you made some good points, and I agree with you to a certain extent, although I am enjoying the current arc.
I believe that the deepness and emotion will return as soon as Itachi enters the storyline on a more permanent basis.

[Insomniac]

i cant say that i hate this arc, its the most fight heavy arc theres been. It&#39;ll be awesome animated but obviously some people are expecting the whole series to be just Zabuza and Haku &#39;like&#39;

there have been plenty of deep moments since then i dont know how you can say its lacking depth.
Zabuza and Haku was the stepping stone for Naruto to get accepted as a series, it was the hookline that got alot of people watching and liking it but if you&#39;re expecting the same kind of things over and over then honestly shouldnt you be watching a drama?

on a side note: Kimimaro is going through the same thing as Haku, being used as a tool even if it means his death.

[PSJ]

personally i cant see why everybody cries over the haku arc and that it was so good. first of it was the wave country arc not haku, he was just a side chracter brought in to give some sadness... i think the improtant part in the wave country arc was naruto&#39;s feelings towards the stuff that happened not which characters that died or had a sad past sure it adds feeling to it but the improtant part is still naruto&#39;s feelings. that is what we miss out in the recent arc. thats why we dont like it. i dont think it is wrong with some fighting but something have to happen after all this fighting, something emotional.

[Vagabond]

I think the thing that is bothering people is that we have to wait. I dunno how long you guys have been watching the anime and reading the manga but i doubt you&#39;ve been waiting each week since 1999 to read the manga. During the wave country arc nothing seemed dragged out because when you read a chapter you didn&#39;t have another week to read the next chapter it was already available. But now when we read on chapter we have to wait a week for the next one to come out. It makes it seem really dragged out but it is really only our imagination.

I dunno.

[PSJ]

could be that cause the arc with sound 4 is roughly about 20 - 25 chapters this far and that isnt much. you read that in like 1 hour.

[villin]

The problem as I see it is that Kishimoto overlooked the prime opportunity to keep the story advancing. That was the introduction of the Atasuki organization. Here he had a perfect opportunity to move from the more Orochimaru centered main bad guy role to the main villains being the Atasuki group. The perfect tie in was Itachi&#39;s relationship between both Orochimaru and Sasgay. He could have had Sasgay side with Orochimaru only for both of them to get owned by Itachi and his newly captured demon Gaara. Thus leading us to a storyline involving the lust for power of the Atasuki organization and the introduction of new members of the Atasuki. This is the inevitable direction of the storyline and by dragging out the current story arc far beyond where it should have ended is really bringing down the enjoyment of the story in my opinion.

[jing]

i agree with shino.. hasn&#39;t done much of importance yet
but i like hinata, so i rather have her on.
same with gaara. gaara needs new move though...

[Hatake Kakashi]

Alright, I was thinking back to the Wave Country arc, and realized that during that time, this series was deep. It was just starting out and Kishimoto had a lot going in regards to the plot, even though it was not really all thought out yet.

The relationship between the 3 Gennin and Kakashi was very well done. Naruto being jealous of Sasuke, Sakura having a crush on Sasuke, and Sasuke&#39;s mysterious motives were yet to be fully revealed to us, so he was/is damn cool.

Then their is the whole thing with Kaiza saving the village, then Gatto really tearing him up to make an example out of him. We haven&#39;t seen anything that [i]demented[/i for quite some time.

Then their is the friendship between Naruto and Inari. It wasn&#39;t very complicated, but tell me you didn&#39;t almost shed a tear at the conclusion of the Wave Country Arc, especially when you saw it animated.

To top it all of we have the entire Tool Called Shinobi thing between Haku and Zabuza. A complicated and a bit confusing relationship which Kishimoto has still not come close to developing again.

I am not sure if anyone else is with me, but I think he wussed out on us.

Their are times where he has come close to this level of manga quality like:

Tsunade&#39;s Phobia
Itachi/Sasuke Flashback
Sandaime&#39;s Family Speech while fighting Orochimaru.
Chouji&#39;s Sacrafice-Shikamaru&#39;s friendship
Neji&#39;s hatred for the Hyuga

All good storylines, but I don&#39;t feel the same way for them as I do for the stuff that happened in Wave Country.

But really, I still don&#39;t think that the depth of this series is up to par with the Wave County Arc.

Especially the recent &quot;Lets chase Sasuke in a barrel through the woods for 4 months&quot; thing. Sure people are going all suicide and stuff, but it just seems like taking the easy way out.

I don&#39;t know, perhaps this is just because the Wave Country arc was the first, it will always be the one to top in my mind.

Let me know what you think.

[Hatake Kakashi]

I just hope he starts to advance the storyline again.

He did really well in Chapter 203...but as good as that was, it was almost the opposite in 204. It is alright to focus on a one on one fight when it is the main character or someone that has a pretty big following, but Kiba and Akamaru didn&#39;t deserve a while chapter. Kishimoto is just stretching this out even more, he needs to end this arc and have a conclusion for it that advances the storyline.

We do want answers to about 1,000 questions after all.

[Raven]

I think you&#39;ll probably get your wish dazzz, for a little while at least;

Gaara we will never see again, mark my words, his arc is over, he learnt his lesson and he went home. It would just be cheesy and rehased if he made another appearance.

Hinata might be on the sidelines every now and then for one panel, but as for doing missions or actual combat, I doubt it, she&#39;s just too weak compared to other characters to be worth it.

It was said about Shino that he is currently on a mission with his dad. A slightly poor excuse for the fact that Kishimoto has nothing for him to do, so it&#39;ll probably be a while before we see him again.

[Everon]

We don&#39;t know shite about Shino. Hopefully that remains the same throughout the naruto series, because he seems to be the most like a ninja. I could see him becoming a &quot;tool&quot; of the fire country.