Naruto's Direction

[Krbadass]

I'd like to get other peoples opinion on the way the show is going. I know a lot of people are enjoying it but I think I liked the old direction it was going before. There was more involvement with the original characters ( Neji rocklee Gai Kakashi etc..) and it had more of a ninja tactical feel instead of a who has more power feel. I hate to use the dbz cliche but its getting more and more that way. It just doesn't have that same feeling anymore that it used to.

Thoughts?

[samsonlonghair]

There were tactical fights in the first arc, but Naruto has only been a tactical story on rare occasion since the wave country arc. Now that every main character is super powerful, there is less room for that.

Also, Naruto has always had a lot in common with DBZ. This is not a recent phenomenon.

[Krbadass]

Yeah I'm not saying it is, I guess I was just hoping it would go away after a while...

Even after the wave country arc they still had a lot of character development. They don't really anymore.

[Uchiha Barles]

I don't feel the tactics portion of the show/manga really went anywhere. The power scale has been increasing as of late yes, but the fights have rarely been "My ultimate technique is stronger than your ultimate technique. Mine blows right through yours Kamehameha Kao-ken ^10 > distructodisk!" Sasuke vs. Deidara for example. Yes, Sasuke's sharingan gave him the edge in that fight, but he wasn't able to just outright kill deidara. In fact, he nearly died. Not to mention the information he got from the sharingan had to be interpreted. That was particularly important when Deidara filled the area with microbombs.

Then we had the fights of the leaf vs. Kakuzu and Hidan. All those fights were thoroughly tactical. Shikamaru gathered information on their abilities, analyzed them, and came up with counters, to the point that he was able to solo Hidan. Team Kakashi had problems with Kakuzu, but Kakashi was able to take out one of Kakuzu's hearts using stealth and his sharingan to analyze hidan's technique, and then using the knowledge he gained to use an appropriate technique to counter. That it happened to be his signature move is besides the point :-P. When Naruto came into the fight, sure, he had with him an endgame sort of jutsu, but it had to connect. He had to use his usual Narutricks to get the attack to land, and the tactics he used were sound.

I don't know if you follow the manga, but one of the best examples of the use of tactics was in Naruto's latest fight. Not knowing whether you read the manga or not, I won't spoil, even if this is open discussion section. But I was pretty satisfied at how the fight played out, except for assfuck ending. Overall, I think the fights are pretty good, and in some cases, actually improved from the original series.

edit: As far as character development, it's still happening. We still get back stories of characters who spend more than one episode/chapter with us. For the vast majority of the characters though, we've already had their back stories. Further development can only occur as the story progresses, in the present. For example, Shikamaru's growth, and the crap Naruto's currently wrestling with, and Sasuke becoming a hate obsessed, complete douchebag, etc.

Overall, I don't see the story lacking in anything except content and presentation...
...
There's character development and decent fights, but everything for some reason just seems "meh" compared to the original. I think it has something to do with the fact that no one who matters, dies. In the rare cases (case?) they do, you see it coming from a mile away. In the original series, we were expecting a cruel world, were people died from the smallest, random-est of things. Back then, we didn't know our main characters or anyone close to them were immune to that fact. Now we do, and it's impacting the story.

edit 2: Replace "Hidan" with "Kakuzu" up there in one of those paragraphs, cuz that's what I meant to say.

[UChessmaster]

Except that most fights in part 2 have a tactical feel to it, there are bigger powers yes, but they are as important as they were back then

Sasuke vs. Deidara for example. Yes, Sasuke's sharingan gave him the edge in that fight, but he wasn't able to just outright kill deidara. In fact, he nearly died.

Because Deidara was being strategic... I`m not sure what your concept of ULTIMATE JUTSU and strategic fight is, if sasuke just goes ahead and wtfpwns deidara in one shot like you seem to imply the fight should`ve gone it wouldn`t be strategic AT ALL.

Sasori Vs. Gaara
Chiyo/Sakura Vs. Sasori
Ninja pair Vs. Team Asuma then against Team Kakashi
Jiraiya Vs. Pain
Sasuke Vs. Itachi
Pain Vs. Naruto
Sasuke Vs. 5 kages

[Uchiha Barles]

I'm not implying at all that Sasuke should've owned Deidara in one shot. Comparisons between Naruto and DBZ were made, where DBZ had numerous fights where either characters were in fact owned in one shot, or, fights ended in half hour long head on collisions of "ultimate jutsu" where the winner of the fight was the one able to channel more power into his "ultimate jutsu". The Naruto fights 1) are not like that, and 2) have never been like that. This is what I'm pointing out, among other things

[Krbadass]

I guess what bothers me a lot too is peoples abilities don't surprise me anymore. For instance when Lee dropped the weights everyone was like WOW. But sasuke busting out susanoo was thinking.. yea.. ok.. When sasuke learned chidori and copied lee's taijutsu however, i was impressed.

[Uchiha Barles]

The show and manga have been ongoing for about 8 or 9 years. I think most people who've followed the story for a significant number of those years, have come to be able to see where things are going. It's kind of like being in a band with the same people for a long time. After awhile, you start to be able to see the musical direction news songs will take.

Also, in those 8 or 9 years, we've seen other anime, other tv shows, other movies and the like that have shaped our opinions on what's exciting and what's not.

That, or maybe the show's just not as good as it once was, for whatever reason. I couldn't tell you what the reason is though. I just don't know.

[Naruto_RNG]

For me the show went down to hell with the over use of uchihas and their damn bloodline. Back then mostly all the bloodlines were somewhat close in abilities and strength. Now its just sharingan dominating. My personal opinion, but there is too much focus on the secondary characters then the main character of the manga. Kishi really needs to get the focus back on naruto again cause the stuff he is pulling now is just BS. I mean have you guys read the confirmed spoilers for chapter 467 yet, what is that about???

[poopdeville]

For me the show went down to hell with the over use of uchihas and their damn bloodline. Back then mostly all the bloodlines were somewhat close in abilities and strength. Now its just sharingan dominating. My personal opinion, but there is too much focus on the secondary characters then the main character of the manga. Kishi really needs to get the focus back on naruto again cause the stuff he is pulling now is just BS. I mean have you guys read the confirmed spoilers for chapter 467 yet, what is that about???

Those spoilers are kind of neat.

[Keno]

I think there are 2 factors that come into play here. That's the "awesome" feeling of old and the music. IMO Naruto used to have better music that highlighted the fast paced action of some of the most memorable fights, when now it uses more dark or heroic tones. Plus that "OMFG" moments are rarely present as already stated. While the manga has a few of those moments in check, I don't know if the animation studio will be able to use the perfect score to complement them.

Also, I do feel like a lot of the old characters have been forgotten. Apart from Naruto and Sasuke, only Shikamaru has had a brief spotlight after the time skip. I'm definitely waiting for new stuff from Neji and Rock Lee. Would also like some more backstory on the Hyugas, now that one of the more recent characters had a Byakugan. Ever since Sasuke vs Orochimaru, it has pretty much been "Teh Sasuke Show".

[Logrus]

Dont really like all this sasuke focus hahaha

I mean really hope it ends with all the other charaters gathers to kill him and naruto gives him a fuuton rasengan right to the face.

[RasenDori]

There was more involvement with the original characters ( Neji rocklee Gai Kakashi etc..) and it had more of a ninja tactical feel instead of a who has more power feel. I hate to use the dbz cliche but its getting more and more that way. It just doesn't have that same feeling anymore that it used to.

Thoughts?

-Most of the side characters really only served the function of developing the one or more of the main characters. With the exception of Shikamaru, few of them are actually characters in and of themselves. Most of them reached the maximum amount of depth required for them in this story during the Sasuke chase arc.

-Actually even in the high powered battles there has been a fair amount of tactics involved. Look at some of the things that Naruto has done to turn fights around. It's just that if your name isn't Shikamaru the power scenes typically have more impact thenthe tactics.

-Typical of a shounen styles manga, the battles power and intensity rise as the story continues. The DBZ trap is when characters have to get ridiculous powerful as the foes get just as insane. Even then people give DBZ too hard of a time. I went back recently and watched the Buu Saga (the story I never finished because I gave up on DBZ then), and came to realize even the Buu Saga did something that DBZ always has done well: Plot twist. Even as silly as the Buu Saga was Toriyama had a way making sure everything went delightfully dreadful to our heroes. Nothing happened the way you would expect it. If any manga is to labels as power struggles without any interest I name Bleach that manga.