Naruto 695

[viperwasp]

So, 700 will be the last chapter? Gonna be a sad day, after having looked forward to Naruto every week for the past 11+ years.

Last chapter should be 699? Unless they are doing a double release? Well even if they do a double release I think it would still be 699 but just a longer chapter? But yeah I have only been watching/reading for 5 years and it already feels like Naruto is my entire anime/manga life. I only really follow Naruto,Bleach,One Piece now. Bleach is painful to watch/read and is almost over. But One Piece is amazing and won't be ending anytime soon. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be following a series for over 11 years. It's sad enough as it is only following for 5 years. But the series needs to end. lol

[Sidnne]

But the series needs to end. lol

The series really doesn't need to end. The problem isn't the series or the writing, the problem is the people on this forum. I hardly ever visit these forums anymore, because the people here are nothing but negative and make it hard to enjoy a series. Instead of just enjoying a series for its own merit, everyone here picks apart EVERY LITTLE DETAIL, no matter how trivial it is. These forums breed nothing but negativity. It's really quite pathetic.

You started following the series 5 years ago. You must have thought it was pretty awesome 5 years ago to make you want to follow it and start posting on these forums. But, guess what? 5 years ago, the people who were here following it for 10 years were bitching about the things you thought were awesome. The thing is, the writing never changed, only the people's perception of it changed after having been influenced by the whining and bitching on these forums.

[MFauli]

The series really doesn't need to end. The problem isn't the series or the writing, the problem is the people on this forum. I hardly ever visit these forums anymore, because the people here are nothing but negative and make it hard to enjoy a series. Instead of just enjoying a series for its own merit, everyone here picks apart EVERY LITTLE DETAIL, no matter how trivial it is. These forums breed nothing but negativity. It's really quite pathetic.

You started following the series 5 years ago. You must have thought it was pretty awesome 5 years ago to make you want to follow it and start posting on these forums. But, guess what? 5 years ago, the people who were here following it for 10 years were bitching about the things you thought were awesome. The thing is, the writing never changed, only the people's perception of it changed after having been influenced by the whining and bitching on these forums.

I heavily disagree with you, and since this manga is almost (finally!) over, I´ll tell you why your assumption is wrong.

As I have mentioned many times in the past, the exact moment the Naruto-series turned to shit was during the Sasuke vs Deidara battle.
What was the story BEFORE that? Let´s see: We had our hero who failed at the most basic things. I´m not even talking about using chakra to walk up trees. No, he couldn´t even throw kunais with adequate accuracy. Sasuke was a genius because of being good at school and, wow, he could make a small fireball. The famous Sharingan-Kakashi could ... copy ninjutsu. Which brings us to the example of one of the best fights in the series and a fight that truly displayed a ninja´s qualities: When Team 7 first fought Zabuza, it was tactics and strategy that made it possible to overcome the Hidden Mist´s monster. It wasn´t any fancy, super-powered jutsu. The story continued and introduced Gaara and Rock Lee, and within the limits of the series´ inner logic, neither felt out of place. (in hindsight, it´s ridiculous that anybody was ever scared of Gaara. Feels like any Konoha Jounin could have taken care of him lol).The story became crazier with Orochimaru´s involvement and the Sound 5, and we also got a glimpse at the scary super monster Itachi, who we heard to be a member of Akatsuki, a group of monsters just like him. But we never got to see much of him, the most was when he succeeded to escape from Jiraiya´s frog stomach jutsu, which showcased his prowess and incredible, freaky power. It´s all good, though, because Kishimoto never made an attempt to throw our heroes against someone like him right now. The timeskip happened and it was fantastic. Gaara being Kazekage, going all out against Deidara, and actually losing. Then losing his bijuu, thus his life. Sasori loses, but it is an acceptable loss, since not only is it his master that killed him, it also felt as if he wanted to die. And Gaara being revived by the sacrifice of an old ninjutsu master felt okay-ish, too.

THEN comes the turnaround.
Two battles take place that both shouldn´t have gone the way they did.I love Shikamaru, my favorite character of the series. But he shouldn´t have been able to take down Hidan. The amount of chakra needed to bind him all this time is an amount of chakra he couldn´t have had. Strategy only takes you so far, at some point you need power to take down a monster. Same goes for Kakuzu. The simple problem is: Akatsuki have, up to that point, always been portrayed as super monsters, as if they´re not mere ninjas, but entities. Like a volcano. Like a waterfall. Like a hurricane. Simply a force that cannot be fought by a small group of ninjas. This expectation is shattered the worst when Sasuke starts fighting Deidara. A battle that should have been Deidara´s, instantly turned into this Akatsuki member defending and barely dodging Sasuke´s attacks. And, most ridiculously, feeling nervous and panicky! That was the point when I personally lost any good will I had for the series.
And the writing kept getting worse.

You can make any claim you want, but Naruto turned from being a manga based on an inner logic to a manga based on "how cool would that be?" or to put it better "damn you, Oda, Im so jealous of your success, I want some, too!". One of the biggest points of proof for the change in writing and depth of it is the simple fact that Kishimoto had Naruto undergo three years of training with Jiraiya, and all it´s done was to give him a bigger rasengan. seriously?! Considering what Naruto learned in the time after his return to Konoha, Jiraiya can truly be called worst teacher of all times lol. So, no, the writing DID get worse. It is not the readers´ fault.
Hunter X Hunter has been truly consistent and you can believe me: If Togashi someday decides to give up on quality writing and world building, Ill give him shit for that, too.

[Sidnne]

I heavily disagree with you

Why am I not surprised. You are probably the biggest offender of all. When is the last time you made a post that wasn't bitching about how much you hated the latest chapter?

[MFauli]

Why am I not surprised. You are probably the biggest offender of all. When is the last time you made a post that wasn't bitching about how much you hated the latest chapter?

You´d know if you actually read my post.

[UChessmaster]

Why am I not surprised. You are probably the biggest offender of all. When is the last time you made a post that wasn't bitching about how much you hated the latest chapter?

That is directly proportional to the last time Orochimaru did something.

It wasn´t any fancy, super-powered jutsu

:3

[MFauli]

:3

But those moments were rare! Like seeing Itachi pre-timeskip. When the Kyuubi took over, it felt like shit was going down. During most of the post-timeskip battles, it felt more like "okay, which flashy, but non-effective jutsu are they shooting out of their hands/eyes this time? yawn".

[viperwasp]

The series really doesn't need to end. The problem isn't the series or the writing, the problem is the people on this forum. I hardly ever visit these forums anymore, because the people here are nothing but negative and make it hard to enjoy a series. Instead of just enjoying a series for its own merit, everyone here picks apart EVERY LITTLE DETAIL, no matter how trivial it is. These forums breed nothing but negativity. It's really quite pathetic.

I edited out rest....

I read your argument with MFauli. Your both right and wrong. First of all we have our own opinions. And a opinion is a opinion. This forum NEVER and I mean NEVER directly influenced my opinion on the series. It has given me ideas and stuff. But the general dislike for Naruto extends far beyond this forum. I find I like this series more then most other people I see. I don't know if anyone watches Weekly Manga Recap here which is a great online podcast that has been going on for quite some time now, even there opinion of naruto has been declining. But most of the people hating on Naruto can still admit it's a good series. We are just a little disappointed. I would have hated Naruto if it really did end with kaguya. OMG that would have been awful. But I am alright with the way things are now.

There has been plenty of ongoing and new things I dislike with Naruto. It's small stupid things like the ability isanami? or is it isanagi? Whatever the ability itachi used on Kabuto was retarded. How it worked, why it worked, why it was invented was all really stupid. I also hate how the sharigan evolves into a rinnigan! Those are nit picking things. I generally liked Naruto the series up until during the fight with the Juubi! Sure there where issues before in my opinion. But slowly I started to hate the direction the series was taking. The fight with the juubi is still recent so that's when I really started to take up real issues with the series. I am also a fan of characters working to achieve increases in strength and not just being handed out power ups.

The odd power up is alright. I feel Naruto is still a great manga! It's among the best of all time at least from the series I have read. I feel at most this series could have went on for an other 100 chapters. And of course only if things happened differently at the end. But I still feel the series needed to end. Even if it was still amazing and written perfectly 15 years is a long time and the story was wrapping up.

***Below are some of my cringe worthy moments in Naruto*** Not in order.
1. Yamato being taken, no one gives a shit.
1B. Basically the same for Killer Bee now? Wait I think someone mentioned Bee recently?
2. Isanami/Isanagi whatever the ability used on Kabuto. (Everything aspect about it!)
3. Madaras character in general... hated the flash backs, the insanity of the uchiha!
3B. I hated all the fights with Madara! He seemed way to over powered. He was also the one to start the whole super over powered crap. First Madara, then it was juubi obito, then Juubi Madara... etc etc etc...
4. Sasuke and every decision he has made... at least after the time skip!

5. That uchiha are emos!
6. Perhaps the over use of Edo tensei however a lot of awesome things also came from it.
7. Not being told more about the uzumaki clan. Even if it was not that important to the story. Naruto has never been told why or how his clan was exactly destroyed. It would have been cooler if was apart of the plot. Like that Madara or really Obito pretending to be Madara had them destroyed so they could not interfer with the plans to gather the beasts due to there sealing abilities etc. Obito was even in control of the previous kage of the mist village right? It would be cool if he used that in the plans to crush the Uzumaki clan etc.

8. Learning about the whole soul reincarnation thing. I have never warmed up to the whole soul thing! To me it just makes it feel like Naruto and Sasuke both got a free pass in life and never had to work for there progress.

9. Most of the Kaguya, Tree,Fruit,Madara,Moons eye bullshit stuff.... Sage of six path sons and all that stuff we learned during the war arc. I hated a lot of it.

10.Naruto & Hinata moments! OMG... I cannot even go into it. I think we all can agree it's pretty stupid. Kishimoto kept trying to involve Hinata in Narutos life. But also did not want to have a romance of any kind in this series. So this lazy or silly writing made Naruto & Hinata out to be a very uncomfortable subject.

I guess I have tons of other stuff and probably some sooner stuff in the series. But most of what I dislike happened since the Juubi was resurrected. So after the reveal of Obito. The story just went in a strange direction!