The Shikamaru Explosion

[Legendary Nin]

Notice how everyone loves Shikamaru,genious this,genious that.Shikamaru owns etc etc.This is unbelievable,I swear before last episode you could count his fanbase on two hands.Now it seems everyone is obssesed with him,but before could careless about the guy.Talk about jumping on the bandwagon.I bet after the Sasuke fight with Gaara and when Orochimaru starts to kick the 3rds ass,no one will know who Shikamaru is,actually I promise that.And to think we have to put up with this again with Tsunade,Naruto after he learns Rasengan,soon to be Sasuke,Kabuto,and please don't say so,but I know it will happen with Itachi as well.Just like Shikamaru,everyone doubts Itachi and will until he puts Sasuke in the hospital and sends Kakashi off there with next to nothing effort.

[itachi_]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Legendary Nin @ Dec 28 2003, 06:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Notice how everyone loves Shikamaru,genious this,genious that.Shikamaru owns etc etc.This is unbelievable,I swear before last episode you could count his fanbase on two hands.Now it seems everyone is obssesed with him,but before could careless about the guy.Talk about jumping on the bandwagon.I bet after the Sasuke fight with Gaara and when Orochimaru starts to kick the 3rds ass,no one will know who Shikamaru is,actually I promise that.And to think we have to put up with this again with Tsunade,Naruto after he learns Rasengan,soon to be Sasuke,Kabuto,and please don&#39;t say so,but I know it will happen with Itachi as well.Just like Shikamaru,everyone doubts Itachi and will until he puts Sasuke in the hospital and sends Kakashi off there with next to nothing effort. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
That&#39;s what I fear the most, that everybody will be Itachi Uchiha fan&#39;s... That will happen because the introdution that he givs is unbelieveable.. TOTAL DOMINATION

[Hotsuma]

I&#39;ve liked Shikamaru, before he fought against Temari. When he owned Kin - that was badass. I thought that was amazing.

And, I like Shikamaru more than anybody else you listed (Itachi, Kabuto, Gaara, Sasuke..etc)

[JonioAgoGo]

Well, while all the other guys are badasses, I still like Shika, Chouji, Kiba and the other Genin a LOT more than them.

Sasuke however, is just a jackass, and whats up with him getting like....a few moments and then disappearing for what....20 episodes? and whats gonna happen after his next moment? The same thing&#33;

So far, I still favor Zabuza over Oro and Itachi, just because we got to see his whole story, all we know about Oro and Itachi, well, you should know if you&#39;ve been keeping up.

[Insomniac]

it happened with Lee too, not many people liked him that much until he started to fight.

and yeah i liked Shikamaru ever since the start when he was in the forest of death fighting the sound nins

personally i like Orochimaru more then Itachi, and the episodes coming up get to show off what Orochimaru can do (summon hokages&#33; i mean geez, who can summon better then that?)

[JonioAgoGo]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Insomniac @ Dec 28 2003, 10:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> it happened with Lee too, not many people liked him that much until he started to fight.

and yeah i liked Shikamaru ever since the start when he was in the forest of death fighting the sound nins

personally i like Orochimaru more then Itachi, and the episodes coming up get to show off what Orochimaru can do (summon hokages&#33; i mean geez, who can summon better then that?) </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Heh, I didn&#39;t like Lee at first because of his appearance.

After I saw him jack Naruto AND Sasuke&#39;s goods though, I knew he was cool in my book.

Yeah, ever since the InoShikaCho formation in the forest, those three have been my favorite team (Team 8 just about tied with them).

Oro. Man that guy is nuts&#33; It is comforting to know that the 3rd could keep up with him for a while, but still, where did he get all that stuff from.

Imagine if he were to summon the 3rd to battle, what an emotional bout that would be with any of the leaf nins.

[forkshy]

i dunno, i usually start to like characters more after i get more of their back story. it was hard to like shika before you ever really knew anything about him. i&#39;m not one of the &quot;oh, shika is the ultimate smart badass,&quot; but his attitude seems similar to kakashi&#39;s... so kakashi fans woh&#39;ve been starved for god knows how many episodes are going to leap on him.

i started to like Lee after he threw those heart things at Sakura, that was hilarious, and after that everything about him just makes me chuckle.

you&#39;re right, though, this bandwagon thing is pretty weird. it&#39;s like, everytime you see anyone do anything cool they&#39;re everyone&#39;s favourite until someone else does something cool... it&#39;s only natural.

[BluSyn]

well personally shikamaru has always been a great character since the first time he said troublesome (&lt;- I love that word) but also like others have said before the kin fight shikamaru was just one of those guys in the background. We had no info on him or anything but then those 2 fights show how good he actually is. And due to his lazy manor we never really get to see that. So yeah people will jump on his bandwagon but still personally its understandable. Also i didnt really liked how the anime speeded through shikamaru&#39;s 2 fights. it seems like in the manga the fights were more dramatic and made shika look better. I almost always like the anime fights better but in this case the manga was much better.

[DemonRyu]

I liked Shikamaru ever since the start when he was in the forest of death fighting the sound nins. The fight against temari just makes him even better. Explianing this is so...troublesome.

[villin]

Its pretty sad how everybody says &#39;I liked shika from the start&#39;. He did sweet fuck all for the first 30+ episodes, did I miss some hidden episodes where Shikamaru bet the piss out of some bad ass opponents. No, the reason why that didn&#39;t happen is because he&#39;s a weak fringe character.

The fact that Naruto is disliked by so many people because he is annoying at times while Shikamaru is both annoying and boring yet everybody seems to love him is just hypocritical.

I am not one to jump on the band wagon of the flavor of the month character. Gaara is my favorite and always will be. Naruto is a close second, just wait until everybody sees him do the rasengan I guarantee he will be far more popular.

[XwingRob]

I like Shikamaru because he reminds of me. A lazy bastard who doesn&#39;t like troublesome situations.

[Everon]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (villin @ Dec 28 2003, 09:00 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Its pretty sad how everybody says &#39;I liked shika from the start&#39;. He did sweet fuck all for the first 30+ episodes, did I miss some hidden episodes where Shikamaru bet the piss out of some bad ass opponents. No, the reason why that didn&#39;t happen is because he&#39;s a weak fringe character.

The fact that Naruto is disliked by so many people because he is annoying at times while Shikamaru is both annoying and boring yet everybody seems to love him is just hypocritical.

I am not one to jump on the band wagon of the flavor of the month character.... </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Looks like somebody needs a nap.

Jk. Lee has been my personal fav. I thought it was a slick nod to Bruce Lee.

But Shikamaru is a cool character, its just that they haven&#39;t given much of a background until recently. Especially in recent manga episodes its shown how much he cares for Choji, and how he&#39;s been his best friend for years.

I&#39;m not jumping on a &quot;bandwagon,&quot; if I&#39;m beginning to like him over other characters (thats what yankee fans are), I just didn&#39;t know enough about him until recently.

I&#39;m sure other characters will grow on you if just wait and see.

[Chi Chi]

I liked Shikimaru for his attitude since episode 3. Seeing how his role in episode 1 was short and he wasn&#39;t in 3.

[Raven]

I really don&#39;t think this is an issue. So people get excited about characters, then later on get excited about different characters. So what? What&#39;s the big deal?

The anime is designed to stir up emotions in us. And it&#39;s effective. What&#39;s the problem with excitement, even if it&#39;s short lived? It&#39;s not hurting you.

[Kyubi Unleashed]

I thought Shikamaru was extremely awesome in his fight with Temari, and I admit, I&#39;ve started to notice him more since then. With his &#39;How troublesome..&#39; line, he&#39;s been one of my faves. But still, Naruto&#39;s my personal best, and Shika&#39;s my second or third.

[Nine Tailed Demon]

Wait till Itachi happens in the anime, he&#39;ll be #1 in the rankings....

[sexy_no_jutsu]

it always goes like this. in ep 62/63 we were all neji fans. when jiraiya appeared we all loved him. after ep 48 we all loved lee ect. and it will always be like this.

[Legato 2057]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (sexy_no_jutsu @ Dec 29 2003, 09:30 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> it always goes like this. in ep 62/63 we were all neji fans. when jiraiya appeared we all loved him. after ep 48 we all loved lee ect. and it will always be like this. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Not really. While I respect Lee&#39;s determination, he definitely isn&#39;t my favorite character. Jiraiya is just great comic relief. Neiji is just filled with teenage angst against his family, not a very apepaling character trait IMO.

What makes Shikamaru so special compared to everyone else is that he really isn&#39;t all that special.

He&#39;s probably weaker than most of the other genins, but what he can do is take control of a situation, using only the basest of techniques. Being able to take control of a situation is the most important quality a leader can have, and he doesn&#39;t need insane power to do it either.

Another important aspect of being a leader is to know your strengths and weaknesses. Shikamaru could very well have one that fight with Temari. But in doing so, he would have had to fight even stronger opponents with next to no chakra.

During the Temari fight, he was clearly overpowered, but he was able to show another important character trait of leader: to stay calm.

Shikamaru&#39;s ability to control a situation, his knowledge of his own strength and weaknesses (and his teammates as shown before they chase after Sasuke) and his ability to stay calm in dire circumstances, all make him the ideal candidate for a chounin.

That&#39;s my .02&#036; on Shikamaru at least

[Death BOO Z]

I find it hard to fan some charecter without knowing shit about them...

really, what do you expect? that we&#39;ll all fall and fan Shikamaru just becuase what he did in the forest of death? or that we&#39;ll like Chouji from the time we see him eat burgers?

apparntly, unlike you, i can only think someone is cool when he does something cool...

if you want some really psycho fanbase, wait for Shino&#39;s next battle, with no information about him, and some really overdone &#39;i have a trump card&#39; fights, he&#39;s sure to have as much fans as Itachi...


BTW: Gaara owns, i&#39;m rewatching Naruto and he still kicks asses...

[Legato 2057]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Death BOO Z @ Dec 29 2003, 12:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> apparntly, unlike you, i can only think someone is cool when he does something cool...
</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Apparently we have different ideas of what &quot;cool&quot; is. In my opinion, the way Shikamru beat the sound chick, was by far the coolest win in the manga/anime so far. It may not have been the most powerful move, but being able to make your opponent defeat themselves is badass to me.

And just because you don&#39;t know someones life story, doesn&#39;t mean they are any less &quot;cool&quot; in battle.