now i know what you're thinking. wtf right? this is a sasuke bashing site after all, but i just can't take it any more. today settled this feeling for sure. after watching naruto shippuden episode 85 and reading the latest naruto chapter 425, i am now 100% positive that i have lost all respect for this series. and now i really hate kishimoto right now for numerous reasons. the steadily declining plot was something that i have been trying so hard to put up with, but now it's breaking point. for those of you who keep up to date with both, you understand. first off, sasuke should be dead, courtesy of Killer Bee, but he too should not be alive either, so fact that sasuke 'defeated' KB in such an anticlimactic ending was stupid, however, the fact that Killer Bee didn't die is even worse. but then i was kind of happy that kakashi was getting a more active role by fighting Pein. now i know, despite deluding myself, that kakashi isn't stronger than pein, but holy shit, i wasn't expecting... SPOILER ALERT ............................................................................................................
kishimoto to end kakashi's life so suddenly.

but before i get to that, i have also lost respect for the art style as well because it has gotten decidedly more lazy and each manga chapter grows ever more disappointing because nothing interesting happens in them, so they appear to be getting shorter with each passing week. kishimoto should not be doing this. i know manga artists are always hard-pressed for time, but he shouldn't be making them only 17 pages long and ending at illogical points. gone are the days when the chapters used to end on cliffhangers. i don't give jack about sasuke, but when it concerns kakashi, the series is suddenly more interesting, which is probably one of the few reasons i still keep up with it. i hate kishimoto a ton right now for several EXTREMELY annoying parts to the manga. first off, i was pissed for weeks, and still am actually, that tobi's face was never revealed. we all know he is madara, but im sure we were all excited to wonder what he looks like NOW. from the inadequate sliver of his face we have seen, he seems to be a little like obito. he ends a chapter with tobi about to remove his mask. then for the whole week, i was practically hyperventilating with excitement, but then we don't see it! and to make it worse, after that, tobi takes off the mask again but we also don't see it.

other annoying things in shippuden(manga): Kisame vs. Suigetsu never occurred as far as we know, itachi vs. sasuke was an really disappointing battle that got REALLY old REALLY fast, deidara doesn't take sasuke with him to the grave, team hebi's magical ability to bring sasuke back from what should have been his (second) death, we still don't know what happened to nagato(pein) and konan after jiraiya left, the number of types of sharingan that keep popping up, why does itachi poking sasuke's forehead transfer mangekyou powers, why sasuke and itachi having only their very 'last reserves of chakra' were able to continue fighting that long, why the hell danzou doesn't just give up already about becoming the hokage(i don't know about you, but his failed attempts at overthrowing tsunade to be in power is REALLY annoying, specially cuz he's so old), jokes that used to be hilarious are so overused it's just a nuisance(like naruto getting punched by sakura), naruto and sakura vs. kakashi in the 2nd bell test was never in the manga because it cuts right to the end of the fight, not showing anything in between, what karin did to sasuke has never been explained, and random really minor characters show up when nobody cares what they are doing.

and now, i can't even look forward to the anime because now they both suck. i cannot express just how disappointed i am in the decline of the shippuden anime. the first Rescue Gaara arc was kickass, the very reason i always said it was 100X better than first half of naruto. even if there were those "stand and glare for a long time" scenes, it wasn't very noticeable at all because it was so epic for me to watch. the shippuden filler was what i thought was the breaking point, and that the anime quality would get better once the filler was over(still don't know for the life of me why they made the filler when they could have done kakashi gaiden or something), but that was naive. the animation got worse and worse, everything was out of proportion, and the expressions are beyond annoying to look at.

in Shippuden episode 85, i confirmed the feeling that they were doing the Hidan-Kakuzu arc all wrong. at the beginning of it, there were A LOT of unnecessary and stupid scenes added in that were a.) not even part of the manga b.) about things nobody in their right mind could possibly care about and c.) completely changing the plot to that arc. this Hidan-Kakuzu arc is the most not-cannon-to-manga thing i have ever seen and it is gross. the fight scene with team 10+kakashi vs. Hidan and Kakuzu is COMPLETELY different, animation is hideous, especially for Hidan. his "insane laughter" and personality is way overdone and it got really old.

i liked how the anime seemed to be hinting at the fact that Hidan and Kakuzu are gay though, cuz hidan said stuff like "kakuzu-chan" and "aw you picked up my headband for me. that's so sweet. you really do care![kakuzu acts indifferent to this statement to which hidan says] come on now, don't be shy" but still, the fighting between asuma and hidan seemed different, and while hidan has a good seiyuu(voice actor), the laughter makes me want to shoot something. obviously some stuff has to be added to the fight to make it more interesting(like how kakashi vs. naruto/sakura had to be) but there was no need for 10 minutes of things that never even happened. the episode didn't use transition to make the fight more clear, it completely changed all but the first part of the battle before hidan gets separated.

back to the manga chapter, i am so pissed off at kishimoto because it seems like he is really is serious about kakashi dying in such a sudden manner. it keeps jumping from person to person in the manga, so nothing is happening. instead of devoting an entire long chapter to kakashi vs pein, it cuts back to naruto in sage training, then some stuff with tsunade, then some interrogation thing, etc. that's why the plot isn't advancing very far, there's too many characters in different places trying to be all in one chapter which is never over 17 pages these days. but even more enraging is that today's chapter was entitled "Hatake Kakashi", but only a small bit of it is actually about kakashi!! after a few pages, it suddenly goes to naruto in sage training! WTF?? if you entitle it "Hatake Kakashi" why the hell is it mainly about naruto? im sick of seeing bits and pieces of sage training!

and kakashi's dad is completely different than how i thought he might look. some have said the White Fang looked like Inoichi(ino's dad), and the "strong resemblance" between kakashi and Sakumo is not as big as i thought it would be either. and to make matters even worse, the end of the chapter shows a completely random panel of konohamaru.

on a random note, apparently the english voice of Pein is Dave Wittenberg who also voices kakashi which was surprising to me. that's weird. i mean, when the shippuden(no, make that if) comes to pein vs. kakashi, Dave Wittenberg will be conversing with himself, which i have only seen done by LittleKuriboh creator of Yugioh the Abridged Series. i hope to whatever deity might exist out there to let this be a "main character" syndrome things where impossible odds are negated and kakashi doesn't die. it feels like a real person is dying because of how obsessed i am with him. not sure if anyone else is THAT obsessed with a character, but i am definitely sad about these chapters. next time, i promise it will be a true sasuke bashing post. it's actually a comic someone made so look forward to it.

Essay: 11/22/08 | Posted By: pirategaara | 4 comments | Naruto