#fangren reads

[fangren]

finished dungeon meshi, hell of a series it was. real big 'DnD party stumbling back-asswards through the plot and only succeeding because of the quirks of the stupid meme character' energy. loved it.

[bitchycatwizard]

@fictional-affliction

Hey you are someone who has a similar taste to my self when it comes to Total drama Fan-fics. So I was curious if you had read the following and what you thought of them:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10588766/1/Total-Shuffled-Island

Total Shuffled Island by Fangren and the entire series he/she/it wrote.

Read it?

Thoughts?

[fictional-affliction]

I've read Fangren's Total Shuffled series before. Several times in fact. It is SOOO Good. Definite recommend for reading.

Thanks!!!!! @bitchycatwizard

[fangren]

even more Naruto thoughts!

(continued from this post.)

Kimimaro

-Kiba’s fight was the first to show the power difference, but the fight against bone guy was even more of that. this is probably the first time when seeing Naruto summoning a bunch of clones (foxed up clones at that!) only gives the impression that he’s about to get his ass kicked. which he does.

-Kimimaro’s bone stuff is way way grosser in the manga. but then again, what isn’t?

-and then the best guy arrives! Quickest Recovery Ever no Jutsu! at least the anime messes around with the order of events a bit to make Lee’s participation a bit more plausible.

-Lee just fucking... asking Kimimaro to stop in the middle of an attack so he can take his medicine and Kimimaro just fucking letting him... it’s very good.

-drunk Lee is also pretty good? even if he doesn’t stick around long. you can tell that Kimimaro is just like constantly ‘wtf?’ in his head.

The Sand Siblings

-their entrance is pretty fuckin badass! even if the still shot of it in the anime seems kinda... off?

-god damn is Temari a weapon of mass destruction. I weep for that stretch of forest, so many plants and animals must’ve died because of it.

her smile at the end is very much a shippy moment, even if she’s 16 and he’s only 13 this arc. but they don’t actually hook up until like right before Naruto’s wedding when they’re both in their early 20s, so...

-Kankuro is still the most ‘meh’ of the siblings, and he gets paired with the most ‘meh’ of the boys, so... At least his puppet combo was pretty cool. completely fuckin destroyed Sakon and Ukon, good riddance.

-I like Gaara and Lee’s interactions. it shows how far Gaara has already come, and that Lee doesn’t really hold grudges... it’s very good.

-Kimimaro’s backstory is just fuckin bullshit. I don’t care how powerful his fuckin kekkei genkai was or whatever, locking a kid in a jail cell with little interaction and like near minimal food is not a recipe for a superhuman killing machine. it’s the recipe for human veal.

-lil’ Kimimaro is pretty adorable, though. meeting Zabuza and Haku on the road and immediately falling for their ‘nah we’re not from Mist’ line; yelling at flowers; not really knowing what was ever going on... I’m surprised by how much I liked the kid.

-also his stage two dinosaur form is rad as hell. easily the best stage two form.

Sasuke vs Naruto, round two

-as I said, this arc is ultimately about Naruto’s heart breaking. and this fight is where it really happens...

-"That was not the kind of fight I wanted." the line is only really in the anime I think? but it perfectly sums up Naruto’s feelings on the first fight on the hospital roof.

-the Itachi flashbacks take on a whole different feel when you know that throughout them the Uchiha are planning a coup and Itachi is against it. and early on at least, you really get the feeling that Itachi very much loves his little brother.

-that doesn’t make the trauma and pushing him to get the Mangekyo by killing his best friend excusable though. even if I kinda remember something fucky going on with that that Madara or Tobi did? can’t really remember right now.

-the fact that Sasuke is very much ready to go along with it during the fight is fucked up, though. acknowledging someone as your best friend, and using that as a reason to kill them... that is hella fucked up.

-Naruto, meanwhile, is just... reminiscing about how he saw Sasuke as a kindred spirit but was unable to get close to him like he wanted, so he decided to call him his rival while secretly looking up to him... how he thought he’d finally become friends with Sasuke, only to now wonder if that had been just his delusion this whole time... and even then still wanting Sasuke in his life... it’s heartbreaking.

-in another world, with another Sasuke that didn’t suck... this really would be the start of a profound and mutual love between them. but it isn’t, cause Sasuke sucks.

-Naruto summoning the fox’s chakra was really badass, though, but in a somber way if that makes sense.

-the fight has some amazing progression, particularly in the anime (episode 133 is really well animated!) Sasuke having the upperhand until Naruto summons the same level of fox power as he’s been using up until this point and turning the tides, only for Sasuke to upgrade his sharingan and turn them back, and then Naruto finally gets his first tail, only for Sasuke to counter with his second state with the horrible hand-wings... it’s very well crafted, i think.

-ultimately, on Naruto’s end... whether it is as friends, or brothers, or something more, he absolutely does love Sasuke. which is why this arc is so heartbreaking.

-because Sasuke just keeps going off in a direction that Naruto can never meet. ‘the pain of loneliness makes people stronger, so I’m going to kill you and become even stronger.’

-and god damn if he doesn’t try. there’s a particularly brutal piledriver in the anime, and some good shots of Sasuke just looking completely terrified of what he’s doing even as he decides to do it anyway.

-though, ultimately, he decides to spare Naruto’s life - justifying it as a way of spiting Itachi, though of course there’s always the unspoken question of his own lingering feelings.

Epilogue

-I kinda wished we’d seen more of the team regrouping and finding out what happened. we never did hear what happened to Lee, even if it probably wasn’t much.

-I had thought this would be the first time Madara gets name-dropped considering where they were fighting, but I was wrong.

-Shikamaru’s shitty aspects rear their ugly head again... also, I don’t like all the focus on Temari’s legs during their scene.

-and, of course, Akatsuki! OG Zetsu’s first appearance, and a bunch of not-at-all accurate voices for the still-silhouetted other members. fun.

-I haven’t watched the start of Sakura’s apprenticeship with Tsunade in the anime yet (I think a good chunk of it is in filler episodes), but I still wanna talk about it cause it really is Sakura getting kinda shafted again. don’t get me wrong, going the medical route is very good for her, but ultimately ending up as little more than a copy of Tsunade’s moveset is not. especially considering how vastly different Sasuke and even Naruto ended up from their Sannin mentors. once again, Sakura deserves better.

that, finally, is all for now. I... might actually give the Part One filler hell a shot, or at least some of it anyway. but I doubt I’ll post any thoughts about it, so... consider this a bit of a hiatus from these long posts. I hope they haven’t been too annoying.

oh! one last thing I nearly forgot cause I’ve only seen it in the manga so far. but, well, there’s a very nice bit of NaruHina at the end of Part One, as Naruto is leaving with Jiraiya... just wanted to mention it :)

[fangren]

okay! I’ve finished up to the Third Hokage’s memorial in both the anime and manga, so it’s time for some more Naruto thoughts.

-fuck Jiraiya, fuck his introduction, and fuck his whole character archetype. such a sleazy bastard. thank god Naruto didn’t pick up any of that awfulness.

-that said, the scenes of Naruto actually trying to learn how to summon toads are pretty fucking good. especially when he summons the one that has all four legs, but still has a tail so he freaks out.

-Naruto vs Neji is still such a good fight. it’s the first time Naruto really gets acknowledged by a large group of people, so there’s a lot of really good feelings at the end. It’s a shame Hinata was unconscious for most of it though.

-I didn’t say this last time, but I don’t like Shikamaru’s attitude towards fighting women. I also don’t like how his role so far in the tournament has basically just been to make promising girls look like fools. I mean, he has his good points, but still...

-fuckin’ Sasuke. how the hell did his hair grow out that much in only a month? or maybe I’m just seeing something that isn’t there. anyway, he has a couple good moments in this part, but they’re really only just steps back towards how he was at the end of Waves, and obviously there’s a lot of backsliding around here and in the future so...

-I had thought that more giant snakes had been summoned for the attack rather than just the three, but apparently I was wrong.

-the Sound Four make their first appearance! nothing else to say about them right now.

-my god does Orochimaru vs the Third take a long time to finish, even in the manga. good on the Third for hanging in there with a fucking sword sticking through him though.

-the original three Sound nin (Dosu, Zaku, and Kin) 100% had such unnecessarily shitty deaths. one killed mostly off-screen by Gaara, the other two used as sacrifice fodder for Edo Tensei. they deserved better.

-Shino vs Kankuro is short, but pretty good. Shino should have been used more, and I will say that I really loved him in the first arc of the Boruto anime.

-the Gaara fight... honestly, what can I say? it was a good culmination of what’s been going on up to that point. also, remember when Naruto sticks an exploding kunai into mostly-transformed Gaara’s butt? well, you do now.

-Sasuke... whereas Gamakichi, Pakkun, and even Temari are just astounded by Naruto, Sasuke very much has a vein of ‘holy shit, when did Naruto get this good?’ with an underlying fear of even Naruto being stronger than him now. it’s... it’s not a good reaction. just like in the last stretch I reviewed, Naruto definitely has a few moments of wanting to engage in ship fuel with Sasuke but... Sasuke is definitely not really interested in that right now. he’s already fixating on his avenger bullshit.

-not a lot of shipping going on in this stretch in general, of course. a few tidbits of NaruHina during the Neji fight, and maybe some waters-testing with Team 10. also, some I guess allusions to NaruSaku during the Gaara fight? though mostly its just the toads assuming stuff. Sakura is unconscious at the time. either way, though, it hasn’t aged well.

-and then there’s the funeral itself... I’m not ashamed to say I cried watching it. that sort of thing always gets me. the Third Hokage wasn’t perfect, but he was a very loving old guy and how much he meant to and would be missed by the village was very palpable.

-oh and Itachi and Kisame show up at the very end to be mysterious and shit. assholes.

that’s all for now... next post will probably be after Tsunade? not sure.

[fangren]

finished Stone Ocean! and I will admit that I was spoiled on the whole ‘timeline reset’ or whatever beforehand.

but still: what the ever loving fuck? unless Emporio actually continues to be a meaningful character, the first six parts are now meaningless to the story going forward. which... uggh. I don’t like it.

I also don’t like how neither Josuke nor Giorno had any involvement in this part! Especially Giorno, who logically should have been pulled to Florida along with all of Dio’s other kids!

There’s a lot to like about JoJo, but the writing sure is a mess.

[fangren]

Well, for better or worse I’ve finally published a new fanfic I’ve been working on for a couple months. To AO3, because... well, it seems more active than fanfiction.net probably is.

Anyway, it’s the My Hero Academia/Jackie Chan Adventures crossover fic the world never knew it needed: Monster.

It’s primarily BNHA-centric with JCA serving more as backstory and additional elements, so it should be fairly easy for a modern fanfic reader to understand without needing to bingewatch a 95-episode American cartoon series from the early 00s? I hope?

Well, if anybody reads it, be sure to let me know what you think!

[fangren]

okay, continuing on from this post for the character stuff:

Naruto - not a lot to say about our titular character, honestly. he’s bigger, stronger, kinda smarter. definitely starting to come into his all-loving hero archetype. a very good boy.

Sakura - I am of mixed mind about Sakura. on one hand, I’m happy that she’s finally useful in a fight. but... as I think i’ve stated before, she’s basically just a clone of Tsunade. aside from her youth (and therefore potential growth) nothing really sets her apart from her Master. aside from being a main character, I guess, but that doesn’t really count. would it have killed Kishimoto to have given her some unique moves?

Everyone else from the Leaf - We haven’t seen the full cast yet, but... there’s not much to say about them. They were out of focus for the most part. Although I do like Neji and Tenten’s new wardrobes. I don’t really even have anything to say about Kakashi.

The Sand Siblings - hey they got some character focus! they needed it, Kankuro and Temari especially. even if theirs was in respect to their relationship with Gaara. fuckin bullshit that Temari didn’t get to participate in getting her damn brother back because reasons though.

Chiyo - she was cool. gave a bit of flavor to Suna and the world at large. mostly existed to be a plot device, though. At least kishimoto managed to make her death a sad one.

Deidara - ahh, Deidara. the dude who inspired so many questions about the logistics having mouths on both your palms. also, how the hell did his arm survive getting Kamui’d?

Sasori - the serial killer who just wanted a hug from his parents. also, for as great as his puppets supposedly were, they sure were susceptible to getting completely fucking smashed to bits. does puppet jutsu just completely suck or what?

Tobi - a good boy! actually, no, not a good boy at all. but that comes later. I was... kinda surprised to see this is when he debuted, but more because I just couldn’t remember how long after the two main fights it happened. also, I do gotta wonder if his VA stays the same throughout the series cause he sounded pretty goofy - appropriate for his first appearance, but not so much for later on.

and last but not least, shipping... there was a disappointingly high level of NaruSaku this arc, especially in the anime I think? blech. at least there wasn’t really any Sasuke-related shipping, what with him being absent for the arc.

also: NaruGaara. although I think it’s another ship like ShikaChou, where they are also fine just staying friends. though I do kinda think that it might be somewhat onesided, with Gaara loving Naruto but Naruto having his mind on a bunch of other things and not really wanting a relationship at the moment.

oh, and the last ship of note was some ShikaTema slowburn on the side. that is the ship that I think Kishimoto made the most obvious, though that may be my own biases showing. idk.

anyway, thank god the next arc isn’t nearly as long.

[fangren]

more Naruto thoughts yay!

so, I finally reached the end of Part One in my rewatch/reread (though technically I haven’t watched the final part one episode of the anime...) so it’s time for some thoughts and reviews. I might split this up into a couple posts, idk.

Sasuke vs Naruto, round one

-I was surprised that Naruto was the one to activate his trump card first! though tbf he was on fire at the time. still, though...

-there’s a very big difference between how the two are approaching the fight, with Naruto seeing it as a serious but ultimately friendly duel between rivals, where he can finally show Sasuke that he is an equal worthy of open respect. versus Sasuke just trying to prove to himself that he’s still Naruto’s superior despite all his growth. Sasuke isn’t interested in an equal, he just wants to settle his own doubts about what he’s been doing with his life.

-I mean, it’s probably obvious to people but still... it really sets the tone for their interactions from now on, and the disconnect between what they want.

-as far as shipping goes... it was clear to me at this point that anything between them is largely one-sided. Had Sasuke not gone down the dark path, yeah it could still have happened but well that’s not the story now is it? this arc is very much Naruto getting his heart broken, slowly and brutally.

-in comparison, Sakura’s anguish when Sasuke leaves Konoha just doesn’t feel genuine? a big disconnect between what we’ve seen between the two and how it’s been presented. all I could think during the scene was ‘why? why do you ‘love’ him so much?’ I don’t think we’ve ever really been given a substantial reason. Sasuke is cool and good-looking, but that’s all pretty shallow. you’d think Sakura would have picked up a little on Sasuke not really having any sort of interest in her, but then again Kishimoto does suck at writing women... so instead we’re just supposed to accept that Sakura just had this deep love for the guy that was barely shown interacting with her, and was devastated when he left.

-Sakura deserves better.

-anyway, this is very much a boy’s club arc, and that shows in the team that’s put together. Sakura is sidelined immediately, and Ino/Hinata/Tenten are never so much as mentioned as possibilities or even shown. it’s even worse in the manga, since the team comes together ridiculously quickly in a single chapter.

Chouji vs Jirobo

-there is some definite ShikaChou stuff, though, which is nice since the Exams really only had some (very light) teasing of those two with Ino. this arc really develops their relationship, and it’s a good one even if they seem like they’re both 100% fine with staying just friends. it’s very flexible, and healthy.

-Shikamaru does have a few cool moments in this initial confrontation, but really this early part is all about Chouji kicking ass. and he does, quite well.

-I legit cried when, after Chouji has finally won, he finds the messages left behind by his teammates (and I wished there had been more than just the arrow in the manga). after the early interactions were mostly just everyone looking down on Chouji, seeing them believe in him was really touching.

Neji vs Kidoumaru

-to my surprise, this fight did not end where I thought it did (which was with Neji sending his chakra up Kidoumaru’s thread). which meant some more badassery from Neji! huh.

-not a lot to say about Neji, though. his role is just to show how much of an affect Naruto had on him, and thus would hopefully have on Sasuke. knowing how it ends, though, just gives those scenes a bit of a bitter taste... I wonder what Neji’s reaction to Naruto’s failure was? I don’t think we ever see it.

Shikamaru vs Tayuya; Kiba vs Sakon

-once again, Shikamaru is relegated to beating up the girl of the enemy group. seriously, for all the legitimately cool things he does his entire role in Part One is to best girls while having a shitty attitude towards girls in general. it’s fucking shit.

-Kiba is also pretty shit towards women in a more fuckboy kind of way, but that’s not really present in Part One. still kinda colors my opinion of him during his fight, though.

-attempting/threatening suicide in order to kill Ukon was pretty hardcore, though, even if it failed.

-this is probably the first fight to really drive home the power difference between the boys and the Sound Five. Chouji had his trump card, Neji his ‘genius’, and Shikamaru his smarts, but Kiba and Akamaru... they used up their trump card pretty quickly, and were forced to focus more on escaping than anything else.

-Sakon and Ukon are pretty fucking terrifying an opponent, and also hella fucking creepy.

(to be continued in the next post!)

[fangren]

okay! I’ve finished rereading/rewatching Naruto up through the Search for Tsunade arc (as well as some of the prequel stuff for the next arc), so it’s time for some more thoughts! not gonna be much this time though cause the arc was pretty short.

-first off, Akatsuki is introduced! I was surprised by how affable Kisame was. he seems like a guy who would use a lot of emojis, if emojis existed in the ninja world.

-the man, the myth, the legend! Itachi ‘traumatizing my brother into becoming strong enough to kill me clearly didn’t work, so I’ll try traumatizing him some more’ Uchiha. Yeah. Itachi is a lot less intimidating on the reread when you know why he did what he did. also its kinda fun to imagine like all the shit he said being completely ad-libbed and Sasuke just being too much of a dumbass (and also traumatized...) to notice. that’s all I really wanna say about Itachi right now.

-Jiraiya continues to fucking suck, by the way. obviously moreso in the anime since his suckiness gets expanded, but still. god, why anybody in Konoha wanted him to be Hokage at any point I’ll never know.

-Tsunade... I don’t know how to feel about her. she does some pretty badass shit in her introduction, but like... the whole ‘actually 50 but uses jutsu or whatever to make herself look much younger’ thing is pretty shitty. also, her big titties and the way the anime especially likes to have shots on them, usually pretensed by showing off her Super Special Grandpa Necklace. like jfc just make her look 50 like she is, Kishimoto. stop sucking at writing women. you didn’t even fuckin show her age when she used up her stored chakra and couldn’t maintain her youth anymore.

-Shizune is another example of Kishimoto being shit at writing women. she’s supposed to be reasonably badass, but all she does is get her ass kicked every time she tries to fight.

-not much in the way of shipping this time, as to be expected. some Saku/Lee and a bit of Saku/Ino, I think? and NaruSasu is still very very much on the downslope what with what happens to Sasuke at the beginning of this stretch.

-Lee is Very Good

-still don’t like Shikamaru’s attitude towards women

nothing else I wanna say right now. I guess the next time I’ll post about this will be... the end of part one, I guess? I’m gonna skip Filler Hell, so...

[fangren]

I’m five chapters in, and I gotta say: Steel Ball Run is easily the most mundane, yet utterly bizarre things I’ve read. It’s like... I hate saying this, but it’s like a bad-ish fanfic, just written by the author of the original work.

[fangren]

so! I finally made it through the first arc of Naruto: Shippuden, in both the anime and manga. and jesus, it felt like it went on forever in the anime. I get that expanding some scenes was necessary at the time, but still - they probably coulda shaved off an episode or two.

anyway, thoughts. the reintro part of the arc (Naruto returning, and the second bell test) being so different between the two mediums was weird, but I understand why they did it - the manga really rushed through it all. Naruto’s way of beating kakashi was pretty clever, too.

Gaara vs Deidara was a good way of showcasing how far Gaara has come, while still maintaining Akatsuki as a credible threat.

I had kinda forgotten about the fights against the fake Itachi and Kisame, but they were... nice, I suppose. though Kisame’s fight got pretty rushed in the manga. also nice: seeing the anime actually give Hidan and Kakuzu clearer cameos during the Akatsuki group scenes.

Deidara and Sasori just fucking sitting there waiting for Team Kakashi when Sakura busts the door down was fuckin’ a power move. Deidara especially, using Gaara’s corpse like a damn bench.

Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori. It was pretty fuckin badass, I won’t lie, but fuck Kishimoto for his ‘oh, Sasori totally saw through that last attack but didn’t dodge on purpose’. way to soil what should have been Sakura’s first hard-earned victory.

Team Guy vs their clones... it was completely off-screened in the manga, but even in the anime it sucked. it just dragged on and on needlessly until Lee was like ‘hey I know let’s just be stronger’ and it fuckin... worked. like, wtf. that’s dumb as shit.

Naruto and Kakashi vs Deidara... honestly, the lead up was dumb as fuck in the anime cause they’re traveling along like two fucking miles of river canyon with fuckin... whole-ass tree trunks (not roots, some had leafy branches!) growing across and into both cliff walls. like, I’m pretty sure that’s not how trees work. was it man-made? in that case, why the hell bother with such a long fucking stretch? dumb as fuck. the actual fight, if you could call it that, wasn’t awful.

Gaara’s death, and later rebirth through Chiyo’s sacrifice, was touching, but knowing how it ended did soften the blow a lot. oh well.

lotta shit introduced this arc... ‘bijuu’ and ‘jinchuuriki’ as terms, a glimpse of what the hell Akatsuki are doing, a better understanding of the Fox Cloak... oh, and the first appearance of Tobi ‘totally not an Uchiha’ Keith!

anyway, I’m gonna do character/shipping stuff in a second post cause this one is getting long. bare with me?

[fangren]

okay, I’ve finished up my reread/rewatch of Naruto up to the end of the preliminary matches for the third round of the chuunin exams. so, that means it’s time for some thoughts!

-when the other members of the rookie 9 are formally introduced there’s some internal monologue from Naruto describing each one, and for Kiba it basically amounts to “Fuck this guy.” I don’t really have any point to make here, I just found it funny.

-jesus christ, the first exam was seriously not in Naruto’s favor. like, even if he had figured out that he was supposed to cheat on it it wouldn’t have helped much - his teammates had no way of passing along the answers; hell Sakura hadn’t even figured out that cheating was the point! and of course Naruto had no way of getting the answers himself without a risky distraction or some spectacular forethought to prepare a shadow clone in advance. well... he did really luck out to have Hinata sitting next to him, but all that damn whispering would make it very blatant what was going on had he decided to go through with copying her answers. Oh well.

-god fucking damn is Orochimaru a creepy fucking bastard. Kishimoto does a great job of presenting him as this unnerving, impossibly powerful foe even while he’s masquerading as that Kusa nin (and the callbacks to that initial confrontation when he and Kakashi meet later on only cements the intimidation factor), but the pedo vibes he throws off are just... completely unnecessary. like, I think I can kinda see what Kishimoto was going for, but there are betters ways to show Orochimaru’s interest in Sasuke as basically a valuable specimen then to ramp up the pedo vibes.

-speaking of Sasuke, this is when his major ‘grr I’m an avenger’ stuff starts showing up and I hate it. like, dude, you’re not an avenger you’re a traumatized 12-year-old. jesus christ. as far as him and Naruto go, there’s a lot less shipping in this sequence - Naruto tries with the whole saving Sasuke from the giant snake scene, but Sasuke just isn’t interested in any of it. after such a strong start with the Land of Waves, it’s... disappointing, I guess? to see him go down the path of insufferability. thank god he’s basically absent for most of the latter half of this stretch.

-Sakura deserves a better writer than Kishimoto. (so does Ino, for that matter, as well as every other Kunoichi, but Sakura is a main character so she gets the focus). her unfailing crush on Sasuke is not an endearing trait, and quite honestly worsens her relationship with Ino - how much better would their fight have been had they remained more friendly and not just fallen out because of him? Also, Sakura vs Zaku in the Forest of Death was such bullshit. Sakura launches a basic but effective combo against him, even tanks multiple kunai hits, but then ends it by... biting his arm and getting wailed on until she lets go? horseshit. it’s such an undignified way to be taken out. Sakura deserves better.

-also bullshit: Kin not doing anything until she jobs to Shikamaru (she doesn’t even have that bell genjutsu in the manga!), Tenten vs Temari not being shown in the manga, hell even Dosu never amounting to anything. he’s built up to be an intimidating opponent, but iirc dies off-screen before the third exam starts. he’s a minor villain, but he deserved better too.

-as for good things about this arc? people finally starting to acknowledge Naruto. first Hinata is introduced and admittedly her whole purpose initially is to be someone who looks up to Naruto. then you have Morino Ibiki giving him some praise via internal monologue, and Sakura starting to respect him in the Forest of Death. and, of course, his match with Kiba - fucking nobody outside his teammates (and maybe Hinata) thought Naruto stood a chance, but by the time he wins pretty much everyone is impressed. it’s a refreshing start to Naruto’s road to acknowledgment even if its mostly only among his peers right now. Lee in particular stands out to me - when he’s first introduced, he’s really only interested in pitting himself against the genius Sasuke. but by the end of the prelims... I really get the feeling that he and Naruto have become friends.

-Hinata vs Neji is... chilling, and powerful. it sets a strong stage for Naruto and Hinata’s relationship, both being losers but refusing to back down. even though he doesn’t know Hinata that well, Naruto quickly forms a sort of affection for her, and it really hurts him to see her lose to Neji. honestly, had the fox not been sealed at the time, I do believe he might have drawn on some of its power a little bit.

-as for shipping... well, obviously the introduction of so many more characters has brought a bunch more ships with it, though there’s really only a few standouts. NaruSasu felt pretty one-sided this time with Sasuke starting on his stupid edgelord path; NaruHina is of course off to a slow but strong start; and InoSaku would be much better if it weren’t for the whole stupid Sasuke drama. oh, there’s also LeeSaku, which is not bad actually! not as good as InoSaku could be, but certainly better than SasuSaku.

so... yeah.  that’s all for now I think? my next post on this matter will likely be after the exams and subsequent invasion are over.

[fangren]

okay, so since I got caught up with the Boruto anime I decided to do a rewatch/reread of the original Naruto anime and manga, which I don’t think I’ve ever done once when I’ve reread, say, One Piece like several times by now. so in a lot of cases I haven’t seen any of this material since I first got into the fandom as a teenager.

(before I continue, I’d like to make it clear that, for as long as I have been aware of the ship’s existence, I have been a NaruHina diehard. I don’t plan on that changing.  I know it didn’t end up being terribly well-written, but it is still my OTP and I’m still so happy that it was made canon. Hinata has always been a character I identified/sympathized with due to her shyness around her crush, long before I knew I was trans. so it’s only natural that I gravitated towards her and wanting her to be happy. the ship may have been a major underdog at the start, but it was also super adorable and the sort of romance that I love.)

anyway, as of present I’ve finished the Land of Waves arc and the first couple episodes of the Chuunin Exams. here’s my thoughts so far:

-even as a dumbass little 12-year-old, Naruto still has shades of the man he’ll grow up to become. his valuation of hard work, his strong desire to protect those important to him, his dissatisfaction with the supposed ideal of a shinobi. it made me smile, knowing how great he will one day become.

-episode/chapter 2 is so fucking wild, especially coming after such an iconic beginning. for those of you who may not remember, that’s when Konohamaru is introduced. and also when Naruto spends a great deal of time (which is greatly expanded upon in the anime) teaching said 9-yr-old how to transform into what is basically porn? like, holy fuckin shit. it’s also the first appearance of the harem jutsu, which only makes me remember how fuckin wild it was that Naruto used it against the goddamn final boss and it actually worked.

-speaking of shades of things to come, holy shit is the Haku fight full of it. particularly for the Pain fight. the similarities drawn between Naruto and his opponent, Naruto going berserk and drawing on the Fox’s chakra when someone he cares for (first Sasuke, then Hinata) appears to die for him, Naruto’s struggle with his anger, what he should do as a ninja, and the cycle of hatred; give the fight a rewatch and you’ll see what I mean.

-goddamn the NaruSasu is real, particularly towards the end of the fight. like, had the manga just ended there then it would be the only real ship and I would have gladly been onboard, at least nowadays. too bad that once the arc is over, although things are indeed (a little bit, though briefly) awkward between Naruto and Sasuke the latter’s internal monologue is back on his tedious ‘grr I have to become stronger’ schtick.

-obviously they’re shown and named earlier in the anime, but I was surprised to see that the other members of the Rookie 9 weren’t actually introduced in the manga until after the Sand Siblings were (unless I missed some small panel, anyways). granted it was only by a few pages, but still. you’d think they would have been shown sooner, but I guess that’s just how things worked out.

anyway, that’s all for now, maybe once I finish some portion of the chuunin exams I’ll post some more thoughts.

[fangren]

invisible zombies. seriously, JoJo. invisible zombies.

[fangren]

Read the first chapter of Stone Ocean! It was a pretty good start to things I think. Introducing Jolyne as a prisoner is a nice mirror to Jotaro’s introduction, even if Jolyne’s is... rather more uncomfortable than Jotaro’s was.

Speaking of, he’s kind of a deadbeat! Yay. I don’t like it, but ‘be distant and also set things up to maybe give them a Stand should they get in trouble’ is a regrettably fitting parenting style for Jotaro.

By the way, do they ever like actually give Jolyne’s mom a name? And characterization? Because they really should. I’m kinda interested in seeing what kind of woman Jotaro Kujo actually, like, was married to for a little while.