#first databook character sheets

[comikadraws]

The Databooks Don't Do Birthdays

NOTE: Red links are my own posts, blue links are sources written by others.

I first stumbled across this issue when attempting to construct a timeline for Itachi Uchiha. As a reference, I used a timeline by Seelentau on the Naruto Wiki (which is probably the most accurate Naruto timeline on the internet). However, when comparing the timeline to the manga and Databooks, I noticed that Itachi doesn't age up according to canon events - and by extension, neither does Sasuke. Sasuke is 12 when he graduates, has a birthday in July, and somehow during the 3rd round of the Chunin Exams (which takes place in August), he is still 12.

Now, to confirm a long-time suspicion of mine (which I already teased in a previous post) I looked up character ages and birthdays today as depicted in the Naruto Databooks. I noted them down and compared them and realized this:

You cannot base any Naruto timeline events on character ages.

The reason for that is that the Databooks don't age up characters individually or in accordance with their birthdays but instead uniformly, using Naruto's age as a point of reference. You can see this more clearly in the sheet below.

Here's a bit more context.

Unless each databook was released during the in-universe Ninja Academy graduation months, the age progression as depicted in the Databooks is absolutely impossible. And in fact, they were not released during that in-universe time period.

Naruto's class most likely graduates in March in accordance with the Japanese school year as strongly suggested in Chapter #11 of the Manga. Furthermore, this matches up with the time skip that takes place between September/October (when Naruto's classmates are 13) and March/April (when Naruto's classmates are 15) making a near-perfect 2.5 gap (more on that later).

Everybody in Naruto's class is 12 at this point in time.

The Chunin Exams commence on July 1st, with the 3rd and final round taking place somewhere between August 1st and August 6th depending on how you do the calculations, but it's approximately one month later. Rin no Sho covers chapters #1-119.

Chouji, Kiba, and Sasuke both had a birthday between March and August, yet remain 12 years old like the rest of the cast.

Then Naruto and Jiraiya search for Tsunade for at least a month and after Sasuke's defection and an additional 3-month time skip, we get another Databook.

In this time period, only Temari, Kakashi, Ino, Naruto, Orochimaru, Asuma, Jiraiya, Lee, and Shizune definitively celebrated a birthday, yet the entire cast ages up by one year.

Then a approximately 2.25-year time skip rolls around which, if we do the calculations (including that Team 7 only has six months left for rescuing Sasuke), must take place 2 years later in March or April, assuming the time skip occurred after September or October. We see Konohamaru as a freshly graduated Genin, so this makes perfect sense.

An unknown amount of time passed before the Third Databook was finally released, which covers the events up until Itachi's death, and the truth behind the Uchiha Genocide is uncovered.

The characters have now all uniformly aged up by three years.

The only Databook that falls out of line with this practice is the Fourth Databook. I have that one covered in a sequel to this post.

[linkspooky]

do you have tips on how to write fanfiction? this is a list of what a struggle with,

dialogue

character writing

writing from POV(point of view)

do you have tips?

Ummm, I'm basically talking out of my ass when I try to give other people advice, but I'll try my best here.

DIALOGUE

One thing I do is before even attempting to write a characters dialogue I write out guidelines and rules for how they might speak. Like, imagine you were a tv show writer and you were about to hand your character off to another writer, you write them like "they sound like this, they don't sound like this, they wouldn't say this."

Example: Michikatsu is incredibly polite and formal in his dialogue almost to the point where he sounds stiff. Michi's dialogue should sound like Gojo's dialogue except Gojo takes an aggressive authoritative tone and Michi takes a passive aggressive one. Michi babbles about his special interests and personal thoughts and doesn't notice when other people aren't listening. Michi's rarely up front about anything. Michi’s incredibly flippant, if you insult him too his face he’ll usually laugh it off.  etc. etc.

Write out a summary of the entire conversation first before you even start to attempt to write it, don't just sit at a blank sheet of paper with a plan and attempt to pull a conversation out of thin air. I think a lot of people ignore that a big part of writing is planning and prep work.

You can write a conversation in script format first for a first draft, and then go back and add the prose and in between bits for a conversation earlier. Also it's way easier to edit the dialogue in script format.

POINT OF VIEW

So like number one you have to pick a perspective for your story and stick with it. Don't use first person perspective if there's nothing really unique about being inside of the character's head or there's nothing added by their first person narration and personal insight. Third person limited means you have watching from the back of their eyeballs, you can't describe the character like a camera floating around them. Third person omniscient you can jump anywhere but you should try to be clear when you are switching between perspectives in a scene.

You have to strike the right balance between physical description of the characters environment around them, and then thoughts and feelings of the character themselves. One thing I say is like, picture you are a director for a movie and try to decide where you think the camera should linger when you're writing up prose descriptions.

A third person omniscient narrator should be perspective, but if you're writing a third person limited narrator then every person in the whole world has a personal bias to their thoughts. Their thoughts and opinions should not be considered objective facts because a lot of characterization can come from where their biases differ from the truth. Every character should also start out with like a "Wrong" opinion, or a "Wrong" way they see the world, or just a mistake in their understanding that can be corrected.

This goes hand in hand with: Fictional characters are liars.

CHARACTER WRITING

Write meta and character analysis for your own characters. One thing I always do before I start any story is write character profiles like they were characters in a databook with long summaries of their personalities, and like relevant parts of their backstories. If you're writing your own character then like, this is your time to shine. Try to think clearly about what you want the audience to understand about the character. If you're writing someone else's character, then think about your personal thoughts for the character. B/c if you're writing fanfic like the goal unless it's an au is to write as close to canon as possible but literally no matter what you are going to be writing your personal take on the character.

Always think of your endpoint for the character first, because the whole story is the journey there. If you don't know where you are going you're just going to meander. Umm, a really basic way to describe character arcs is a want versus need conflict, what they think they want versus what they actually need. So your goal is to get them to realize what they need.

OCS INTERACTING WITH OTHER CHARACTERS

For OCS interacting with other ocs I do not have a ton of advice other than you should try to picture how interacting with this person would be in real life. Like characters can be drama queens and have tragic backstories, but imagine if they were just a person in your friend group. Would they be passive aggressive? Would they be annoying? Would they be a downer? They helps with personal interactions with other people.

Also in general try to think about what you want to get out of the scene by these two characters interacting. Do you just want it to be funny? Do you want the audience to learn something about these characters? LIKE That's a big focus in general. What does the audience learn here? What does this add to the story?

For OCS interacting with canon characters. I am all about OC Love but my best advice here is just like ocs interacting with other ocs you should try to use the OCS themselves to demonstrate character traits the canon characters have. Like, forget they are an OC for a moment, pretend they are a canon character just write them the same way you would write Itadori and Megumi interacting. However, the added caveat is you have to introduce and OC and exposit on them enough the audience understands their personality b/c they can't use their knowledge of canon characters as a reference material.

Also in general just like any canon character if you are putting them in a story you should ask yourself "What is the purpose of this character in the story? What do they add to it? Why do I want to include them?"

[narhinafan]

Its cause her design concept is shown along side Kakashi and Iruka which as your interview points came before Sasuke and Sakura.

Furthermore that databook where the art is shown outright says Kishimoto made the Jonin and others pre serialisation all of them are paired up for a reason cause they were characters Kishimoto designed around the same time.

Now the debate on who was made first or not is still there since it is not clear cut, but the databook sets Hinata's design concept being made pre serialisation alongside the Jonin including Kakashi and Iruka who has I pointed out above got confirmed to be made before Sakura and Sasuke.

The interview with the character order is only about the order the main cast were made. Teuchi actually dates back all the way to the original one shot, but he is not listed despite the fact his original design predates even Kakashi and Iruka cause he is a side character.

Was Hinata invented before Sakura?

Yes she was, Kishimoto had done detailed concept art of Hinata in 1998, but Naruto was serialised in 1999. She was one of the earliest characters planned in the story along with several of the Jonin. Sasuke was only made cause an editor suggested a rival and Sakura came after him. Kishimoto's original plot and character designs didn't have Sasuke and Sakura in it, but Hinata was already planned by then.

[kiyoitsukikage]

First Databook Character Sheets

Yoshi! @silalcarin asked me to do Hinata's concept art + Masashi-sensei's inteview (which, I discovered, is not really an interview, but a description of the pictures).

To be honest, I might have misinterpreted your request (maybe you just wanted the part regarding Hinata), but the interview was very interesting and I got carried away (especially after I saw that there was also something about Jiraiya). So...

Some terms you’ll meet in this interview:

- 設定 settei. I translated it with “setting”, “creation”, “design”, “character sheet” and so forth. Basically, it’s a character’s or a place’s concept art, to be used as a reference (it can be both for the artist’s staff, for the animators or for the artist himself, for later uses).

- 先生 sensei. It obviously means ‘teacher’, but it’s also the form you use when you speak to artists who became famous in their field: when they say sensei here, they mean Masashi Kishimoto.

- イメージ ime-ji. I often translated it with ‘mental image’. It’s a loanword from the English ‘image’, sometimes used as a verb meaning ‘visualise’. It has mostly to do with the author’s imagery of the world.

- 世界観 sekaikan. Literally, the ‘vision of the world’ (I translated it with various words). It’s the outlook of the fictional world, how the world of Naruto looks like. In this interview, it’s mostly used with the expression ‘slightly off’ (when Masashi-sensei decided to discard an idea because it would sound inconsistent/weird in the Narutoverse).

- 読切 yomikiri. ‘Non-serialised story’ (though I should have translated it as ‘one-shot’ or ‘pilot’ probably), as opposed to the Naruto serialisation. I guess they’re referring to this one. I think that’s something a newbie artist draws for manga editors, a sort of let’s-try-and-see-if-the-readers-like-the-story.

- 打合わせ uchiawase. I translated it as “preparatory meeting”, I guess that’s something the artist and the producers do before publishing stuff. It can also mean “previous arrangement”.

- 担当 tantou. Translated it with “the ones in charge”, maybe I should have gone with “supervisor” or something. But, ah, you get the idea.

There. The numbers correspond to the pictures. Anything between square brackets is something I added up to clarify my translation.

[Sideband:] Character sheets

The Nine-Tailed Mythological Fox Spirit

1

“This is the non-serialised Naruto”

The non-serialised Naruto had the appearance of a human, but he was a fox inside.

Though in the present setting the mythological fox spirit is sealed inside Naruto…

Before the serialisation was decided, I changed it in a preparatory meeting with the ones in charge of it.

The demon fox is intense, they said.

No matter if he takes a human shape, he’s a fox really, then the readers won’t be able to sympathise with Naruto… they said.

And I also ended up thinking something like… “that’s pretty true” (laugh).

2

“This is the Nine-Tails drawn for the first time”

This is the Nine-Tailed Mythological Fox Spirit I drew in the spur of the moment as the image expanded [in my mind].

And then, since I was pleased with it, I used it as it is also in the main event [as opposed to preparatory sketch].

I traced it with a lightbox (laugh).

For this reason, I drew nothing but that after all, the Nine-Tails (laugh).

However, also the appearance of the present world of “Naruto” spread from it in some respects. Of course, also things like the creation of the characters and the development of the story expanded.

So it’s like the concept art drawn in order to transmit the story and the setting to the staff, when you make a movie.

 [I always rejoice internally when I see an awesome artist being a lazy bum. Because retracing a previous painting is something I’d totally do.]

The faces on the Hokage Rock [lit: the Hokage Face Rock, though I couldn’t find a corresponding term in English – it’s only called the ‘Hokage Rock’]

1

“There was a dog”

That’s the only thing that could upset the present appearance of the “Naruto” world from the root (laugh).

As a matter of fact, the Third Hokage was a dog, at the beginning.

He was the dog the Second Hokage had, an exceptionally awesome dog, so I tried to make him elected as Hokage in the setting.

Though I thought “It’d be interesting if a dog stood at the summit of the village, what would happen…”

However, in the end I thought that it would be slightly off with the appearance of the world, and I gave it up.

That’s why the present Third was supposed to be a dog.

So I changed it right before the serialisation, erased only the face of the dog in a hurry and it disappeared in the trash (laugh). I used the other parts as they were though.

Hokage

[Actually I’ve read a post long ago in Tumblr where they answered exactly that question, and my greatest regret is that I haven’t saved it and now I can’t add a link here, because it was freaking hilarious]

2

“There’s a heinous face (laugh)”

My mental image of the Hokage wasn’t quite settled at first. The first and the Second… I had put an x-mark on the First, but they haven’t changed much from now since the mental image in relation to these two was good enough; however, the Third and the Fourth Hokage are impressively different.

The Fourth had a rather heinous face (laugh).

Well, I had various things going on in my mind.

Design sketches 

1

“The Grass Nin looked like a troop”

The Grass Nin looked like a troop but they couldn’t convince me and I changed them. So, I drew them again, but… this guy (on the bottom right) suddenly turned into Orochimaru, so… finally I was pleased with it and made up my mind about various things (laugh).

2

“Lovable pugs”

They are the ninja dogs I thought about when Kakashi uses the Earth Release: Tracking Fang Technique. There’s also Pakkun. I like pugs, because they’re cute (laugh). When I drew him, while I made them chat about various things in my imagination I expanded the character’s personality.

3

“The mental image had almost settled”

The jōnin I thought about before the serialisation began… I mean, the design sketch of the sensei and others. If you look at them, it’s already clear who was going to become which character. Well, if the mental image came clearly, I kinda made up my mind in one shot (laugh).

4

“I just drew it out of fun”

That’s just what I drew out of fun, right (laugh). This was what I drew once to convey my mental image of Hinata to my assistant though. I intended to draw it being aware of the appearance of the world, but… it turned into a more modern-style girl (laugh).

Discard

1

“The huge guy was deleted…”

He reached the level of rough sketch, but the just huge and unattractive guy was likely to be deleted from the moment he appeared already. In the preparatory meeting with the people in charge, we ended up saying “he doesn’t make your heart throb from a reader’s point of view, right?”.

Moreover, it was the scene that shows Gaara’s first battle, so I resolutely drew it again.

[In the first caption, it says 金太郎とペットのポチ Kintarou to petto no Pochi. I’m unsure about the meaning, I guess it’s the ‘pet called Kintarou’. Apparently, petto no Pochi is  something like ‘Spotty the pet’ (pet with a ridiculously common name).]

2

“I planned to use it in the Land of Waves volume”

Originally, there wasn’t Zabuza and I had planned to use this character. But I gave it up for the same reason of the discarded character of the page before. (Ah! It’s the character I had made earlier, haha…) I think just about the fact of making the enemy characters entry on stage, that is, how they’re likely to hurt the protagonists. [Twisted sentence here: I guess he means that when he creates villains, he also need to think how they’ll look appearing on the scene and the impact on the protagonists.]

3

“Serious taste…”

Naruto had just graduated from school so I thought it was okay even if I made him act in a funny way. However, it had turned completely like a story set in a school [学園もの gakuenmono I think it’s intended as a manga genre]… I had forgot about the whole “ninja” thing.

Sound effects lettering

Appearance pattern

1

“That’s incredibly unskilful”

That’s sound effects lettering practice. They’ve been incredibly poor from the time of the non-serialised story (laugh). I often practiced using various comic strips as a reference. Well, even now they’re not my strong suit really (laugh).

2

“Having a mental image of moving pictures”

It’s the thing in which I drew some pattern of the production of the scene where a ninja appears, or the scene where they disappear, having a mental image of moving pictures. Once inside your head, the action turns into a moving picture. Then, you draw thinking about the composition you cut out from there.

Signature

[The pictures in which he practiced his signature say (in this order): Masashi (with the ma and sa character written as one), Masashi (all linked together), Kishimoto Masashi (stand-alone characters), Kishimoto (above) Masashi (below, ma and sa together), Kishimoto Masashi (current signature).]

3

“That’s Naruto’s face together with the signature”

When I write my signature, I put the face of the protagonists. Well, that looks like the practice of that. The Naruto I drew here are all smiling, but I often thought what kind of expression I should do.

4

“I decided on the spot”

When the serialisation was decided, some friends came and saw me. So, make us an autograph, they said. That time, I ended up saying “Crap… I haven’t thought about my signature!” (laugh). I decided on the spot. Saying “Which should I choose, let’s do this” with my friends.

Jiraiya

1

“At the beginning, [I decided to] make a fatty middle-aged man”

I had decided from before the serialisation that Jiraiya would certainly appear even in “Naruto”, because of his fame in various ninja legends. At the beginning, I decided that I’d make him a fatty middle-aged man… that he’d transform in an unattractive-faced middle-aged man (like the picture at the very top) when he got angry or excited seeing pretty girls. That that’s why he got stronger when he transformed, but not good-looking. However, I thought that drawing him differently would have been troublesome (laugh). Though he was also supposed to use frogs that are carried on both his shoulders, in the same illustration.

Once, I made them do a two-man comedy act in the character sheet called “Husband and Wife Frog” (laugh).

However, it was difficult from the prospective of the design, so I also give it up…

  [I love how he dug out his old ideas, years later, to create Fukasaku and Shima and Jiraiya’s Sage Mode.]

Summoning Animals

2

“The oriental dragons and western dragons are different” [Actually, it’s “dragons and dragons are different”, with the first being ドラゴン doragon, the transliterated English word dragon, and the second being 竜 tatsu, the Chinese dragon]

This is the dragon I drew thinking that I’d make it Naruto’s summoning. In my mental image, Chinese dragons have a thin body. And western dragons are chubby and have big feet. So, that is an overly fat Chinese dragon (laugh). It became fat and looks like a western dragon…

3

“Speaking of ninjas, there’s the mental image of frogs”

That’s Gamabunta’s first design. But in the preparatory meeting, since he’s a toad I added warts and made him a toad. Then, I also decided to make him express himself in the Hiroshima dialect. So, I said “I come from the Okayama prefecture, near Hiroshima, so leave it to me” (laugh).

Frontispiece

1

“It’s a compilation of ideas”

Before the serialization, I drew some reasonable ideas for the frontispiece. I’ve almost never used them though (laugh). However, the picture in which [Naruto] is gardening appears (JC vol.3 pag.86).

2

“Imagining Naruto that makes graffiti”

That’s what I drew while thinking in what way I could make Naruto paint graffiti on the Hokage Rock.

It’s also the picture I thought I’d use in the first chapter, yes.

3

“I discarded it myself”

I drew it to use as the first chapter’s frontispiece, but when I thought that to point Naruto’s gaze towards the readers it became unnatural, so I discarded it. It was also slightly off with the appearance of the world (laugh).

Clouds

“Anyway, I love clouds”

That’s the thing in which I just drew Naruto and clouds imagining a moving picture, not to use or not use it.

I’ve liked clouds since I was a child, and also the sky (laugh). That’s why I love things like comics where there are clouds and the sky, and fantasy in which the clouds are whirly like the “Neverending Story” (laugh). I think I want to draw something like that once, too, though. It’d be nice one more whole chapter, a story in which they fly among the clouds (laugh).

...phew, that was long. But very interesting (artistically speaking)~

EDIT (CLARIFYING TRANSLATION)

So, @silalcarin asked me to include in this post something we've discussed about.

Her question was: Were Ibiki, Iruka, Kakashi, Hinata, Anko, etc., were all of these character sketches the earliest concept art? Were these characters the earliest characters Kishimoto created after Naruto himself?

(Apparently, there's a dispute about whether Sakura was created before Hinata or not. Silalcarin also provided me with a translation, made by Koshej back in 2013, which you can read here)

My answer: First of all: yes, they are early sketches. The first line of the paragraph says 連載が始まる前に, which is literally “before the serialization began”. I don’t know where that “I have designed the characters at a very early stage." comes from, to be honest: the Japanese raw of the title says イメージはほぼ決まってました, “the mental image had almost settled/I had almost made up my mind”. So, the other translation is not *wrong*, content-wise, but it’s not what the text says (more like a free interpretation of it). As for the order of creation, I admit I have no idea. The text doesn’t clearly say if they’re the very first characters, or if they’ve been created early in general. I think it’s difficult to say which characters he created first… because I remember I’ve seen other character sketches, which Kishimoto provided at the end of some Naruto chapters (I remember there were Iruka, Konohamaru, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke as well), together with some other he discarded in the end. Long story short: 1) yes, Anko and co. are pre-serialized sketches, 2) Koshej’s translation is not wrong in general, but mine is closer to the original one (that’s why I had a hard time explaining the terms, and sometimes my translation is almost unreadable), 3) there’s no way to tell which character was created first after Naruto, unless you’re Kishimoto himself I guess (or at least, this databook doesn’t clarify it here).

So, uhmm, that's what I have to say on the matter. Silalcarin also gave me this link (in which you can read further thoughts on the matter)

Last but not least, I feel like to add a link to another interview I translated, from the fourth databook, in which they talk about character creation and such (unfortunately, the part about Sasuke's creation was too difficult for me to translate, so once again I can't give an answer to the question "were Hinata and company created before Sasuke and Sakura")

[kisugay]

the struggle of only being given like 5% of a character in canon and having to roll up your sleeves and create everything else because the author didn’t care to flesh them out very much at all

[the-creative-lounge-blog]

"My Esteemed ANBU Comrades:

  Most of you were as bewildered as I was at my reassignment to a Jōnin sensei. What might not surprise you is that I have failed the first two teams of Genin graduates presented to me.

Whether owing to his infinite wisdom or sense of humor, Lord Third sought to fill my free time by tasking me with updating Konoha’s Bingo Book. After months of tireless effort, Icha-Icha Enterprises has agreed to financially sponsor this new book in exchange for promotional ads inserted within it.

However, I’m on the verge of putting a third team of Genin graduates through my test and if they manage to pass it, I won’t have the luxury of free time.

That’s where you come in.

During my decade of service in Konoha’s ANBU Black Ops, I was a captain to some of you and a comrade to all. I'll speak plainly: I’m cashing in on all the favors owed to me.

ANBU agents are especially talented at gathering intel and therefore, have more information about any and all shinobi. I’m asking each of you to share what you know about those ninjas who ought to be included in our updated Bingo Book.

You may share whatever information you have gathered, or what you think is most important for others to know. Please submit all entries to me and I will assume the thankless job of editing prior to publication.

Look underneath the underneath to make this a comprehensive Bingo Book of the most dangerous ninjas of the Five Great Nations. No detail is too small or unimportant-it could save the lives of your comrades. カカシ"

The Kakashi Lounge Bingo Book Event

In this event, Loungers (and honorary Loungers in the Bingo Bukku server) create an updated Bingo Book of our favorite ninjas in Narutoverse (you can consider this an 'everyone lives au' and create pages for ANY canon character)… including the information that we think is most important xD

Each participant should sign up on our handy event Google sheet (located within our event server). List your name, whether you are signing up to create art or writing for pages (or both), and which characters you’d like to create for (please leave the grey rows blank). We are also looking for participants to create ads for Icha-Icha Enterprises to be included in the work.

Participants will be asked to create their own ANBU codenames to be included on each page. Creators will be credited via their pseuds at the end of the published work.

Where applicable, we’ll match artists and writers (or you can match yourselves) to collaborate on characters. Each participant is free to create pages for more than one character.

Creators are FREE to individualize each page, meaning, they may list whatever information they’d like (examples: “Itachi is a good tipper”, “Kisame’s favorite drink is--”, “You can tell that Kabuto is lying when he--”, “Hidan’s favorite clothing store is--”, etc.). The only thing we ask to be included are the basic stats found in the Naruto databooks, and Mal and I will apply Kakashi’s ‘editor notes’ to entries.

This event is open to ALL Naruto and Boruto content creators. If you are 18+ and would like to participate, please join our Discord server (invite link below)

Naruto Bingo Book Event Discord Server

@narutoevents

[the-bejeesus]

Shueisha What You Doing

    So everyone knows about, or ought to know about, the daily global character rankings that are going on right now. You can cast a vote every day and Shueisha tweets about the results.

Something you might already know is that the images they use in these rankings are hecking clean. And I don’t just mean the cropping. I’m also talking the image quality. Notice how you can see tone sheets in Shank’s hair in the top one, but not in the bottom one. This is because amazon.co.jp releases e-books at a standard (and rather low-res) resolution. The resolution Shueisha colors the manga is much higher. We already knew this because of the Vivre Card databooks

      Anyways I was downloading all of these images that I could. I thought it would be fun to use them to make cool pfp images (or even just release make the backgrounds transparent so that other people can do the rest. But then I noticed something:

MORGAN YOU SON OF A BITCH

THAT WAS NOT YOUR HECKING COLOR SCHEME

Same goes to you, Dragon!

So now I’m out here thinking to myself “hey what’s going on here?”

There are two possibilities going on here:

1) The color scheme used in the global ranking is based on an older version of the colored volumes.

This wouldn’t be the first incident like this. I’ve already discussed how chapter 714 and 761 had early colored releases, and got many, many color schemes wrong along the way.

so this wouldn’t really be big news if that’s what’s going on here.

2) Shueisha is intentionally retcon-ing their earlier volume releases. They may be planning to even go back and revise them.

Now this is the possibility that would indeed be big news. And it also has precedent.

When early volumes were colored, the SBS corners where just changed from black to brown. Not much of a “colorization” tbh, but also not a big deal. As long as the main chapters get colored.

But then, to many’s surprise, they went back and colored them.

So it’s entirely possible that older colored volumes have been revised to have the new color schemes showcased in this Global Ranking.

-

To be quite frank, I’m not sure which possibility I want to be true. Probability 1) is the most likely, but also the most boring. Probability 2) is exciting, but also a hassle. It mean that many fan translations would have to be redone all over. It would also mean that the legal owners of the colored manga who rip them so that we can view them and make fan translations will have to constantly check all 92 colored volumes for unannounced revisions.

[kururisa]

Having now rewatched [select Naruto episodes] an unspeakable---nigh uncountable---amount of times, I think the disparity between Kisame’s movement in action scenes versus the rest of the show speaks volumes about his character.

In combat, the Kisame we see isn’t just mobile, but unnecessarily so. He doesn’t stop at sicking sharks on someone; he has to physically surf alongside his summons. He twirled on a pole when meeting Taka for no discernible reason, and he repeatedly launches himself toward opponents and does flips and leaps in battles that literally do not call for that kind of behavior.

At first blush, this could all be taken as a limitation of his movepool. Kisame is a water-style user with a sword; ergo, he’s going to swim and swing at people. Upon closer inspection, however, the number of effective long-distance strategies one could prepare for his jutsu set & equipment compared to directly physical strategies becomes egregious.

Hide behind a tree. Rain Water Shark Wave. Go underground, since that’s a thing Kisame can do, and let summoned sharks in a water prison take over. Use more water clones. Heck, not even Kisame’s sword is forcing him as close to the action as he’s getting, since the handle extends like a retractable whip and the blade is a spiky purple Chain Chomp. Let Samehada run free!! Turn the arena into a big aquarium and feed the sharks!! Go to a convenience store and buy some jelly donuts!!! Kisame!!! You’re burning way too many calories over nothing!!!

No, Kisame doesn’t need to act the way he does in battle. He’s being Extra™️, and he loves it. After all, he’s a bloodthirsty beefcake who ‘never tires’ and ‘wishes to fight anyone.’ Strength and stamina?? Those are 5s in his databook entry. Kisame’s always down for completely superfluous feats of gymnastic fortitude. The dude’s nearly unstoppable.

Enter: Kisame, remaining perfectly stationary for extended periods of time. For someone who volunteers gratuitous physicality in combat, it’s notable how still he stays otherwise. Talk as he might, Kisame’s body language is restricted to the occasional sword-over-shoulder pose, or the rare hands-vaguely-before-me pose. I saw him cross his arms in a movie once. Such active! Very movement!! In any given non-combat situation, you could swap Kisame for a cardboard cutout without losing anything but snark. Tape a walkie-talkie to the back and no one would be the wiser.

How is this, though? How does someone as energetic as Kisame stop on a dime?? How does someone so Hidan in the sheets get so Itachi on the streets???

The answer is going to sound obvious, but I really think this prior context makes all the difference. A couple “sorry”s and “pardon me”s and we take this for granted, but...

He’s well-mannered. 

Kisame isn’t bouncing around like Tobi NOT because he doesn’t have the energy, or even that he completely disapproves of those sorts of displays, but because he’s trying to be respectful. Kisame goes bananas when he’s given permission to do so, but ONLY when he’s given permission to do so. Newton’s first law: Sharkman edition. Truly, a Man Who Can Do Both. Other memes go here. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[mindsoulchaos]

IIRC, the first person who talked about Ashura and Indra (and implied Naruto and Sasuke were their reincarnations/descendants/whatever) was Tobi, in the 462nd chapter released in September, 2009.

As you can see, the reasons behind their conflit in the manga are fairly similar to the ones potrayed in anime. The only difference is that Hagoromô chose his successor when he was already on his deahtbed, unlike the anime filler version where he was still a middle-aged man when he made the decision.

However, I cannot find any canon statements proving that Indra was really the creator of ninjutsu... It seems that the general consensus on most forums and even the Narupedia is that Indra was the one who corrupted Ninshû to create ninjutsu, but their sources are dubious at best (many of them use the anime fillers as their main source)... 

According to the Ninjutsu Narupedia page, it is written on the 25th page of Fourth Naruto Official Databook that Indra was indeed the invetor of ninjutsu, but I did a bit of fact-checking and discovered that there were no mention of ninjutsu on Indra's character sheet at all.

Here’s a translation (not official, but that’s all I could find) : https://www.fanverse.org/threads/databook-collection-thread-part-i.496343/page-19#post-53002514

So yeah, I'm as confused as before...

Hope that helped.

Does someone remember what do we know about Indra and Ashura strictly based in canon? Because I realise my interpretation of their conflicts is mostly influenced by the fillers. And also if you remember chapters when they are both discussed? For instance I wonder if Indra really invents ninjutsu or that's only say in the filler. I have a memory of Madara explaining to Obito that ninjutsu is a deviation from ninshu but he doesn't precise who did that. It seems to me that the manga is very vague about the problem betweens the two brothers.