All of a sudden, there’s 15 minutes left, and we’re really counting things down this week on Naruto. Gotta say I didn’t quite expect that kind of timeline, but as it’s forcing quite a bit of progression, and I can’t say I’m displeased at how things ended up. It does ends up a tad bit comedic (and ironic) with Obito essentially saying “Stop fighting and you’ll be saved!” and Orochimaru greeting Sarutobi like they’re good ol’ buddies again, but the chapter does end up serving nicely in terms of a foundation for a couple of things at least.

For one, we get Madara’s revelation that he’ll wait until the 15 minutes are up before replacing Obito as the user of the Tsukuyomi technique. Whether he ends up succeeding in his plan is another question entirely though… and it’d be quite ironic indeed if he ends up miscalculating and that’s what ends up doing him in. If anything, the other Kage are finally almost there, and they might have something to do with it.

Either way, it’s quite interesting to note that Shikamaru may be down for the count in regards to the rest of this fight, and what we end up getting is essentially Sasuke (All hail the return of the Hokage Candidate!) taking charge and once again spurring Naruto on. In that sense, it’s fitting in its own way—considering how theoretically Sasuke was always one step ahead in their younger days—and it set up for a pretty nice flashback sequence that ends up being sent through to the rest of the alliance via Ino’s Mind-Body Transfer Technique.

Ultimately, it was a fairly decent chapter if I do say so myself. Nothing quite like a sudden quarter hour countdown to destruction to emphasize the stakes (and speed up story progression too).

19 Comments

  1. *note, crazy ramblings and guesstimate spoilers below this point.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Azriel
    1. HOW THE FUCK WOULD SASUKE EVEN BECOME HOKAGE?! So everybody is just going to forget all the shit he’s done and make them their leader? It’ll be a cold day in hell before that shit happens.

      Haseo
  2. Obito: BLAH BLAH NO HOPE LEFT BLAH BLAH GIVE UP NARUTO BLAH BLAH ULTIMATE GENJUTSU
    Everyone else: DON’T GIVE UP NURUTU! REMEMBER YOUR ASSPULL POWER OF NAKAMA DEUS EX MACHINA NO JUTSU!
    Naruto: OH YEAH! THIS IS A SHONEN MANGA! JESUS PLOTHAX POWERS ACTIVATE!

    God this shit is retarded…

    LaughingMan
  3. Leave it to Kishi to turn a 21 page special into a flashback sequence :/

    Shikamaru’s off-paneled “not death” didn’t really do anything for me; it just felt like a cheap plot device to raise the tension. Couple that with the fact that he appears only “mostly dead” and is right next to four haxxed medic ninja and any tension just vanishes. Speaking of medics, Karin seems to hit new levels of cringe-worthiness every time she appears. It’s almost like she’s a parody of the stereotypical Uchiha fangirl, but she just isn’t funny anymore. That sort of stuff is why people call Kishi misogynist. Wasn’t too wild about the 15min time limit or the flashback sequence, but at least things seem to be picking up next chapter with Susanoo and Kyuubi-Naruto taking the front.

    Hochmeister
  4. If you watched Dragon Ball Z’s not Dragon Ball Kai’s version Destruction of Namek in 5 minutes how many episodes have been wasted 11-12 episodes. I expect in manga this would be 9 chapters more, since he doesn’t want it to last longer than that.

    pedobearmatt
  5. One Flashback Scene is fine. But i seriously hope there will be no Flashback Fest, you know something like a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a Flashback, inside a *SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!*

    … … …

    Well i hope Kishi doesn’t drag this on for too long, i kind of want to see this concluded

    Alchemist

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