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Well the possibility of wrapping up Asuma, Dan, and Hanzou’s subplots in one fell swoop was quickly put to rest when Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji darted in against Asuma and were never seen again for the rest of the chapter. I wasn’t expecting Mifune and Hanzou to get as much attention as they did, but their bit of backstory did help emphasize why Hanzou was in a samurai get-up. He’s likely based on Hanzou Hattori after all, who was a samurai turned ninja much like it was depicted here. I just wouldn’t have pictured him as a supposed “fallen samurai” that turned to the way of the ninja. Still, it was an interesting subplot and one that had me looking up a bit more about the real Hanzou’s history.
In contrast, the flashback with Yahiko, or more specifically Nagato/Pain, came a bit out of the blue. More so than how Hanzou had a run-in with Akatsuki in the past, I was dwelling on mention of Danzou’s involvement. I could be mistaken, but I don’t recall there being any hints that Danzou was conspiring with Akatsuki leading up to now. He did enlist the help of Orochimaru with all the ability stealing though (i.e. Uchiha and Senju), so there’s always that avenue given how the latter was once a member. I get the feeling I’m forgetting about something though, so feel free to jostle my memory if you have a better recollection of it.
In any case, I gather this is the conclusion of the Mifune/Hanzou bit, although something still has to be done about sealing him away. It was minor, but I just love how Chiyo helped the good side by spilling the beans on Hanzou’s abilities. It kind of makes me wonder why more of the resurrected ninjas who don’t want to be used as tools don’t do the same. i.e., “My weakness is…!” Too much pride even in death perhaps?
That double page spread is the first wow moment for me in a while. Why can’t Kishi have this kind of art more?
Because the main character is a ninja that wears an orange jumpsuit.
LMAO Necro. But I also find it has gotten pretty intense. Glad it wasn’t a long drawout battle.
it was said before, in a earlier chapter, where jiraya (sorry for bad spelling) infiltrated the rain city place and there we found out that pain was the one who killed hanzo, and did it a long time ago, so at least it wasnt straight out the blue and was mentioned before.
In response to why more ninjas don’t spill the beans about their weaknesses, I’m not sure they know what their weaknesses are. I mean, most people don’t realize stuff about themselves until after someone else points them out, and in the ninja world once someone points out your weakness, you’re usually dead.
I dunno. How can you be an adult ninja and not know the weaknesses of your own techniques? Young Kakashi not knowing why Chidori is ineffective without a Sharingan is one thing, but Pein isn’t going to know what the cooldown for his Shinra Tensei is? No way.
All of these ninjas being summoned HAVE already been defeated once, you know.
I thought the flashback was Hanzo realizing that he was, in fact, dead.
Nagato’s team had made a deal with Danzou to become ally, but then Danzou went to Hanzou and ambushed them, that’s where Yukiko died and Nagato joined Akatsuki shortly after.
Um No Yahiko’s Akatsuki was making a name for themselves that Hanzou in his paranoia felt threatened even if Akatsuki wanted to work with him. Hanzou teamed Danzou’s Root to kill the leader of Akatsuki Yahiko. Yahiko kiled himself to save Konan. Nagato then went in a roaring rampage of revenge that not only kiled Hanzou but everybody connected to him. Somewhere along the line Madara co-opted Akatsuki through Nagato. Remember Madara also manipulated the 4th Mizukage while earning Kisame’s loyalty. Come Part 1 only Nagato and Konan were the original members of Akatsuki. With Kisame and Zetsu whole loyalties are to Madara. The rest did not know Madara was the man behind the man much like the 4th Mizukage’s reign in Kirigakure.
Was I the only one to find the banter between the two, for the most part, pointless? Something about the way of the sword and sharpness and bluntness and faith and fallen ninja, i don’t know, but it was boring as hell and p. irrelevant.
Is it only me, or is ALL the battles including adults better in this manga? At least they don’t go around sprouting nonsense like “not killing anybody”. Sure, Naruto can beat and kill badguys if he’s really up to it. The adults do it because they see it as the most efficient way.
That’s how i see it at least.
JUST FINISHED WATCHING UNICORN IT WAS DAM AWESOME!!!
(sigh) I can see what’s going to happen next. Hanzou, who has abandon his idealistic beliefs,has finally found the epiphany that he was looking for after fighting his old samurai foe. Like Sasori, Hanzou will disappear now that his soul is free from its attachment to the world. Though I was hoping that Hanzou would use more ninjutsu, so that he can show how he is the man who was able to fight the three legendary sanin and lived to tell the tale. Oh well.
In his first introduction Mifune really didn’t look like the strong type and now he goes as far as pwning Hanzou, now this was an interesting surprise, made me wish Samurai were involved from earlier than just now…
Ah… you mean Yahiko.
idnt really give a crap bout this chapter. I only just read the text, and didnt pay attention to the drawings.
Honestly, I thought the chapter was pretty bad. I mean, it focused on two characters who’ve never actually been relevant whatsoever. I mean, sure, Hanzou is famous (plus his connection with the sannin) and Mifune is the samurai leader; but other than that, those to characters don’t matter in the slightest. There’s no need to spend so much time on them, especially when there are much better “reunion” fights that could make for a more interesting read.
Also, is it just me, or was the artwork on the samurai terrible? Seriously, the swords look more like white bokkens than actual blades.
Beware, the Mangastream translation is crappy and not to be trusted.
Translation aside, this week both Naruto and One Piece had bad script editing (there were typos and cop-paste errors etc and some things didn’t make sense). I’m ignoring Bleach because it doesn’t usually have much script at all.
The dialogue was pretty dull this week; but I thought it was pretty smart for Kishimoto to pair Hanzou with Mifune since Mifune’s expertise in “Iaidō” essentially sealed Hanzou’s jutsu abilities which I reckon must be very powerful. In turn, we don’t get to question how Hanzou was able to overcome the sannins in their prime and risk creating more plot holes…
They were only called Sannins AFTER their fight with Hanzo.Also, they weren’t really at their strongest at that time.Jiraya didn’t know Rasengan at that point, I doubt any of them knew how to use summons then either.
Kishimoto just wanted to include this battle as fan service. Nobody really cares about either of these two characters, so it’s disappointing that almost an entire chapter had to be devoted to what is essentially the Naruto equivalent of the famous historical battle between Musashi (samurai) and Baiken (some dude who used the same chain and scythe thing that Hanzo uses). For those of you who don’t realize this, the entire character of “Mifune” is a tribute to Mifune Toshiro, who played Musashi himself in the original films by Kurosawa. Kishimoto is really out of ideas, and has literally resorted to importing random crap from Japanese pop culture in order to pad out the chapters…
A fight I don’t care between two people I don’t care about (one never seen before and one who is already dead) about things I don’t care, during a confusing set of battles that seems here just to artificially extend the life of this manga.
Keep up the good work, Kishy.