So I was watching Itachi’s story as part of Naruto Shippuuden anime lately and thought why not make a list of Itachi’s awesomeness? While Uchiha Itachi isn’t my favorite character in the popular shounen series, he’s one of the well-liked characters by fans worldwide. I know I have a few friends who think he’s so cool too.
The list is based on the episodes of Itachi’s story I’d watched recently. Without further ado, here’s why Uchiha Itachi is so great!
I finally watched The Last: Naruto the Movie after it was released more than a year ago in December 2014. Well, it’s better late than never. I’m interested in this movie primarily because it’s marketed as the story that happened before the last chapter of Naruto manga. Also, Naruto mangaka Kishimoto Masashi plays an important role in the movie production. For the most part, the movie feels a lot like any other Naruto movie in the sense that there are events outside Naruto’s world’s norm.
Personally, I see The Last more of a love story between Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata.
I’m primarily an anime watcher. For the lack of a proper word, let’s use the word “watcher” for now. To further elaborate, I’m more inclined to watch the anime of any titles as long as there’s an anime version of it. I’ll be more than happy to skip reading the manga, playing the visual novel or reading the light novel. In that respect, yes, I’m more of an anime person. For readers who have been following this blog for a long time would come to realize this. After all, I mentioned it several times.
So, for me to transition from the anime to actually reading manga takes a lot of work. At least, the anime must do the original work justice. This means what was translated into an anime isn’t too far off the original work. Majority of the characteristics are still there and whatever emotions are properly conveyed through animated work.
Several weeks have passed since the world of manga bid farewell to the much popular series Naruto. And several weeks before that, my friends and I bid farewell to another of our favorite series Kuroko no Basuke. In other words, we’ve spent a lot of days these past few months “chasing” the weekly chapter. We would eagerly and anxiously waiting for the release of the translated chapters. Worst part is, the translators seem to delay the release of the last few chapters on many occasions.
For us, we would greet each other each morning to with either “Kuroko still not yet release.” or “Naruto not yet out”. And then we’ll go on with our work while periodically check for possible updates. On a “bad” day, we would end the day with the same sigh. Figuratively speaking, of course.
In a fast paced world, this post might come a bit late. Last week, the popular shounen series Naruto has come to an end. For me personally, it’s a mixture of sadness and excitement. Sad, because the title that introduced me to the world of anime ended. Excited, because I’m finally seeing the ending of a much treasured series.
Before I delve any further to what I thought about the series itself, here’s a summary I got from Wikipedia.
A giant, powerful fox known as the Nine-Tails attacks the ninja village Konoha, killing many people. In response, the leader of Konoha – the Fourth Hokage – seals the fox inside his newborn son Naruto Uzumaki at the cost of his life. The Konoha community thinks that Naruto is the Nine-Tails itself and often ridicules him throughout most of his childhood.
I’m a long-time follower of Naruto series. So it’s a special moment to see validation of how the characters have grown over the years. Trust me, it’s been a looooong time.
What I like most in episodes 373 & 374 is how they welcome the new era. The latest war that’s been going since forever and those two episodes welcome a new phase. It’s time for the younger generation to shine. I mean, they are comparing the new Three-Way Deadlock Summoning with the old. The students of The Legendary Sannin and the three top ninjas themselves. I suppose, it’s a proud moment for fans of Team 7 and their peers.
Below is some of the most exciting moments (a.k.a screenshots) in Naruto Shippuuden episodes 373 & 374.
The rebirth of ten-tailed beast brought a catastrophic disaster upon the five great shinobi countries. Within minutes of its re-existence, the alien creature (alien, even by Naruto’s standard) has took many lives, including characters we’re so used to seeing after following Naruto series for so long. As Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito counter attack in the seemingly one-sided war, it’s as if all hopes are lost for Naruto and his alliances.
Despair. Hope. Death. Living. Silence….yes, silence is the most appropriate response in these times.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead)
It might sound silly to some people, but I’ve seen friends and strangers alike being overly attached to fictional characters. In the context of this blog, being too attached to 2D characters from anime or manga. Maybe even games! But I seldom read or hear people complain about characters in games. I wonder why…
This thought crossed my mind every time I read or hear fans complaining about a certain tragedy that has fallen on their favorite characters. Most recently, a friend told me she was scared to read the then latest chapter (probably two weeks ago?) of Naruto because she was scared to find out what’d happened Kakashi. Apparently, our mutual friend had told her that something bad might happened to the character. I didn’t know what to say when she explained her reason. I simply kept quiet.
So far among all the wars I see in anime/manga world, the war in Naruto stood out. How? For starters, it is much more elaborated and the strategies were well thought-out. It’s as if Kishimoto has one hell of an experience in war. Or maybe he reads a lot about Sun Tzu. And then there was the highlighted focus on the ninjas’ personal thoughts concerning the war and their positions in it.
A war is nothing without strategies. Whichever side that fails to come up with a good strategy will ultimately lose the war. In that respect, I truly admire the Nara family, particularly Nara Shikaku, the brain behind The Fourth Shinobi World War. In spite of the chaos that’s going on at the field, he remains calm, cool and quick in developing counter-strategies. The strategic plan of Naruto’s war is interesting to watch.
Since I’m pretty bogged down by loads of things happening in real life, I thought it’s a good idea to write a fun post. I haven’t been doing that for a long time. This time around, I’ll be listing down 5 unforgettable tunes from the anime I saw. Tunes can be a song, part of a song, anything that contributes a melody. That said, this isn’t a post about the unforgettable OP or ED songs, although some of them are.
I chose to say unforgettable because I don’t actually like all of them. You know, sometimes one can’t seem to forget things that bug them. It’s the kind of tune that when people mention about it, I can immediately recall without any problem.
World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko 