Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Darkshaunz is “Shocked” by the new Naruto

Score: 5.5/10 (Too little action)

I’m wondering why nobody’s talking about the latest episode of Naruto. It was vastly entertaining and definitely felt like a whole different anime this time around. I tried to share my enthusiasm about the new episode with Retsgip, who prompted to look at me funny. This episode was done by a relatively new company called “YHBT” (I wonder what it stands for), its good to see a company other than Dattebayo has decided to pick up this awesome ninja shounen we have come to love. I know there are some changes in Naruto that manga fans hate, but this episode retains a lot of the original Naruto charm, Let’s savvy a look.

The Anime is now known as “Oukashou”

They should have called it “Ramen” for flow imo.

It means “Extract of the Cherry Blossom”, seeing as Naruto is part of the Ramen cuisine, I guess it was logical that something like a flower extract is chosen as a substitute name. I am not sure whether Kishimoto authorized this name change, but who knows, maybe this is a blessing in disguise for Naruto. Here’s to hoping that “Oukashou” continues to deliver high octane ninja action and moving storylines to fans of the original pre-faggy name series.

The New “Naruto”

I think they changed his hairstyle this time around.

Let’s face it, the whole Hokage thing was a bit too much for the guy, being one of the strongest ninjas is a pretty impossible feat when you are surrounded by so many competitors that can literally split our world into two. So he does what any aspiring ninja teen does when he realizes he can’t do it, he goes back to school. They didn’t change Naruto much, he has eyes, mouth and a nose, like the original Naruto did (and arms too!). Though I have a sneaking suspicion that they removed his Demonic Ninetails this time (the lack of whiskers kind of point to this).

The new Naruto prefers riceballs over Ramen noodles.

New Freaky Ninja schoolgirls

Who you gonna call when there’s trouble?

In one scene, where Naruto is reminiscing his old Ninja days, alone in the classroom, a girl suddenly appears out of nowhere (actually more like out of the shadows, which makes it scary). This might be the first indicator that they are changing Naruto from an action-ninja shounen to a student-horror-ninja shounen. He addresses the girl as his senior, which means she is at least at “Chuunin” level of ninja skill. I am not surprised, she appeared more eerily than Sadoko from “The Ring” and therefore must be approached with Xtreme caution.

There’s still gay connotations

He’s touching your special place, Naruto.

The writers from before the changes realized the massive capital market of Yaoi fangirls fully supporting the Sasuke and Naruto pairing. Hence they did not remove this aspect from Naruto, in the above scene we can see Naruto, and his fellow male ninja comrades sharing a train bench together. My people assure me that Naruto is in fact, still the “Guy” in the relationship. If you look closely at Naruto’s face, he has his eyebrows raised in a “Aaa~ it feels good” kind of position, and if you look to the guy leaning on him, notice his left hand’s sleeve kind of “disappears”. It all looks a bit suspicious, but I assure you, totally gay.

Action level has degraded somewhat

The most exciting part of the episode. Wait, this looks familiar….

Don’t say manga fans, even I think they have toned the level of action down somewhat. I mean old Naruto may have been obnoxious, moronic and clueless…but heck, he put on one hell of a show when he summoned the Demon within him. The new Naruto is less retarded, granted, but he is also a bit too mellow and really Emo at times. Sasuke is already the emo ninja in the series, it was not necessary for the directors to transform Naruto into one too. I am happy that Naruto has set realistic goals for himself, but nobody wants to watch a Ninja guy sit on trains all day. Unless you have a train fetish.

THE EXCITEMENT NEVER STOPS!

Naruto is still training

Naruto still strives to perfect his jutsu, despite giving up his dream.

Althought there is next to no action this episode, its good to see that Naruto is still training. In this sequence we see Naruto totally sweating it out in front of a waterfall. Then I realized, this is a reference to when Naruto is training his new jutsu with Captain Yamato and Kakashi in the manga. I felt really proud of myself for getting this reference and went to get a cookie. I could only see 2 Kagebunshins behind him in this scene, this is probrably because Naruto ran out of Chakra and could no longer keep his clones up anymore (Damn I’m good).

Summoning Jutsus still use Blood….or “Ink”

Censorship hits Japan hard.

I smell some 4kids entertainment involvement here. If you guys recall, summoning jutsus require the user to get some of their blood to perform hand seals or write some cool japanese word on an illegible ninja scroll for a successful summon. I know Naruto can summon a massive Battletoad, which is kind of cool. But this time, he didn’t use blood this time though, he now uses a Red Texta. Whether this was intended by the writers as a more efficient method of Summoning Battletoads/Combat Amphibians/War Frogs remain to be seen. I sense the evil presence of 4kids though…

The New “Sakura”

She does look more womanly now.

This is the first scene where we get to see the how the new Sakura looks like, and I must say, she looks pretty good in a highschool girl uniform. Earlier in the episode, we could only hear her voice in Naruto’s mind. I had wrongly assumed that Naruto’s massive crush on Sakura had finally driven him to the edges of insanity, but it was reassuring to know that the “Letters” Naruto were reading in the Ninja academy were genuine. I’m guessing Sakura’s finished her training with Tsunade and like Naruto, decided to pursue an education. The tree she is talking about is naked, possibly because she was stressed one day and punched it using her fine tuned chakra strike. What a badass girl.

Tsunade taught Sakura well. SHANARO!!!

Naruto blushes at himself. Dear God, NaruxNaru yaoi!?

People often remark that Naruto lacks depth and character development, focusing too much on power level increasing and kunai throwing. What a load of rubbish is what I say, this episode of Naruto is clearly paving the way to shounen character development. You’ve never seen Naruto look into the mirror more intensively and be so nervous about a date or how much he questions Sakura’s wellbeing or how he constantly thinks about the past (before Sasuke became super emo). What I don’t get is, on his way to Sakura, he uses a Public Train. Don’t ninjas just run really fast, jump-step on trees or Teleport-no-jutsu to where they need to go? I think the uglier, and lazier side of Naruto still resides within him. Some things never change.

Konoha Trains are Dangerous

The doors have already closed, Naruto. Its too Late.

Note the iconic picture on the window. The “Pistol” grip with an impact marker around it. Clearly this is Kakashi’s super ultimate jutsu known as the “10,000 years of Pain” jutsu. Naruto looks slightly concerned as all ninja commuters aboard the transport should. I hope he covered his pooper, that and this should be a lesson for him to have used his tree-hopping skills instead.

Stop. Genjutsu Time.

Can it be Love Hotel time now?

Naruto finally gets to meet his old Team-mate Sakura, after at least 3 or 4 hours using the Konoha rail line, I thought something like that would be ultimately redundant when all your potential patrons can fly around like Superman, but I stand corrected. That aside, Naruto’s naturally pleased to see Sakura, who basically slept waiting for Naruto (romance and comradeship are such beautiful things). They share a rather romantic moment under the naked Cherry Blossom tree, I found this rather tingle, Sakura standing under a “Sakura” Tree (nice one, writers). She holds out her hand on a snowflake and suddenly night becomes day and the tree is in full bloom. I tried to warn Naruto that she was fucking with his mind using “Genjutsu”, but it was too late. He was too taken in by her beauty.

Now that I look at it, they did change Naruto and Sakura’s hair style slightly.

Lovers Separate, to meet another day

Real Ultimate Kissing

Although this particular scene in the episode deviates from Kishimoto’s esteemed works, I think it could add a whole dimension to the Naruto story. Naruto says goodbye to his newfound love, Sakura. On the train, Naruto II displays some of those valiant attributes we knew and loved by saying, “I wish only for the strength to protect her”. This is metaphoric, he means that on many levels, where “her” actually means “Konoha”, referring to the ‘motherland’ concept. It’s here we are touched by Naruto’s old sefless self surfacing once more. And they dare call Naruto a shallow anime? Blasphemy.

Naruto Approves of Body Warming no jutsu. Hell, I Approve.

Newruto Shippuden

“…The actual Naruto episode is in this bag”

Changes seen in this episode of Naruto are significant, although I appreciated what they did to the setting (making it more relative to the viewer’s context) and the subtle changes to Naruto and Sakura’s physical appearance….I felt as if something was missing in this week’s installment. I am not saying that it was abysmal, that is to say I don’t think anyone here as ever seen stationery and trains animated so beautifully (in an episode of Naruto for that matter!) and the whole Kanchoo icon on the train window really paid homage to Kakashi. Unable to put my finger on it, I think what was missing in the end was, Oh I don’t know…THE ACTUAL NARUTO EPISODE PERHAPS!?

The Jig is up!

Definitely a Beautiful Troll.

REAL Score: 8.5/10 (An enjoyable and emotional short)

I’m glad I was trolled. I really liked this short animated story about Tohno and Akari, its hard to not appreciate the fluid, crisp and detailed animation of two star-crossed spirits separated by the vestiges of time and distance. It certainly is a very pleasant and heartwarming break from my usual viewing of Spirit-killing heroes and Ball-breaking battle vixens. What I enjoyed most about this short was the dramatic portrayal of time and Tohno constantly looking at his watch. For a moment in the episode, I could even feel his frustration and despair as he worries for his dear Akari waiting for him lonely and cold in the distant station they promised.

Tohno and Akari share a warm moment with each other, after an eternity.

The train stops moving a lot of times, which was kind of tiring to watch as a viewer, but all of this builds up for the climax when the two finally meet. I guess something as small as that becomes a huge deal when nothing else really happens throughout. The short ends with the two embracing and ultimately sharing a kiss. Though nothing is really resolved, we all sit back on our chairs with a somewhat bittersweet imprint in our hearts and minds. So in essence it wasn’t a total loss of me downloading this when I am rationing bandwidth hardcore, there is definitely a lot of enjoyment to be had by the more serious drama buffs around us. But seriously, Where is my Kagebunshin no Jutsu? Hell, I’d have even settled for Tohno doing a Rasengan!

YHBT.

Cheers,

Darkshaunz