Naruto: Shippuden - General Discussion

[Lantern7]

This topic replaces the old Naruto: Shippuden forum which has been vaulted at the location below:

http://forums.previously.tv/forum/892-naruto-shippuden-v/

[Sandman87]

 Episodes 40-42: Orochimaru pisses off Naruto just a little too much, and the Number One Knucklehead Ninja starts farting orange chakra. Then he gets really mad. We learn that O-chan was responsible for Yamato having the First Hokage's DNA. Both Orochimaru and Kabuto rack up some frequent flies miles when Naruto smacks them each a few hundred yards. Unfortunately, Sakura gets her bell rung when she gets in the way of a flying Kabuto.

 

Creepy Snake Guy takes some damage from Naruto's attack, so he makes it all better by puking himself up. Nothing creepy about that at all. I guess you could say that he's really full of himself! Naruto gets a fourth tail, and now the Nine-Tails is in control.

 

The Knucklehead and O-chan square off in a battle that looks more like one of the old Godzilla movies than anything involving ninjas. They take turns coughing up things that should not be coughed up, and generally destroying everything within 200 yards of them. Meanwhile, Kabuto uses his Sherlock Holmes logic skills to figure out that Sasori must be dead or captured, and that he must have told the Leaf ninjas about the bridge meeting.

 

After much destruction and violence, O-chan knocks NaruTails back across the river, and Sakura gets her first good look at his four-tailed form.

 

-----------------------

 

I've gotta say, this is one of the show's more impressive fights. Up until now, in both this and the first series, we'd never really gotten a sense of just how powerful the Nine Tailed Fox could be. We'd just been told about it. Naruto is potentially a ninja atomic bomb.

 

That was an awfully undignified position that Orochimaru ended up in after Naruto's gigantic chakra blast.

[lathspel]

I've been following along, but generally enjoying the kerfuffle too much to really comment.

I was surprised that four-tails Naruto kind of sat there after Orochimaru failed to make him a jinchurili-kabob. But it conveniently allowed Yamato to start locking him down. With a fair amount of pain (presumably because his body appeared to be over the boiling point) Yamato's Iron Maiden Elder Technique seems to be pulling the four tails back out of Naruto. I guess we'll see if Yamato ends up with a cool scar like Master Jiraiya.

Meanwhile, Sai wants to chat with Orochimaru, who has some sharp words in return (zing!). I didn't see the Sai double cross coming, for some reason.

[Sandman87]

Sakura, having successfully survived the "useful" phase of her ninja career, returns to her primary job of not being useful. Unless fretting about Naruto counts as useful. She decides that she needs to be physically close to Naruto's Nine-Tails form to help him un-monster-ify. This earns her a nasty whack from his tail. Luckily their mortal enemy Kabuto is there to heal her. With enemies like that, who needs friends?

 

Meanwhile, over in the Orochimaru Memorial Crater and Snake Farm, O-chan is having difficulties with his current body, which is past its "best used before" date. Sai decides to introduce himself, and the two of them together look like an ad for pancake makeup. Or a mime school. Sai brought a message from Danzo, Orochimaru brought the letter opener. Apparently he wants to make a point (Zing! Right back at you lathspel.)

[Lantern7]

Saw some of last night's episode. Is there a point to not telling Naruto that the nine-tailed fox's chakra is leaking out of him when he gets mad? I don't get it.

[Sandman87]

Sai propositions Orochimaru. Uh, I mean he relays a proposition from Danzo. O-chan is intrigued, and invites Sai back to his place. Yamato manages to de-tail Naruto, who needs an assist in healing from Sakura because of his acute case of being almost skinless all of a sudden. He's clueless about his antics in Nine-Tails form, and no one wants to tell him about it. Everyone suddenly realizes that Sai might be playing for the other team, so to speak. And Danzo might be...a bad guy! <queue ominous music>

 

 

Saw some of last night's episode. Is there a point to not telling Naruto that the nine-tailed fox's chakra is leaking out of him when he gets mad? I don't get it.

I figure that Sakura and Yamato are unsure what psychological impact the truth would have on Naruto, so they're holding back.

Edited November 12, 2014 by Sandman87

[lathspel]

Not sure if anyone else has seen this, but I notice that the full intro (or at least an intro) is shown for Naruto on my cable company web app. It's not broadcast that way, though.

[lathspel]

Sai's picture book about him and his brother is kind of neat. Although, knowing that he can bring art to life, it occurs to me that he has an instant army in that book.

In a sense, both he and Kabuto are carrying around symbols that represent the dead (particularly so if Sai's brother is dead, which I don't think is really true).

[Sandman87]

That instant army idea is interesting, but I can't help wondering if Sai would be willing to use it if it meant that he'd be animating the pictures of himself and his brother.

 

That conversation where Orochimaru and Kabuto talked about Kabuto's blood type makes perfect sense in Japan. There's a widely held belief there that blood type determines personality, kind of like an astrological sign.

[lathspel]

That's good, I had no idea why Orochimaru cared about that. I was trying to figure out if he was a vampire as well!

[Lantern7]

Bumping up for the show's return to Toonami tonight at 12:30 a.m.

[lathspel]

I had forgotten that we left on such a cliffhanger, with the Leaf crew and Kabuto going through the secret base.

I'm a little unhappy with how that was all resolved , though. Sai spills all the beans (without Yamato even poking a splinter under his nails - you know that's a power he would have...), and Kabuto doesn't run into anybody in the halls. Actual dramatic value = near zero. Even the brother thing was a dud, although I'm guessing he's not really dead.

I did have to laugh at Naruto's plan to get all Black Knight on Orochimaru. "I'll bite your kneecaps off!"

[Sandman87]

What is it about bad guys that makes them construct bases that have roughly 30 miles of tunnels? Is Orochimaru trying to stay in shape by walking a lot?

Naruto is delusional: "Sasuke is my best friend! He accepted me more than anyone else!" Dude, he barely tolerated you, and even then only because you were his rival. He's just not that into you. Go hang out with your real friends or get a dog or something.

[lathspel]

I was assuming there was some bonding in the parts of Naruto that I haven't seen, but I guess not.

[lathspel]

Kabuto's fight to kill all the wasps was quite entertaining (in fact, that whole sequence was beautifully done), but it made me think he's just really allergic and forgot his epi-pen.

Or, they are Naraku's poisonous insects....

Naruto's cherry-picked flashbacks convinced me that he thinks he has a bond with Sasuke, at least. I suppose boundless optimism defines Naruto, after all.

Edited January 11, 2015 by lathspel

[Sandman87]

Kabuto and the hornets were hilarious. One moment he's confident and cool, and the next he's freaking out. I'm sure he could deal with getting stung, what with being a medical ninja and all. And then Naruto & Co. just stand there for a full minute instead of taking advantage of the distraction to pummel Kabuto. Also, watching him take down the hornets reminded me of the new jutsu that Hinata developed back in the previous series, which looked somewhat similar and also ended up being used against swarms of insects.

 

Incidentally, I looked up Kabuto's full name. His last name (Yakushi) means "medical doctor, and his first name means "helmet."

[lathspel]

If I were going to send out a ninja assassin, I probably would have them memorize the faces, rather than sending them off with a book. This particular plot device is so thin, I can read through it.

[Sandman87]

Kabuto is getting ready to bust loose with his chakra blade. Too bad they never think to knock out captured enemies.

That was kind of an anticlimactic battle with Orochimaru. He just threw a few snakes at Naruto, then ran away.

[lathspel]

So Sasuke just showed up to announce his motivation is (still) his brother, then flames away?

Also - the fashions that Orochimaru prescribe to his minions make them look really bulgy around the middle - not what you'd expect for a snake guy. Only Kabuto looks like he could move fast if he wants to, and of course he's the brains so seldom should have to.

[Sandman87]

In this exciting episode: Everyone stands around and talks. Sasuke says he's willing to let Orochimaru have his body as long as it means that he can kill his brother. After the party breaks up, the leafers return home and report. Tsunade finds out that Danzo is a (gasp!) bad guy!

 

So Sasuke just showed up to announce his motivation is (still) his brother, then flames away?

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I'm a little curious what technique he was going to use when O-chan stopped him. I think I might know from later episodes, but...

[Sandman87]

In this episode: Sai discovers that there are people in the village that he hasn't offended yet, and sets out to rectify this situation. Naruto saves him at the last minute by stopping him from hitting Choji's "fat" button. He manages to offend Sakura twice; once by calling her "Ugly" (and why would a nickname like that offend her?), and once by calling Ino "beautiful."

In other news, Kakashi is gonna give Naruto some more training (because two and a half years with Jirayia wasn't enough) to help him develop an Ultimate Jutsu. BTW: In an anime context, this means developing a power or technique (or whatever) to the point where it is perfected, and can't be improved any more.

[lathspel]

I really enjoyed this episode - call it "Chakra 201" (because we already had the 100 level classes). And even though there wasn't a lot of dramatic tension (by which I mean ominous music plus slow establishing shots or reaction shots of the faces of the Naruto crew), I thought it was watchable all the way through.

Naruto must be pretty dense to not have noticed that he can remember what his shadow clones experience. Or maybe they have never gotten that far away from him before?

I keep wondering if a shadow clone has any sense of self - do they care that they are about to go away? It doesn't seem like it.

[Sandman87]

I'm guessing that Naruto's wind nature chakra is where the series gets the Shippuden part of its name ("Hurricane Chronicles").

 

In my head there's potential for an omake where someone overhears Naruto making an offhand comment about how he's "gonna tear the leaf apart", and hilarity ensues when they think he means the Leaf Village.

 

 

I keep wondering if a shadow clone has any sense of self - do they care that they are about to go away? It doesn't seem like it.

As far as the clones are concerned, they can remember all the times before when Naruto has cloned and then recombined. From their point of view, it must seem like the clones always survived the process, since they have the memories of both the previous clones and Naruto. Reminds me of a discussion some friends of mine had where they decided that all the characters on Star Trek die whenever they use the transporter, but the transporter makes a perfect copy of them with all their memories at the destination so that they don't know the difference.

 

[lathspel]

The thing that I can't wrap my head around is that the clones know they are not the original. It seems like it would distort your sense of place, at least, but maybe I'm over hinking it.

Off-topic: I have heard the same Star Trek transporter theory. I believe it was originally proposed by Dr. McCoy in one of the novels.

[Lantern7]

Watched the latest episode. I know that Naruto is dense, but I think Kakashi was a little hard on him. The kid is basically an enthusiastic puppy.

 

ETA: Saw the latest/next episode. Are earrings a thing of commemoration in Japan? Nice that some of the cast got spotlighted along with Naruto and his training.

[Sandman87]

I figure the earrings were just something nice that he could give them that wouldn't interfere with movement, hand-signs, chakra flow, and other ninja things.

Naruto sends one of his clones to ask Asuma about wind nature chakra while the other three thousand of him keep training. Eventually one of him manages to rip one. A leaf, I mean. Tsunade decides to send Team 10 out on an Akatsuki-related mission, while Naruto & co. will go look for some grave robbers. Nothing good ever happens when you combine ninjas and grave robbery...

In this episode we learn that Kurenai and Asuma have got it goin' on, but don't realize that everyone in the village knows about it. At least someone in this show has a love life that isn't entirely theoretical. Incidentally, the sash that Asuma always wears which displays a Japanese character in front of his crotch? It says "fire." I'm not sure if that's an advertisement or a warning.

[Sandman87]

Two or three episodes worth: Naruto & friends head off to a monastery to investigate the ninja body-snatching mystery. Naruto meets a teen monk who's despised by all the other monks. Gosh, I wonder if this will turn out differently from the other 8 or 9 times that he's met outcast teens with ninja powers? He spends much of his time bonding with Bad Attitude Monk Teen by annoying the crap out of him. The bad guys take up a new sport: Coffin Surfing! Team Kakashi finally catches up with the bad guys, but it turns out that the bad guys have caught them in an Earth jutsu that traps them underground where the bad guys can take them on one-on-one.

[Lantern7]

Just a quick heads=up: with Sword Art Online II running at 1 a.m., Shippuden has been moved to 2.

[Sandman87]

In this episode we learn that Naruto is the ninja world's worst kisser when he faces off against a ninja who just has to lock lips with him. She also can control multiple types of chakra (fire, earth, air, etc), which is not normal. Yamato faces off against an earth style ninja, and manages to fake a convincing death. Sai fights some too.

 

This made me laugh:

"You've never kissed anyone, have you?"

(Naruto flashes back to kissing Sasuke.)

Edited March 30, 2015 by Sandman87

[lathspel]

Was the first scene of this one a little abrupt? I had to go back and watch the previous ep to make sure I hadn't missed one in between.

Kissing Jutsu seemed like a weak power, but then it got better. I'm guessing she can steal any powers she can drain, somehow.

Did we know that Wind Style was rare before now? I can't remember if Kekashi or Asama mentioned that.

[Sandman87]

Yeah, I think Kakashi mentioned the it was less common, which is why Naruto has been so hot to find out about Bad Attitude Monk's chakra, but he didn't make it sound outright rare like the Kissing Ninja did.

On a tangential note: For some reason typing "Kissing Ninja" made me think of the Illinois Enema Bandit.

[lathspel]

I really hope the sweet potatos turn out to be a big part of this guy's powers, somehow. The telescoping bo staff is pretty neat as well.

Sora is in for some bad news about his dad, I'm guessing.

I'm a bit sad that we traded out Sai, right after he developed a funny quirk and started to seem almost human. Seems like a waste of characterization to sideline him now.

Edited April 18, 2015 by lathspel

[Sandman87]

That staff is a Buddhist monk's staff, a shakujo, although I think it has fewer rings on top than the standard model.

[Sandman87]

In this episode: We learn that Asuma is the one who killed Sora's father. Gosh, how will Sora react to that? Asuma gives Sora a replacement for his broken claw weapon that's made from chakra-blade material. Sora and Naruto argue about which of them can stuff the most squirrels into his hole.

[lathspel]

I knew it would be Kazuma as soon as we get to the dad buying sweet potatos. They are good and all, but is it really sidewalk food?

I did enjoy how Yamato got back at Asuma for interrupting his training plans.

[lathspel]

Sora is now sure that Asuma kied his Dad. I'm trying to decide if anime characters do this kind of "bad assumption because I didn't hear the person out" thing much more than is typical in real life, or if this is really fairly normal. It's getting annoying as a trope.

(My personal life isn't full of this kind of misapprehension, but in the professional world I see it quite a bit.)

[lathspel]

So does the current Shippuden end title remind anyone else of Samurai Champloo? (I did not look up the original air dates to see if that was a possibility.)

[Lantern7]

Just checking to see if anybody else was watching the episodes. Surprisingly, Toonami threw in the opening credits (the show's third set) a few eps ago. It's fun to make up English lyrics to it. "It's filler! It's filler! Don't mind it."

 

Seriously, is anybody in the Leaf going to remember Sora and the Fire Temple once the ordeal is over? There's not going to be flashbacks, and that included a friggin' zombie invasion. Also, Sora wigging out on the Nine Tails' chakra. It's insane, it's memorable  . . and there's probably never going to be a reference to it. Ever.

[Sandman87]

I've been watching, but haven't really felt like posting anything.

I kind of like the song in this set of opening credits.

One thing that I found somewhat striking: I may be remembering wrong, but I think this is the first time in either this series or the previous one that the "kids" in Team Kakashi have set out to explicitly kill their opponents and succeeded. Usually any actual killing is left to the Leaf adults involved, while Naruto befriends the hell out of the survivors.

. . and there's probably never going to be a reference to it. Ever.

Yeah, filler episodes on this show only ever get referenced in other filler episodes, if at all. One nice thing about this particular filler arc is that they underscored the relationship between Asuma and Kurenai a little at the beginning. Their relationship has only gotten minimal attention in the cannon arcs.

[Lantern7]

The filler is officially over. I'm reminded of LittleKuriboh spoofing the first movie and its henchmen: "They're a rare breed of Ninja called Forgettable Movie Villains. You've never heard of them and after you've finish fighting them you won't remember it even happened. But for the next 90 minutes you'll think they are the biggest threat you've faced in your entire life!" Same goes for this arc. No way will we seen Sora again, even though he went double bugfuck with cheese on leftover Nine-Tails chakra. I like everybody smiling after Sora snapped out of it . . . you can hear someone whisper, "If he snaps again, we kill him, right?"

 

I went to an anime con last weekend. Saw some Naruto cosplay here and there. Lady Tsunade and her friends say "hi."

[Sandman87]

I like the way that Sora left the village bandaged all over his body, except for his face. I guess the Leaf hospital specializes in healing everything on the face completely, except for the bridge of the nose.

That little bit at the end with the two Akatsuki guys foreshadows the next canon arc. The guy with the scythe is an especially nasty piece of work.

They're a rare breed of Ninja called Forgettable Movie Villains.

Even more forgettable than the Food Ninjas? Talk about filler, and in more ways than one!

[lathspel]

That just felt disjointed. Naruto tries the same bonehead mice over and over - charging in is not how you calm down a wild (spirit) animal.

Lady Tsunade gets ready to go out, but then the foxnado dissipates on its own. Kasuma turns out to be really easy to defeat as well.

The only good part was Naruto bragging to Sakura about his "recuperative powers", so to speak.

I'm totay looking forward to more Alatsuki fun instead. Have we already heard the non-scythe-guy's voice before? Maybe he just sounds a lot like the puppet master guy to me.

[Sandman87]

Naruto trains. Then he trains some more. And trains yet again. He's the trainingest ninja that ever trained.

 

Meanwhile the two Akatsuki guys, Kakuzu and Hidan, are like the bad guy Odd Couple. Each of them thinks that the other is irritating, what with one being all about the money and the other being all about the rituals. They assault a temple so Kakuzu can collect a bounty on the head monk, and the offscreen fight ends with Hidan impaled in the middle of a mystic diagram, just like their previous offscreen fight. At one point we can see that Kakuzu's right hand and forearm appear to be sewn onto him.

[lathspel]

The Toonami promo fooled me - I thought the Akatsuki were breaking down the doors of the Hidden Leaf.

I like the tension building here, since we don't yet see how these two actually triumph over their adversaries.

[Lantern7]

I know that I saw Shippuden when it was on Disney XD . . . but I forget when the show starts to pick up again. We get to see Tsunade go Mama Bear about the Leaf Village. We get more Asuma flashbacks. We see the two Akatsuki guys snapping at each other. And we get a debate about ramen noodles, with Naruto wanting his signature dish and being unable to get it. It gets to a point where Kakashi tells Naruto that he wants to show him something, and my mind goes to weird places other than the Rasengan,

 

ETA: Almost forgot . .. Sakura can't make edible "food pills" to save her life. Did Sai leave a note of apology when he ran off after tasting one?

[lathspel]

I'm enjoying (or at least appreciating?) the running gag that Chiriku's corpse is getting more bedraggled the farther the Akatsuki haul it.

So why do the leaf shinobi allow a bounty collection site within their territory, if some of them are on it?

[Sandman87]

Wouldn't surprise me if the Leaf had also issued bounties through the same bounty network. Wouldn't make sense to shut it down if they're using it too. Also the non-ninja national government runs the Land of Fire, of which the Leaf is only a part. They don't run the country, they're just an officially sanctioned mercenary ninja town with strong connections to the government. Maybe the bounty place is also government-sanctioned.

 

As far as I'm concerned the episode was all about the ramen. Or the lack of ramen. You'd think the shop could offer both the ramen and the dipping noodles, even though it would mean making two kinds of broth instead of one.

[Lantern7]

More training. More stalking. My mind wanders, and I wonder how Choji jumps from tree to tree without breaking any branches. "Chakra Magic" would be my first guess.

 

Dumb question: is it a prerequisite of the Akatsuki to hate each other? Or at least pairing up ninja that are completely different in nature? "Sasori, my man, we need to pick up the pace." "I'm not your man, you freak." "That's nice. You have your biological essence in a tube, and I'm the freak. Do you kiss your mommy puppet with that mouth?"

[Sandman87]

Kakuzu and Hidan hit the bathroom to drop off a dead monk. And no, that's not a euphemism. Sakura gets a taste of her own medicine. Naruto starts working on his super-duper extra-crispy new Rasengan, and manages to blow hisself up real good at least once.

 

Was I imagining things, or was Choji flirting with Ino a little bit?

 

 

More training. More stalking. My mind wanders, and I wonder how Choji jumps from tree to tree without breaking any branches. "Chakra Magic" would be my first guess.

I like to think that the Land of Fire is full of super tough Ninja Trees that are specially bred to be used as a transportation system. Because using the roads is so uncool.

 

Dumb question: is it a prerequisite of the Akatsuki to hate each other? Or at least pairing up ninja that are completely different in nature?

I think that's the show's way of underscoring that the Akatsuki are all evil and selfish, and have their own personal agendas outside of the general group mission to collect all the tailed beasts. Although Itachi and Kisame seemed to get along well enough back in Naruto.

[Lantern7]

Well, the story's starting to turn dramatic, with Asuma, Shikamaru and their teammates finally catch up to the Akatsuki duo. I think I miss out on a lot of nuance not knowing shogi. Also: how fitting is it that the chain smoker has an ash-spewing ninja move? Asuma is probably five years younger with his lungs cleared out.