Well, you can’t really fault the Naruto manga for not doing much. Since I last blogged the weekly chapters a whole barrage of events have happened. Needless, sympathy-baiting deaths (sniff, but also so bloody cheesy); rather exciting extended battles; tedious training sequences; the removal/death of tired arch-villains (but is he really dead, we ask); the seeming usurpation of our protagonist for some over-powered pretty boy and his mates (the manga has been officially retitled Sasuke over the past few weeks). When listed and quantified Naruto seems to be going as strong as ever.
Well, I shan’t waste much time on the mounting disillusionment most fans have been feeling in recent months. The tenacious plot is probably the only decent reason many people are holding on with Naruto, as most of the other charming aspects of the manga seem completely diminished. Reading the VIZ translation (currently up to volume 13) does nothing to help, either, reminding us of better days when Kishimoto made everything seem so effortless.
But anyway, enough listless fanboyism. Let’s look at this week’s chapter.
Which, in all fairness, is actually quite good. Definitely a transition chapter, with us breaking away from the current Sasuke-rounding-up-the-troops arc, but still interesting nonetheless. Having the Akatsuki be the key bad guy element in Part Two undermined a lot of their mystique, but luckily their personalities have compensated with enough distinctness to be interesting while maintaining the general menace that makes them appealing and this comes across quite nicely in chapter 353.
I’ve also come to accept that these Jinchuuriki capture missions will happen in the background, albeit grudgingly.
Still, from a pragmatic perspective I’m sure Kishimoto just doesn’t have the space to give them proper attention, and equally he probably wants to keep the Akatsuki’s abilities as ambiguous as possible for more important future battles. Their reactions to Hidan and Kakuzu’s death seemed quite indifferent, which is surprising seeing as Naruto, one of their key targets, and his mates have killed three of their nine group members. Four of the ten if you count Orochimaru’s recent death/whatever at the hands of Sasuke. You’d think they’d be a little more unnerved by recent events; especially Itachi with Sasuke & chums hot on his tail, vying for cold hard revenge.
This Akatsuki reprieve was actually a welcome change from the mounting tedium of Sasuke and his recruitment spree. I like the methodical way Kishimoto is handling Sasuke’s preparation for his showdown with Itachi, but I’m not sure how interesting it is to read. The overt and cynical analogues he’s making out of Sasuke’s new comrades are also hard to swallow. It’s like Sai all over again. Though, to give the mangaka his dues, Sai turned out to be quite a decent character in the end, so maybe the same will happen again with Suigetsu et al.
It’s just hard to ignore the fact that Naruto is more about maintaining its longevity these days by allowing nothing to really change, rather than humouring all the subtle differences that made it stand out from the rest of the Shonen Jump pish out there back in the day. Naruto is basically long-running action manga by numbers now, with a whole lot of sentimental attachment and aesthetic charm to raise it above its peers. Shame, really.
