Naruto 549 Review

Hello and welcome everyone to my review of Naruto's latest chapter, sorry about not reviewing last week's chapter as I still have a bit of a computer issue, anyways while I am sure you wanna know more about that I'll just review this week's chapter for now :D

The chapter for this week is called "Itachi's question" which I find odd considering how it has more fighting then "Naruto Vs Itachi" last week, Pein starts us off by saying how it feels like yesterday since he last saw Naruto, I wonder what the afterlife is like in Naruto since Zabuza didnt experince one either, but anyways Pein follows up by saying how Naruto has changed since he last saw him, Naruto thinks he is talking about his new Chakra Mode, but Pein meant Naruto has a new expression, Kinda odd how Pein focuses on his expression and not the Giant glowing chakra around him but what do I know?

Itachi seems surprised with Naruto's progress, I guess that rules out my theory about the Raven in Naruto being Itachi's chakra and watching over him, Pein brings up his old theme of hatred and thinks that Naruto has  finally conquered his and Naruto thanks him for helping him get over his Hatred, I find that kinda odd cause Pein did kill Jiraiya and now him and Naruto are chatting like they are buddies, Death really changes a guy....

 

Both Naruto and Itachi have questions for each other, but before they can get to that, Kabuto starts the fight between them, Kabuto wants to capture the 8 and 9-tails and wants to use them to bargain with Madara, Kabuto has never been a clear cut person, even while he was with orochimaru we didnt know what he was thinking, and now while he is working with madara we dont know if he really is his ally, but I think him trying to capture Naruto puts him squarely in the Villains category for now.

Itachi draws the first hit, he uses the old Uchiha favourite Kato Goukakyuu, but Bee manages to split it pretty easily with Samahada, but Sama does not seem to like Fire ninjutsu, makes sense since samahada would qualify as a water type weapon and fire would hurt it, still if it can absorb Kyuubi and Hachibi chakra I find it hard to swallow that a little fire jutsu would hurt it.

Itachi notices Samahada and realizes Kisame is dead, I really wish Itachi and Kisame's relationship had more page time, since they seemed to be good friends by the time they died, Kisame remebered Itachi in his last moments and this week Itachi thinks about him as well.

Naruto is mad about the attack but Bee responds by.... not rapping? I am kinda disappointed by that :(, Pein then warns them about the next attack, Seems like Kabuto hasnt completely erased their personality yet, I would have thought that he would have considering how Itachi and Pein would try to help Naruto, but since he didnt completely control the Raikage and Mizukage either perhaps Kabuto cant fully control people with large chakra, unlike say Zabuza?

Itachi asks Naruto about what happened to Sasuke since he last saw him, he seems surprised when he is told that Sasuke is a member of akatsuki and wants revenge on Konoha, Itachi really wanted Sasuke to go back to the village but he seems less surprised when he finds out that Madara is involved in this.

If you ever doubted Madara's words about Itachi, well itachi himself confirms what he said here, Itachi though still doesnt want to hear about the Uchiha Coup from naruto, a strange thing is how Nagato doesnt know a thing about this, It makes me wonder about who was responsible for recruting Akatsuki members, since we know Itachi wanted to join to keep an eye on Madara, yet I doubt Madara wanted him around, and since Nagato was only a figure head leader you'd think he would have asked Madara about if they should recruit one of the last uchiha, hmm....

Another strange thing about this page ( aside from Naruto using talk-no-jutsu on the dead now) is how Itachi seems surprised about Madara knowing why he wanted to kill the Uchiha, if Itachi didnt tell him, who did? Danzo?

Itachi doesnt want the truth to be spread out, he thinks it will tarnish the Uchiha's honour, which sort of makes sense, the Uchiha now look like a clan who died because of one crazy member trying to kill them all, if the truth came out they would look like a bunch of traitors, shame about Sasuke...

Pein uses his gravity move to suck Naruto ( Not that way you pervert) but Naruto uses a chakra arm to grab on to the ground, since I saw the Chakra arm in part 1, I wanted to see it utilized more, and now with Naruto having control of the kyuubi we might finally get that.

After a little bit more talking, the fighters seem to pair up, Naruto vs Pein for a rematch, while Bee takes on Itachi, which is kinda like a rematch between the Hachibi and an Uchiha, Pein mentions how he cant walk seconds before he gets mobile thanks to his summons, while Itachi warns Bee that he is behind him.

Bee swings Samahada, no control problems here, but Itachi dodges the attack easily and counters with fire shuriken, Bee shows us yet again what a nice guy he is by taking the fire shuriken itself instead of letting Samahada hurt itself for him, awwww....

Bee also demonstrates his control of the Hachibi by using partial transformation to send a tentacle underground and grab Itachi, pretty cool tactic, Itachi counters by using a genjutsu, but before it does anything Bee snaps out of it thanks to the 8-tails chakra, and that made me think that because of the working relationship between Bee and the 8-tails that they fight Itachi, since the Kyuubi might not snap Naruto out of a genjutsu.

Remember this positon? So thats where his old swords were, pretty cool, Nice to see Bee putting swords in his sword, so he can slash while he slashes.

Meanwhile, Naruto uses what looks like the biggest Rasengan yet, its quite something, but the Dog just multiplies each time he is hit, so Pein tells him to go for the summoner instead, while Itachi gets pushed back by Bee's use of his weird sword stance, Itachi has fought quite a few swrodsmen in the past, orochimaru and Sasuke among them, so seeing him have trouble with this is a remainder of just how powerful this stance is.

Itachi ends the Chapter for us, by resummoning the bird he put in  naruto almost 150 chapters ago, Considering how Itachi is unsure what will happen if he does what he is thinking of doing, I am guessing that the bird might have some sort of living chakra inside him, which if he absorbs might give him some measure of free will..... or something :D

Comments

Solid chapter as usual, then again any chapter with Itachi is automatically 10 times better then if it didnt have him, but this overall arc has been consistent with everything, the fights have all been well done ( how often do you see a fight between dead and living people?) bringing notable rematches like Milfune vs Hanzou, Kakashi vs Zabuza or Kankuro vs Sasori, so seeing Naruto face Pein is pretty cool, but I do hope the fight switches and he faces Itachi instead.

As for the art? well you will have to see Blackjack about that, but I thought that one ting this chapter has doen masterfully is show emotions and expression you can clearly tell how they feel by the look on their face, Naruto's determination, Itachi's sadness, Peins pride and Bee's..... something :D

And thats all for this week, sorry for not writing a review about last week's chapter guys, hope I made it up to you this week :)

Naruto 547 Review

Hello and Welcome everyone to this late review for Naruto 547, My computer broke down earlier this week and hopefully I will have it fixed up soon, but lets start our review now.

Our chapter starts with Gaara telling his father how he is no longer a jinchuriki and he has friends, the 4th Kazekage is more surprised by him having friends then losing the shukuku, to which the 2nd Mizukage says thats its no big deal for Gaara to have friends, While at first I found the Mizukage to be annoying, I am starting to like him more and more with each word he says.

Gaara announces how he is now the Kazekage, a position that requires him to protect his village from every threat, I found this ironic in a way, in the old days, Gaara's dad tried to kill him because Gaara was a threat to the village, now the 4th is the threat and Gaara is the one to stop him.

Oonoki chips in and adds that not only is he the new Kage, but the commander general as well, an impressive feat for someone so young, however Mu seems more interested in this joint shinobi army then in Gaara.

I love this page, it starts of with the Mizuekage being awesome, his sense of humor Really lightens the mood, the Raikage congratulates the 4th on his son and tells him to take out Mu first, its strange how fast Mu seems to be disliked by others.

The scene shifts to a flashback to Gaara's birth, we see Chiyo informing the 4th that Gaara is compatible with shukuku, I found it odd how the 4th calls Gaara "it" instead of him.

We also learn that Gaara was born premature, it somewhat explains his slightly smaller then average build, another thing about Gaara being compatible is that he resembles his father a lot, It makes me think that the 4th was also compatible with shukuku but being Kazekage he could not risk being a jinchuriki as well, and since jinchuriki are usually close to the Kage's family, it makes sense to make his son a jinchuriki instead of himself.

Its sweet to see how small Gaara is next to his mother, as well as the 4th concern for her, we dont get enough scenes like this, to see how people care for each other in the ninja world, it reminds me a little of Naruto's own birth and adds another similarity between Gaara and Naruto, both lost their mothers the day they were born.

Gaara apparently doesnt control the shukaku as well as his father had hoped, although he seems to not be the first to fail with being a jinchuriki.

We dont see much of Village economics, but it seems that Suna has always struggled in that area, they trade gold and...techniques(?) with other villages? I'm not sure if thats what is being said,  but it does make sense for a village to sell its techniques, if other villages can go to extreme length to protect their secret techniques ( Hyuuga) then selling them seems like a viable thing to do.

We go back now to one of Gaara's most defining moments in life, when his uncle tried to kill him, in part 1 we learned that this moment broke him and made him a cold murderer, but now we learn it was part of a plot set by his father, he wanted to push Gaara and hoped he could contain the One tailed beast, all in the name of discovering his Value.

We all know what happened next, the 4th's kind plan didnt work and Gaara snapped and let out Shukaku, and to be honest, I found this development to be somewhat unexpected, we never got any hints to it and it makes Gaara's story somewhat less tragic, before he was a guy who overcame everyone's hatred and became a hero, now he seems like some guy who was fooled by his dad in the past....

The scene shifts back to the present day, where the 4th realizes that thanks to Edo Tensei, he has one last chance to test Gaara, while Mu reminds Oonoki that only he can stop him, then tells him that after the war is over to betray his allies and take all the spoils for himself, Mu is one devious guy and the Mizu and Raikage both object to this plan, the Raikage was already known as a decent guy but the Mizukage objecting this plan shows that he is a nice guy ( well nicer then Mu) along with his sense of humor, this puts me in the Mizukage's side in the Mizu vs Mu debate.

Oonoki though refuses his old teacher's plan, showing character development for a guy who is over 90 now which is not something you see everyday.

The Mizukage tells the Alliance that they cant move their bodies and that they will tell them their weakpoints, while the Raikage says they should stop their movements first, both of them show concern for the living shinobi while the other two Kages have so far shown more interest in their predecessors.

Gaara and his dad attack each other while Mizu and Raikage go to the sides and charge at him, apparently Gaara's attack is the signal for the alliance to attack, as the Alliance charges in Gaara uses some sort of rain sand attack to get the kages, but its stopped by the former Kazekage, its a feint though and the real attack was to get them from below, a tactic Gaara did with Oonoki just the last chapter.

This time though, the attack changes to the shape of Karura, which grabs on to and holds all the Kages except Mu ( who is being entertained by Oonoki ), the 4th tries to attack even while he is captured but the Shield of sand protects Gaara,Which shocks the 4th, as he always thought it was Shukaku who protected Gaara  out of self-preservation, not his mother's spirit protecting him out of love.

The 4th, being hugged by a sand sculpture of his wife while his son looks on, its quite a sight, and the 4th realizes the importance of faith in his children, the same faith Minato had in his son, its something all parents seem to get moments before they die :/

The chapter ends with Gaara being told that his mother loved him, its a moving moment especially when you remember how its the idea that his mother hated and cursed him that brought out shukaku the first time, realizing that the Shield that protected him all his life was his mother, and that it was out of love....

Thats kinda cool :D

Comments

An interesting chapter ( I say that each week dont i?) With a lot of development for quite a few character, we get to know a bit more about the dead kages, nothing new on Raikage, while Mu shows his colors, telling Oonoki to betray his allies was a low blow and this contrasts sharply with the Mizukage telling people how to beat him.



But what I loved most in this chapter was the father-son relationship between the current and former Kazekage, Gaara's whole life was plagued by his parents, his mother cursed him and his dad tried to kill him, and to see Gaara find out that his mother loved him, and from his dad no less, it packed an emotional punch, which was more important then the action this week ( pssh, some dust flying around, big deal)

Well thats all for this chapter, I feel like I havent even touched it in this review but unfortunately I have no computer and I hope to give a better Review next week, well till next time guys.

Perspective Part 2 Right and Wrong

Howdy, with my university starting on Monday I guess this might be my last post for this holiday unless I write something tomorrow, so lets get to it.

One thing I have always loved, is how we all interpret right and wrong differently then others, what is acceptable for some is a crime for others, in some cases it literally is a crime for others, like for example polygamy.

Is this wrong?

Yet I'm not so interested in whats legal and what isn't, every place uses a different method of determining that, no what I enjoy is the human aspect of it, of how we come to the conclusion of whether what we are doing is in fact right or wrong, like cheating in exams or lying, is something wrong if it saves us from grief?

Firstly lets determine the common ways we judge is something is wrong or right.

Laws.

The law is the most common way to determine what is right and wrong, why? cause basically if you do something illegal, you're caught and will get some form of punishment, the law is somewhat effective as a way to determine whether you should or should not do something, Infact I'd say its very effective, what stops a lot of people from killing others is the idea that if they do, they will be in prison for the rest of their lives or worst be sentenced to death ( if they are caught)

However, the law itself is..... well odd to say the least, for one thing laws are not universal, whats legal in one country is not legal in another, in France you can get a license for prostitution, in Saudi Arabia you'll get an axe instead, so which one is right and which one is wrong?

Another thing about the law is it can be cruel, not all people are judged equally, the law may take into account the motives of the individual and while it usually does do a good job, it has its royal screw ups occasionally.

Aint life fair?

One thing that interests me most about the law is self-defense, I read a story recently about a man who was robed at gunpoint, but he wrestled the guy and got his gun, when the robber tried to run away he shot him. Three times.

Would that count as self-defense or murder? I mean the dude was running, he had no weapon and was no threat, yet he could have been going to call his gang mates to help him out, Hmm....

How would you judge him?

Religion

Ah religion, Where as the Law is based on what I consider large scale things, Religion is more towards everything in life including the Law.

In fact in some countries the law is based on the religion used, but is that the right thing?

Religion is a sensitive issue, since some people have their own religion and some people dont, saying more about it might offend.

However lets compare the law to Religion.

Where as people follow the Law because its either you do that or get imprisoned, Religion tends to be the other way, where as the Law can be summed up as " do this and get punished". Religion is more of " Do this and be rewarded"

So which one do you follow when love and duty come in conflict?

Naruto 546 Review

Hello and welcome to my review for the latest chapter for Naruto, adequately named "Clash of the Old and New Kage".

The chapter starts off differently from the last few weeks, instead of focusing on a main character, this week we start of by watching two members of the alliance fighting off one of Kabuto's edo tensei bodies.

The scene shows us how ninjas from different villages are working together, sharing intel on their former villagers and trying to save each other's lives, its not a huge thing, but its nice to see the Shinobi alliance letting go of its former ties and working as one true unit.

Toroi, from the Hidden Cloud can apparently use magnetic release, the same ability that the third Kazekage had, before he was killed and Sasori then was able to use magnet release, unlike the third though, this guy doesnt use magnetic sand but infuses his shurikens with his Chakra, and anything they hit will be under his control.

Its kinda like Pein's gravity ability, the only difference is Pein could do this anytime, while Toroi must have made previous contact with the enemy, either through touching them or through his shurikens.

Unfortunetly, our poor Sand Shinobi doesn't dodge the attacks but blocks them instead, getting some of Toroi's chakra on him, and Toroi's favorite way to kill seems to be to get the ninja and his shuriken to collide with each other, one of the coolest ways to kill anyone, Ever!.

But before we get to witness this awesome decapitation, who decides to show up?

 If you guessed Chuck Norris, you were almost right, but Naruto shows up instead in the nick of time to save them, he is picking up Kakashi's ability to show up and save people, but Kakashi still does it better.

Kabuto reacts to Naruto showing up ( at least that's what is implied) he seems genuinely surprised by his appearance.

However, what I want to know is did Kabuto see Naruto through his Edo Tensei? Or did he just notice one of his bodies suddenly die? if Kabuto is somehow linked to his summons then Edo Tensei seems very similar to the Paths of Pain, as both require a dead body and both are controlled by the user.

Back to the battlefield we see everyone got out of there alive, and the two Shinobi were part of F's group, who were all White Zetsu clones, seems like those two just escaped Zetsu and survived a fight with Kabuto's summon, how badass can two fodder nins be?

The scene shifts to Gaara and Onoki, a fight I think everyone has been looking forward to, apparently both of them have been retreating from a fight with 4 previous Kages, a Kage from each village except Konoha until they can retreat no more, they decide to start off by measuring the Kage's reaction to long range attacks, A valid tactic since both Gaara and Onoki have shown themselves to be long range fighters in the past, with Temari in their group I assume their whole squadron is skilled at long range combat.

One thing that has been shown by every Kage, is love for their village, and the dead Kages are no different, in the above picture all of them show that they do not enjoy the idea of killing their own villagers, but Raikage brings up another theme of Naruto, that the new generation will surpass the old one, and he wishes that the Ninjas he fights will be strong enough to defeat them, something the dead Kazekage agrees to.

Gaara starts the attack, showing off a massive technique, we haven't seen Gaara use something like this since his fight with Deidera, so while he may have lost the One-Tail, he clearly hasn't lost any offensive ability.

The only one of the Kages to react to this is Gaara's dad, he assumes this is the ability of Shikaku from his previous battles with it, whether these fights were when it was sealed into Gaara or before that we wont know, but he counters it effectively with his own style of Magnetic Release.

In one chapter, Magnetic Release went from being an ability that Akatsuki killed for, to something two villages had, and that's just the ones we know about, Hopefully this ability wont become spammed like the Sharingan is.

After the failed assault, Gaara and Onoki hit the Kages from above, they use an interesting strategy of distracting them with the sand from below so Onoki can use dust release and crush them from above, its solid teamwork to be honest, too bad Mu was not caught by the sand and is capable of counter-attacking Onoki.

It seems both Onoki and Mu are equal in power, so the blast just destroys the battlefield, but both sides escape unscathed, after this attack both Onoki and the 4th Kazekage comment on their foe's powers, Onoki by discovering that Mu's powers have not been reduced at all by Edo Tensei, and the 4th by noticing how much Gaara has improved since he died.

The final panel of this chapter is the living Kages flying over the dead ones, perhaps signaling how the new generation will soar over the previous one?

The 4th asks Gaara where Shikaku is and Gaara tell's him he is no longer the Jinchuriki he created, its a fitting cliffhanger and I hope the next chapter will focus a lot on their relationship.

Comments


I enjoyed this chapter, The fight between Gaara and his dad was brought up the moment we saw him as a zombie and so far it has not disappointed, both are sand users and so far it seems the 4th is stronger so it will be interesting to see how Gaara pulls of a win in this situation, that and the extra emotional layer should add up to an exciting fight.

Onoki's fight with his previous teacher should also be quite interesting, so far the old generation being surpassed by the new has been a repeated theme, yet Mu looks much younger then Onoki, so it will be funny if an old man defeats a much younger one and then talks about the new surpassing the old.

The art this week was splendid, yet no real panel stood out to me as being more amazing then the others, they were all very solid and very good, with perhaps Gaara's massive sand attack being the best picture this chapter.

Not really much to say here, it seems this chapter is a set-up for next where, where we will see the real fight starts.

Predictions?

Mu and the 4th will tell the other Kages to not interfere, it will be Gaara vs his dad and Onoki vs Mu, both will have flashbacks between them, probably to the time they were training together, I expect Gaara's figh to start first in the next chapter with Onoki being put on hold till their fight ends,.

And thats it for this review, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, till next week.

Debating Tips-Motions

Morning, seems like I havent posted here in a while, I just finished competing in the President's Cup, which is a debate cup my university competes in with 15 other campuses, we got 3rd place which is quite respectable I think.

So in this post I'll talk about what I've learned in my long Rather short career in debating, I'll write about the tactics and tricks my team used that got us so far and common pitfalls to avoid, experienced debaters will probably know all of this but if you're new and want to improve, I think you will find something useful here.

On to the first point.

Understand what the motion wants you to debate.

The first part of the debate starts the moment the motion is announced, when you know what it is you should focus on understanding what the motion wants the teams to argue about so no parallel debates happen.

" This House believes that we don't need no education"

The above motion can basically be said as " Education is important" however the way is is phrased can cause people to be confused and the government can go out and say that they believe that education is not important, which is the opposition's case.

When the motion is given out, both teams will have time to prepare their arguments and points, The government will use this time to make the motion serve them by narrowing it down and making it easier for them to debate.

"This House would ban abortion"

Thats the given motion, now if the government first speaker goes out and says " This house would ban abortion, on to my first point"

Since he has stated no limits to abortion, the leader of the opposition can (and should ) reply with " Since the government states they would ban abortion, this means abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy" 

Thats why explaining the motion can make or break the debate, be very careful with how you describe the motion ( government) and try to find any loopholes in the given explanation (opposition).

Hard and Soft cases.

A hard case is a case where the motion would be allowed or stopped at all stages, where as a soft motion would be a weak case that wouldnt change anything, confusing right?

Here's an example to what I am trying to say.

"This House would ban abortion"

Soft example: If the government is weak and not confident enough in themselves, they will go out and say " We will ban abortion in the third trimester" 

Thats an incredibly soft case, why? because nobody aborts in the third trimester, its illegal everywhere so the government is basically saying OK to abortion in every stage except when it enters 28 weeks and after.

Soft cases are very detrimental to the government, while a Hard case can be argued with, a soft case is usually the government agreeing with the opposition.

Hard example: We will use the same motion as the above, but this time the government goes out and says "We will ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy Except if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother"

The above is a hard motion, where abortion is completely banned except in a logical situation where it threatens the life of the mother, that's a very logical safety net the government puts to stop the opposition from saying " What if the pregnancy can kill the mother?"

A hard case is many times more interesting then a soft case, and is easier to win as well since they are arguing on the motion, in this hard motion the points can be really varied, as they can talk about if the baby was the product of rape and the mother wants to abort it early, if the baby is found to be born with a birth defect that would kill it in a few years, all these are points both sides can argue on, and it builds to a fruitful debate in the end.

Thats what we mean by using the motion, the government has this advantage to set the motion how it chooses, usually though they will make a logical mechanism and work on that.

Remember to think about how the other side would approach this case, if you are stuck on points then imagine what their points are and use the opposite of that, if you are government then try to set a Mechanism that would kill the oppositions points.

And that's it for this post, I'll have more debate-y stuff up soon, hope this helped.