Naruto Shippuuden 221
Posted: August 4, 2011 Filed under: "Episodics", Misaki Thursday 16 Comments »
I wrote this introduction paragraph before I watched the episode, so I don't have any Naruto pictures yet. Instead, here's the frog prince.
In my journey in the anime world and fandom, I have come to the realization that “first episode impressions” are about as impressive as “random episode impressions.” People are getting dumber and dumber these days and assume that a “three episode test” – that is, watching the first three episodes of a show to determine if it’s good – works wonders. Some even believe that a three episode test isn’t enough, and that we need more and more episodes to watch before we can determine if an anime is truly good.
Eventually, we’ll reach the point where everybody agrees that watching an entire anime isn’t enough to determine if it’s good. You’d have to write episodics analyzing every last detail of each episode before you can scratch the surface of such a holy and radiant anime.
But enough of that! What I wanted to do was watch a random episode of a random show and see if forcing a “in media res” would tell me anything about the show in question.
I also just wanted to watch Naruto.
useless character!
Summary
Naruto talks with two frogs about flashbacks for 12 minutes and then I threw up all over my keyboard.
artistic shot!
Reaction
Deep down, I wanted to disprove all the crap people give this show. There must be some reason why it got and remains so popular in America. There must be some reason why people dress up as random Naruto characters at AX instead of Mikoto or Eureka or any Nichijou characters. But the conclusion I came to is:
NO.
There is no reason why this show should be popular. The half of the episode I managed to get through was a piece of crap. I bet Studio Pierrot has only one guy working on this show, and he’s always drunk and blowing chunks all over the cels and script. I bet he voices the characters too. Or maybe he downloads Naruto soundboards off the internet.
The episode starts off with three ninja guys running down a tunnel, and Snake man (Orochimaru, I assume?) catches them and kills them. And then the OP kicks in. By that point, I was ready for the worst. The animation of the opening minute was horrendous, and the Snake man looked retarded. It was going to be a long, “suspenseful” episode where this Snake dude runs around looking for Naruto or Sasuke or whoever is the protagonist now.
But, no. No, no, no. The episode went on to feature Naruto talking with two frogs about random flashbacks for ten minutes! What’s the point of the Snake man opening, then? Where did he go? I don’t even care for the answers to those questions because this is such a horrible, messy excuse for an anime.
And to top it off, this is from the point of view of somebody who hasn’t watched any previous Naruto episodes! I’m sure that fans have seen the same flashbacks ten times over. Why do they like seeing the same scenes? If they wanted to watch something repetitive, they could go loop Endless Eight. That would be a better use of their time.
On a more interesting note, I've been watching Golden Boy.
My original intent was to use the “random episode test” as an excuse to experience Naruto in all its glory, but now I see that the “random episode test” really works. It told me that Naruto is a disgrace to humanity and that I was a fool for not believing all the people who bashed the show.
I propose that we all ditch the idea of “first impressions” and the “three episode test” and instead opt for the “random episode test.” As I have methodically proven in this post, it works wonders.
P.S.: Shitty anime deserves shitty post. Sorry for this week’s shit. I really wanted to delete this draft, but I couldn’t let all my hard work (sitting through 12 minutes of junk) go to waste. I bet this is how manga bloggers feel about the Bleach manga, too. Except a chapter of that takes only ten seconds to read.
P.P.S.: In other news, I got 7 headshots in one round as a sniper yesterday (in TF2). I’ve found out that the trick is to just keep shooting, because the head hitbox is bigger than you think. I’m still unaccustomed to the Huntsman at close range, but I’m getting pretty good with the regular sniper rifle. Hmm.
P.P.P.S.: I promise next week’s post will be better. In fact, I’ve already written it!
The thing is that we can’t do random episode impressions FOR ANIME THAT ONLY HAVE ONE EPISODE
YOUR LOGIC IS FLAWED
AND FLOWED
AND BLOWED
AND BLOWER
AND LOWYER
AND LAWYER
AND uh lowyer isn’t a word and blowed was blew but that’s too blue for my jazz
Then you do random minute impressions. Go to the middle of the episode and watch a minute of the show!
YOU ARE FLAWED
FLAYED
FLAYER
SLAYER
TOM SAWYER
HUCKLEBERRY FINN
MARK TWAIN
RIVERS
OCEANS
EARTH
GALAXIES
RELATIVISTIC JETS (kakkoii~!)
GOLDEN BOY.
Ahem.
THAT SHOW WAS FUCKING AWESOME
That show is hilarious. Dubs > subs for once.
It’s the “original” ecchi comedy. Before all that moe crap ruined anime, yo!
I’ve been watching it subbed, but I think my files are dual-audio. I’ll try out the dubs.
Naruto is a gateway anime of the worst kind. It’s a
bad series, a clusterfuck of story and characterization
that isn’t very well done by any aspect, but which
attempts to compensate for its weaknesses by
adding in excessive shipping faggotry and
DARKNESS. The normal anon can see this as the shit
it is, and may enjoy it, hate it or be indifferent to it,
but all the while recognizing that the series itself,
regardless of their opinion, is plain bad.
However, these very aspects that try to smear over
the shit of its core make it a breeding ground for
aspie, unsociable underageb& faggots who engage in
every kind of faggotry both online and in the real
world. The superpowered characters all trying their
hardest to look cool, the jutsus, peculiar, colorful
clothes, the whole ninja faggotry and everything
about the Naruto world fuels their escapist fantasies,
while the pity-party character backgrounds,
emphasis on revenge, and overall preachiness of the
series make it fit just right with the mary-sueish
drives of your average preteen and his sense of
unwarranted self-importance towards the world.
Exactly the kind of shit that makes little kiddies and
underageb& retards eat this shit right the fuck up.
Naruto is basically THE series to attract the most
hated anime fanbase known to /a/, which is why,
regardless of individual opinions, it is the
responsibility of every anon to troll the fuck out of
this show and everyone who likes it, and ensure that
no Naruto threads ever encourage the newfriends to
show their faces here.
ok
No-one actually likes the show. You’re being trolled by the cosplayers. I’m sure they’re hurting down inside too.
The staff at Shounen Jump are all master trolls, too. It’s all a big conspiracy!
“Eventually, we’ll reach the point where everybody agrees that watching an entire anime isn’t enough to determine if it’s good. You’d have to write episodics analyzing every last detail of each episode before you can scratch the surface of such a holy and radiant anime.
Loll. Is this a minor jab at the blogosphere?
Anyway, Naruto anime is pretty crappy. The manga, however, I find excellent.
Pretty much, yeah. I tend to jab and punch and knock out the blogosphere all the time. I’m so meta, I can’t help myself.
It doesn’t really happen that much, though. Most episodic posts are either straight-up impressions or somewhat in-depth analyses, but rarely do you find a post that pulls universal healthcare from Harry Potter.
I’ve heard better things about the Naruto manga than the Bleach manga. (but that’s not saying much…)
Holy FUCK this show is already in it’s 200’s!!!?????
I’ve been on episode 77 for about 2 years now. I’ve thought about picking it up again but I’m a lazy speccy cunt. On another note, Golden Boy is fucking awesome shit.
Golden Boy seems like a show fit for you. I’ve had trouble watching it because ecchi and I don’t mix… but hey, it’s retro and retro is cool.
Also Naruto is terribl
As a blogger who only writes posts about Bleach, Naruto and One Piece, I found this post to be a bit disheartening. 😛
Having said that, the Naruto anime more than likely sucks a lot. I haven’t seen it for quite a while, but just seeing random screen caps and episode descriptions are enough to let me know that much.
The Naruto anime, for whatever reason began to combine adapted stuff from the manga, and original stuff (read as fillers), and this combination is never, I repeat never a good thing, so, that is why the anime sucks, a lot.
The manga on the other hand is pretty good, at the very least, each chapter doesn’t have out of whack scenes, and the transition between stuff makes sense. Some(read as I) would argue that the overall direction of the manga is not so good , as it’s heading in a stereotypical good vs bad direction, whereas it started out as more of a manga about badass ninjas struggling with their own individuality and stuff. Anyway, chapter to chapter, it’s pretty good.
In theory, I agree with your random episode test methodology, but I don’t think it always works. It works best for series that have little continuity from previous episodes(for obvious reasons) and for short series.
As for why it doesn’t work with long series, well it’s quite simple really. Long series, especially action series have large segments of suckiness followed by sporadic moments of brilliance.
For most viewers, the quality of these long series is really determined by the ratio of good to bad, and how frequent the good parts show up.
All action series(or at least Shonen action series) will have certain common segments, like setting up a fight, the main character figuring out that he needs more power, training, powerups, and finally the actual fight itself. A lot of those are boring, but we stick through it all just for that one glorious moment where you see your favourite character rip the bad guy to shreds.
It’s a bit like playing WOW. You grind/raid like crazy until you get that epic item which you can use to impress your online girl friend, then your online girlfriend is only impressed for a moment before she sends you off to find another one. And you, being the masochist that you are, oblige and repeat the cycle all over again.
Mister Anon may or may not be justified in hating Naruto as a gateway, but there is a reason why it was a gateway to anime for many (like myself). The Naruto anime might suck right now, and it might have sucked for a long time, but the beginning of the anime was really good.
Just watch the first 20 episodes, the Haku arc is one of the most beloved Shonen arcs of all time, it really is quite good.
As for the Bleach manga, well I like it. Sure, sometimes the characters are stupid, sure it sucks that you see the characters develop, then undevelop and then redevelop, and sure it sucks when fights get dragged on for ever, but you know, the testosterone/estrogen rush you get when your favourite character decimates the enemy is more than worth it.
Sorry for taking up your time on this needlessly long comment, I know that the sunburned you, who has just returned from his glorious vacation in Hawai, would not like to take the time to read this block of text, so, I apologise.
tl:dr: Wait, can Asian punks even get sunburned?
I can understand the Naruto deal (I watched a couple of the beginning episodes and thought it was interesting), but the Bleach manga? No way!
It was decent when I was catching up (I caught up somewhere in Hueco Mundo)… but once I started reading it weekly, Bleach seemed like nothing but 20 seconds of pain and suffering. It’s not short and sweet. It’s just short. And terribly bitter. Nothing ever happens, and when something does happen (this last chapter), I don’t care! I really could care less about Rukia and Shinigami powers and OH HO HO I STABBED YOU TWICE! because Ginjo LOOKS like a villain, Rukia was so popular among males that she had to reappear, and Ichigo without his powers is a terrible idea among terrible ideas. OBVIOUS AND BAD, imo.
P.S.: My WoW experience was more of a YEAHHH I’M GOING TO GO HERBALISM AND BECOME THE GREATEST AUCTION HOUSER EVER! But then I went Inscription and holy crap so many glyphs and I hated the auction house and went raiding and never rolled any good numbers and then I went to China and I quit WoW.
At least there’s a happy ending.
P.P.S.: I’m not a punk and I’m paler and attractiver than the sexiest, whitest vampire ever conjured up in Stephanie Meyer’s dreams.
Haha, fair enough point on Bleach, I had incorrectly assumed that you hadn’t read any of it, my bad.
As for Wow, I vaguely remember my experience being similar, except I never really got into the raids as my rolls weren’t even good enough to get me good raid starting gear, so yeah, I quit wow angry, and really tired from it all, can’t be happier that I did.
Oh, and I was never doubting your Asian sexiness, I mean, sure you aren’t any where near as attractive as me (but then again, no one is), but I am sure your striking good lucks, ability to hold a conversation for longer than 5 minutes, and massive reservoir of anime/manga knowledge make you a very attractive package. Heck, anyone (including myself) would take you over one of Meyer’s vampires.
Oh, and we are all punks, deep down, somewhere, or something, then again, in my old age, I seem to have forgotten the exact definition of punk, I am sure it involves Nichijou and anime somehow.
I wish I hadn’t read any of it. Bleach is so terribad but I keep reading and oh my god
I, too, quit WoW angry and tired from it all but I’m sure I wasted several more months than you did!
You’re speaking my language!