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 MangaLife Second Opinion: Naruto v38-39
Written by Barb Lien-Cooper
I am no fan of battle manga. Oh, it’s not that I don’t like the action-adventure genre. It’s just that fight manga are all fight and not enough actual plot. They tend to forget the adventure part of action-adventure. You know the typical battle manga: some yahoo with powers stands around talking about his (it’s usually a he) powers while the opponents talk about their powers and eventually you get speed lines. And as the series progresses, the hero trains more and more and the powers get more and more over the top as do the opponents and their powers and pretty soon it takes more than one volume to even get one fight over with and...
Eventually battle mangas all end up reading way, way too much like superhero comics. You know what I mean, don’t you? Too little characterization, too little actual plot, too little about the characters’ psychological journeys, too much about how their powers work and world domination and all that crapola that just indicates that there’s never going to be an end to it.
Yet somehow Naruto hooked me from volume one. Unlike most fight manga, I got to know and like every character in Naruto, and each of their backstories-- I had an emotional stake in every one of their stories (Choji, Rock Lee’s, and Gaara’s especially). I got to like the world-building aspects of the series. I got to like the “politics” of the series and the promises of explanations concerning all the secrets involved in the village hidden in the leaves.
Then somewhere after the Naruto “two year gap” (two year gaps in manga are never a good thing, IMHO---I mean, just look how it messed with Kare Kano), my aversion for battle manga kicked in and I couldn’t read Naruto any longer. Everything I hated about battle manga was there without the character interaction or the sense of adventure that hooked me on the series in the first place.
However, my husband still loves Naruto and likes me to follow the manga he follows. Out of husband-love, I came back for Naruto volumes 38 and 39. I’m glad I did. I’ve sort of missed that little bushy-haired kid and his orange costume. I liked these two volumes so much, I’m going to start reading the series again. Now, if you’re at all like me, and you were getting a little frustrated that the plot of Naruto just seemed to be getting nowhere, with too many manufactured missions that didn’t move the plot forward enough, come back. Stuff is starting to happen again.
Cool stuff.
Sasuke stuff.
You’re going to kick yourself if you don’t see the showdown between Sasuke and Orochimaru, one of the best manga villains ever. You’re also going to kick yourself if you don’t see Sasuke’s plans to finally go after his murderous brother. Sasuke, who I used to think of as bit of a pouty baby (I know, a darling looking one, but still) has officially hit anti-hero status.
Finally, Adventure has returned to Naruto.
Oh, and (sigh) Naruto’s learned a new power, which might kill him if he keeps working with it, but at least you know that the power is there to try and deal with Sasuke’s increasingly-obsessive revenge fantasies. I mean, c’mon, Naruto is rapidly becoming about the following:
--Naruto versus Sasuke.
--Naruto’s nine-tail fox demon and what will happen to it, Naruto, and the Hidden Leaf Village if he doesn’t stop those who want to steal that power for their own ends.
--Ninja kid Shikamaru’s increasing wisdom and coolness factor, which was dealt with more than adequately in the two volumes proceeding these two. I’m not reviewing those because other than ol' Shadow Teen’s cleverness, it was mostly a couple of big fights and the death of a character that I frankly don’t feel really had to die. It’s complicated and I don’t want to get into it. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t bet money that, with Shikamaru in the picture, Naruto’s dream of taking over leadership of the village will necessarily come to fruition...
Having said some nice things, there are also things I’d officially like to complain about, even though I’m a returning Naruto fan and will probably keep being so in spite of fights that last up to three volumes. Rock Lee is now officially underused. Oh, yes, he was in the puppet-master story arc, but not in a really characterization-driven way. And are we ever going to see Naruto’s wonderful grade-school teacher again? And what of Rock Lee's always-entertaining Sensei? Will he ever get to best Kakashi?
To me, those are the things that make me still read Naruto. I hope that we can at least get back to them someday. Because all the cool ninja monster types in the world and how they can manipulate chakra can’t make up for backstory or frontstory or STORY, period...
But... still. I guess if this was a normal review, I'd give these a B+, although like my husband, I find that the fight at the end of v39 certainly is boring... good thing he tells me it's over by next volume. The important thing is: the game is afoot again-- everyone back into the pool.
Oh, and Park says for everyone to note that Viz has put Naruto on the website Hulu, too, which he likes better than the website Joost, for its visual clarity as well as because it's a plot by aliens to take over the world. So go watch Naruto and Shikamaru beat up the bad guys... it's even slower than the manga, but you get to actually see stuff blow up in sound and color. Enjoy.
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