Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are blocked at every turn as they try to stop Madara's insidious plan, but nothing seems to be able to prevent the casting of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
The Good
One of the strongest aspects of this chapter is in the action. The illustration work is solid here throughout, and Naruto continues the trend of using various Bijuchakra to form new Rasengan. Some may find that silly, but I think this idea is being used to good effect, so far.
The Bad
At what point is Madara going to stop getting power ups? It's starting to get as silly as things did with Frieza in the closing chapters of the Namek Saga. As a mortal, he whooped the ass of all nine Biju with one glance. Since then, he's absorbed the revive Ten-Tails, the entire Divine Tree -- which was also the revived Ten-Tails, and now he has both Rinnegan. Only now is he finally starting to do something with all that power. However, I still have this nagging feeling that we still haven't seen his "true-form".
One of the biggest negatives has to be Sakura. Don't get me wrong. She starts off solid enough with an awesome display, but drops right back into her role of the passive observer. This in spite of expressing how she wants to stop being behind the boys. Seeing how such dramatic effort come to no effect, I'm having a hard time deciding if she's being impressive or just reckless.
Kishimoto doesn't seem to realize that it doesn't count as growth for a female lead if she's constantly repeating the same cycle and having to be rescued. To top it all off, she's still upset it wasn't Sasuke who helped her. It's a series of compounding frustrations when it comes to her in this issue.
Verdict 3/5
When he focuses on moving the plot forward, Kishimoto's style really shines. For all my complaints with the chapter, I still found the events entertaining. This is a better example of the NARUTO I've been wanting to read over the past several weeks/months. It's just a shame that he treats Sakura so poorly, and has turned the big bad of the series into one of the most obnoxious JRPG final bosses ever.
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About the Author
 | Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek. Follow for news updates: @AnimeVicers/@FoxxFireArt / http://kristofferremmell.tumblr.com/ |
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