... Man. Someone else who read History's Strongest Disciple but me? AND Witch Hunter? Be still my beating heart, first time I find someone else who does.
As for this essay, what can I say but the fact that I agree? My absolutely biggest complaint with Shippuden is that almost every sidecharacter ever got shafted in favor of Sasuke, Naruto and Akatsuki. After finishing regular Naruto with one of the most emotional and intense arcs, seeing Kiba, Chouji and Neji on the ropes and almost dead/dying, Rock Lee have one of his most awesome fights so far and just... have almost EVERYONE of the Konoha kid ninja shine so gloriously, they now feel like unneccesary padding in a story that just plum forgot them or put them in a corner, Shikamaru being the only real exception.
Now me, I didn't really start noticing all this until the Kakuzu and Hidan fight, which if you ever get there I'll be interested to hear your take on. That was the part here I really felt that all the potential Kishimoto had was just wasted, and it's been barreling out of control ever since and I'm just following Naruto out of obligation more than anything. Still: I find myself agreeing with everything you say here except the Puppets being dumb, mostly because I am not nitpicky enough. You can handwave those kind of details and I won't care because chakra as a system is something that's become so convoluted I just can't bring myself to care about pointing out inconsistencies, unlike One Piece where I would make many frowny faces if Oda made mistakes with the Devil Fruit.
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As for this essay, what can I say but the fact that I agree? My absolutely biggest complaint with Shippuden is that almost every sidecharacter ever got shafted in favor of Sasuke, Naruto and Akatsuki. After finishing regular Naruto with one of the most emotional and intense arcs, seeing Kiba, Chouji and Neji on the ropes and almost dead/dying, Rock Lee have one of his most awesome fights so far and just... have almost EVERYONE of the Konoha kid ninja shine so gloriously, they now feel like unneccesary padding in a story that just plum forgot them or put them in a corner, Shikamaru being the only real exception.
Now me, I didn't really start noticing all this until the Kakuzu and Hidan fight, which if you ever get there I'll be interested to hear your take on. That was the part here I really felt that all the potential Kishimoto had was just wasted, and it's been barreling out of control ever since and I'm just following Naruto out of obligation more than anything. Still: I find myself agreeing with everything you say here except the Puppets being dumb, mostly because I am not nitpicky enough. You can handwave those kind of details and I won't care because chakra as a system is something that's become so convoluted I just can't bring myself to care about pointing out inconsistencies, unlike One Piece where I would make many frowny faces if Oda made mistakes with the Devil Fruit.