We open with a kaiju-sized kitsune attacking the Hidden Leaf Village, stopped by one of the village's leader-ninja who rode to battle upon a giant demon toad. They did the only natural thing and bound the kitsune's spirit into an orphan, our titular character. Nothing about his parents, which leads me to believe one or both died fighting the kitsune, or possibly WERE the kitsune.
Having a demon fox taking up residence in your soul has apparently made Naruto as welcome in the village about as much as a sausage burp, so naturally he acts out and becomes the shinobi version of Dennis the Mennis, for openers defacing the shinobi version of Mount Rushmore that looms over the village. While I'm watching it subbed on hulu, apparently in the dub he just wants people to like him. Subbed, he wants them to acknowledge his existence. That's harsh.
Sexy jutsu!
We meet our only other named characters so far, Sakura and Sasuke! They will not be significant later. According to some, I'm actually half right.
Naruto, at the same time seemingly not letting the villagers extreme distaste for him get him down also desperately wants their acceptance, so desires to become ninja president, or Hokage. To do this, Naruto needs to graduate by passing his ninja magic class, and naturally flunks out horribly.
Lots of people graduate, save Naruto, who is really in danger of becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of ninjas. He doesn't recognize his father slash teacher figure Iruka's tough love approach, and falls prey to Mizuki's prodding to get him to steal a scroll possessing all the really cool ninja magic.
Naruto easily learns what is probably a really, really advanced ninja magic, and it turns out his boosting the scroll is all a stunt by Mizuki to grab the scroll for himself. Never trust a man with silver hair. Mizuki is a sneaky bastard with some throwing knives, but that's nothing compared to trying to drive a wedge between Naruto and the only man in the village to literally give half a crap about him, especially after Iruka takes a Yuffie-sized shuriken from Mizuki in back.
Mizuki thinks Naruto, if given his druthers, would become a power-mad prick like he would. Iruka goes to bat for him in a nice moment, and it's up to Naruto to save the day with the jutsu he just learned. After all that, how could you not give him a cool headband?
I wonder what happens to Mizuki. Despite the goofiness, it IS a village of ninja, who aren't known as history's more compassionate assassins.
All in all, fine start. Funny, a little touching, and the action stuff is well done, and who doesn't love a ninja?
I wonder what happens to Mizuki. Despite the goofiness, it IS a village of ninja, who aren't known as history's more compassionate assassins.
They killed him. He most definitely did not get sent to ninja prison to return in a filler arc where he turned into a
Tiger-man that wouldn't have looked out of place on a frosties box
This was not in the manga so it. did. not. happen!!!
You've got 100 odd excellent to good episodes to come but when the two years worth of fillers arrive there is no shame skipping straight to Shippuden where it again goes back to following the manga.
Looking forward to reading these, hope you keep it up.
And I thought my "Complete Patlabor" thread was ambitious!
Good luck, and I'll be with you through the long haul (however long that haul may be).
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[Where I Watch] Haruhi Suzumiya - Finished! Gurren Lagann - Finished! Macross 7
1 Rage Quit Intervention Point (Richard Clayton), 1 "WE ARE THE D!" point (3mT)
"You remind me of someone standing on top of a mountain wearing a suit of copper armour in the middle of thunderstorm screaming 'ALL GODS ARE BASTARDS!'. - JonA
I'll take this oppurtunity to proclaim my love for the opener. (For the record, my favorite opening ever is first season Godannar.)
We open with Naruto getting the picture for his ninja license, complete with bizarre facepaint and dramatic pose. He attempts Sexy Jutsu to persuade the Hokage to use his pic, but aside from provoking the typical Evil Dead-style gusher of a nosebleed from the old guy, gets nowhere. A small child erupts into the room, wearing a scarf and outdoing Naruto in clumsiness (though to be fair, he's about half Naruto's age, I think). Being exactly the same personality-wise, it's not too long before Naruto smacks him upside the head, apparently the first to do so.
Konohamaru wants to be the Fifth Hokage. As does Naruto. The fourth Hokage died with the kitsune, so did the third Hokage come out of retirement?
All and sundry are worried about the kid hanging with Naruto, who is not so much a bad seed but a loud, obnoxious-seed. Honorable Grandson attempts to conscript Naruto into teaching him Real Ultimate Power, starting with Sexy Jutsu. At the chance of being called 'boss,' Naruto agrees, as would we all.
Konohamaru attempts Sexy Jutsu by copying a ninja housewife, and the results are about as good as Naruto doing anything aside from that or the clone thing. The attempt backfires, and Naruto gets backfisted. Poor Naruto. Up next is research, by way of the ninja porn store. That fails, so they attempt a bench test of the bathouse, and the true reason for Sexy Jutsu is revealed.
As one might have guessed, Konohamaru is Naruto's situation, except for it being totally the opposite. They bond over ninja soda.
We find out that it was the Fourth Hokage's wish for the village to not be complete dicks to Naruto, the kid who helped save their village. Since the current Hokage ruled nobody could talk about it, that didn't happen, and instead Naruto got cast as town pariah. The Third Hokage's kind of a dick.
Honorable Grandkid's uptight mentor tries to reason that Naruto's no good for him, and Konohamaru attempts his perfected Sexy Jutsu, but no! Four Eyes is having none of it, so stronger measures are called for...
Shadow Clone Jutsu + Sexy Jutsu = HAREM JUTSU! Brilliant! This raises Four Eye's blood pressure to such heights he's probably even now still in some sort of coma. I'm also loving the incidental music. Flutes with electric guitar for the win.
There's more bonding. Nobody has it as tough as Naruto, although at least he comes through it with two people accepting his existence. A 100% increase! Third Hokage might be impressed, but it still a dick about it.
I actually learned to love his outfit when I decided he wears BRIGHT ORANGE just to annoy people who take Ninjitsu semi-seriously.
I can see that, though I might boil it down further to simply, "LOOK AT ME."
Quote:
There are... 220 + 90... + five movies.... A shitload of episodes!
Good heavens. If I do make it through all of them, I might retire from the internet.
As it stands now (he said, writing down thoughts on the third episode and only having watched up to the 14th, so please muffle the snickers), I'm going to go for the manga stuff, the one or two decent filler arcs and the movies. I'd do the filler, but from the sounds of it, it doesn't sound like it'd be anything you guys would be interested in reading, and certainly nothing I'd be interested in writing about. "Flashback. Somebody ponders. Flashback to pondering." No thanks.
Quote:
i shall watch your descent into madness with interest
As do I! I hope to be the first in my state committed during Kakashi cosplay.
A big day for Naruto, who celebrates with ramen (which probably means every day's a big day for Naruto, judging by how he goes through the stuff). Hey! It's Sakura! Our first character with living parent(s). Fancy gi in your room, Sakura. She meets another newb kunoichi, Ino, and they rival it up all the way to the classroom, coming down to a photo-finish, but I'm not sure if they have cameras here.
Naruto has a crush on Sakura, who returns the favor... for our third main character, Sasuke. Because he's quiet and unfriendly, naturally all the girls want him. He's apparently the top rookie, and Naruto's chief rival for Sakura's affections (from Naruto's viewpoint, anyway). Assorted Ninja mentors comment on Saksuke being awesome and Naruto being trouble. In a pretty hilarious scene, Naruto accidentally steals Sasuke's first kiss and faces a female-heavy lynch mob.
Despite graduating Ninja Academy, nobody's actually a ninja yet. Now everybody's a junior ninja, which means being broken down into three-person study groups with an instructor. Naruto gets paired with Sakura and Sasuke, thus giving us a series, as Squad Seven. Sakura gloats to Ino about being Sasuke's study partner. Ino gets stuck with a smirky ninja and Bluto from Animal House. Also, a pale-eyed kunoichi likes Naruto, apparently. Out of curiosity, and if it's not spoilery, is she blind?
After the expected protests from all involved, they break for lunch. Naruto gets shot down by Sakura. This is perhaps the birth of a theme. Ino bosses around her squad, which is easy given their winning comination of apathy and compulsive over-eating. They watch Naruto try to take his lovelorn frustrations out on Sasuke, with Naruto apparently coming out the worse for it.
Sakura Fantasy Number One:
"You... have a charmingly wide forehead. It makes me want to kiss it."
"That's what its surface area is for!"
Classic.
But wait! Is this fantasy coming true? Sasuke flatters Sakura, then asks her about Naruto. Her Naruto stance is unchanged since lunch. It's Sasuke she really wants. She leans in for a kiss with Sasuke and... hey! That's not Sasuke at all! We see Shadow Clone Jutsu plus, um, turning into a log put one over on Sasuke.
Sakura throws herself at Narutosuke, who is all too willing to reciprocate... save for a bout of diahrrea, which interupts the proceedings and I'm sure was probably edited in the US TV version. As we all do, he reflects on a woman's rejection while on the can, and hatches a new scheme. Make Sasuke into a jerk!
Someone who might be the real Sasuke wanders by, and triggers an anti-Naruto spiel from Sakura. She criticizes him for... er, essentially being an orphan, and gets verbally smacked down by Sasuke. Go, Sasuke. Everybody on Squad Seven annoys somebody else.
Ew. Naruto didn't wash his hands. Ninja hygiene, people.
He encounters Sasuke outside the washroom, and promptly uses Shadow Clone Jutsu to try and do away with Sasuke for good. D'oh! Bowelus interruptus! That's the kind of force multiplier you don't need. Fortunately, Naruto being a raving loon dissuades Sasuke from further conflict. Meanwhile, Sakura tries to make an empathy check, and almost does so, though Naruto thinks it's Sasuke in disguise. He's about to Shadow Clone her, when there's another unfortunate call of nature. Poor Naruto.
Back in Naruto's room, we get the Third Hokage and a sleepy-eyed ninja finding the root of everyone's problem - spoiled milk.
A very funny episode, and I have to admit I'll be interested to see how the three of them get along in the future. Right now, they're far from the opening's terrorist fist-bump.
Linear Mode
