The End of Naruto

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Strike Zero
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The End of Naruto

For those who of you who were not aware, the run of the Naruto manga has at long last come to an end. If anybody wishes to discuss the finale and all that it entails, please feel free to do so here.

Me personally, though, there is only one thing that I care about. And that is how
Spoiler
Hinata officially won.
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Destiny_Gundam
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Re: The End of Naruto

Of the big 3 who'd have thought it'd be Naruto that went first.

Really don't think spoiler tags are necessary here given the thread title.

So they all lived happily ever after and the expected couples paired up. Admittedly I was never a religious reader/watcher for Naruto. I bowed out of the anime not long after the Chuunin exam arc ended, and started the manga once the Shinobi War began. As such I wasn't that familiar with everyone that showed up this chapter but I knew the main ones. Always nice to see timeskip epilogues like this.

Well Naruto, it's been fun. Cya.
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Kratos
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Re: The End of Naruto

Haters gonna hate, I've always loved Naruto. Sure, it's never high lit and Kishimoto can't write women characters to save his life, but it's enjoyable and creative and it never stops having crowning moments of awesome (though eventually you start seeing gaps between the good portions of the story, and those gaps start getting longer and the good portions shorter; I'd say it takes its final, mostly-permanent dip in quality around the time the war starts). The manga finally ending is making me all nostalgic, since Naruto was one of my major manga loves all throughout high school and basically kicked off a whole bunch of anime fan milestones for me.

I think I'm gonna go rent a bunch of the volumes and get my ninja on this weekend.
"The beast of opportunity finds its master and soars through a shaken cosmos"
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Amion
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Re: The End of Naruto

I know. Hinata winning Naruto's love was pretty much the crowning moment of this series. Best way to end it, even if I didn't get a scene of the whole Uzumaki/Hyuuga family together.

I was seriously expecting Sasuke to end up with a harem, if for no other reason than Karin would fight Sakura to the death for him. Then again, she's nowhere in sight... :)
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latenlazy
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Re: The End of Naruto

This is one of those endings that would have been really good if the run up to it was good, and terrible if there was no build for it. Unfortunately, it looks like Kishimoto truncated the manga, so while the last chapters were pretty nice, the overall ending of the manga wasn't very good. Kishimoto's writing spiraled in quality for the last year or so, and it's become increasingly apparent that he was rushing to finish rather than fully flesh out every development and plot point he set up over the years. One of Kishimoto's strengths early in the manga was that he was good at following the mantra "show, don't tell", but that visibly changed near the end of the manga with a lot of poor setup and sloppy writing. Still, the ideas behind Naruto were really great. It was primarily a problem of execution.
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Dark Duel
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Re: The End of Naruto

In spite of the flaws over the end of the final arc - and I completely agree with latenlazy that it was plagued by a lot of very sloppy writing, at least by Kishimoto's standards - I am actually entirely satisfied with the final three chapters, although I do wish more time had been spent on the conclusion and falling action that led us to this point.

A couple of points I was especially glad about:

1. Back in the day, I used to kind of like Sasuke. Not as much as Naruto or Kakashi, but he was still among my top five favorite characters in the manga. So I was irritated by most of his actions over the past couple of arcs. That being said, I had always hoped that the character would be redeemed in the end, and although I really wish it hadn't been so rushed, I am glad that Kishi was able to get that done, and reasonably well at that in spite of the pacing.
I especially enjoyed the final page of the conversation between him and Sakura(who by the way I have never particularly cared for as a character), and especially the panel in which he bopped her on the head the way Itachi used to do to him when they were kids.

2. Ardent NaruHina shipper, so I was ecstatic to see that they ended up together. And Naruto having to deal with his son getting up to the same hijinks he used to get up to as a kid is kind of an interesting development. Karmic payback for when he used to do it himself, I'd say.

3. I find it interesting, on a symbolic level, that Naruto - formerly of Team Seven, is now the Seventh Hokage, bound to happen as it was (It seems they are ignoring Danzo's brief stint, which I expected they would since IIRC he was never fully confirmed, and was basically "Acting Hokage" for the brief time he held that post)

Overall, I am glad that it ended the way it did, though I do wish it had ended better, which it definitely had the potential to - potential that was unfortunately squandered. Still, I'm pretty happy with it.
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Zeonista
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Re: The End of Naruto

Yeah, Naruto Shippuden is ended, and the Naruto manga in general. We are promised spinoffs which will be fun in their own way, but it won't be the same for me. At least the manga (and ensuing anime) will end on a high note. I admit that a lot of the time during the Fourth Shinobi War I was more dutiful than enthusiastic as a fan. But Kishimoto brought out a lot of background material and explained Naruto's world really well at times, so I never gave up hope. Plus I quite forgave him when Hinata responded to Naruto's acknowledgement-in-passing of her confession during the Pain fight by stepping forward to encourage him...and having him acknowledge her help in a definitive fashion. :oops: Also learning that the Kyuubi was: 1. named Kurama; 2. biggest tsundere ever; 3. capable of meditating like giant fuzzy Buddha. :lol:

And everything seemed to pay off in the end for all the remaining characters, except for Anko. :shock: And the big Naruto and Hinata ending was great, a true reward for all us NaruHina fans, at least in its end result. As for how they got to there, and other answers to similar questions, the movie is out in a few more weeks! ;)
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latenlazy
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Re: The End of Naruto

Zeonista wrote:Also learning that the Kyuubi was: 1. named Kurama; 2. biggest tsundere ever; 3. capable of meditating like giant fuzzy Buddha. :lol:
Ummm....excuse me? Are we forgetting some...Sauce?
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Akashi Takumi
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Re: The End of Naruto

Wait..The end? So The Last Naruto movie is non-canon? Or is it set just before the epilogue?

Anyway..

I can go on and say that Naruto becoming hokage, NaruHinata, Sakusasuke were the expected outcomes. Sure they are but sometimes the expected outcome turns out to be the best one. I really wanted to see Naruto become hokage, after all that he has been through.

I am surprised that there is not even one mention of Obito not even a shot of Third Shinobi War memorial was shown. Not even during the sole scene involving Kakashi. I think he deserves at least something.
latenlazy
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Re: The End of Naruto

Akashi Takumi wrote:Wait..The end? So The Last Naruto movie is non-canon? Or is it set just before the epilogue?

Anyway..

I can go on and say that Naruto becoming hokage, NaruHinata, Sakusasuke were the expected outcomes. Sure they are but sometimes the expected outcome turns out to be the best one. I really wanted to see Naruto become hokage, after all that he has been through.

I am surprised that there is not even one mention of Obito not even a shot of Third Shinobi War memorial was shown. Not even during the sole scene involving Kakashi. I think he deserves at least something.
Set before epilogue.
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Akashi Takumi
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Re: The End of Naruto

latenlazy wrote: Set before epilogue.
Okay got it :D
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HellCat
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Re: The End of Naruto

Haven't read it in years. Lost interest completely around about the time the war was brewing and everyone was lying to Naruto but went and read the last chapter.

Glad I dropped it. Naruto started out well but Kishimoto never really had the talent to make much of it and eventually it started drowning in crap like shipping. When Sakura tried to use Naruto's feelings for her to stop him attacking Sasuke...ugh. It was a fun series way back but I have never understood how it maintains such a large, rabid fanbase. The ending is as predictable and flat as the series has been for a long time.
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Amion
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Re: The End of Naruto

HellCat wrote:Haven't read it in years. Lost interest completely around about the time the war was brewing and everyone was lying to Naruto but went and read the last chapter.

Glad I dropped it. Naruto started out well but Kishimoto never really had the talent to make much of it and eventually it started drowning in crap like shipping. When Sakura tried to use Naruto's feelings for her to stop him attacking Sasuke...ugh. It was a fun series way back but I have never understood how it maintains such a large, rabid fanbase. The ending is as predictable and flat as the series has been for a long time.
It was something to read when One Piece went on its breaks, and left fans without their weekly dosage of OP. The withdrawals made Naruto seem better. :P

Kidding, kidding. Seriously, I'd say it's because the characters were genuinely interesting, as was the world. It's hard not to consider Orochimaru a threatening, creepy, entertaining villain, among others. They kept the early plot/fight scenes interesting.

The jutsu system especially had a lot going for it. Far more thought-out and systematic than Bleach's.... whatever it has at the time... and OP craziness. Like you say, Kishimoto just couldn't/didn't use what he had available and things got sloppier and sloppier as the story dragged on.

Part of me wonders exactly how long he originally wanted the manga or if he changed stuff a lot as he went along. There certainly seemed to be more and more plot holes that indicate some form of plot reconstruction in the second half's later stages.
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latenlazy
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Re: The End of Naruto

I suspect he always wanted to go with the direction of the Juubi and the Sage of The 6 Paths and Indra and Ashura, and he always knew how he wanted to end the manga, but it was the stuff in between that got the better of him. Kishimoto is strongly into symbolism, and if you read into the symbolism you can telegraph a lot of the manga hundreds of chapters before things happen...
Kratos
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Re: The End of Naruto

HellCat wrote:Haven't read it in years. Lost interest completely around about the time the war was brewing and everyone was lying to Naruto but went and read the last chapter.

Glad I dropped it. Naruto started out well but Kishimoto never really had the talent to make much of it and eventually it started drowning in crap like shipping. When Sakura tried to use Naruto's feelings for her to stop him attacking Sasuke...ugh. It was a fun series way back but I have never understood how it maintains such a large, rabid fanbase. The ending is as predictable and flat as the series has been for a long time.
The last chapter certainly isn't very good, true. A lot of people have been comparing the epilogue to Harry Potter, and not without reason, but at least Harry Potter had a solid narrative leading up to its lackluster epilogue chapter.

That said, I don't think it's fair to say that Kishimoto lacked the talent to execute the manga properly, because he does just that for the bulk of its run. I'd go so far as to call it "great" right up through to the end of the Pain arc. It's not perfect, but as others have pointed out, there's plenty to write home about.
"The beast of opportunity finds its master and soars through a shaken cosmos"
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