Itachi Is More Special Than You. In Fact, The Whole Uchiha Clan Is More Special Than You

[redbrunja]

But first...

I found places to direct download all the naruto episodes, and I'm wondering which are worth watching. I'm planning on Temari rescuing Shikamaru, the episode with their conversation in the hospital (135), the Sasuke vs Naruto fight, and then in Shippuden, the Sakura versus puppeteer fight.

What else would you recommend?

I'd be interested in the episodes with Kiba/Hinata, Hinata in general, Anko (I was so disappointed she was only in the manga for two seconds and we never find out how she came to fight for Konoha), Sakura getting to be awesome, as always, Kakashi, and really, any episodes that is, either because it's funny, well animated, or has something my inner shipper would squeal over, worth the 20 minutes.

Now, on to something that is bugging me about the retcon. The morning after my Naruto bing, I woke up, and like, some poor hungover girl only now realizing who it was she brought home last night, went 'WTF, this makes even less sense than it did at 2 am!'

Okay, so, assuming that the Uchiha clan clan was treated as second class citizens (which I will, for simplicity) you have, in Itachi's youth:

Three OLD people who mistrust the Uchiha.

A sympathetic Hokage who will presumably hire a sympathetic successor.

A position in Konoha of REAL POWER. (Because no one is saying they weren't doing their job as military police.)

And you're telling me that the MAJORITY of the Uchiha clan decided that with those circumstances, ARMED RESISTANCE is the best choice?

Instead of oh, waiting for the opposition to die of old age?

I'm not going to go into Itachi being a lovely, loyal son with morals and then deciding everyone had to die, because it makes no sense. I truly think that if you kill your entire family, it doesn't matter who tells you to do so - you were just waiting for that excuse.

Comments

[pikabot]

I can't vouch for the voerall quality of the episodes, but I do know that at least parts of the fights between the Third and Orochimaru, and Sasuke and Orochimaru in the forest exam, were animated by Norio Matsumoto. Those are probably worth checking out as well. The fight between Rock Lee and Gaara was tolerably done, as well, but it was without doubt a bit drawn out.

And yeeeeeeah. Nothing about it makes sense. Fucking christ I hate that retcon.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I loved the Third-Orochimaru fight.

As the third dies, there's a really nice shot of his eyes closing on a younger version of Orochimaru that I think wasn't in the manga at all. Sometimes the anime had nice creative touches like that.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

The whole forest fight section was probably my favorite thing animated, though I also loved the bridge fight in the first season.

Definitely the bridge fight (episode 20ish to 24ish, I think) and the early 30s with them in the forest exam, particularly once it was Sasuke, Naruto, and Orochimaru.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Okay, thank you for the recs!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

The forest scenes are also good because they introduce Cell 10's combat style and because of Kabuto. And Sakura's hair-cutting. But mostly I liked them because the movement and action and intensity were really well-handled. The threat felt real and their reactions felt genuine in how it was animated. That's also where we get a ton of character development and plot dumped on us at once: Orochimaru's sudden arrival, Naruto's burgeoning talents, Sakura's crisis of purpose. And Sasuke... oh, Sasuke. I felt for him most in the fights in the forest, particularly with the sound genin and then Orochimaru, because we see Sasuke literally change as a person before our eyes. He gets the cursed seal, and he goes as far as to break the other genin's arms (ouch! OMG ouch) in an almost torture-like fashion, and he has an internal struggle about whether or not to give up the scroll that will help them win the competition (which pisses Naruto off royally.) It also has my favorite animated scene--- where Naruto stops the giant snake while activating his Nine Tails power. That episode, that fight... you can see Sasuke's thoughts change as he realizes that "dead last" Naruto is on the verge of surpassing him, and that Orochimaru wants whatever's inside Naruto more than he wants Sasuke (at the time, anyway), and there's jealousy and aggression and then there's the fact that it almost overwhelms him, and you think, "Oh my god, he's only a 12 year old boy. He's just a little boy." The forest is where Sasuke loses the last of his innocence, and by the time he goes to the fight in the run-offs, after he activates the seal, he's already started the path that will take him to Orochimaru. The trust in the team is gone, the willingness to lean on others is gone, and the obsession with power and dominating the enemy has completely overtaken his thoughts and goals.

I know most if not all of this was in the manga, but it was very nicely animated in the show. I just checked some of my old reviews, and #29-33 seem to be the really important ones. #29 in particular, though you may care to start with 28 for the proper lead-in. My reviews of 29 and 33 were very enthusiastic: here (search CNTL+F "naruto") (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=rashaka&keyword=anime+reviews&filter=all), though I'm nostalgic about it now that so many things I predicted have finally occurred.


For the dual fights of Gaara vs. Naruto and Sarutobi vs. Orochimaru, #77-80 are the best. #81 is the funeral. The Gaara/Naruto fight has some nice symbolic animation taken from the manga and adapted well.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll put those on the list.

Sakura's hair cutting episode is one of the few you mentioned that I've actually seen - they did a really good job animating it.