Kishimoto Masashi - Naruto, vol. 30-32
Thu, Sep. 21st, 2006 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSpoilers up till vol. 32
OMG! This was even better than the first few volumes of the time skip arc!
I loved it to pieces, and I adore Sakura, and she has even replaced Rock Lee as my favorite character!
I do not have enough exclamation points for how much I loved this!
!!!!
Slightly more coherently:
I now see why![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelmanija continued to insist that Sakura stay behind, even in her "Kunoichi join the Sasuke Rescue Mission" AU idea. The payoff is incredibly good, particularly the panels in which Sakura thinks to herself that it's her turn to rescue Sasuke and Naruto.
I usually have some qualms with the "precious/important person" thing, but often that is because of the passivity of said person, and the way the protected one is almost always coded as female (in yaoi), or is actually female. Ergo my great ire when Sakura stayed behind. But Tsunade has her precious people, and now all of Konoha is her important person, and she's passed this on to Sakura as well.
I cannot wait to see Sakura rescuing Naruto and/or Sasuke. (Please? Come on, Kishimoto! It took you long enough to give her something to do!)
And oh, the entire battle with Chiyo! First off, older woman! Older, powerful woman! Three generations of powerful women (Chiyo, Tsunade, Sakura)! Mentoring between women! Also, I keep saying it, but Sakura kicks so. much. ass. SO MUCH.
Sasori was extremely creepy, particularly in the repeated images of wee!Sasori and his puppet parents.
Speaking of which, Kishimoto is really good at visual motifs. I loved that the one of wee!Naruto gradually being surrounded by people vs. wee!Gaara alone continued through the Gaara rescue arc, culminating with a revived Gaara waking up to find his entire village around him, waiting for him, worrying for him.
And it was so excellent that Team Gai and Team Kakashi got to work together.
But even more than that, I love this series more and more as it goes on, because Kakashi, much like Minekura, is so good at layering the past and the present, making it so that each successive event and iteration accumulates even more meaning because of what has happened before. It's, what, Gaara's third encounter with Naruto now, and this one, oh, this one is so good. It's not even direct contact anymore, just how one outcast cares for another, how that is enough to change the world.
And Chiyo's sacrifice, and the consistent undercurrent of things changing in the shinobi world rocks. I love that Chiyo starts out suspicious of Konoha and ends up sacrificing her life for a child she thought was a danger to the village. I love that while the Naruto philosophy is about precious and important people, it doesn't feel as stifling or overprotective to me, because part of protecting someone is allowing them the room to grow, as Jiraiya and Iruka and Tsunade so aptly demonstrate.
I am so mad that I couldn't get more chapters in time for Italy. Grrrr. Instead, I shall have to reread all thirty volumes!
Also, now Team 7 has got a new guy and a scary member, and right now, I don't care so much. Instead, I shall bask in the wonderfulness of the Gaara arc.
OMG! This was even better than the first few volumes of the time skip arc!
I loved it to pieces, and I adore Sakura, and she has even replaced Rock Lee as my favorite character!
I do not have enough exclamation points for how much I loved this!
!!!!
Slightly more coherently:
I now see why
rachelmanija continued to insist that Sakura stay behind, even in her "Kunoichi join the Sasuke Rescue Mission" AU idea. The payoff is incredibly good, particularly the panels in which Sakura thinks to herself that it's her turn to rescue Sasuke and Naruto.I usually have some qualms with the "precious/important person" thing, but often that is because of the passivity of said person, and the way the protected one is almost always coded as female (in yaoi), or is actually female. Ergo my great ire when Sakura stayed behind. But Tsunade has her precious people, and now all of Konoha is her important person, and she's passed this on to Sakura as well.
I cannot wait to see Sakura rescuing Naruto and/or Sasuke. (Please? Come on, Kishimoto! It took you long enough to give her something to do!)
And oh, the entire battle with Chiyo! First off, older woman! Older, powerful woman! Three generations of powerful women (Chiyo, Tsunade, Sakura)! Mentoring between women! Also, I keep saying it, but Sakura kicks so. much. ass. SO MUCH.
Sasori was extremely creepy, particularly in the repeated images of wee!Sasori and his puppet parents.
Speaking of which, Kishimoto is really good at visual motifs. I loved that the one of wee!Naruto gradually being surrounded by people vs. wee!Gaara alone continued through the Gaara rescue arc, culminating with a revived Gaara waking up to find his entire village around him, waiting for him, worrying for him.
And it was so excellent that Team Gai and Team Kakashi got to work together.
But even more than that, I love this series more and more as it goes on, because Kakashi, much like Minekura, is so good at layering the past and the present, making it so that each successive event and iteration accumulates even more meaning because of what has happened before. It's, what, Gaara's third encounter with Naruto now, and this one, oh, this one is so good. It's not even direct contact anymore, just how one outcast cares for another, how that is enough to change the world.
And Chiyo's sacrifice, and the consistent undercurrent of things changing in the shinobi world rocks. I love that Chiyo starts out suspicious of Konoha and ends up sacrificing her life for a child she thought was a danger to the village. I love that while the Naruto philosophy is about precious and important people, it doesn't feel as stifling or overprotective to me, because part of protecting someone is allowing them the room to grow, as Jiraiya and Iruka and Tsunade so aptly demonstrate.
I am so mad that I couldn't get more chapters in time for Italy. Grrrr. Instead, I shall have to reread all thirty volumes!
Also, now Team 7 has got a new guy and a scary member, and right now, I don't care so much. Instead, I shall bask in the wonderfulness of the Gaara arc.