Naruto Chapter 325 Review

No summary this week because I don't have the time. I wanted to keep doing summaries in a more abbreviated fashion but it's too time-consuming, even when I strip them down to the fundamentals. Now that I've started university again I'm going to streamline most of my posts, else they just won't happen at all. This means no more summaries for Naruto. I can't think of many alternatives for those who rely on them to follow the storyline, but there's countless scanslations released each week and they're pretty easy to come by. Plus, reading the actual comic is infinitely more entertaining than reading my convoluted regurgitation. 

Anyhow, to the Thoughts. Initial thought: ~AWESOME~ (valley girl style). Shikamaru works his cognitive magic, puts everything together and scuppers Hidan's devious plans. Granted, we sussed most of this as it happened, but having some the additional clarification helped. I'm also glad Shikamaru finally got some legitimate spotlight. The prospect of him being merely Asuma's support felt strange, seeing as he's always been one of the most prominent supporting cast. There certainly was no way Asuma could've done won without Shikamaru's Superior Brain Techniques.

Well, won this round, anyway. Engage Shonen Jump conventions and we find, apparently, Hidan & Kakuzu plan to get serious next chapter. I wonder how many times they'll get serious before the fuckers die or we get some kind of conclusion. Either way, it looks like the Niju Shotai are somewhat screwed now the pair are working together. Utilising those old power rating skills we all developed from reading Dragon Ball Z forums in our youth, it's fair to say that if either Shikamaru or Asuma get disabled in some respect that the rest are goners.

It's inevitable that the sense of impending doom lingers over these unbalanced fights (with the good guys always pulling through, sickeningly) but this time it seems fairly certain that unless the tables turn, they stand no chance. It's kind of refreshing to be so convinced of a negative outcome; though it could work against the storyline if Kishimoto pulls some completely outlandish crap in order for a happy ending. That isn't his style, though, so I'm betting on a bittersweet conclusion instead.

Suggestive innuendo be damned: Asuma's weapon 'extension' was damn cool. Supplemented by the fact that he used it to decapitate Hidan. Aggravatingly, it didn't actually kill him (but presented a rather cool two page spread of it happening), so his invulnerability becomes all the more mysterious. Often, taking out the head is usually a dead cert in killing immortal type people completely. Maybe in his transformed state Hidan's tolerance for lethal attacks is higher? He took those two knife wounds while he was normal, but perhaps a decapitation in that state would've killed him entirely.

This was a fun chapter; solid Naruto entertainment. There's not much emotional involvement in this battle yet, but then the stakes haven't really been raised to their highest. Once the life and death stuff starts to get underway, in terms of dramatic tension rather than lame costume changes, I'm sure the full potential of this fight will be realised. Hopefully not at the cost of a certain beardy idol, though . . .

Comments

[aurabolt]

It turned exactly the way people predicted, "Get Hidan out of the circle" so I wasn't THAT impressed with Shikamaru. It'd help if he figures out why Hidan doesn't die though. Asuma was smart enough to cut off the head (that's usually the weak point for most regenerating characters in shounen mangas), but it didn't work. Whatever, we still got that awesome decapitation so I'm not complaining.

I can only think of ridiculous ways to get rid of Hidan such as cutting up his body and sealing it away all over Konoha. Others have suggested they bring in Kakashi to send him to other dimension except that'll kill the fun right? ^-^;; That or we can always hope Kakuzu choses money over partner since he finally has Hidan's head now.

[Lupus]

I wonder about Hidan's invulnerability... In Naruto, at least as far as we've seen, there's some small semblence to reality as far as characters' mortality is concerned. For example, you don't have any hit-a-guy-and-fly-through-4-buildings-but-not-die that you see in many other action manga. Is Hidan REALLY invulnerable, or are there some other tricks up his big, spacious sleaves?

[kayla]

this pic is two word KICKASS!!!!!

kayla

[rasengan88]

cool

[naruto manga]

seems such a long time eh... so much has happened since this chapter. and almost everyone has been killed :D

[Naruto Manga]

true that! it's been a while already...