Written by FrillyPhoenix (with the help of Anonymous)
Fifteen years of manga end with these two chapters.
Whether you loved them or not, you have no choice but to accept everything.
So let's get done with this for the last time...
Whether you loved them or not, you have no choice but to accept everything.
So let's get done with this for the last time...
Naruto and Sasuke : THE LAST
• Chapter 699 :
The chapter starts with a color page, Naruto and Sasuke are still lying next to each other on the hands of the statues of Hashirama and Madara forming the Seal of Reconciliation (as a sign of peace between the protagonists).
Kakashi and Sakura arrive at what has been Naruto and Sasuke's last battlefield. She jumps down to get to them and sees their injuried state. She starts healing their severed arm.
Naruto thanks her while Sasuke tells her that he's sorry and she replies "you'd better be" as she starts crying due to the worry they have caused her.
Naruto thanks her while Sasuke tells her that he's sorry and she replies "you'd better be" as she starts crying due to the worry they have caused her.
Kakashi has a flashback (~agaiiin~) about the first impression he's had of this team. He smiles to himself as he witnesses his three students finally reunited.
Team 7, happy together for the last time.
Sasuke starts an inner monologue that will last seven pages about how he now understands Naruto's feelings for him as a "brother". Now that he looks back at their relationship, he feels grateful to Naruto for never giving up on him and he realizes how close he was to detroy this relationship for ever.
During those seven pages of inner monologue, the release of the Mugen Tsukuyomi is shown (Naruto and Sasuke use their remaining arm to perform the release seal together). We see the people being freed from the Holy Tree's branches. The first character that is shown being released is Hinata.
Then only, the rest of the "minor" characters are shown (the Kages, the rest of the Konoha 11, Orochimaru&cie, etc.). Oh, and an other panel of smiling Hinata.
YAMATO IZ BACK BITCHEZZZ !!!! HE IS ALIVE AND WELL !!!! He's no longer prisonner of that spiral wood guy !! The spiral wood guy starts crumbling and, ash to ash, dust to dust, returns to the earth he came from.
Darui, who got the Benihisago back from Tenten frees Samui and C who spent the whole war imprisoned in that gourd. Lucky them.
The Bijuus, who were imprisoned in Sasuke's moons, are released too. Everybody regains their liberty.
Next page is the funeral of the shinobis who died during the war. Two panels focus on Neji's grave.
Hinata and Naruto are seen mourning him along with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.
Hinata and Naruto are seen mourning him along with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.
Lucky bastard, you'll never know what shitty fate you've escaped !
Little timeskip. We see Kakashi's face carved on Hokage Mountain.
Sasuke is about to leave the village one more time and his team is there to send him off.
Kakashi gives his last recommendations, Sakura tries to join him (but once again, gets rejected), however Sasuke pokes her forehead like Itachi used to do, and tells her he'll see her soon, which makes Sakura blush even more.
Sasuke leaves, and meets Naruto a few meters away from the village. Naruto hands out something that we cannot see at first, and Sasuke starts another inner monologue about the feelings he shares with Naruto.
The last page shows that it's Sasuke's forehead protector that Naruto is giving him (obvious parallel with this InoSaku moment).
• Chapter 700 :
The last chapter of the manga. It takes place several years after the movie we have yet to watch.
It starts with grown-up Shino as a teacher at the Ninja Academy and his pupils (the kids of our heroes).
Naruto and Hinata's son, Bolt (yes, like the dog in the Disney movie) wants to play a prank and asks his classmates to join him. A girl with glasses, later shown to be SasuSaku's daughter (even though I'm personally doubting the "-Saku" part due to the girl strongly resembling Karin) looks at him with disdain. Shikadai (ShikaTema's kid) reminds him that since today is an important day for the village, it's likely that his prank will fail, but Bolt stays stubborn and doesn't change his mind.
Inojin (SaiIno's kid) and Chouchou (ChoKarui's kid... **sigh** I had to COME UP with a name of non-existent pairing...) refuse to join him too. Chouchou wants to join Anko, who became fat, to eat sweets and Inojin has training to do with his parents. And Shikadai simply think that both training and pranks are annoying.
Next panels and page show Hinata and her daughter Himawari paying their respects to Neji and putting sunflowers ("himawari" in japanese) on his grave.
Then, we see Lee training with his own clone-pupil like Gai used to do with him (we don't know if it's his son or not). Next page, we have a bored Tenten selling weapons in a shop, but nobody's coming since these are times of peace.
We continue with Bolt complaining that no one came with him to play pranks. He is followed by the girl with glasses, but he doesn't notice her (stalkers are canon pairing material in this manga so people are already calling them the new OTP).
Shikadai, who went home, is greeted by his uncle Gaara and scolded by his mother. We also see Kankuro, who now looks like a drug dealer.
Next panels show a puppy and Kiba chatting with his wife surrounded by cats. YES, KIBA MARRIED TAMAKI !! You know, that girl who worked for Nekobaa, the Uchiha supplier of weapons and drugs ! YES, that girl ! You forgot about her, I forgot about her, we ALL forgot about her, yet she found her way in the final chapter. Well, the dog lover with the cat lover is a matching pair in a way but still (imagine Sasuke playing the matchmaker for these two and sigh in unison with me). We also see Akamaru as an ooold, retired dog.
On the same page, we then have the SaiIno and ChoKarui meeting. Interesting fact : it is the only page that show canon couples interacting together... and this is most likely done in order to justify those asspulled pairings so they can interact at least ONCE before the end of the manga). They are waiting for their kids who are late for training but since only Inojin came, he's afraid to show up alone.
Next page, we have Asuma's kid (no name), a tomboy-looking girl, praying in front of her father's altar. She tells Kurenai about her mission with Kakashi and Gai.
Speaking of the devil, we then have Kakashi and Gai chatting (the latter sitting in a wheelchair) about Naruto, the fact that Kakashi quit his job as Hokage and that he wants to go on a trip with Gai...
The former Gokage are having a meeting in Tsuchi no Kuni (since Oonoki is too old to travel now).
Mei looks older (and she's still single) while Tsunade looks younger than ever.
Then we have Bee, in front of a waterfall, meditating and talking with Hachibi about Naruto.
Back to Konoha, we have Naruto as Hokage and his advisors Shikamaru and Shizune, who are about to go and meet the Kages from the other villages.
The door of his office opens suddenly, Udon and Moegi come in to report that there's a problem and that they can't show that to the other villages : Bolt painted on the former Hokage's carved faces (like Naruto once did as a kid).
As he is about to throw a shuriken at one of the carved faces, Bolt gets stopped and scolded by Naruto, who then asks him to clean up his mess.
Konohamaru, who became a Jonin, is watching the scene, angry at Bolt. Iruka asks him to calm down and to try to understand Bolt, who's simply trying to get his father's attention.
Meanwhile, Naruto tries to explain to his son that he cannot focus all his attention on him, so he has to learn to deal with it since he is a ninja.
The little girl with the glasses saw the whole scene and decides to go back home, where she's greeted by... housewife Sakura, cleaning the house. We learn that the girl's name is Sarada (which is the romaji transcription of "salad"... this girl is definitely Karin's kid or a Saiyan).
She complains about Bolt being an idiot, but she thinks he resembles her a little (may I suggest SAME UZUMAKI GENES, PERHAPS ?). She mentions her father in the next panel as we see Sasuke. Sasuke (who now really looks Emo) has the feeling that he's being followed, but it seems like it isn't the case.
Back to Naruto, he finally arrived at his Gokage summit, where the four other Kages were waiting for him. He gets scolded by Kurotsuchi (the new Tsuchikage) and Chōjūrō (the new Mizukage) for being late but Darui (the new Raikage) defends him.
Next page shows Naruto's face carved on Hokage Mountain, painted by his son with the words "idiot" and "shitty father" (and One Piece's symbol on his forehead protector).
We also see that Konoha still has one part that's composed of the old village, and a new part, that looks like a metropolis with skyscrapers ans shit. Kurama is sleeping somewhere in there.
Last page of the manga echoes its very first page : it tells the tale of the Kyuubi and how one ninja, Naruto, became his friend and is now Hokage.
THE END/FIN/おわり.
My opinion on the chapters :
As a reviewer, this is the part where I should voice my detailed opinion, but nope, I'm gonna keep it for myself. I will only say one thing :
But it's been great to be a NARUTO fan for eight years. It has taught me many things, and I will only keep the best of the memories from this manga in my heart.
Can you believe it ? With two panels only, this girl already has better development
than most characters of the manga I can think of. If this isn't sad...
Next panels and page show Hinata and her daughter Himawari paying their respects to Neji and putting sunflowers ("himawari" in japanese) on his grave.
Then, we see Lee training with his own clone-pupil like Gai used to do with him (we don't know if it's his son or not). Next page, we have a bored Tenten selling weapons in a shop, but nobody's coming since these are times of peace.
We continue with Bolt complaining that no one came with him to play pranks. He is followed by the girl with glasses, but he doesn't notice her (stalkers are canon pairing material in this manga so people are already calling them the new OTP).
Shikadai, who went home, is greeted by his uncle Gaara and scolded by his mother. We also see Kankuro, who now looks like a drug dealer.
Next panels show a puppy and Kiba chatting with his wife surrounded by cats. YES, KIBA MARRIED TAMAKI !! You know, that girl who worked for Nekobaa, the Uchiha supplier of weapons and drugs ! YES, that girl ! You forgot about her, I forgot about her, we ALL forgot about her, yet she found her way in the final chapter. Well, the dog lover with the cat lover is a matching pair in a way but still (imagine Sasuke playing the matchmaker for these two and sigh in unison with me). We also see Akamaru as an ooold, retired dog.
Yes, this is the ONE and ONLY part that made me cry like a little bitch (no pun intended).
On the same page, we then have the SaiIno and ChoKarui meeting. Interesting fact : it is the only page that show canon couples interacting together... and this is most likely done in order to justify those asspulled pairings so they can interact at least ONCE before the end of the manga). They are waiting for their kids who are late for training but since only Inojin came, he's afraid to show up alone.
Next page, we have Asuma's kid (no name), a tomboy-looking girl, praying in front of her father's altar. She tells Kurenai about her mission with Kakashi and Gai.
Speaking of the devil, we then have Kakashi and Gai chatting (the latter sitting in a wheelchair) about Naruto, the fact that Kakashi quit his job as Hokage and that he wants to go on a trip with Gai...
The former Gokage are having a meeting in Tsuchi no Kuni (since Oonoki is too old to travel now).
Mei looks older (and she's still single) while Tsunade looks younger than ever.
Then we have Bee, in front of a waterfall, meditating and talking with Hachibi about Naruto.
Back to Konoha, we have Naruto as Hokage and his advisors Shikamaru and Shizune, who are about to go and meet the Kages from the other villages.
The door of his office opens suddenly, Udon and Moegi come in to report that there's a problem and that they can't show that to the other villages : Bolt painted on the former Hokage's carved faces (like Naruto once did as a kid).
This is the most relevant said today on the Internet.
As he is about to throw a shuriken at one of the carved faces, Bolt gets stopped and scolded by Naruto, who then asks him to clean up his mess.
Konohamaru, who became a Jonin, is watching the scene, angry at Bolt. Iruka asks him to calm down and to try to understand Bolt, who's simply trying to get his father's attention.
Meanwhile, Naruto tries to explain to his son that he cannot focus all his attention on him, so he has to learn to deal with it since he is a ninja.
The little girl with the glasses saw the whole scene and decides to go back home, where she's greeted by... housewife Sakura, cleaning the house. We learn that the girl's name is Sarada (which is the romaji transcription of "salad"... this girl is definitely Karin's kid or a Saiyan).
She complains about Bolt being an idiot, but she thinks he resembles her a little (may I suggest SAME UZUMAKI GENES, PERHAPS ?). She mentions her father in the next panel as we see Sasuke. Sasuke (who now really looks Emo) has the feeling that he's being followed, but it seems like it isn't the case.
Back to Naruto, he finally arrived at his Gokage summit, where the four other Kages were waiting for him. He gets scolded by Kurotsuchi (the new Tsuchikage) and Chōjūrō (the new Mizukage) for being late but Darui (the new Raikage) defends him.
Next page shows Naruto's face carved on Hokage Mountain, painted by his son with the words "idiot" and "shitty father" (and One Piece's symbol on his forehead protector).
We also see that Konoha still has one part that's composed of the old village, and a new part, that looks like a metropolis with skyscrapers ans shit. Kurama is sleeping somewhere in there.
Computers instead of scrolls ? Skyscrapers instead of houses and Konohaesque buildings ?
No wonder why Tenten can't sell sh*t ! Fire weapons must've remplaced shurinkens !
Last page of the manga echoes its very first page : it tells the tale of the Kyuubi and how one ninja, Naruto, became his friend and is now Hokage.
THE END/FIN/おわり.
My opinion on the chapters :
As a reviewer, this is the part where I should voice my detailed opinion, but nope, I'm gonna keep it for myself. I will only say one thing :
For me, Naruto ends at chapter 698. Needless to say I won't be reading the mini-series that comes out in spring 2015. Kishimoto took a crap on his 15YO series for the sake of creating a mini-sequel that will bring him even more money than he already has. That's too bad, but I'm not sad. Not anymore.
Sorry guys, I know most of this article does nothing but repeat what happens in the manga. But it would be impossible for me to explain in great detail what I think of those last chapters without sounding salty, which is not what I want (and I think I rage enough in the review as it is).
Neither do I want to completely ruin/spoil the fun of the end for those who loved it by criticizing it too heavily. Which is also why I won't do an overall thing like I usually do. It would be way too negative... If you're still curious and really wanna what I think, then read this, this person took the words right out of my mind.
That's it, thanks for reading my weekly bitchiness since March ! See you around someday !
P.S. : anyone who isn't happy with the way the manga ends should visit the #realnewera tag on tumblr.
Pity that was a short review. :(
ReplyDeleteWell, I believe that this ending is still better what Dragon Ball, Hokuto No Ken, Yu Yu Hakusho and Kinnikuman (some legendary mangas) gave us. It was impossible to show all the 1000 characters, so of course that only the important one were shown.
Also, "Bolt" is a mistranslation light "Light" in Death Note. His real name is "Boruto", you know, "Bo-ruto/Na-ruto". Also, that girl is more like a female Sasuke girl with Sakura's forehead.
What I liked, was the forehead poke scene, because I always wanted from Sasuke to "inherit" that movement from Itachi - thought, I hoped that it would be Naruto whom he will do that and not Sakura.
Overral, for a long running neverending shonen it is no bad at all and not as rushed like the ones I mentioned before.
Well, thanks for reviewing Naruto and I'll looking future reviews from you (like Basilisk ;) )! ;)
I liked the chapters. 699 was a bit rushed, since it skipped to Kakashi being Hokage and Sasuke leaving Konoha without showing how everything went back to normal after the war. But I loved the part with Sasuke & Sakura, it was cute. Same for the Sasuke & Naruto moment with the headband. Suddenly Sasuke realized Naruto has been the thing that ever happened to him and decides to go away, again. Weird guy.
ReplyDelete700 was great. I like the pairings Kishimoto came up with. Most of them didn't surprise me, but Choji & Karui and Kiba & Tamaki did. I think they look great together though. The kids are awesome and they really take after their parents. I did think Sarada was Karin's daughter, but it turns out she's Sakura's. That was also a surprise.
I really hope both the movie and the mini-series give us some more info on what happened between the timeskips, because I need some explanations. And also because fans are making up their own stories about how everyone got together, which is okay, but don't post it on Narutopedia when it hasn't been confirmed by Kishimoto himself. It's his story, not ours.
So yeah, I'm okay with this ending. Too bad a lot of people, like you, don't. But if this is the way Kishimoto wants his story to end, we'll have to accept it.
I liked the concept of the ending, and I do like a lot of it, but yes i did feel that it was a bit rushed, and things needed more context.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe it's too early to judge chapter 700. There's a movie coming out in december that occurs between the two chapters, and it'll likely fill in a lot of blanks, like how some of these relationships got developed in the first place, and what happened to some of the characters. I'd say its best to wait before giving a final response to the Naruto ending, but that's just me.
I'm not a fan of Naruto, but I have to disagree with you on the concept of follow-ups to the ending of a series. If an anime is going to end, I see no reason why whatever the creator has to say can't be included in the main work. It's like the frankly shitty practice of game developers withholding part of a video game's story campaign for release as a DLC, and is immensely frustrating. Even if the ending for the manga was originally considered THE ending without a follow-up immediately rearing its ugly head, tacking on a movie to quench the raging inferno of fandoms isn't just a slap in the face to the readers, it damages the artistic value of the series as a whole. Naruto could easily have the same problem that Neon Genesis Evangelion has been struggling with for fucking AGES, in which the series attempts to dig itself out of the hole created by its final story arc with movie after movie, which in my opinion is even less credible than a Deus ex Machina finish.
DeleteAlso, will you review "Naruto The Last" movie too? ;P
ReplyDeleteI wanted to, at first, but now, I'm not sure...
DeleteIt depends on the amount of bullshit it'll ask me to swallow.
Well, that depends on if you had enough Kishimoto's "writting skills" or not, because as I wrotte - and many interviews confirmed - Kishimoto wrotte the movie and has somekind of "co-director" supervision staff, because he wanted to writte a "romance story". So, according to Kishi this will be his first own romance story. :/ Did I mentioned that in order to not "fail" he hired a famous romantic anime director too?
DeleteAlso, it has been revealed that the movie was supposed to be chapter 699.5 according to Kishi, who chose the film because he didn't had enough place anymore causer he wanted end the manga at chapter number 700. So technicaly everything that will be in the movie was supposed to be originaly in the manga, I guess. :/
But you know what: I suggest you to watch Basilisk instead the "The Last" movie. ;)
Kishimoto is full of shit...Naruto with that useless bitch Hinata? For over 15 years Kishi had been building up the relationship between Naruto and Sakura and he just shits all over it in the end....
DeleteNot offense, but what "building up"? Naruto and Sakura were like Goku and Bulma and Kishimoto never even denied it. Sure, the shipping fanservices like CPR and fake confessions could misguide people, but those who read the manga knew already that Sakura always loves/loved Sasuke (chapter 539 + 540 + 693 ect) and that Naruto would end up with someone else from the side characters (Ino, Tenten, Hinata ect) and Naruto got the one whom he had the most time together after Sakura.
DeleteAlso, Naruto is like Kinnikuman and Goku: like Kinnikuman, Naruto had a first that he called "chan" and a second love that he tried to friendzone but in the end opened to her and like Goku he had a "Bulma" who first underestimated him than accepted as person, but in the end they married with side characters.
On the other hand, Naruto is 100% like Kushina, so it was obvious that Naruto will marry with someone whom he first took as "weirdo" like Kushina did to Minato.
One more thing to not forget: Kishimoto confirmed that the "The Last" movie is official canon and (mostly) will be about how Naruto finally fallen in love in Hinata, also called as "chapter 699.5".