Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Why the Hell are there Ninjas on the Moon?
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I’m kind of a casual Naruto fan. Actually, I’m a casual shonen manga/anime fan. I have a tendency to find out about a series read/watch some of it and then pick and choose the arcs I think I’ll like rather than feel required to read every chapter/watch every episode (plus filler movies). So I didn’t read all of Naruto, I kind of skipped the whole “Villains from the Moon” arc at the end there. I didn’t watch The Last or the Boruto movie. But I did read the epilogue and I’ve watched a lot of the Boruto series, which I’ve actually really liked! At its best, the Boruto series is a much more emotionally realistic version of Naruto. In Naruto, so many characters have extremely traumatic backstories that are not relatable to the audience (or, I’d argue, the writers). The actual conflicts and reactions given to the characters awkwardly reshapes that extreme trauma into forms that reflect more relatable issues most kids deal with in everyday life—for example, Naruto acts like a kid who was socially awkward, bullied and had trouble making friends, not like an emotionally neglected orphan shunned by his whole community, particularly from the adult affection necessary for proper brain and emotional development, from infancy. Sasuke is angry and desperate for power, but is he believably traumatized from watching a family member slaughter the rest of his family? I don’t think so. Some characters’ issues seem more balanced with their over the top backstories than others—Gaara, and Sai, who’s one of my favorites because his social and emotional evolution is a struggle for him—and some characters do have more relatable issues to begin with—Hinata, dealing with not being good enough for her perfectionist father—but the series can be very uneven.
In Boruto’s peacetime, most of the characters start off with grounded issues that are explored and dealt with really well. Boruto is resentful that his father is a workaholic and Naruto is struggling to connect with his son? Those are common problems that most modern people in first world countries are familiar with, and showcasing how characters deal with those issues in a fun, fantasy ninja world doesn’t take away from their resonance. My favorite arc is when the kids visit the Mist Village and confront the issue of a controversial shrine with interred war criminals (and have some discussions of how to acknowledge that some of their forebears may have been war criminals)—ripped from the headlines, sensitively explored, all done in a way that kids (and adults) can understand and identify with. It’s brilliant! So, I just urge people to ignore admittedly silly Moon Ninja plot points and give Boruto a chance. It’s fun, it’s funny, it can even be poignant! Although I will never understand Sakura’s taste in men. Girl, he’s barely ever home! Let him go! 
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BlueAlf
 Posts: 1528 |
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Back when the movie came out, I was really disappointed it wasn't a straight romance story. I was really hoping it'd be slice-of-life Naruto again like some of its early anime episodes, only with, you know, the kids being grown-ups.
(I'm more of its manga fan btw.) Last edited by BlueAlf on Thu Apr 29, 2021 5:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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tintor2
 Posts: 1907 |
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Interesting note about this movie is that it was directed by the same dude from The Twelve Kingdom while Kishimoto's role was way too limited to only designs as he claims he never wanted to write a love story due to his lack of skills in such genre. Instead the plot was written by another dude. I would say the only shonen writer who actually nailed the romance is Nobuhiro Watsuki not only with Kenshin and Kaoru but also Tomoe to the point they have been given really amazing OVAs that adapt such story. The only time Kishimoto wrote a movie for real as well as the designs is Boruto: Naruto the Movie as he felt the bond between father and son should be shown to end Naruto Uzumaki's story as he passes the torch.
In general, romance in shonen tend to be really bad, especially Dragon Ball to the point Toriyama regrets writing Chichi and Furuya found everything about Vegeta too forced. Clamp does well shonen but that's cheating since they wrote a lot of shojo before. |
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Raven.In.Pink
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I’ll admit...I love this movie. I’ve been supportive of Naruto/Hinata since I was 10, so this movie was almost everything my child-self would’ve wanted for them. Even now, I’ll occasionally rewatch it just for the heartwarming bits.
Of course, objectively, I can agree it’s not good at all. The slice-of-life/romance bits are the best part about it. But it needed to be a Naruto movie so it just throws in all this confusing stuff about moon ninjas and Hinata being the Byakugan princess that I still don’t fully understand. But you know- nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy some mindless and adorable romance every once in a while.
I...Can’t dispute that. I’ve tried thinking of Shounens where romance was a thing for the main characters and was actually executed smoothly. Nope. Can’t think of one. Even with pairings that I supported, I still think how they were handled could’ve been waaaaaaay better (Naruto, Bleach, Demon Slayer, etc..). I guess if one categorizes Fullmetal Alchemist as a Shounen, it’s one of the few exceptions. Ed/Winry was a foregone conclusion, but I still loved their relationship in the story and the dorky marriage proposal. |
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 612 |
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FMA ran in the same magazine as Soul Eater and Talentless Nana. It's very much shonen. Every time I see this article's headline, I get the "Whalers on the Moon" song from Futurama stuck in my head, but with ninjas. |
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Peebs
Posts: 421 |
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Oh please for the love of everything sacred in this world, HELL NO. It's bad enough Fairy Tail 2.0 exists in anime form, we don't need S8 too. |
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ATastySub
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 660 |
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We're Ninjas on the moon We're in a bad cartoon Hinata's in a veil So we watch that fail And that's our Ninja toon |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2357 |
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This article inspired me to finally watch The Last. (Which is to say I blame you all for my poor decison-making
 )
Agree with most of the takes so far. It was OK as a romance fanfic, especially in the first 30 minutes or so. The rest got real goofy real fast. And, boy, did they ever do Kurama dirty; he spent most of that "kaiju battle" just getting his butt kicked, hard. |
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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ehh kurama get's his revenge in the boruto movie and arc.. but yeah they nerfed him tad.
Hell I might as well admit when we all went on lock down last year I mostly stayed inside and watched all 720 episodes of naruto "og/shippuden" All eleven movies and even some ova's within a span of four months. My brain is still filled to the brim of what, how and why? spoiler[Also so many missed opportunities IMO with Karin talking to another living clan member.. I'm still peeved off about that.] |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5887 Location: Virginia, United States |
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So they needed to make a movie to justify the Naruto/Hinata pairing.
Think we need to hire Professor X to see just how this came about in the author's mind. The two reviewers make it seem like Naruto got mind flayed, perhaps that was Hinata's master plan. While I am not sad that Sakura and Naruto didn't get together, I figured that if Naruto was going to get together with anyone it would be Sakura. Which makes it most curious, why the push to Hinata, if they had to go to all the trouble of retconning the interactions of Sakura and Naruto, as mentioned by other posters. But at the end of the day, love can be strange, even in real life. The sad part for me is who they stuck Sakura with. For me they just destroyed her character with that choice. (Sort of like, if the Invisible Girl fell in love with Doctor Doom) But then again, there is that anime penchant for making anything forgiveable. Trying to destroy the world and kill your friends, We Forgive You. I'll always have the Naruto and Sakura episodes to enjoy until the end of time, and hoping that in Boruto, Sasuke will get his well deserved karmic end someday. |
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Badbot17
Posts: 1 |
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What angers me about this movie is that people say that in this movie they have there First Date. In No does that count as a first date, especially when that Bouth haven't confessed their feelings for each other until sometime in the middle of the story while on a dangerous mission to save her sister and the world. Not only that, but you have that whole arc of everyone trying to get ready for the wedding and there is not one episode where they show Hinata and Naruto working on the wedding together. Considering that Naruto is as dense as a bag of Bricks and has no romantic experience none whatsoever before the "Last Naruto" movie there is already enough material for at least one episode of romantic comedy. Sometime like him introducing himself as the boyfriend to Hinata's father for the first time and saying something misleading that infuriates the father, there friends spying on them while they are on a date and or Naruto struggling on what to wear and where to go take Hinata out. And there is No way that he had it easy figuring out how to plan his wedding. What do you all think.
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NeverConvex
Subscriber Posts: 2357 |
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Do people say that? I agree that I don't remember any actual 'first date' in the movie. They pretty much jumped from the obviously mandatory "girl expresses undying love in near-suicidal attempt to fight main antagonist to confess to boy" step directly to the equally mandatory but much loftier "girl and boy both now inexplicably love each other; please ignore startling lack of evidence that they've interacted materially on more than the rarest occasions" step. It wasn't clear to me that "dating" (or "interacting", really) were part of the algorithm. 
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6069 |
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There was never a true guarantee they were getting together though. People tend to ignore that The Sasuke Retrieval Arc pretty much reinforced the fact that Sakura loved Sasuke and not much was done afterwards to alter that.......even Sasuke almost killing Sakura at the end of the Kage Summit (which further reinforced her love of Sasuke which people ignore) but even that is handwaved with the fact that he punched a hole in Naruto at the end of the former arc and Naruto was still committed to saving him.
A good chunk of Sakura's character was devoted to fawning over Sasuke while the remaining bits focused on her trying to establish her self worth/becoming stronger. Having her get together with the guy she like didn't ruin her character anymore than cutting her hair in part 1 did which was supposed to be a big thing but was just dumb since it gave her a generic look.
Trying to destroy the world whose dodgy systems and beliefs lead to his clan being wiped out. No one telling him that his brother the man who did said act did so as a last resort because some douche messed up the original plan (which I can admit was a really iffy twist but still).
He lost an arm andspoiler[ also just lost his rinnegan.] I say the debt has been paid twice over. None of the stuff Sasuke did is on par with some of the shit people like Orochimaru did.....whose still running around all fine and what not. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5887 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Not quite. Sasuke should be in prison for life or the death penalty. Just because some other evil guys are still running around, doesn't mean he shouldn't be held accountable. Sadly this is not solely a Naruto problem either. As for Sasuke and Sakura. Falling in love with the guy who is trying to kill you and your friends is really not a good look. It's like marrying serial killers who are in prison. |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Why should Sasuke be in prison? I don’t remember him actually killing anyone besides Danzo, who completely deserved it. He attempted to kill people and wanted to destroy the Leaf village, but none of that worked out (not that “attempted” isn’t also a crime, but I have a feeling the ninja world cares a lot less about failed attempts). Orochimaru is definitely living consequence-free despite human experimentation and who knows what else. |
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