The not-such-a-disaster that is the Naruto Anime (Spoilers)

[Psalm Of Fire]

Anyone watched the most recent episode? Any one else aside from me found that they managed to strike emotionally way better than the manga? Anyone else think the art for scene in the Hokage's office juicy and vibrant compared to Naruto past?

I thought this would be a somewhat appropriate time to start a topic for this because the anime his hitting a new filler season. I'm game for it, and it will give us something more to talk about.

So, In Your Opinion, is the Shippuuden anime turning out to be better than the manga?

There was one place that hit me emotionally better in the manga, and that was the scene with Shikamaru and Kurenai at the gravestone. I don't know why, but it felt a bit botched.

[MorphCross]

A lack of tonal que on the part of Kishimoto was my main problem with the scene at the gravestone. Shikamaru came off in the Manga as highly chauvanistic and that has gotten other forum members dander up for good reason.

In the anime it came off as more of a throwaway comment to insight conversation with the mother of his sensei's child (and the mother of the child he want to be the sensei of...Did that sound as confusing to you as it did to me?).

[Psalm Of Fire]

What part specifically?

[MorphCross]

Sorry, his opening question of "Should you be out walking around?"

[Psalm Of Fire]

Hmm, I totally missed that as sexist when reading the manga, I just figured Shikamaru didn't know jack about pregnancy. Probably because this is think kind of foot-in-mouth comment I would make myself, he he he.

[Uldihaa]

I've actually started to watch the anime, something that kinda surprised me since I'd pretty much swore off canon Naruto way back; and I have to admit I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. I'm up to the third arc now.

I'd tried to watch it before, but the ran into something that really turned me off (at least until I came back and skipped some of it). What turned me off? The incredibly awkward fighting during the Team Gai vs. Seal-clone-trap-thingies. I actually wondered if the animation director/animators had ever done any fight-scenes, or if they just threw something out there and focused both their budget and best animators on the Sakura and Chiyo vs. Sasori fight (I suspect the later). The worst offenders in Team Gai were, sadly, Lee, Gai, and Neji (the ones that should have been the coolest); it reminded me of a slap-fight between kids, lots of flailing limbs. It also didn't help that Lee was almost off-model the entire arc (his eyes just didn't seem to fit and looked pasted on his face); this at least ended when they returned to Konoha.

As far as having better emotional impact, it's to be expected. With the manga, there are only two things that can be used for it: the art and the written word. With the anime, you have a voice actor that can use their voice to show nuances and undertones that the written word alone just can't; it's the same lines, but with a voice in which you can literally hear the emotion. The addition of music also greatly helps to lay an emotional undertone.

As for the anime entering a filler-arc, I'm actually kind of grateful; I actually liked some of the arcs in that uber-filler pre-time skip season. Why? Because we actually got to see Team 8 actually doing something! I like Hinata, and want to see more of her, darn it, so maybe she'll get some decent screen-time during the filler; it's sad that she only appears in one of the opening sequences, if I remember right (I know she's not in the second or third opening, but she might have been in the first).

Just out of curiosity, did anyone else laugh until they cried over the 'Gai-giving-Kakashi-a-piggyback-ride' scene?

[MorphCross]

How could anyone not laugh at Kakashi bent over backwards, knuckles dragging across the ground while Gai made a mad dash to the Konoha Gates.

The new filler Arc is guaranteed to have some Team 8 action, Kakashi sets out with them to investigate one of Orochimaru's potential hideouts.

I'm also digging the fact that we're going to see more of Team 8 in Naruto Shippuuden: The Movie II Bonds.

These newer filler arcs are actually going to have a larger effect on the canon storyline, considering the next one is an expansion on the capture of the Sanbi by Tobi and Deidera.

[Uldihaa]

How could anyone not laugh at Kakashi bent over backwards, knuckles dragging across the ground while Gai made a mad dash to the Konoha Gates.

Yeah, that and when Gai first puts Kakashi on his back, at the end of the previous episode. Everyone's horrified/disgusted comments at the sight of two 'old guys' doing that had me howling with laughter. Their comments when Gai takes off running were also hilarious, though Neji's 'Oh, hell no!' when Lee wants to do the same thing as Gai almost made me hurt myself laughing.

The new filler Arc is guaranteed to have some Team 8 action, Kakashi sets out with them to investigate one of Orochimaru's potential hideouts.

I'm also digging the fact that we're going to see more of Team 8 in Naruto Shippuuden: The Movie II Bonds.

Woohoo! More Hinata-chan! Yay! ;)

[Psalm Of Fire]

I laughed untill I cried with the "Oh, hell no".


Mmf, are you implying the emotional impact of a book has less maximum potential than that of a movie?

[MorphCross]

Let me put it this way Psalm, when reading something a manga, you have the art, the font, and the arrangement of the words in the sentences to go off of for guessing the characters mental state. With the Anime, you have specific voice direction, lilts, ques, and the animated sequences to go off of. Out of the two, the animation leaves less up to the imagination and more up to the interpretation.

That being said, imagination can be a good thing. Without it we wouldn't have so many Naru/Hina fans. *Dodges flying bricks*

[Wittgen]

In fact, we wouldn't have any shipping at all. Imagine that...

No medium is inherently superior for storytelling than any other.

[bibliophile20]

Imagine a world without hypothetical questions.

[MorphCross]

In fact, we wouldn't have any shipping at all. Imagine that...

Touche.

A world without hypothetical questions is a world without any fiction whatsoever. People would only write about historical events that are backed up with historical record and while the truth is stranger than fiction, many of us, myself included, like the escapism that fiction offers. If there were no more hypothetical questions there would be no more fine (and not so fine) literature. Science would probably start to stagnate. Overall development of modern civilization would hit a rut.

Not a pretty picture at all.

[viridian]

I think movies/anime have more tools with which to portray emotion, but that medium also has a much shorter timeframe in which to get it done. A book (and to a lesser extent a manga with "wall-o-text" (TM) pages) can go on a digression that would be completely unmanageable in 'real-time' entertainment. Yeah, you can sling a flashback or two, but it's MUCH easier to do this in a book without totally disrupting the narrative flow...

It's really an apples and oranges question, I think.

[Psalm Of Fire]

That's my opinion too.

Well, for me, writing usually gets me to emote better. I like your explanation on the additional tools of anime vs manga, MorphCross, well put.

I think our Shikamaru and Kurenai scene is perfect for me to example with: In the manga, I was really touched and attached to the way Shikamaru really stepped up as well as showed his devotion to Kurenai/Asume. In the anime... it was lacking (IMO). He seemed more goofy and awkward, and the wind was all wrong. See, what made me emote there was the content of what was happening, not the tools such as wording or, if this were a book, prose, tone, style, and rythm. Then, in the anime, using the tools you mentioned, the scene with Sakura and Naruto with his new bandage meant so much more to me than it did in the manga. Interesting, that.

[Essex]

No medium is inherently superior for storytelling than any other.

Untrue. I consider fingerpainting in mayonnaise to be an inherently inferior storytelling medium.

[MorphCross]

No medium is inherently superior for storytelling than any other.

Untrue. I consider fingerpainting in mayonnaise to be an inherently inferior storytelling medium.

Not if you add foodcoloring. Do that and you can call it abstract art.

[Shoubushi]

I prefer my fingerpainting storytelling to come in mustard. :D

[MrRigger2]

You poor, poor heathens. Any true art lover would know that the best condiment for conveying emotions is an even mix of ketchup and freshly churned butter.

MrRigger

[Shoubushi]

Now i like butter as much as the next fat, lazy, destined to die from too much cholesterol American male. But even I can see that it just doesn't mix well with ketchup. The colors clash far too much my friend. Mustard, I'm telling you. It's perfect, especially with butter.

[MrRigger2]

You misguided fool, how badly have you been lied to? The even mix of butter and ketchup, when blended properly, creates a shade that the gods themselves gaze upon in awe, and weep. Mustard has no place in the realm of art, and you would be better off if you could forget you were ever forced to think that way. Even if it means you need to lobotomize yourself, do so if it means you can be rid of this strange obsession with mustard.

MrRigger

[Minion]

Uh... wow. I've never used anything besides regular paints, and I feel like the freak. :)

[ewuvi]

Hmmmm, we use extra frosting or soap flakes and tempera.

[Kage Husha]

It seems this topic is a victim of the Bellevue Diet...

TOO MANY NUTS!!

[MorphCross]

It seems this topic is a victim of the Bellevue Diet...

TOO MANY NUTS!!

That's always your opinion when a topic goes far off tangent.

In the spirit of the season, my preffered medium is fudge, in many different varieties. Butterscotch, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter, swirled together, half and half, layered one on top of the other.