Naruto is finally over. after all these years...

[crazygameguy4ever]

Also, "Bolt"? Seriously? Who the hell calls their kid Bolt? Hell, what kind of Japanese culture are they in where Bolt is an acceptable name? He should have just gone with the cliche "named for a loved one" shtick.

While I cringed at that, "Salad" just made me hoot. That poor kid.

The ending was about as underwhelming and predictable as I thought it would be! Ah well, used to love me some Naruto. Blew my mates' minds when I started showing them the anime and came back from a trip to Japan with one of the early GC beat 'em ups.

Naruto and Hinata's son is name Boruto not bolt(though the Japanese word Boruto means Bolt in English and references the bolt necklace he wears) and Sakura's daughter is named Sarada, not Salad..( though her name does translate as salad as reference to her mother Sakura's name being that of a flower) it's just that translators had the issue of the Japanese not having an L or R in their language and chose the direct English translations for the names instead for some bizarre reason

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

Plus Kishi had the balls to finally pair Naruto up with someone and settle the shipping wars which was always over-the-top by shipping fans. Though, for Kishi to have everyone else have kids around the same age? It feels pretty forced and rushed honestly.[/footnote]

With peace establish they had to do something to keep busy.. so why not all lose they're virginity at around the same time and pump out babies?

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Read it, took me a wiki search to find out what all the characters are since my memory is too short, and was underwhelmed

Unfortunately this isn't technically the end of Naruto

apparently there is a movie coming out that happens two years after the ninja war called The Last: Naruto the Movie [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=16184] coming out and I just can't take it anymore

 

[GabeZhul]

At least it ended. Look at Bleach, things could have been worse.

What happened in Bleach?

That depends on who you ask, but it is pretty much the consensus that the series went to shit in the hueco mundo arc (very similar to the ninja war in Naruto, both conflicts that were taking place in just a few days in-story but lasted several years publication-wise, with ridiculous power inflation and constant, mind-numbing chains of pointless battles), then came the Xcution arc which was arguably worse, with a rehashed antagonist team, Ichigo getting four redesigns and power-sets in twenty chapters and a nonsensical main villain ("Hey, there is this Ichigo guy! I hate that guy! First let's brainwash me so I won't remember I'm the villain, then let's pretend to be his friends, then brainwash his real friends and then betray him in the last moment after we give him back his powers so that he could beat us! It's the perfect plan!").

However, I am of the opinion that the current Quincy arc, while it started out just as dumb, has slowly (very slowly) started to get better in terms of quality, and while the series is still far worse than it was in its golden age (the Soul Society Arc), it is no longer molar-grindingly bad... which is pretty much the dictionary example of "damning with faint praise", but hey, I take what I can get.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

Plus Kishi had the balls to finally pair Naruto up with someone and settle the shipping wars which was always over-the-top by shipping fans. Though, for Kishi to have everyone else have kids around the same age? It feels pretty forced and rushed honestly.[/footnote]

With peace establish they had to do something to keep busy.. so why not all lose they're virginity at around the same time and pump out babies?

That is true, I mean look at our real world- USA had the Baby Boom after World War 1 when things became peaceful again.
Although to be fair .. despite I am happy that everyone got screentime and ended up married with someone, some of the pairings really threw me off. It felt somewhat forced to be honest.

Naruto x Hinata - This is perfectly fine. It was foreshadowed for ages, hundreds of Chapters back. You could even say this was seen in the first season of Naruto before they began hunting down the Akatsuki.

Shikamaru x Temari - This was also reasonable. They were the most natural (aka normal) couple from the start. They had chemistry like ordinary people and handled it well.

Ino x Sai - Well. .. I can kind of see it happening. She did admire his looks from the start, and the dude was friendly towards Ino all the time. Although they didn't hold much chemistry, their pairing at the end wasn't to shocking or out of the blue.

Lee x Tenten - Kind of odd. I don't see why they can't be together.. but they were on the same team. *SPOILERS* Since Neji sadly passed away, Tenten was left with the guy who kept being optimistic. So though I really don't see why they're together, it's not to bad that they are together and had a kid.

Kiba x Some Lady - Dude's got no one else. I don't see much of a problem with him getting with some chick to get married. I mean, Hinata is taken and every other main girl had a child so... who's left honestly? Props to Kiba for being a gentlemen and just taking his time bonding with women rather then hooking up to pop them babies.

Sakura x Sasuke - Pppftt okay.. now this is when it gets unrealistic. Sasuke showed thousands of times he didn't care for her, and at points tried to murder Sakura. Sakura's love for Sasuke is all based on like... fangirling, or aka idolizing love. She only loved him because he's some cool guy with a cold attitude. Even when betrayed, backstabbed, mistreated.. she still loved him. Then Sasuke one day comes and bangs Sakura to pop out a kid?? What? Why dude? Karin isn't a better choice, but I think this one felt forced for sure.

Choji x Karui - ... I don't even. Like ... out of all the characters, Choji got with someone that's entirely opposite with his personality and totally had no connections / screen time whatsoever with the guy? This felt like the most random thing to ever happen in Naruto. Guess he got lonely and decided to hook up with her... but I wonder what exactly convinced her to be with Choji??

But seriously, the last one totally took me by surprise. I'd rather find it more realistic to see Goku pop in from DBZ to say congrats to Naruto on being Hokage than seeing Choji knock up Karui who's entirely different in personality and literally shared no connections with the guy.

um... where does it show or say that Lee got together with Tenten? they never have screen time together in the epilogue chapter 700.. Lee is shown to have a son(or maybe the kid was just trying to be like Lee the same way Lee looks a a lot like Guy) and Tenten is shown as working at a weapon shop but I don't recall it showing or saying that Lee married Tenten.

 

[deathbydeath]

Has there ever been a long-running manga series that ended well? *gazes nervously at Berserk*

Heh. To honestly answer your question, Eyeshield 21 ran for ~7 years and had a pretty decent ending. The much-forecasted final game was clearly a decision from the editors on high and not the creators, but it actually managed to have a couple good mini-character arcs. After that there was an MVP arc that brought back all the relevant named characters for one final round which served as a good conclusion/reiteration of the themes reflected throughout the series.

Also I severely doubt Berserk is going to get a proper ending at this point. Sorry, but there isn't much reason to think so.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Has there ever been a long-running manga series that ended well? *gazes nervously at Berserk*

Hah, as if Kentaro Miura will ever finish Berserk. It'll technically never have a bad ending...

OT: I think the ending was fine, it certainly wouldve affected me more had Naruto ended say 5 years ago. If they didnt introduce that bullshit out of no where final boss, and the war was only like half as long, then I wouldve been much happier. Im a sucker for the "where are they now" kind of ending, but I didnt make a significant connection to a lot of the characters, so much of it was lost.

Also, the question thats been present for over a decade - What the actual fuck does Sakura see in Sasuke? They have to have one of the limpest, non existent, forced relationships in anything Ive ever seen. Sasuke has never shown a real interest in Sakura, and conversely, Sakura's infuatuation with Sasuke never progressed past "omg hes so hot". Or if it did, it clearly happened off screen, and it wouldve been nice if there was some characterisation for her.

At least One Piece is as strong, if not stronger than ever, Pirates >>>>>>> Ninjas

 

[deth2munkies]

Speaking of super long running anime/manga series that I haven't thought of in years, isn't Dragonball Z still going in some form or another?

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Speaking of super long running anime/manga series that I haven't thought of in years, isn't Dragonball Z still going in some form or another?

Uh they came out with the movie DBZ: Battle of Gods about 2 years ago now, which is the first piece of canon material released in over a decade. Apart from that theyre still making Dragonball Z Kai which is just a re release of DBZ, but with re done voice acting, and theyve cut out a lot of the extra stuff that was added in the original anime, making it about 200 episodes shorter

 

[RavingSturm]

Sasuke lives. Grr no consequences, no comeuppance. Cop-out on the part of the author.

 

[Aesir23]

I haven't followed Naruto in a long time and from what I hear it's gotten pretty bad over the last few years. In that sense I'm glad it's over but at the same time I'm sad just because I remember my friends talking about it when I was 11 years old and I'm almost 26 now.

 

[Teoes]

Also, "Bolt"? Seriously? Who the hell calls their kid Bolt? Hell, what kind of Japanese culture are they in where Bolt is an acceptable name? He should have just gone with the cliche "named for a loved one" shtick.

While I cringed at that, "Salad" just made me hoot. That poor kid.

The ending was about as underwhelming and predictable as I thought it would be! Ah well, used to love me some Naruto. Blew my mates' minds when I started showing them the anime and came back from a trip to Japan with one of the early GC beat 'em ups.

Naruto and Hinata's son is name Boruto not bolt(though the Japanese word Boruto means Bolt in English and references the bolt necklace he wears) and Sakura's daughter is named Sarada, not Salad..( though her name does translate as salad as reference to her mother Sakura's name being that of a flower) it's just that translators had the issue of the Japanese not having an L or R in their language and chose the direct English translations for the names instead for some bizarre reason

I understood all of that already - didn't stop me finding it ridiculous.

 

[Summerstorm]

Oh man, i remember watching Naruto a few (8???) years back.

My thoughts at the time: Hm, lighthearted fun, a bit slow though, a bit like Dragonball Z. Maybe it is worth watching?

Ah well, Let's see how many episode are out at the moment (At the time it was like a hundred or so) - Ah well, fuck it.

Never watched a single episode of it afterwards.

One advice: No Anime (Or hell - nearly no series EVER) is worth watching if they can't their shit together and tell you a story. If the "spectacle" tries to hold you over dozens of episodes, ifs filler is more than 3 Episodes per season (And i mean 13 episodes per season here): Just let it go.

I think Rurouni Kenshin is pretty much the only anime where the 53 Episodes were bordering on "Ok then, but don't test my patience any further" (Looked it up and it is 93 Episodes... seems i stopped watching and assumed it was over)

Well, back to Manga: It tells me Naruto is 71 books, yes? Eh... yeah, that is a bit too much as well - 20 is ok for an epic, i guess. Anything else is bordering on "How can we milk those teenage boys (ewww) of their money the longest?"

 

[rutger5000]

That thing is over? I stopped watching it after all the dead guys were resurrected because it turned into numerous set pieces of:

Minor Character A fights Undead Character A. Minor Character A wins.
Minor Character B fights Undead Character B. Minor Character B wins.
Minor Character C fights Undead Character C. Minor Character C wins.

Its also a reason I quit watching Bleach.

At least it ended. Look at Bleach, things could have been worse.

What happened in Bleach?

The climax of Bleach first arc was to reveal the real villain and his goal, the second arc is considered filler ( possibly rightly so), and the third was the real villain and his master plan. It should have ended after that third arc, but now it's still going with new random villains with random powers. They're beating a dead horse in Bleach, Naruto at the very least was mercifully put down.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

So this is a thing. Interesting alternative end to the series.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Well, one of the Big Three has finally ended, and it's funny that the first of the Big Three that I was introduced to (Bleach being second, and One Piece being third), it seems fitting that it's also the first to finish.

I'll admit that although the NOW THEY'RE GODS!! arc ended as we all expected it would, I was a little thrown back that they went ahead and did a 10/15/20 Years Later chapter as the big finisher. This completely killed any chance for a third act of when Naruto and the gang become adults and Naruto finally becomes Hokage.

Who knows, maybe the short stories might fill the gaps between the last two chapters or provide us with a delightful distraction to the series that Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth was successfully able to do.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Don't worry, an even worse massive sprawling, incredibly popular bad manga will take up the mantle. Just wait. We can all complain about that one next and miss the simple Naruto days.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Don't worry, an even worse massive sprawling, incredibly popular bad manga will take up the mantle. Just wait. We can all complain about that one next and miss the simple Naruto days.

I have to ask: are you referring to some specific manga? I don't know how popular Magi - The Labyrinth of Magic is, but it's close to 250 chapters, massively sprawling and most important of all, gone full retard over the past year. It could fit your description.

OT: Like it or not, to many of us Naruto was our introduction to manga or anime, or at least one of the very first series we knew of. I saw its theme song and some clips here and there when I was in sixth grade (ie. the supposed ideal age for that shit) and even then I thought it looked cheesy. I love a good manga when I find one, but it's the over the top sensibilities that prevent me from enjoying most shonen series, and Naruto seems to be one of the worst examples of it.

Now that it's over, there's no longer a "Big 3", at least not in the sense it used to be. I wonder if this'll open up the floodgates for even shittier shonen fighting manga trying to take up the throne.

 

[Sefa Lagaaia]

Yeah... I followed the manga all the way through and I can't help but feel it SHOULD have ended at around the pain arc, because for the entire 4th ninja war and in fact everything inbetween it was just building up to naruto and co. fighting god, then naruto and sasuke become gods in the process, then the god boys have a big battle, then don't die for some reason... And then go back to normal life... With the way the manga finished naruto should've been crowned king of the universe.