MANGA REVIEW: Naruto, Vol. #72

LONG OVERDUE SAYONARA!

If you decide to formally achieve a sense of closure in the Naruto-verse, then Naruto Vol. #72 is the ultimate chapter for you. As I mention in my previous review, you can either consider Vol. #71 as the end or wait for the proper send-off. If you select the former, good for you since it has plenty of great battles and surprises that take place. If you proceed on, then prepare for more dialogues, foreshadowing, flashbacks, points-of-view tussles, and a future on which the trajectory point the Naruto-verse is taking us, if you still care to ride-on.

Naruto Vol. #72 has the usual ten chapters, 691-700; and it features ten “end of series commemoration illustration” artworks by the series’ top illustrators, excluding the mastermind Masashi Kishimoto (yawn). The cover art itself is the indicator what happens beyond the Fourth Ninja War and the conclusive confrontation between the tale’s main protagonists, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, rekindling the previous great ninja duel they first did we readers/fans know all too well. The latter is basically the most highlighted feature in this finale, aptly named “Naruto and Sasuke”, covering five parts or “issues”, 694-698. The better question is this, “does this rematch either match or even exceed the intensity or awesomeness of the first grand ninja duel?” Personally, the first one holds higher than the last/second “brotherly-love” fisticuff. Here are some of my reasons….

Primarily speaking, it is just essentially the same old reasons why Sasuke fights Naruto again—to get the latter out of the equation—but in the end, fails to do so because just like what happened in the previous smack-down. Along the way, dialogues upon dialogues are literally scattered even during intense battle scenes. It is like having a noisy chess combatant playing around. Sure, we can glimpse on Sasuke’s divine chat with the Sage of the Six Paths beforehand, alongside his insistence of fulfilling his brand of “revolution” (another cliché, if not passé, for the anti-heroes’ motivation). Moreover, the re-occurring of some multiple flashbacks during the duration of the battle is the another reason why this volume maintains its page thickness, but at the same time, proves to be a little irritating because this brutal exchange can basically be condensed into a single or two issues/parts instead of five before finally wrapping up with obvious results and showcasing readers the future outcome of our beloved, mischievous and unpredictable ninja. Additionally, there are a couple of poor English-sentence constructions (or mistranslations?) in some few pages inside. If these lines were uttered by or intended to Naruto, then that can be forgiven, but some are spoken by confirmed intelligent and/or wise characters, such as Sasuke, Sage of the Six Paths and even Gaara. But what’s done is done, sigh!

Another disappointing thing in this volume is the absence of color pages that were previously included in the previous Naruto volumes and/or single manga issue formats, particularly some of the first pages. Volume #71 has also share this kind of problem, but its contents compensate greatly. The heavy inking and shading are the indicators that some pages are originally colored brightly and beautifully, but right now, felt so shallow and uninspiring, particularly the last part, issue 700, “Uzumaki Naruto” (cyclically deliberated, if you ask yours truly). Seriously, Naruto in manga form ended last year (2014), but this very volume should have given us readers/fans more than what we truly deserve.

In fairness to the creator, at least he remains true to his promise that he did not cave-in to many of the fans’ demand of having Naruto hitched with Sakura. Instead, Masashi pairs Naruto with Hinata, and Sasuke with Sakura. Also, somehow the battle scenes may not at par with the Fourth Shinobi War at all, but the sequential paneling and flowing are really decent and flowed smoothly despite the chunkiness of dialogues. However, as I said above, artistically speaking, the first match of Naruto and Sasuke way back still holds strong than the second and final matchup.

After said and done; Naruto Vol. #72 closes the 15-year long saga of the beloved postmodernist take on the ninja culture. Despite its strong send-off, it lacks the physical and psychological impacts necessary to put this finale in many of the anime-manga lovers’ psyches for the long-time. However, at least, Naruto settles with Hinata, and Sasuke reciprocates Sakura’s yearnings. Sure, there are more Naruto stuffs beyond this volume, but it is in your own will if you want to continue to ride-on further more. SAYONARA!