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Reviewed by Park Cooper Viz was nice enough to send me an advance copy of Naruto volume 30. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with admitting that I’d read about two-thirds of its content already in Shonen Jump’s monthly publication, but since this is an advance copy, there was some of it even I hadn’t read yet. In summary, the bad guys (except Orochimaru—who knows what he’s up to right now [and my wife certainly misses his presence]) have stolen Gaara of the Sand Village, sucked the one-tailed spirit out of him and stuck it in a giant nine-eyed statue (and they’ve apparently already done the same to two other similar hosts), and are currently holding off Kakashi’s team (and distracting Guy’s team). Okay, so what exactly makes this different from volume 29? --The creator continues to try to make formerly-kinda-weak Sakura into a teen heroine worth respecting, and while that’s quite a goal he’s set for himself, he’s making some progress, teaming her for the moment with the sly old granny of the Sand Village. --The creator has even more success making the Sand Village’s least-favorite-son, Sasori the puppetmaster, into a really nasty villain. Hooray! He’s a horrible piece of work, and yet hints of revelations about his backstory are quite tantalizing. That’s about it, really. Otherwise, powerful art, dynamic fights, action and suspense. It’s Naruto, man. So why am I giving it an A-? Because I’m not judging it against other manga, I’m judging it against past volumes of Naruto. Against other manga on average, this is arguably an A+. But just as you don’t exactly judge whales against fish, Naruto is a special case. Against the standard Naruto has already set for itself, well, the run-up for Sasuke was a heck of a storyline, concluding in volume 27 (26 if you wanna put a really fine point on it), and we lost a lot of momentum in that transition to this new race for Gaara storyline, and we haven’t gotten it back yet. But Kishimoto’s working on it as best as he can... We passed a young person reading Naruto at the library the other day. Then, 5 minutes later, Barb saw someone else on one of the library computers looking at Naruto wallpapers. Later that day I made a reference in passing to the library— “I’m sorry, I mean the _Naruto Distribution Center_...” Barb: “Ha ha. ...You mean the Manga Distribution Center.” Me: “No, I mean the NARUTO Distribution Center. It’s not funny your way, it’s just true. Mine’s true AND funny. Seriously, look on the back of your library card at the fine print where it says ‘although this facility mostly processes the loan of copies of Naruto, it does also process trace elements of regular old musty books. Those who have allergies to books should visit with caution.’” Barb: “Ho ho.” Okay, no more humor. Naruto v30 gets an A-. Comment on this review of Naruto v30 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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