I agree to an extent.
I think one of the biggest errors on the part of Kishimoto was that he thought he had enough lead on the story to keep up with the release schedule.
One of the most difficult parts of writing is when you know you should be writing more, but don't feel the desire to, any longer. In the case of a novel, you can put it aside and wait until the inspiration hits you - or you can power through it and tinker with it at a later date before publishing.
With the release schedule of the manga - there is no such luxury. You have a time-table to keep.
Naruto started out as a pretty interesting and well thought out series. It had its cliches, to be sure - but it felt like more of a living and dynamic universe than Shipuuden. Part II has been almost painfully linear and filled with poor antagonist design ("just make them more powerful to make it seem like more is at stake") gets old really quick. Just look at DBZ.
I think he'd be able to write novels well above the average if he were paired with a decent editor. It's just the length of the manga combined with the limitations of how completely one has thought out the plot. It's been running longer than DBZ, for crying out loud (with more chapters and canon episodes). I think he really should have had his story sub-divided a little more. Allow for the release of, say, through the Chunin exam arc - then pick up with the next set of arcs through his departure from the village as a second part (allowing for a year or two to more thoroughly plot the next run of chapters).
I saw the same thing happen in a monster of a fan-fiction... some 700,000 words long. About halfway through, it just seemed to lose a lot of what drew me to it in the first place. It just seemed more forced and arbitrary as time went on.
I think one of the biggest errors on the part of Kishimoto was that he thought he had enough lead on the story to keep up with the release schedule.
One of the most difficult parts of writing is when you know you should be writing more, but don't feel the desire to, any longer. In the case of a novel, you can put it aside and wait until the inspiration hits you - or you can power through it and tinker with it at a later date before publishing.
With the release schedule of the manga - there is no such luxury. You have a time-table to keep.
Naruto started out as a pretty interesting and well thought out series. It had its cliches, to be sure - but it felt like more of a living and dynamic universe than Shipuuden. Part II has been almost painfully linear and filled with poor antagonist design ("just make them more powerful to make it seem like more is at stake") gets old really quick. Just look at DBZ.
I think he'd be able to write novels well above the average if he were paired with a decent editor. It's just the length of the manga combined with the limitations of how completely one has thought out the plot. It's been running longer than DBZ, for crying out loud (with more chapters and canon episodes). I think he really should have had his story sub-divided a little more. Allow for the release of, say, through the Chunin exam arc - then pick up with the next set of arcs through his departure from the village as a second part (allowing for a year or two to more thoroughly plot the next run of chapters).
I saw the same thing happen in a monster of a fan-fiction... some 700,000 words long. About halfway through, it just seemed to lose a lot of what drew me to it in the first place. It just seemed more forced and arbitrary as time went on.
