Without a doubt... This gaiden along with The Last and chpts 699 & 700 are the worst.
There is no nice or simple way to put it. Anything Naruto related after chapter 698 is a catastrophe!
Chapters 699, 699.5 (The Last) and 700 pairings aside are cringeworthy for a great deal of reasons that most have already gone over, but just cause it's easier to pick from, I will point out why:
1. The fate of the Tailed Beasts
2. The Fate of Orocimaru and Kabuto as well as Taka (This was luckily answered in the Gaiden of course)
3. Sasuke's 180 redemption cliche.
4. No Hokage Ceremony for either Kakashi or Naruto!This is something a lot of people looked forward to seeing, but instead we got a two time skips showing them as Hokages.
5. Toneri Otsutsuki (nuff said)
6. No mention of Itachi nor Sasuke bothering to visit his grave.
7. Sasuke's monologue in 699.
8. The fate or more accurately the point of the Sage's tools was never addressed, only seen in 700 as souvenirs up for sale... *sigh*.
9. The time skip itself and how it was done... Kishi blatently copied Akira Toriyama on that one.
10. Overall rushed, both the chapters and the movie.
As for the Gaiden or as I call it, Naruto GT, here are the following reasons:
1. Sarada's mother debacle.
2. Chocho's annoyance and her character as a whole.
3. Shin and the way he turned out. From being what could have been potentially another badass Uchiha to an experiment by Orochimaru gone wrong and was just fixated on Itachi. On top of that a lackluster villain... *sigh*
4. Teasing the potential revival of the Akutsuki. That was unnecessary for reasons I cannot and will not even go into as it for the most part speaks for itself. Minamato made a thread addressing this, I advise you guys to check it out.
5. Sarada's character as a whole! I never thought I'd say it, but Sarada is in truth more whiney than Sakura was back in the day. She had her moments when it came to the action panels, but beyond that, her character personality wise fell flat...
6. The nerfing of Naruto and Sasuke. A lot of people will argue this one, but the chapter when they fought Shin the first time around shows that they are not the Naruto and Sasuke we knew during the War Arc or even The Last for that matter.
7. Naruto's TNJ (again) to the Shins. Although they were clones, they still tried to kill both Sarada and Chocho and all of the sudden it takes just one stare at Naruto eyes and him talking to turn them good? WTF!
8. The Shin clones turning good in the end. Unnecessary and plain ridiculous. All that needs to be said given that it's happened twice in the Naruto Manga already.
9. No appearance or cameo appearance of the Boruto Movie villain at all. To think that given in the Gaiden Sasuke found something that was far scarier than Kaguya (Still betting it's Kaguya's husband btw.), we only get just that. A mention of the villain and nothing more than that which is retarded.
10. The concluding chapter. Overall, Chapters 699, The Last, 700 and The Gaiden (Chapter 710 especially) were nothing more nothing less but to solidify and justify the pairings that Kishimoto put in place and were 2 full hours and 12 chapters of motherf*cking setup for the Boruto Movie. UNBELIEVABLE!!
If you want to know my two cents on the pairings, here they are:
1. None of them make any sense, SasuSasku especially! Except for ShikaTema! That's it!
2. Sasuke and Sakura have zero chemistry and that pairing completely unrealistic in every way. This Gaiden was for the most part meant to solidify that pairing and it failed at doing so in many ways.
3. SasuSaku sends a terrible message to both men and to women. A very shallow and superficial and to some extent an abusive of BDSM message at that. I could go on for hours on this one, but I won't for obvious reasons!
4. NaruHina is another forced relationship and againd has zero chemistry. It takes a genjutsu for Naruto to realize his feelings. Also it sends a poor message to women, that being that the cool guy will eventually come around to you just like in the movie Sixteen Candles, (which we all know that was unrealistic)
5. NaruSaku sends a similar message as NaruHina, only directed at men, but a good message to women. But in terms of development, chemistry and realism overall I am sorry to say it is one of the most realistic out of all of the pairings.
6. SasuKarin is almost as bad as SasuSaku, the only difference is that Sasuke actualy showed mutual affection or more accurately reciprocating feelings toward Karin until he went completely psychotic and evil for a while. Hence why this pairing is suffice to say more realistic than SasuSaku, but wouldn't go as far as to say one of the most realistic out of all of the pairings.
7. Choju x Karui is nothing more, nothing less but an a$$pull. All that needs to be said on that one.
8. InoSai sends a terrible message to women, that being a shallow and superficial message: If you can't get the guy you wanted so badly, then why not go for one who looks just as handsome as he is eh?
9. ShikaTema is the only pairing well done and the only one that has real chemistry, development and realism. It's also a healthy one. Gold Star Kishimoto for this pairing!
10. I would not mind the canon pairings so much if the kids of the pairings weren't so dire and god awful. I am holding my breath on Boruto, Himawari, Mitsuki and Shikadai and that's it!
On a side note, though I am not a fan of any of the pairings except for ShikaTema obviously, I do feel really bad and I sympathize with the NaruSaku and SasuKarin fans for how they were treated by Kishi. Trolling NaruSaku was enough, but instead Kishi had to sh*t on SasuKarin as well! That's total contempt for a fanbase at it's finest!
That's my critique on the series post Chapter 698. I give it a solid D- and if the Boruto movie fails, it will drop to an F and like the Youtube channel CinemaSins, I will give all of it this sentence, for not it's Infinite Tsukuomi because it's a D- in my book right now, but if the Boruto movie fails it will be this sentence: EREASED FROM EXISTENCE!!
I truly hope that the Boruto movie does not fail and I sincerely hope that the villain is in fact Kaguya's husband. I also hope that Naruto and Sasuke redeem themselves in this upcoming movie, given the way that they were treated in the Gaiden and to some extent, The Last. Please Kishi don't botch this upcoming movie!
There is no nice or simple way to put it. Anything Naruto related after chapter 698 is a catastrophe!
Chapters 699, 699.5 (The Last) and 700 pairings aside are cringeworthy for a great deal of reasons that most have already gone over, but just cause it's easier to pick from, I will point out why:
1. The fate of the Tailed Beasts
2. The Fate of Orocimaru and Kabuto as well as Taka (This was luckily answered in the Gaiden of course)
3. Sasuke's 180 redemption cliche.
4. No Hokage Ceremony for either Kakashi or Naruto!This is something a lot of people looked forward to seeing, but instead we got a two time skips showing them as Hokages.
5. Toneri Otsutsuki (nuff said)
6. No mention of Itachi nor Sasuke bothering to visit his grave.
7. Sasuke's monologue in 699.
8. The fate or more accurately the point of the Sage's tools was never addressed, only seen in 700 as souvenirs up for sale... *sigh*.
9. The time skip itself and how it was done... Kishi blatently copied Akira Toriyama on that one.
10. Overall rushed, both the chapters and the movie.
As for the Gaiden or as I call it, Naruto GT, here are the following reasons:
1. Sarada's mother debacle.
2. Chocho's annoyance and her character as a whole.
3. Shin and the way he turned out. From being what could have been potentially another badass Uchiha to an experiment by Orochimaru gone wrong and was just fixated on Itachi. On top of that a lackluster villain... *sigh*
4. Teasing the potential revival of the Akutsuki. That was unnecessary for reasons I cannot and will not even go into as it for the most part speaks for itself. Minamato made a thread addressing this, I advise you guys to check it out.
5. Sarada's character as a whole! I never thought I'd say it, but Sarada is in truth more whiney than Sakura was back in the day. She had her moments when it came to the action panels, but beyond that, her character personality wise fell flat...
6. The nerfing of Naruto and Sasuke. A lot of people will argue this one, but the chapter when they fought Shin the first time around shows that they are not the Naruto and Sasuke we knew during the War Arc or even The Last for that matter.
7. Naruto's TNJ (again) to the Shins. Although they were clones, they still tried to kill both Sarada and Chocho and all of the sudden it takes just one stare at Naruto eyes and him talking to turn them good? WTF!
8. The Shin clones turning good in the end. Unnecessary and plain ridiculous. All that needs to be said given that it's happened twice in the Naruto Manga already.
9. No appearance or cameo appearance of the Boruto Movie villain at all. To think that given in the Gaiden Sasuke found something that was far scarier than Kaguya (Still betting it's Kaguya's husband btw.), we only get just that. A mention of the villain and nothing more than that which is retarded.
10. The concluding chapter. Overall, Chapters 699, The Last, 700 and The Gaiden (Chapter 710 especially) were nothing more nothing less but to solidify and justify the pairings that Kishimoto put in place and were 2 full hours and 12 chapters of motherf*cking setup for the Boruto Movie. UNBELIEVABLE!!
If you want to know my two cents on the pairings, here they are:
1. None of them make any sense, SasuSasku especially! Except for ShikaTema! That's it!
2. Sasuke and Sakura have zero chemistry and that pairing completely unrealistic in every way. This Gaiden was for the most part meant to solidify that pairing and it failed at doing so in many ways.
3. SasuSaku sends a terrible message to both men and to women. A very shallow and superficial and to some extent an abusive of BDSM message at that. I could go on for hours on this one, but I won't for obvious reasons!
4. NaruHina is another forced relationship and againd has zero chemistry. It takes a genjutsu for Naruto to realize his feelings. Also it sends a poor message to women, that being that the cool guy will eventually come around to you just like in the movie Sixteen Candles, (which we all know that was unrealistic)
5. NaruSaku sends a similar message as NaruHina, only directed at men, but a good message to women. But in terms of development, chemistry and realism overall I am sorry to say it is one of the most realistic out of all of the pairings.
6. SasuKarin is almost as bad as SasuSaku, the only difference is that Sasuke actualy showed mutual affection or more accurately reciprocating feelings toward Karin until he went completely psychotic and evil for a while. Hence why this pairing is suffice to say more realistic than SasuSaku, but wouldn't go as far as to say one of the most realistic out of all of the pairings.
7. Choju x Karui is nothing more, nothing less but an a$$pull. All that needs to be said on that one.
8. InoSai sends a terrible message to women, that being a shallow and superficial message: If you can't get the guy you wanted so badly, then why not go for one who looks just as handsome as he is eh?
9. ShikaTema is the only pairing well done and the only one that has real chemistry, development and realism. It's also a healthy one. Gold Star Kishimoto for this pairing!
10. I would not mind the canon pairings so much if the kids of the pairings weren't so dire and god awful. I am holding my breath on Boruto, Himawari, Mitsuki and Shikadai and that's it!
On a side note, though I am not a fan of any of the pairings except for ShikaTema obviously, I do feel really bad and I sympathize with the NaruSaku and SasuKarin fans for how they were treated by Kishi. Trolling NaruSaku was enough, but instead Kishi had to sh*t on SasuKarin as well! That's total contempt for a fanbase at it's finest!
That's my critique on the series post Chapter 698. I give it a solid D- and if the Boruto movie fails, it will drop to an F and like the Youtube channel CinemaSins, I will give all of it this sentence, for not it's Infinite Tsukuomi because it's a D- in my book right now, but if the Boruto movie fails it will be this sentence: EREASED FROM EXISTENCE!!
I truly hope that the Boruto movie does not fail and I sincerely hope that the villain is in fact Kaguya's husband. I also hope that Naruto and Sasuke redeem themselves in this upcoming movie, given the way that they were treated in the Gaiden and to some extent, The Last. Please Kishi don't botch this upcoming movie!
