Battle Shonen Stuff

[Rynnec]

In light of recent happenings in Naruto...

Offscreen fight-resolutions: Hate'em or are indifferent to them?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Off-screen never works, bro. You gotta fucking show your story, not tell it.

[Avaitor]

More often than not, a very lazy solution.

[Nel_Annette]

Depends if I liked the characters or not, or how "epic" of a match it has the potential to be. And yeah, I'm kind of pissed we didn't get to see that. The anime will probably dwell on it, for sure, but considering who all was fighting, it's disappointing.

[Rynnec]

I agree that it depends on who was fighting. If it was between say, two minor/supporting characters with little to no bearing on the plot, then I don't think anyone would mind that fight happening mostly off-screen. However, if it's between incredibly powerful individual's in a highstakes battle, then we damn well better see that shit resolved on-screen.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It depends, but no- I'd rather see it.

I'd also like for fights to not last dozens of chapters (I always cringe when a final battle starts because you KNOW they'll drag it out), and instead I'd rather the actual plot to climax around the fight and not simply be a tie on the end of it.

[Nel_Annette]

And when you reveal that your #10 guy is actually #0, showing how the motherfucker gets beat would be nice, no matter how much your story is sucking, because the guy is #0, damn it.

[Rynnec]

Speaking of overly long fights, it'd be nice if writers would just focus on one fight at a time and not cut away to other fights when the previous one was getting good.

And when you reveal that your #10 guy is actually #0, showing how the motherfucker gets beat would be nice, no matter how much your story is sucking, because the guy is #0, damn it.

Instead we get treated to...battles between low-tier minor characters. But that's okay, because they're popular!

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm also not fond of when certain characters lose every fight because of poor writing. Sort of like how Naruto treated Rock Lee for instance who really had no business losing most of the time, but did just for dramatic effect. How about making the bishie the punching bag for once? Heck, Kurama did it.

[Nel_Annette]

I'm also not fond of when certain characters lose every fight because of poor writing. Sort of like how Naruto treated Rock Lee for instance who really had no business losing most of the time, but did just for dramatic effect. How about making the bishie the punching bag for once? Heck, Kurama did it.

Kakazu's defeat. I have been recently catching up through the dvd releases, and I loved that arc, Shikamaru's development (episode 82 was a very pleasant surprise), the villain team actually being hilarious, the great animation during the fight... but while I wanted to see a stronger, more competent Naruto, him defeating Kakazu like that was bullshit. The guy's giving them hell, reveals he's like 90 or something, showing how much experience he has on them, and falls for the oldest trick in the book after barely two attacks by the kid. Uuugh.

[Rynnec]

I get Kishimoto was trying to show off how powerful Naruto's new technique was, but couldn't he find a better way to use it against Kakuzu? Or use it against someone he's already fought like Deidara instead?

I'm also not fond of when certain characters lose every fight because of poor writing. Sort of like how Naruto treated Rock Lee for instance who really had no business losing most of the time, but did just for dramatic effect. How about making the bishie the punching bag for once? Heck, Kurama did it.

Chad and Renji.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Naruto fell apart prety fast around the Chase Sasuke arc and did not improve with part 2. It was a shame because it did have the potential.

But Bleach... why do you need 40 characters that do nothing but fight and 30 more that lose all the time?

[Nel_Annette]

Meh, I've pretty much enjoyed anything involving Akatsuki barring some wasted potential (Deidara, Konan, how badly they all suck when resurrected), at least they all have pretty much been able to make impacts individually and were all worthy of being in that group. I don't really like either part more than the other.

The Espada have some sweet designs, but the only guy I actually liked from their team is Barragan, because he was genuinely awesome, and his power was horrific, even if his defeat sucked. The others... well, none of them felt all that distinguishable in abilities except for how powerful they were, and a good chunk of them just fight and die, without even affecting the story in some way.

[Rynnec]

Had Kubo followed his original plan of having each of Ichigo's friends getting a mini-arc to themselves before moving on to Soul Society, then the problem wouldn't have been quite as bad. But once again, SJ editors had to rush things and demand to move on to the boring bishounen.

As for Naruto; Sakura's "character arc" is where I really began to see it for how badly written it is.

Meh, I've pretty much enjoyed anything involving Akatsuki barring some wasted potential (Deidara, Konan, how badly they all suck when resurrected), at least they all have pretty much been able to make impacts individually and were all worthy of being in that group. I don't really like either part more than the other.

The Espada have some sweet designs, but the only guy I actually liked from their team is Barragan, because he was genuinely awesome, and his power was horrific, even if his defeat sucked. The others... well, none of them felt all that distinguishable in abilities except for how powerful they were, and a good chunk of them just fight and die, without even affecting the story in some way.

Grimmjow is my personal favorite (Starkk is cool as well). Too bad Kubo forgot about his existence until recently.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I do think the very beginning of Bleach had potential, but it never had the chance to be fleshed out beyond fight after fight and giving his friends powers that were never properly explored (Why is Chad even in the story?) for 100 soul reapers and 700 hollow variants.

Naruto sort of had a good pace near the beginning, but Bleach has always had pretty terrible pacing despite its early potential. I don't think Kubo was ready to write a mainstream shonen, as the way he has made Bleach drag on longer and longer shows it.