Naruto ch523

「 ナルト 523 – The Legendary Seven Swordsmen 」
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It’s been a while since I last did a chapter review for Naruto, and a lot has certainly happened since that Kisame fight with Guy on top of the giant turtle island. For one thing, the third ninja war is finally starting and with all the pieces currently in play, it has certainly given off the feel of an epic battle. While I was extremely disappointed at the way Sasori and Deidara were easily dispatched by what was essentially a bunch of B-class, second-rate ninjas (no offense to Kankuro and Sai, but you guys are not really the main dishes), the current introduction of some previously unknown ninja legends has certainly been a pleasant surprise.

The fodder ninja were taken care of quickly, just as they should. With huge numbers readily available, as well as the arrival of new threats, it was inevitable that all these generic ninjas are only there to serve their purpose to show the strengths and techniques of the legendary mist swordsmen. With Suigetsu acting as the narrator to their action, it was nice to see that they all got to show off their unique attacks, since they all seem to be so deadly.

One person in particular that caught my eye was Suigetsu’s older brother Mangetsu, since he is able to use all seven swords perfectly. He wasn’t shown with his own sword though, instead summoning swords for the others via scrolls and attacking with his bloodline limit ability. Hopefully we get to see him play a bigger part in the future chapters, since his abilities make him pretty damn unique, even among the seven mist legends (maybe it will be nice to see him face off with Suigetsu. That’ll be pretty sweet).

Still, even with the new ninjas, Zabuza seems to be the big boss of this skirmish since he holds the key to the home field advantage. With his mist technique in play, it has essentially cornered the heroes and reduced their numbers to nothing but walking body bags.

Kakashi, being the leader that he is, manages to come up with a foolproof plan to navigate his way through this thick fog and it’s actually a pretty ingenious way of using the abilities and people available in his party. Since the mist has blinded him, and with the sharingan being unable to detect people in such a thick mist (the sharingan sees chakra, not sense it), it was only proper to have his body being controlled by a tracker to help navigate him to the source of the mist. In the end though, this manga comes full circle as Kakashi’s raikiri is blocked once again by Haku, mirroring the exact same scenario during their first encounter earlier in the manga.

This is where things get interesting for me. Seeing as they all have lost their will to Kabuto’s edo tensei, I wonder if Kishi will use this déjà vu opportunity to show us a flaw in edo tensei’s control. We’ve all witnessed how devastated Zabuza was in the end at treating Haku the way he did earlier in the manga, so maybe this is where he manages to break free off Kabuto’s control. This is merely an option for Kishi to take in order to end this battle, since at the moment I don’t really see any other methods for them to finish this fight, other than have further reinforcements arrive later on. The chances of this happening is slim though, since we are currently in the thick of battle and breaking the pacing of this fight abruptly like that might not be so great in terms of plot progression. Still, I’d really like to see at least one tiny flaw in the edo tensei, since right now it seems like the most perfect jutsu the world has ever seen. If Zabuza is still following through, then I’m guessing Kakashi will just have to wing it on the spot. There’s gotta be someone else in the group willing to do the leg work (I’m looking at you Guy, you’ve been really quiet this chapter).

/ 4 Commentsleave a comment /

• blindability says:

  January 16, 2011

  I know Haku taking the death strike (again) shouldn't have surprised me… but it did. Stupid Kabuto. I know he's probably like a ninja genius for getting this far, but I still think he's stupid. Plus he's really ugly now.

  I'm sure Gai will step in soon. He's not one to be outdone our out-shone by his arch rival, after all.

  Reply
  • Bass says:

    January 16, 2011

    Lol Kabuto looks like a plastic surgery reject, I wonder how far his transformation will progress by the time Naruto and co. will actually have to face him

    Reply
• Yi says:

  January 20, 2011

  I'm pretty excited about the seven swordsmen battle too. They all seem really awesome with unique, cool techniques.

  I didn't realize the same scenario happened earlier in Kakashi and Zabusa/ Haku's fight. It's been so long since then and so much has happened, but that's really neat. This whole "bringing dead guys back" thing has a strong feeling of nostalgia to it, and this de javu moment adds to it.

  Reply
  • Bass says:

    January 20, 2011

    Yea, I love how this technique manages to bring back characters we once thought were long gone. It's great in a way since the manga is sort of paying tribute to the characters that made the series popular in the first place.

    Its awesome fan service.

    Reply