Naruto ch530 – Dan Becomes a Man

This week we’re treated to another setup chapter in Naruto, as the Kinkaku-Ginakaku brothers were dealt with rather anti-climatically last week through the Ino-Shika-Chouz combo. Rather than move on to Gaara’s battle with his father and the other former kages, the story chooses to stick to this side of the mountain, as we will be getting our fair share of Ino-Shika-Chou again as they fight Kakuzu as well as their former mentor Asuma.

That wasn’t all though, since Kishi took the slightly jarring route of breaking up the battles into even more bits and pieces. Instead of just Kakuzu and Asuma, we also have the battles with Dan and the Chiyo/Hanzou/Kimimaro trio thrown in as well, just for good measure.

「 ナルト 530 – Chouji’s Determination 」
Read Online @ SOMEMANGA

Personally I hope they deal with Kakuzu as swiftly as possible, since we have already seen his bag of tricks. The fact that he has 5 hearts now might pose a bit of a problem, but that is where they will get help in the form of the 5 treasures. They seem to be missing the banana fan, but I have a feeling that Tenten found it early in the chapter. The return of Kakuzu makes me wonder about Itachi and Nagato though, since he was last seen travelling with the two. I wonder what mischief Kishi has in store for them.

This leaves Ino-Shika-Chou with the sole purpose of battling their former master, which should be a good one. While Asuma had put up quite a good fight in his last battle with Hidan, I felt that he didn’t really show enough of his arsenal. I’m hoping this new battle will show us more of his moves, as well as provide that tragic/sentimental feeling that Kishi loves doing. We are bound to witness some emotional stuff from this battle, and I really hope Kishi pulls it off without having it be too sappy or cliché.

It also seems like Kishi is setting Dan up to be a bigger ninja than we once thought. Personally I always thought he was a fodder, but the way he was brought up here made him out to be something like a badass. Ghost transformation technique? I have my qualms on the guy but damn that sounds really sweet. While his star turn may seem like a surprise, I feel like it won’t really have much purpose other than to prolong his fight long enough for an eventual reunion with Tsunade. Still, I suppose it’s good to know that Tsunade didn’t fall for some random schmuck.

What I’m interested in seeing the most though is Mifune’s fight with Hanzou, Chiyo, Kimimaro and the random fellow. Hanzou has been seriously hyped since he was first introduced as the leader who bitchslapped the sannin. While it sort of cooled off after it was revealed that Pain killed him easily, it still doesn’t make him any less of a ninja. To have Mifune and his random crew of Samurai face off against three of the best ninjas their respective villages have ever produced seems a bit odd. While Mifune is good enough to warrant his own team, I never once imagined him as being on par with an elite ninja. Kankurou’s team is seriously in danger after being poisoned and after their fight with Deidara and Sasori, they should not have much left in their tanks. I sure hope Mifune has some significant players on his team, cos he’s facing some legendary opposition.

While this chapter did feel a bit awkward due to its cut-and-paste structure, I have to give Kishi credit for making it somewhat easy to follow. Due to the large war setting, this means that he has to draw an obscene amount of background characters as well as the details that go along with them. Doing this week-in-week-out must be really tiring so I wasn’t exactly surprised to see some of the panels having sloppy unpolished lines unlike the quality we’re usually treated too. He’s done a great job thus far, which is more than I can say for a certain other K _ _ _.

Lowblows and petty anger aside, I really hope these battle doesn’t drag too long. The way this chapter was set up makes it seem like Kishi is ready to have the Kakuzu, Asuma and Dan fight dealt with within the next chapter. I hope he does follow this plan, since this will leave us with more time to focus on the Hanzou battle, as well as eventually getting on to Gaara’s fight (which I was really looking forward to last week).

/ 3 Commentsleave a comment /

• Renn says:

  March 5, 2011

  I can't believe you can write this much about a 20-page chapter. Good points, all around. There's nothing here I disagree with: Kakuzu can go quickly, looking forward to Asuma's fight, looking forward to Mifune's fight. I'm really excited for Gaara's fight with his dad. Hopefully, Gaara'll just wipe the floor with him.

  "He’s done a great job thus far, which is more than I can say for a certain other K _ _ _."

  Oh geez–who ever could that be? Can't wait for your Bleach post, Bass. :-)

  Reply
  • Bass says:

    March 5, 2011

    I really like to speculate about future chapters as well as point out things that people might forget, so the posts always balloon pretty big haha.

    Gaara's fight can't get here soon enough. It's been delayed a couple of weeks now, I hope it doesn't disappoint when we eventually get to it.

    Reply
• Yi says:

  March 13, 2011

  Can't say the Asuma/ Dan thing is too surprising, and I have a feeling I know how it'd turn out.

  Still, despite none of the bg characters being memorable or the battles spectacular (for the most part), I'm actually really impressed with this huge war. And it's been fun seeing all these random cool techniques/ people.

  "He’s done a great job thus far, which is more than I can say for a certain other K _ _ _."
  Haha yea, Naruto has supplanted a certain other manga to become my shonen manga of choice.

  Reply