C&C - Naruto: Shippuden - Itachi's Story [8/19-9/30]

[Daikun]

A new story arc for Naruto: Shippuden began while the forum was down, so I'm helping us play catch up.

Previously: Episode 451 - Light and Darkness: Birth and Death

Synopsis:

Spoiler

Naruto tries leaving Sasuke's Susanoo, but Sasuke stops him, telling Naruto he will also be caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Minato sees Konoha under the Infinite Tsukuyomi, the other great shinobi villages also under it. Tobirama unsuccessfully tries to free Orochimaru's team from the roots of the God Tree. Black Zetsu notices Sasuke's Susanoo. Sakura asks Sasuke about what is happening outside, but he shuts her down. Kakashi tries speaking up, but is shut down as well. Naruto berates Sasuke. Sasuke explains they are likely the only ones not caught by the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Several shinobi's dreams are shown. Sasuke explains that as long as the light of the Infinite Tsukuyomi shines, it is pointless trying to do anything. Telling himself that Madara has no right to speak about the Uchiha, he recalls his memories of Itachi that imparts with him when the Reanimation Jutsu was cancelled. In his past, after the young Itachi witnesses the horrors of war, an Iwagakure ninja sees and asks Itachi for water. Before the ninja attacks him, Itachi slashes his throat, and asks Fugaku why the ninja tried to kill him. Fugaku explains to Itachi what war is. The Uchiha discreetly discuss Kakashi having a Sharingan during a service for those who died in the war. Itachi and Orochimaru briefly discuss the meaning of life and death. Itachi jumps off a cliff, but upon noticing a crow, he slows his descent with kunai, and befriends the crows. Mikoto tells Itachi that his younger brother, Sasuke was born. Itachi passes up playing with other boys to train with shuriken. The boys throw stones at him, but Itachi effortlessly dodges them, and uses one of their own stones to deflect the others. Itachi watches Sasuke at night, and feels an ominous wind.

Due to being preempted for two weeks by FLCL marathons, the series resumes September 9.

 

[Trueblade74]

I really, really don't like all this effort being put into an Itachi spinoff story. Itachi's reveal as a secret good guy is one of the biggest reasons Naruto's writing quality sank like a stone, and giving this much dignity and attention to sloppy writing just hurts.

EDIT: Also why did we have to make a new thread when this is still Infinite Filleryomi filler?

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Probably because the website was down for months and this is a new arc…

I liked the Itachi novels for what they were. This adaptation isn’t a very faithful one though, and seems to try to rehabilitate Itachi even more. I don’t like the endless dwelling on how he was actually a misunderstood hero of the leaf. Especially since we already had a lot of this material in three or four flashback arcs throughout Naruto and Shippuden.

This isn’t even an infinite tsukuyomi dream, just a long and unnecessary flashback. I would’ve rather they saved all the book adaptations for after the war. We didn’t get all of the novels adapted, and it would’ve been better if they skipped this arc and the Tsunade dream so that we could get a reasonably paced final arc and all of the novels adapted between Shippuden and Boruto. The Itachi novels needed adaptation the least, but they got adapted first….

 

[Yojimbo]

On the bright side, we finally down to the final 49 episodes of the series, an achievement onto itself for Toonami, and about 7 away from the filler - well mixed filler/canon whatever - ends.

Technically, Rivals is the end of the Infinite Tsukuyomi arc. Itachi's side story is its own arc so it gets it's own thread. Then.. well the last episode in the side story, #458, is technically also the first episode of the arc after that so we'll have to decide how to about that. Eh, easier to start a new thread with #459 when it airs next month.

 

[Trueblade74]

This isn’t even an infinite tsukuyomi dream, just a long and unnecessary flashback.

It's filler taking place between Madara casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi and the massive asspull that occurs right afterwards. Even if the framing device is abandoned, I still count it.

 

[Yojimbo]

Episode 452 Light and Darkness: The Genius

Having experienced the Great Ninja War as a young child, Itachi constantly questions the meaning the life and death, distancing him from other children his age. Soon after entering the Academy, Itachi exhibits his genius and finds himself at the top of his class.

 

[CNFan1995]

Last time on Shippuden: Having experienced the Great Ninja War as a young child, Itachi constantly questions the meaning the life and death, distancing him from other children his age. Soon after entering the Academy, Itachi exhibits his genius and finds himself at the top of his class.

OPENING: LINE by Sukima Switch
ENDING: Such You, Such Me by Thinking Dogs

Episode 453
Light and Darkness: The Pain of Living
​

Synopsis: Now a genin, Itachi joins Minazuki's team, which also consists of Tenma and Shinko; Granny Cat gives them a mission to find and retrieve a missing ninja cat.

----

Episode 454
Light and Darkness: Shisui's Request
​

Synopsis: During a training exercise, Itachi and Shisui stumble upon a fight between the Hokage's ANBU and the Federation; Itachi struggles to decide whose cause is the right one, while a determined Shisui wants to end the fighting entirely.

​

 

[Trueblade74]

Watching through the last two episodes to catch up.

The whole story about the Uchiha being an alienated underclass in the Leaf has always been built on shoddy, half-assed ground for the sake of justifying an absurd amount of stupid, but seeing Kishimoto and Pierrot actually try putting that into practice makes it even dumber. Danzo's telling Fugaku that they're moving the Uchiha Clan and their police HQ to the outskirts of the village so that the Anbu Black Ops can become the main police force of the inner village. That sounds so completely absurd.

 

[Yojimbo]

^Yeah, I wasn't a fan of how that played out either. Like, that's it?

Overall Thoughts on arc

In this arc/light novel, seems like the argument was that Itachi let his actions do the talking but the problem was when he did say something, it came off rather harsh, blunt, and misinterpreted. But I guess he's sort of right that emotion is hardly a factor in the ninja’s way. But then y'know, Naruto proves that wrong. lol. So he grew up fast, losing his innocence early on in life but maturing faster than most and thus, for a most his life was dedicated to becoming strong to protect everyone he cares about while being aware neither side is totally right and everyone just wants to use him as a weapon. I suppose I was always a little curious about Itachi's emotional detachment and as the series continued, it became obvious he kept his real thoughts to himself until the big battle with Sasuke and his resurrection during the war. I guess him actually being more an idealist than he let on does match up with how he "justified" doing things, no matter how dark or morally gray, for the greater good. I think overall, the novel was meant to show Itachi's resolve, a lot of "oh, that's what he was thinking" moments, and fill in some gaps we wouldn't get in the main series (or the creator never got around to in time) like

Spoiler

why his substitution jutsu are crows, his motivations, what he was like when he was a gennin and chunin, his chunin exam, how he got his Sharingan etc.

But still I wished they did the anime adaptation earlier in the series but couldn't be helped because of when novels came out, around 2016. I just wanna get to the end of the war already.

453 Light and Darkness: The Pain of Living

Cute way of showing he has a sweet tooth through, I suppose his love interest, Izumi.

Granny Cat's back! They all wore the cat ears! The fact that one of Itachi's genin missions was to catch a ninja cat...

Not too sure what Tenma meant when he told Shinko he had a hard time understanding how she talks more so when she says meow meow. Though the English dub VA for Shinko is from Texas. Maybe Shinko's not a native of Leaf Village and her family moved from somewhere else.

Not a team on Naruto if there wasn't some envy going on.

Just 5 millimeters more. Heh heh.

Ah. I see. Tenma is fast but he often runs right into trouble.

Shinko "the mediator." lol.

And cut to how Tenma died. Didn't expect Obito, in his Tobi guise, to be responsible for Itachi's Sharingan awakening but sure why not at this point.

454 Light and Darkness: Shisui's Request

Sad, the front he put on for his father while struggling over the death of Tenma.

Dug the small details, like how Shisui lands or leaves a tree branch vs. Itachi.

Thank goodness Shisui was around to mentor Itachi.

Ah, Root going after an Anbu's intel. Danzo was the worst.

And now heading into the Anbu years.

 

[CNFan1995]

Last time on Shippuden: During a training exercise, Itachi and Shisui stumble upon a fight between the Hokage's ANBU and the Federation; Itachi struggles to decide whose cause is the right one, while a determined Shisui wants to end the fighting entirely.

OPENING: LINE by Sukima Switch
ENDING: Blue Lullaby by Kuroneko Chelsea

Episode 455
Light and Darkness: Moonlit Night

Synopsis: Itachi becomes a captain in the ANBU; he becomes a double agent to investigate a coup being planned by the Uchiha clan, which the conspirators quickly bring to fruition.
----

Episode 456
Light and Darkness: The Darkness of the Akatsuki

Synopsis: Having wiped out his own clan, Itachi turns to Pain and Orochimaru to become a member of the Akatsuki; he accepts an assassination mission in the Land of Water with his new partner, Juzo.​

 

[Trueblade74]

It's always shocking how those cat people are actually canon. That was a weird 1 chapter non sequitor during the Sasuke Shippuden arc, and it's a shame it didn't last longer to flesh out Sasuke's timeskip personality broader than "Itachi clone".

That Izumi girl's voice sounds familiar. Is that the little girl from Space Dandy episode 5?

I wish Shippuden had music for comedy scenes. It's always been stupid how there was no lighthearted music playing throughout the whole of the Mecha Naruto two-parter.

This backstory so absurd. "Itachi had a team that he cared about, and then Tobi randomly showed up and killed them all in front of him. And that's how he obtained the Sharingan". Couldn't he just be a fast learner like the rest of his talents? Sasuke didn't lose anyone when he first gained the Sharingan...until that got retconned. God I hate Kishimoto.

LOL, Shisui coming up with these silly means of tracking a guy, and Itachi just goes "he ran through these flowers".

Shisui doesn't have any personality except wanking the Mary Sue.

What is this jutsu? Is this the same technique Haku was using, but without the ice mirrors?

 

[Yojimbo]

Didn't really pay much attention to the first one this week since it's highly treaded territory. Well until he killed his parents and how gut wrenching that scene really was for Itachi. Second episode was somewhat interesting filling in his Akatsuki years, his first partner, when he used Amaterasu for the first time, how Orochimaru quit, and meeting Kisame for the first time. Seems so weird now to see Obito pretend to be Madara and shifting to Tobi.

That Izumi girl's voice sounds familiar. Is that the little girl from Space Dandy episode 5?

Nope, different actresses.

 

[Trueblade74]

I can't remember if they ever said how and why Shisui died in the manga. I assume Danzo sent the Root to kill him because he just hates Uchihas, which would make that the only time the Anbu ever accomplished anything other than jobbing.

Also how many times does this make that we've seen the Uchiha Massacre? It gets dumber every time it's shown.

 

[Yojimbo]

I can't remember if they ever said how and why Shisui died in the manga. I assume Danzo sent the Root to kill him because he just hates Uchihas, which would make that the only time the Anbu ever accomplished anything other than jobbing.

Pretty sure Danzo wanted Shisui's eyes as a 'precaution' to end any future attempts by the Uchiha to conduct a coup (but y'know moot because Itachi wiped the clan out anyway and pretty sure Danzo was scheming to take power over Leaf for the greater good if in his POV the Hokage's leadership went against the safety of Leaf). Shisui was special i.e. his Mangekyo but he in particular could do the Kotoamatsukami, a powerful genjutsu cast without eye contact. Shisui was going to use it on Sasuke and Itachi's dad to make him end the coup before it started. Danzo interfered in the plan and they fought, getting one of the eyes but Shisui escaped then that scene of him giving his remaining eye to Itachi and committing suicide off the cliff.

 

[Trueblade74]

Pretty sure Danzo wanted Shisui's eyes as a 'precaution' to end any future attempts by the Uchiha to conduct a coup (but y'know moot because Itachi wiped the clan out anyway and pretty sure Danzo was scheming to take power over Leaf for the greater good if in his POV the Hokage's leadership went against the safety of Leaf). Shisui was special i.e. his Mangekyo but he in particular could do the Kotoamatsukami, a powerful genjutsu cast without eye contact. Shisui was going to use it on Sasuke and Itachi's dad to make him end the coup before it started. Danzo interfered in the plan and they fought, getting one of the eyes but Shisui escaped then that scene of him giving his remaining eye to Itachi and committing suicide off the cliff.

This sounds all kinds of stupid and just highlights what bad ideas making Itachi a good guy and Danzo a strawman were.

 

[CNFan1995]

Last time on Shippuden: Having wiped out his own clan, Itachi turns to Pain and Orochimaru to become a member of the Akatsuki; he accepts an assassination mission in the Land of Water with his new partner, Juzo.

OPENING: LINE by Sukima Switch
ENDING: Blue Lullaby by Kuroneko Chelsea

Episode 457
Light and Darkness: Partner

Synopsis: Itachi begins a successful campaign working for the Akatsuki with his partner, Kisame; Deidara and Sasori take on a mission to find Orochimaru; Itachi, Konan and Kakuzu go to the Land of Steam to seek out an immortal killer.
----

Episode 458
Light and Darkness: Truth

Synopsis: After years of carrying the burden of shame that Itachi brought upon their clan, Sasuke comes face to face with Itachi and learns the truth of his deeds; with Itachi's story told, the ninjas on the battlefield turn their attention to Madara.​

 

[Trueblade74]

We're back in canon halfway through the second episode tonight. Stick around if you can, because it's going to be bonkers.

 

[CNFan1995]

She's here! She's finally here!

 

[Trueblade74]

You know, it's stuff like this that condemned My Hero Academia to collapsing into mediocrity.

 

[Yojimbo]

457: Ah, so that's how they recruited Deidara and Hidan. Well, I think they showed the former before. Yeah.

Sasori's sarcasm on high tilt this episode. He looks like an "early death." heh. Or later reacting to being assigned to a stealth mission with Deidara, heh heh.

Makes sense that's how Hidan and Kakuzu met and ended up being partners. lol. Typical, Hidan took offense only to being called a maniac. "You all in a band?"

458: Black Zetsu, knew he'd betray Madara. Whoa, he's a creation of Kaguya instead of Madara? And White Zetsu are people trapped in Infinite Tsukoyomi?! And Black Zetsu altered the stone tablet to manipulate the Uchiha clan, man, really? Really? Uh...

Ha, in the end, Madara was just a pawn, too. I guess that was the only way he was getting killed off - by someone even more OP. Time for the real, real battle to begin.