Naruto Ch. 531 Reunion, Team Asuma
*This review uses images credited to mangastream and binktopia.
… I didn’t make it in the poll.
*This review uses images credited to mangastream and binktopia.
… I didn’t make it in the poll.
This week’s Jump features Naruto on the cover page (so that we don’t forget who the main character is) and opens with a couple of color pages and poll results for favorite character. The opening color page shows the Allied Shinobi and White Zetsus locked in a battle of attrition. The shinobi are fighting in the background and in the foreground we can see the rough looking corpses of some shinobi and a zetsu. When I keep saying that I want to see the war result in more damage, this is what I was talking about. The fighting in the color page resembles a war of attrition more so than any chapter since chapter 523: ‘The Legendary Seven Swordsmen’.
The characters in focus are Asuma and Ino-Shika-Cho and the construction of these panels sets a sorrowful / tragic mood that continues for the rest of the chapter. Whilst the fighting continues in the background, Ino-Shika-Cho have met up with their sensei. As Ino-Shika-Cho stand ready determined and armed with kunai, Asuma looks at his students with a sorrowful expression, letting us know that this chapter is going to seriously bring the emotion.
Character poll results take up the next color spread, and aside from Team Kakashi (including Sai and Sasuke) making an appearance, there were some unusual outliers among the usual suspects. Gaara, Deidara, Hinata, and Shikamaru remain as popular as ever.Itachi, Sasori, Minato, and Iruka also charted, which is surprising given how these characters haven’t appeared in the manga for a while or if they did it wasn’t for long. Now onward to the meat of the chapter …
Oh it’s already been brought-en.
At first, Team Ino-Shika-Cho look resolved for the upcoming fight, telling their sensei to prepare himself. Their stature and resolve reflects how much they have grown as individuals and a proud Asuma complements them on how great they’ve become. Such kind praise unsettles Ino-Shika-Cho and each of them loses their composure. Kind-hearted Choji holds back tears and Ino looks heartbroken about what they have to do. Only Shikamaru remains resolved, although he appears to be forcing himself to focus. Considering that we knew this moment would come, I was startled with how emotional this scene me. Yet, as tragic as this scene is, there are other characters who would like to share in their sorrow.
Samurai Showdown
Somewhere in the forest, Samurai from the Fifth Division have shown up to relieve the Ambush Squad. Kankurou warns the Samurai about Hanzou’s poison, but they came prepared for such an eventuality with gas masks. As the Ambush Squad is taken away to the infirmary, one of the samurai reveals that the reason they wear masks is specifically to defend against poison from shinobi, suggesting that the history between shinobi and samurai is one fraught with turmoil. The remaining samurai move to backup Mifune, but he clearly wants to fight one on one with Hanzou. As the two legendary warriors cross katana and kusarigama, Hanzou begins a philosophical debate with the aged samurai. Hanzou asks Mifune why he, as a samurai belonging to an era long passed, is allying himself with shinobi. Hanzou doesn’t understand how a ronin running with shinobi could still call himself a samurai, further hammering home that samurai and ninja were once foes.
MIfune counters that he is just as devoted as previous samurai with the only difference being the cause he believes in: Peace. These sentiments begin to disconcert Hanzou for an as of yet unexplained reason. Mifune has faith that peace can be attained and he has devoted himself to that cause. The inevitability of conflict and the attainment of peace is a theme that Naruto keeps coming back to. Many if not most of the villains and adult characters in the manga have world views or personalities that have been influenced by war, and some have sought to attain peace in differing ways. Indeed, that is the issue this war is being fought for. Madara’s plan might be sinister and more than a little unethical, but Madara is attempting to attain peace, albeit at the cost of the populace’s free will by placing the world in a never-ending genjutsu.
Chiyo, trolling the ninja world since waaay before you were born.
Over on Kankurou’s end, he runs into a revived Chiyo who reassures him that she really did die and wasn’t just pretending again. Chiyo then reveals that she fought Hanzou numerous times in the past and knows the antidote for the poison and the weakness of his Salamander, which is it’s five minute recharge time between poison attacks. Thus, Chiyo becomes the second revived shinobi to explicitly inform the Allied Shinobi how to stop one of them and Hanzou is forced to tell Ibuse, his Salamander, to hide underground. Kabuto obviously needs to put a stop to this and seal off the personalities of shinobi who were very loyal to their villages during their lifetime. Itching for action, Kimimaro lunges at the samurai using his kekkai genkai. Shikotsumyaku proves more than a match for the samurai as Kimimaro’s bones are able to pierce through a samurai’s chakra infused blade.
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Hanzou and Mifune continue to clash blades and Hanzou is impressed by Mifune’s skill. However, he is disdainful of Mifune’s pacifism. As Hanzou views it, believing in peace is really just deciding on neutrality. Moreover, neutrality is the act of avoiding conflict and it’s cause. Plainly put, neutrality is an act of running away from the world and it’s problems, a viewpoint that Mifune disagrees with. Hanzou assures Mifune that his worldview is grounded in experience. For Hanzou was once an idealistic and ambitious young shinobi who believed in peace. He desired to bring an end to war by uniting the five countries into one shinobi world, but he quickly realized that wasn’t possible. For the last few generations, the shinobi world has been embroiled in war and war only serves to bring death.
Hanzou then uses an example that Mifune should understand, the fate of the samurai. In the past, samurai might once have been useful in a war, but as ninjutsu and the shinobi world was developed, samurai lost their significance. Many samurai sought instead to become ninjas, and the remaining samurai began incorporating ninja arts into their studies. The era of samurai gave way to the era of ninja. And who best represents this era? Kakuzu. Kakuzu embodies an era in which convictions as well as any desire for peace has been set aside and instead skilled warriors became mercenaries for hire who seek only money. And thus this self-perpetuating system that relies on war replaced the era of the samurai. However, in this era there is war is constant and intermissions of peace are brief. And then, there’s death, after which nothing survives. Hanzou argues that not even his own legacy survived his death, and he was an extremely notable ninja. In fact, many people in the know, like Jiraiya, weren’t even aware that Hanzou had died until years after the fact. It is a nihilistic view that finds Hanzou despairing at the pointlessness of his existence, the samurais’ existence, and the shinobi’s existence. All of which is particularly dark and heady stuff for a manga. Philosophically, Hanzou reminds me of Ulquiorra from BLEACH who is also holds a nihilistic outlook about life. The resemblance makes me wonder that if Hanzou would simply give up and cease to fight if like that character he came to see the error of his reasoning.
It’s also worth noting that up until now, Hanzou has mostly fought using taijutsu. That fact couple with his in-depth knowledge of the samurai world suggests that once he too might have been a samurai who instead chose the shinobi way in order to become stronger. Or perhaps he is descended from a tradition founded by former samurai.
Contrarily, Mifune argues that peace is not merely a matter of life and death. Rather, peace is an ideal and a matter of faith in humanity and a better world, something that is beyond the scope of even death. Mifune goes on to equate people to the blade. Samurai believe that the katana is akin to a person. Mifune believes that after his death, he will continues to remain behind in his sword, Meitou Kurosawa. I’ll get to the first part of the sword’s name later, but for now we should note that Kurosawa is probably a reference to Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa was an acclaimed Japanese filmmaker who has made many notable chanbara films like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Hidden Fortress, and Ran. Possibly, Kishimoto is as much a fan of samurai films as I, and the solemn, philosophical tone of this chapter is in keeping with the aesthetics of chanbara.
That's right, I remember losing...so on that note, it's time to make a hasty retreat.
Hanzou isn’t convinced that people can be equated with slabs of iron and believes that Mifune should have committed seppuku when he outlasted his era. Alternatively, Mifune states that he has no reason to commit seppuku because his faith has never disappeared. Tired of arguing, Hanzou makes a seal as if to attack, but Mifune is fast enough to prevent him from using ninjutsu. Mastering Iai, the art of the draw, Mifune is so fast that all he needs is the opening created by using a hand seal to attack an opponent.
In the heat of the battle, Hanzou gets deja vu. Mifune tells Hanzou that they fought once before when they were younger. Hanzou is confused as to why Mifune isn’t dead if they’ve fought before, and Mifune reveals that Hanzou’s Kusari-gama broke his sword and struck his head. Hanzou then remembers leaving the young samurai left for dead and vows to finish the job. Despite his previous loss, Mifune informs Hanzou that a shinobi of his skill should have realized whether or not he would be killed and implies his sword isn’t as strong as it used to be. Again I am reminded of Ulquiorra because both characters were limited in that they ignored those things that their eyes couldn’t see. In this case, Hanzou becomes upset when Mifune implies that he cannot see the difference between their strength.
Sometimes dead men tell the best tales.
Unsettled by his enemies words, Hanzou reflects upon his death at the hands of Pain. The flashback opens with Hanzou laying against a fence, battered, wounded, and bleeding. A pile of shinobi corpses lay in a pile, presumably his body guards. Hanzou can’t believe someone could best him in combat and asks for his opponents name before recognizing the deceased Yahiko’s body. Pain, angry at his betrayal by Danzo and Hanzou, is openly contemptuous of the man he once respected. Since Pain once respected Hanzou, we can infer that Hanzou was indeed an idealistic shinobi seeking peace at some point in his youth. But dejected and unable to achieve his original goal, he became a man concerned only with his own protection. About to face death by Shinra Tensei, Hanzou can’t understand why he lost, which Pain finds just as pitiful as Mifune. Strong as Hanzou may be, Pain has the greater faith in his ideals.
Let us consider Pain for a moment. As a student of Jiraiya, he too believed in peace and along with Yahiko and Konan he tried to fulfill his sensei’s dream. But Hanzou had already given up his ideals and was concerned only with maintaining his power. Believing Akatsuki to be a threat to his rule, he conspired with Danzo of the Hidden Leaf to assassinate Yahiko. And almost as though by divine retribution, Hanzo directly created the vengeful demon that would take his own life and the life of anyone ever acquainted with him. Gone was a Nagato that could believe in attaining peace through civil means. In his place was born a wrathful god that sought to pacify the world through fear. Before Hanzou’s betrayal, Akatsuki had become a respected and commendable organization. Had he held onto his beliefs, Hanzou not only could have prevented his death, but he might have (at least) delayed the Fourth Shinobi World War, kept the Akatsuki out of Madara’s hands, and stood a chance of brokering peace between the nations. I’m not saying Hanzou could have prevented the current war, but had he made different decisions and lived long enough to see the start of Madara’s war, then he might have become the leader of the Joint Shinobi Forces. After all, Hanzou was in charge of the country that could have brokered a peace to end the Third Shinobi World War.
He's actually the second ninja to go shirtless this chapter.
Back in the present, Hanzou tries to figure out what he’s not getting, and it’s telling that he puts it into terms of not being able to see something. He relies upon his visual sight too much. Ibuse emerges from underground and swallows Mifune to poison him, but Mifune cuts his way out of Ibuse. We know that summoned animals can die, which means Ibuse is probably done for. Mifune explains that katanas that stay sharp become Meitou and will ultimately last and remain, even after its owner passes away. The sword remains a monument to the will and focus of the samurai. As the two men lung towards each other, Hanzou has a flash back to the bout in which he injured Mifune. In the flashback, both men are fighting in the same style that they currently use.
When the flashback ends, both Hanzou and his weapon have been cut through. So fast was Mifune’s slash that his blade remained unstained. As Hanzou looks on in disbelief, Mifune lectures him on the nature of heroes. Heroes are those that put their life on the line for their beliefs. Hanzou had forsaken his belief in peace and in accepting the inevitability of war and ways of the shinobi world, he bloodied his blade. Mifune elaborates further by saying that people are like swords. Bluntness will not last and by bending his beliefs, Hanzou lost the sharpness he once possessed. On that note, the manga ends, but let’s not forget that Hanzou is an Edo Tensei summon, so recovering from such a wound is no problem.
Impressions
This week’s chapter was spectacular. The tone was more solemn and philosophical than usual and to great effect. The opener with Team Asuma was emotional, and the color pages were great. For me, the best part of the chapter was the fight between Mifune and Hanzou which was as much a battle of ideals as it was an actual battle. Mifune demonstrated how capable the samurai, were which we needed after they were so easily taken care of by Sasuke during the Kage Summit arc. And Hanzo came across as a tragic character, having warped his ideals and suffering an unpredictable death. And I like that we got a glimpse of how Pain took over the Hidden Rain. Overall, the chapter delivered on all fronts. If I had one disappointment, it was that Hanzou didn’t use any ninjutsu.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Predictions
Predictions
My predictions for this chapter were pretty spot on. Asuma and Ino-Shika-Cho began their confrontation and Hanzou, Chiyo, and Kimimaro began their battles. Although, the chapter didn’t contain what I most wanted to see, which was Dan’s technique.
Next chapter, I predict we will pick up from the Hanzou fight, with him recovering and finally managing to use some ninjutsu. We’ll probably also see a bit of Asuma’s fight along with Kakuzu and Dan. And hopefully, Dan releases his technique.
As always, I’d like to thank everyone who’s been reading my reviews. I’ll see you next week space cowboys...
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