Naruto News

The publisher VIZ Media announces a release date for the fifty-ninth volume of the NARUTO series and their cover image.

Naruto Vol. 59 US (Nov 2012)

This volume covers the ever ongoing Shinobi World War Arc of Masashi Kishimoto's NARUTO. Questions to the identity of Madara Uchiha are raised as the Naruto faces the Akatsuki leader, and the five Kages combine their efforts against one terrible foe from the past. The release date is set for November 6, 2012, and is currently available on Amazon.com for preorder.

-Kristoffer Remmell ( FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ AnimeVicers/ @ FoxxFireArt

The Straw Hats finally break into the New World, and Naruto makes nine powerful friends in this month's releases.

Today is the Japanese release date for two of the big Shonen Three volumes from Shueisha. Though, by this time it was yesterday for them. Ah, the thirteen hour time difference.

Included in the release is ONE PIECE Vol. 66, which contains Chapter 647-656. This concludes the Fish-Man Island Arc, the first arc of the post-time skip era; and begins the latest Punk Hazard Island Arc. It's been great having Smoker and Tashigi back in the story. NARUTO Vol. 60 was also released, which contains Chapter 566-575. This continues to Shinobi World Arc arc, but Naruto has made a groundbreaking change in his relationship with the Nine-Tailed Fox and learns his true name. BLEACH Vol. 55 won't be released in Japan until June 4, 2012.

With VIZ Media's initiative of increasing the publication of these two series, buying these translated in the U.S. shouldn't be that far off. With all the issues I have with some of their publishing and editting practices, I have to applaud them for this.

-Kristoffer Remmell ( FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ AnimeVicers/ @ FoxxFireArt

The publisher VIZ Media announces a release date for the fifty-eighth volume of the NARUTO series and their cover image.

Naruto Vol. 58 US (Sep 2012)

This volume covers the ever ongoing Shinobi World War Arc of Masashi Kishimoto's NARUTO. Itachi Uchiha returns to the world of the living and Naruto has to stop both him and Nagato together, The release date is set for September 4, 2012, and is currently available on Amazon.com for preorder.

-Kristoffer Remmell ( FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ AnimeVicers/ @ FoxxFireArt

For some odd reason lately I've felt compelled to spend a lot more time on YouTube recently. And a good bit of that time has been checking out AMVs. It takes a good bit of time and dedication to make them-though some work better than others. As some of you might know, I'm a hard rock and metal fan when it comes to music. So what I've done is search for some hard-hitting AMVs where the music goes really well with the scenes put together. Hope you all enjoy.

Gundam 00 Featuring "Fading Away" by Demon Hunter

Demon Hunter is a band I've been growing into and this is a song I really like. What makes the band a little different is they are Christian metal. Those aren't usually associated together but there are a number of bands like them. I have seen very little of Gundam 00 but when I came across this AMV it just seemed to work. The lyrics play their part but the editing fuses well with the sound.

Sasuke Featuring "Not Ready to Die" by Avenged Sevenfold

A7X is another band I enjoy. This song was originally made for the Call of the Dead DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops but upon seeing this I was surprised how well it turned out. This AMV contains footage from Naruto far beyond where I've watched. However, the content provided with the song does pretty well with the fight scenes and the telling of how Sasuke isn't going to quit until he does whatever it is he wants to do.

Seras Victoria Featuring "In Waves" by Trivium

Trivium is a band I've only just got into since I'm trying to delve deeper into the harder center of metal. The song only came out last year I think but I'm glad someone used it. That being said, the scenes used work quite well since most of what you see is enemy waves coming. Maybe the lyrics don't quite match up you can't really say the intro isn't pretty cool.

Black Lagoon Featuring "Public Enemy No. 1" by Megadeth

I admit I'm not a big Megadeth fan but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the older crews of metal. This AMV features scenes from all parts of Black Lagoon and I find the editing really good. Not to mention just how suiting the song is considering the scenes used and knowledge of all the happenings in the series. In the world of Black Lagoon there is certainly no shortage of heinous characters.

Seras Victoria Featuring "Waking the Demon" by Bullet For My Valentine

Ok, yes, it seems pretty shotty of me to put another Hellsing Ultimate AMV in here but trust me. Bullet is one of my favorite bands, and though this isn't their heaviest song, it is very suiting the scenes pieced together here. I also like the flashes of negative that go along with the drums. Vampires have demons, too, wouldn't you say?

Bleach Featuring "This War is Ours (The Guillotine II)" by Escape the Fate

Escape the Fate is more metalcore/screamo but I like the Guillotine trilogy the band has done. And I know many of you are disgusted I brought in a Bleach AMV considering there are so damn many of them (along with DBZ and Naruto) that it isn't even funny. But this one is a quick combination of many fight scenes and I found the editing to be pretty good.

Conclusion

So that's what I have for you Vicers. I hope to find more well done AMVs to songs I like but I try to keep away from ones made of the Big Four (I haven't found any I like yet for Fairy Tail). When you look for AMVs is there something in particular you want to find? I prefer searching by band name instead of by anime and I have been happy to find so many people like metal and anime enough to put them together.

I have been thinking about   Naruto  and how much I hate it and then I realized why I hate it's because the two main characters (Naruto and Sasuke) are Gary Stu's. I mean the manga should be about  Rock Lee  he is a true underdog a ninja cursed with no ninjutsu having to fight demons and people with Bullshit Eyes that can make ramen, copy moves, make fire, summon a samurai, slow down time, teleport, see through things, evolve, drive cars, control space and time, play basketball, and mind control people. 

  Lee has learned how to open the first five of eight chakra gates , a feat that is difficult for even the most talented ninja.  Lee is only allowed to use them in life  or  death situations or when protecting someone he loves unlike Naruto’s clones and Sasuke eyes. The gates are basically natural steroids it’s kind of like Goku’s kaio ken all it does is boost his natural skills. Lee also has the ability to use Drunken Fist which is him using another fighting style to whoop ass.

Rock Lee has the Reverse Lotus which he learned this move by training his ass of and its just him beating his opponent down then using his arm band to pull them back into the air for the killing blow ala spiderman or scorpion. BADASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

    

Get the picture? They are boring as hell they are both confused little boys that are to powerful and that makes them boring.    

  You can hate all you want but just remember its just my opinion.    

He would whoop anybody's ass if they weren't half demon or didn't have super eyes. 

Bleach and Naruto are some of my favroite Manga series. Some characters have disapperaed so I'm wondering are they dead or what?

Grimmjow, Nel, Yamato, Hiyori it be nice to know if they're alive dead.

I'll be honest, there's a lot of things that I wanted to watch throughout this week that I haven't, just out of work issues, so instead of looking at a few specific anime, I'm just going to give some sporadic thoughts on the stuff that I have been watching over the last week.

Honey and Clover and MajiKoi?

So looking through Netflix, the series Honey and Clover caught my eye again. I keep meaning to watch it, but for some reason I usually fall into a show that's not to be named, (at least until later), but this weekend I decided with a day off from work to load up Honey and Clover. I was struck at how similar the situations that the show has reflects what's being done so poorly in MajiKoi. There's a downward mechanic between Rika, Takumi, and Ayumi which matches up with the same mechanic that's in MajiKoi's Momoyo, Yamato, and Miyako. The difference is that Honey and Clover uses this as a side story, and there's a real relationship developing in the foreground, while in MajiKoi this mechanic is in the foreground, and is charged with enough nudity and innuendo to choke an elephant. It's just interesting to see how the same dynamic is handled so differently between the two shows, but not as interesting as the fact that while I figured I was going to drop the show, I had the misfortune of watching the sixth episode. The only positive I'll take out of a half hour of phallic imagery and fellatio jokes is the fact that it reminded me that I really should play "Shadows of the Damned" at some point, if for no other reason than because I hear the phallic jokes in the game are from all reports actually funny.

Chie vs Ai, FIGHT!

A lot of words were spent about Persona 4's fifth episode, which included two social links, and a catfight between Chie Satonaka and Ai Ebihara. I made my thoughts on Ai known when I was looking ahead to the series and made my dislike for the nouveax riche Ebihara known. Yes, the catfight and people's lack of reaction to it might have seemed out of place, but I couldn't help but have my own internal "Yay!/Boo!" dialogue going through my head as they hauled off on each other. If you really want to take anything away from the fifth episode of Persona 4, take this away. Kou has great taste in women, and most people on Whiskey Media would agree, Chie over all. Now granted, I'm a fan of redheads, so Rise's more my speed, but damned if Chie's not great.

Some great shows just remain great

I posted a few weeks ago about how much I was enjoying Fate/Zero, and that it was challenging Last Exile for that last slot in the Super Six. After watching the sixth episode, it's made it's way on the list, bouncing Last Exile out of the list. This isn't to say that Last Exile has become worse, it's still really good, it's just that as the action ratchets up in Fate/Zero, it's place on the list wasn't going to be denied. It's actually moved not only on the list, but up the list as well, becoming one of my favorite shows of the season. Assassin's remaining in the shadows, as a good assassin should, Caster's made himself known (and has mistaken Saber for Jeanne D'Arc instead of King Arthur), and it'll be interesting if we see a bit more background on Berserker soon, as he's been shown but not really examined, and the side story of his master is one of the more interesting motivations anyone has in this Holy Grail War. The list as it stands is as such right now:

1. Chihayafuru
2. Mawaru Penguindrum
3. Mirai Nikki
4. Fate/Zero (*)
5. Persona 4: The Animation
6. Bakuman Season 2

(* Fate/Zero joins the list for the first time, Last Exile ~Fam, the Silver Wing~ finds itself off the list.)

Bakuman was nearing an exit from the list as well until the arc with Mashiro's health came into play. It's a good time to reintroduce Azuki Miho back to the group, and to show that silly promises don't mean as much as each other's health and suffering. Mashiro's hell bent on drawing, but the preview for the next episode makes it clear that a certain someone's about to step in and put an end to this in order to give Mashiro time to have his surgery and recover from the issues which are causing his failing health. Last Exile would have stayed around if not for that twist in Bakuman's story, which cemented how dear those characters have become over thirty episodes.

There are shows which are not to be named.

This is more an observation from a time where I owned a comic book and hobby store, there were four shows I found that if you were starting to watch them or read the manga, I would always advise people new to the series to hold their tongue and never mention they were watching or reading these things until they were fully caught up. The four shows of death should be obvious, but in case they're not, they are Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and Death Note. A true story about Naruto, is that my son when he was little started watching Naruto when going to bed. We always kept a few episodes on the DVR when Cartoon Network started showing them, because it got to the point where an episode of "Ruto" almost became the signal to the little one that it was time to be quiet, and by the end of the episode, sleep was usually not far behind.

I did most of the Naruto watching with my son, but my wife began watching too, and one day in the shop she made the fatal mistake of mentioning that she was watching it. Someone enthusiastically asked what episode she was on and she said 53, at which time he started going into what happend in episode 53... OF NARUTO SHIPPUDEN. Yes, roles had changed, friends were now enemies, enemies were now friends, and the dynamics built over 220 episodes were completely ruined for her. She's never watched another episode of Naruto since that day. If you're new to anime, and watching any of these series, do not tell your anime loving friends, for the love of god that you are. Watch some short form stuff, but until you're current, keep these shows a dirty dark secret. And for most of the people reading, remember that like with video games, flexing your deep rich knowledge of the thing you love doesn't make it so that new people regard you as an expert, but more of a braggadocio know it all that's to be avoided. Recommend, but never spoil, these great things and let the person new to anime bring you what wonderful things you find, and then discuss those things with them, and maybe make some recommendations based on what they like. A friend who comes to me and liked Usagi Drop will get a Wandering Son reference if they wish there was a bit more meat on the bone. Someone who likes K-On! will get an Azumanga Daioh recommendation from me if they loved how cute that show is.

But if they liked Hetalia, I still don't know what I'd tell them. :) That show's just a beast unto itself. (Use the comments, what would you recommend to a new anime watcher who's only exposure to anime is Hetalia and wants to watch something else?)

The Queue is Closed!

Hopefully next week I'll return to having a little more structure to the blog, but this week's been so sporadic with my anime watching, that it was little things that caught my attention instead of sweeping opinions on any series in general.