Naruto, Volume 48: The Cheering Village

Things happened in this volume! It was a little less chaotic than several of the previous volumes, and I was glad to see some of the characters (like Kakashi!) weren't truly dead. I growled a bit when Danzo was named 6th Hokage and cheered when all the villagers were happy to see that Naruto succeeded. Naruto has come a long way, as far as villager acceptance goes. If it weren't for the series' long, drawn out storylines, I could easily imagine him being named Hokage within 10 volumes. As it is, it's probably not going to happen for at least the next 100.

As happy as I was to see some of the character deaths undone, I also considered this to be major cheating on Kishimoto's part. Either kill characters or don't. Fake deaths are just a show more cheap way to manipulate readers' emotions. Speaking of emotional manipulation, as sad as Pain's past was, for some reason it didn't affect me nearly as much as learning all the details of Sasuke and Itachi's pasts. Maybe I've become numb to it all.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Resolution and wind down. I couldn't be happier. So much had just happened, I wanted to get perspective and place the significance upon the rest of the ninja world. It was such a wonderful sight when the whole village came out to praise Naruto. The flashbacks of the exact opposite being so true for so long really pinned it in my heart, too.

Now Danzo, the evil prick, has taken over as 6th hokoge. Grrrr.

Yaay ! Naruto saves the day . Yaay!
I hated this episode.
The sequence with pain , did not manage to bring new emotion.
The tragedy was well expected.
Hated how Naruto actually changed the heart of pain.
Very immature volume.
Hated it .
Expected much more from Pein.