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The common Naruto Fan Reaction to the Naruto Episode
Because you asked for, and boy did you ask for it, Neil and I, along with Pablo Praino(interrupted from eating Tacos just to do this, TACOS!) come back once again to talk Naruto. But first, we explain our method of operation. We don’t need to watch every single episode of a show to say it’s bad or doesn’t grab you. I usually give a show about 8 episodes. I think that’s more than fair. But just to be even more fair, I read the whole manga. Pablo did more research too.
Topics Covered
Why Our Method Works
Not retracting a damn thing
Ok, it’s not 30 episodes of screaming
The endgame villain is still lame
Ninja Jesus!
Great rebuttal, but it was unnecessary since you guys basically got Naruto in the first podcast. Anyway, hope you guys do One Piece in the future
Agreed screw Naruto One Piece is better and greatly absurd.
We’ll get One Piece. Ben just had a brain fart and declared the ending of Shounen Jump too early.
Dude if you don’t like Naruto, fine don’t, but most of the criticism could be applied to the shounen genre itself, the dragging, the melodrama, the super-positive message that’s constantly reaffirmed, but the only particular grip that you guys have with it is that the series failed to grab your interest, which is fine, the mileage always vary from people to people.
Here is the thing, you people have only three responses to your subjects, you either like, you are indifferent or you despise it with a passion so strong, so complete that’s unreasonable, it’s absurd how insulted you are with it’s existence, “look at this thing that happened in this it sucked and this other thing that happened too it sucked too because”. Man!
Bring it down people, it’s not bad, it’s just not for you.
So either we like something, are indifferent, or don’t like it. Yep, that’s usually the three options. Maybe we could add a fourth options where we’re perplexed by a show.
Yes, sometimes we (usually Ben) carries on for several episodes about a show that is unliked (usually something involving either John Semper or Ralph Bakshi), but even those are in the minority. And usually, if it’s something like that, it’s done because we think it’s funny.
For example, we’re constantly bashing Filmation. But it’s not that I’m so offended by Filmation that I feel the need to carry on about it. It’s because Filmation really was so bad that it’s become a running gag for me.
And here’s a situation where I have to again bring up the fact that we get shit no matter what we do. If we watch less than half the show, we get slammed for not watching enough of it. If we actually make it to the end, then we’re being passionate haters. I feel like with a show like Naruto, we’re going to get attacked no matter what we say.
This was a show where we tried to explain the criteria of how we do our reviews. That’s what it is.
“Bring it down people, it’s not bad, it’s just not for you.”
You can say that about any show.
I get it, I know the “hate” reviews are a minority and I don’t condone the backlash you guys receive for your unpopular opinions.
I just felt that you were unfair in your criticism of this series, Ben already had his opinion formed beforehand and when he forced himself to read the manga his annoyance only grew with the experience since he really didn’t want to go through it, but of course if the series doesn’t appeal to him I’m not gonna fault him for that, we’re all different and have different tastes.
I really do think it’s one of the best things Shounen Jump has put out in the last decade, specially the second phase, there is some really solid writing in there, but please don’t think I’m a crazy Naruto fanboy, I know those can be really annoying and unreasonable people to put it lightly. It certainly isn’t the best thing SJ has ever put out and I actually abandoned the series for a while, along with all the other SJ I was reading because Shounen stile can be really grating, but when I came back, Naruto was the only one that I keep reading because it really surprised me how good it got.
But of course, your mileage may vary, not going to fault diverse opinion and it’s your show you say what you will. And I really do like your show.
Just finished listening.
I do wish that you guys had me on the show since u did make an offer for a Naruto fan to come on the show and share why they felt the series is good. I was ready and waiting to join the fray. What happened? I think it would have made for a much more insightful and entertaining show. I mean, essentially, as you guys said, you had your minds made up from the little you did see of the show and the whole tone of this podcast was basically “i dislike naruto because a, b and c.” Which is fine of course. I just don’t know what the rush was to do a follow up show if you didn’t have a Naruto enthusiast on deck to provide more balance to the discussion.
There were loads of points throughout the show where something was said and I was like “no, that’s not what happened. THIS is what happened”. For example, when Ben was overlysimplifying the reason why Itachi wiped out the Uchiha by simply saying it turns out Sasukes whole clan was evil and that’s why they were wiped out. Well no, that’s not what happened. They weren’t evil at all. The village essentially oppressed the Uchiha Clan by pushing them to only reside in one corner of the village. They also made the Uchiha in charge of Konohas police force but this just served as a way for Konohas government to easily monitor the clans actions because they feared that the Uchiha would rebel against the system. It’s even a lot deeper than that but even if the Uchiha did simply plan to overthrow the village, saying that “they were killed because they were evil” just isn’t an honest account of what actually happened. It’s things like that that made me wish I was on the show to provide a better insight as to what really went down. And these were all things explained within the anime and manga so its not like u had to have read some random side naruto novel to get that info.
There were loads more situations where similar things were said or facts were painfully overly simplified to make the series sound pretty stupid and simplistic but I don’t want to make this comment a whole page long. Lol.
Also, I heard someone mention “believe it” a few times or give reference to the English dub version. Now Im not one of those horrible Japanese only weaboos. Shows like Full Metal Alchemist, Gurren Lagann and Bleach have considerably good English dubs that I reccomend for ppl to watch if they don’t like to read subs. But Narutos dub is notoriously bad and to be fair to you guys, I would not blame anyone not getting beyond 13 episodes if u were watching the English dub. It is THAT bad…. believe It…
Sorry.
But yeah, really wish I was on but I don’t think naruto needs or deserves a third show with a guest who is a fan of the series on deck with you guys so I think the ship has long sailed. Please move on to Legend of Korra! The show turned out to be Terrible compared to last airbender. I’d like to see this disscussed since the season is finished. And I’d be glad to join u for that discussion.
“I do wish that you guys had me on the show since u did make an offer for a Naruto fan to come on the show and share why they felt the series is good. I was ready and waiting to join the fray. What happened? I think it would have made for a much more insightful and entertaining show.”
Huh?
I told you why. By the time you offered, we already had the thing recorded. I initiated the response show, because I wanted to explain our position on reviewing shows. I hadn’t even anticipated that Ben would do a more formal rebuttal about the content of the show.
We had arranged to have you on the show in October, which you accepted. I’m not sure why you don’t want to do it now.
I don’t mind doing it. It just would have made more sense to have done both a rebuttal and have me on at the same time, instead of doing this response episode, then do another Naruto episode with me on later down the line. Also I confused your comment with thinking it meant you were recording it that following Thursday and not that you had recorded it already:
“Fortunately, EarthBenderCharlie was kind enough to give me what I asked for (by the way, thank you, EBC), and I have ordered an emergency “respond to the listeners” episode to hear Ben’s side of the whole DBZ comparison and hear from Pablo as well.
Look forward to our response next Thursday. Good DAY to you, sir!”
You can have me on in October or whenever you wan’t to discuss it, I was just concerned if by that time, the topic would be a dead horse.
I’m surprised you guys actually did this usually you do one show state you’re arguments / opinions and let it go but I can understand trying to explain things to a fanbase that does not agree with you .
There were a number of things that set this off. Not only was the Naruto episode heavily criticized, but in a single week, we got a number of attacks on various episodes about anime. And a lot of them were themed the same way.
“It’s not a bad show. You’re just not the target audience.”
:Who are you to criticize? If you don’t like how cartoons of a certain demographic are made, then make your own.”
“You’re attacking a kid’s show.”
“You should watch most or all of the show before reviewing.”
These sorts of criticisms make me so angry, because they’re made to move the goal post. I’ve done enough episodes of this podcast that people should know what I think of shows that are not “evergreens” and why the “you’re not the right audience” argument doesn’t fly. Or worse, when I explain my position and the other party insists on being belligerent with me. It is a trigger for me, and I probably should let it go, but that’s why I felt the need to do record something.
My response was summed up in the opening monologue. It’s all I really wanted to say. Ben wanted to go more into detail. That’s fine. I suppose I could have simply done a write-up so that it wasn’t so much about Naruto and more directed at the ridiculous amount of backlash that we got on this, our Carl Macek show, and the Teen Titans episode. All within hours of one another.
I compose myself pretty well on the show, but I was kind of angry.
That’s totally understandable man and to be honest I would have thought there would ave been more backlash for the let’s say more
controversial podcasts like Akira or GITS but whatever it may be it seems to be a cardinal sin to even speak ill of anything anime now I mean if this is the feedback for Naruto imagine if you did a Hayao Miyazaki podcast that did not match the public opinion .
I liked Spirited Away…. Princess Mononoke is ok, but a bit overrated.
I like the fantasy based Ghibli fine it’s just the slice of life stuff I find boring I would even take Tales from Earthsea of Whispers of the heart any day but I still think Castle of Cagliostro is one of the best Miyazaki films to date even though its not a Ghibli banner film .