Solo Tremaine

[COLOR=#503F86]I really liked this chapter, actually. Seeing Naruto unable to answer Pein about his ideals was pretty clever, and adds to his character. The two sides of Naruto/Pein's argument is actually a fairly logical division. For reasonable people, Pein doesn't make sense, which is good. But Nagato even admitted that what he's conducting is effectually revenge, but with a different name. It's difficult to make the distinction between revenge and justice, although justice generally attests to an act which benefits multiple people or rights a wrong that was previously commited, as opposed to 'an eye for an eye', which benefits fewer people but may seem more [I]fair[/I], depending on the system of justice. If you think Naruto's worls is built around wars and conflict, then every person has the potential to be an agent of the revenge Pein was talking about. In order for a war to stop, you have to either take one side and become the dominator, or wipe out enough of all sides that there's nothing left to fight about. And it would make for an even less exciting story if Akatsuki went round giving flowers and puppies to everyone in the world, and Naruto had to pursue them only to find out if they were members of the Kennel Club.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]If it isn't Shinmaru's fault, something is very wrong.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]I am incredibly irritated by the lack of intelligence the rest of Konoha appears to have. Shikamaru, with all his plans, can't even think of a decent support scenario for Naruto, and Ino's Dad has [I]only just now[/I] realised something about Pein that the audience knew months ago. Bad writing.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]"There's an old saying that goes 'People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'. Okay, I'm cool with that. But how about 'Nobody should throw stones'? My policy is 'No stone throwing regardless of housing situation'." - [B]Demetri Martin[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]If you like living dolls and dogs then be my guest, but I accept no responsibility for the loss of friends, family, and legal status o_o;[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]He needs a better set of pyjamas, though. He looks awful >.>[/COLOR]

[quote name='Magus'][spoiler]Maybe Sasuke'll adopt a child and implant Itachi's eyes into it...[/spoiler][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]*laughs* That reminds me of the scene in [I]Hot Shots[/I] where Topper Harley is told he has 'his father's eyes', then he takes out a glasses case to look at them ^_^;[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]Yeah, there's a lot of emotion riding on the battle, and I don't think it's the place for humour. There was barely any when we got into the meat of the Rescue Rukia arc. Aside from moments in the infirmary and with Yoruichi, from Ichigo vs Renji onwards things took a turn for the serious.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]Come on though, are there any male characters in Naruto you could consider having a decent relationship with? Naruto, now, at his most mature is probably the most interesting and well-developed, personality wise. Lots of baggage, though. And this tendency to get hunted by arcane uber-shinobi. Lee = Insane, bad taste in clothes Sasuke = WHAT ARE YOU [I]THINKING[/I]?! Neji = Boring Chouji = If you have a food fetish, then go for it Shikamaru = Gripe, gripe, gripe... Shino = If you can actually get him to talk, you're probably in Kiba = If you can get him to talk about something other than himself, you're probably in Gaara = That's an uphill struggle right there. Don't expect any appreciation for a few years. Kankuro = There is nothing special about Kankuro, except that he wears a romper suit. I wouldn't. Sai = Actually... Sai might work. Yeah, go for Sai. We'll all point and laugh until a few months down the line we realise it's actually working quite well, then eat our hats. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]I almost did with [B]Okami[/B]. [spoiler]It actually takes a little more explaining than this because it's quite an involved plot, but right in the heart of the last battle you're stripped of all your powers. This tiny guy called Issun who had been travelling around with you for the entire game but couldn't enter the final chambers is running around the world, painting thousands of drawings of you to restore people's faith in you and they all start recounting the things you've done for them throughout the game, and their praise restores your powers and helps you completely kick this monster's face into oblivion.[/spoiler] It's incredibly moving/inspiring. It perhaps didn't help that I bought the soundtrack before completing the game and fell in love with a piece of music near the end. I didn't realise that was going to start up on the reprise of the final battle, heh ^_^;[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]Wow, this week's chapter's thrown the battle back round again. [spoiler]Naruto's crushed all but two Peins, but Deva Pein's got his energy back and fires the three Boss Frogs out of Konoha using Shinra Tensei. Naruto tries to attack again but it caught from behind by the Pein That Absorbs Chakra (forgotten it's proper name) and falls unconscious. He's now captured, apparently. Oh, and still nobody else is allowed to interfere with the battle, for no real reason. Although Hinata tried to.[/spoiler] I enjoyed it ^_^[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]I'm only on the second DVD, but it's very entertaining so far, hehe. I wasn't so sure about the first episode when it first came on, but after that I warmed to it very quickly. The production values are consistently high throughout, which is a great relief and fairly unusual. I'm definitely buying up the rest of the series as soon as I has the munnies.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Shinmaru'] [URL="http://otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=59011"][B]Until Proven Guilty: The Court Records of Ace O'Turney, Ace Attorney[/B][/URL] [B]Why is it nifty?[/B] One of the more amusing OB stories in a long line of them that followed the legendary [URL="http://otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=33457"][B]OtakuBoards: Enter the Net[/B][/URL]. I've enjoyed reading each chapter, and I hope Ace is able to find the time to continue it soon.[/quote][COLOR=#503f86]You remember it!! *humps Shin* I'm happy ^_____^ Although I never did get to write The Non-Motion Picture... [/COLOR]

[FONT=Arial][quote name='Lady Asphyxia'][/FONT][FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]Solo! Long time no see. Hope all has been well for you? (I'm living in your neck of the woods now, kind of. Scotland, anyway)[/SIZE][/quote][/FONT][FONT=Arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=#503f86]Rae! *hugs much* Wow, you're in Scotland now? That means I'm paying for your prescriptions and health care, damn joos! Hehe, it's lovely to see you again ^___^ I've been focusing on my book for the last year/two years, and before that I ran a production company that made films and plays. In the meantime I've driven Rolls-Royces, been stabbed in the hand, been to see L'Arc-en-Ciel live, visited America... the usual ^_~ How about you? [quote]Checked out the website; it really is quite good indeed. One thing I will say is that there is a [I]lot[/I] of blue, which at first I wasn't sure if it was a good thing. But I think that's perhaps simply because of the first background -- the complexity of it means that the blue is emphasised. [/quote][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#503f86][quote][SIZE=2]While I understand what you mean about the change in backgrounds being choppy, I don't think that that detracts from the overall effect. And the alternative backgrounds (the prologue background, for example) are wonderful. The simplicity of the background makes it easy to read the story, which is what you ultimately want.[/SIZE][/quote][SIZE=2]Yeah, the blue was the idea I had from the start- it's supposed to be the colour of the crystals featured primarily in the story, and I really wanted it to stand out for that reason. I wanted a few different pictures to act as backdrops, as if parts of the story were somehow written on the walls of the cave infused with these blue crystals, so I traipsed around the garden when we had a heavy frost taking pictures of EVERYTHING on a macro lense, and then photoshopping the heck out of them. I'm glad they look okay, though, even with the choppiness ^_^; [quote]The only thing is that it can take some time to load the pages (particularly the lower ones -- contact, etc) and because there's already a background it seems as if there's nothing there. I'm not sure what you'd do about that, though.[/quote]I might be able to make the pictures smaller files, but for the most part that's Moonfruit's servers stagnating. They get incredibly bad sometimes -___-; I have a few more backgrounds I could use for them though, so I'll take a look at meh folders. [quote]My other recommendation is that you include an option somewhere to read the story as, perhaps, one big text document for people who have bad eyes. The white text on dark background could make it harder for people to read -- having the option of downloading a prologue word document, or moving to another black-text-white page may just make it more user friendly (as a just-in-case.) [/quote]That was my other major worry, so I think I'll create a duplicate page for the stories with a black-on-white (or at least dark on light) text boxes for ease of reading. I know some people have problems reading white on dark. [quote]EDIT: I just went to check the site on IE, and because I don't use IE all that often I don't have the requirements for it. The text-only version of the website is fantastic, too, and the automatic swap is a great idea. (Perhaps you can include a link to the text only for the poor-eyesight people, rather than a document.) Excellent work, and I hope you're published soon! [/quote][/SIZE]Whoops, I forgot to check it on IE ^_^; I switched to Firefox not so long ago and haven't touched it since, so I should really keep up on that. I didn't know you could view a text-only version though, eheh. I don't think I could create a button for that on my website, as much as I'd like: that's where Moonfruit's restrictions come into play, I think. I'll read up on it though. Thanks so much for looking through it all ^______^ I really appreciate it. EDIT: Additionally, I rather like this Arial font... [/COLOR][/FONT]

[quote name='Gavin][SIZE=1']On a side note the shippers are probably going crazy over this[/quote][/SIZE][COLOR=#503F86]URYU X YAMMY!!!! Ahahaha, great. I kill myself now.[/COLOR]

[quote name='jomz']I have not noticed it, but when did Luffy get that armband of his (which was given by Nami) [spoiler] and now in the hands of Buggy. Man, I bet Nami will have a fit if she finds out that Luffy gave up potential treasure...[/spoiler][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]Nah, I reckon he'll be all right. After all, it didn't have any gems on it ^_~ Although [spoiler]if she knew it led to Captain John's treasure, then...[/spoiler] I think for [spoiler]having the crew separated[/spoiler] it gives them a chance to develop even further as individuals with their own adventures. When you have all the characters together the whole time things can start getting repetitive in the way they interact and develop. I'm all up for seeing some new abilities, and I think Oda's created a real winner of a twist in the story here. Maybe... [spoiler]Kuma, like so many others, knows the potential of the future, so even despite his modifications to Pacifista he can see when a new era is going to be brought forward and needs to be accelerated.[/spoiler] Incidentally, I really like [spoiler]Jimbei[/spoiler].[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]I would much rather just read people's posts to get my impression of them than go by an arbitrary star count. It seems a little extraneous to me. And if someone's posted something I don't like I'll either respond appropriately, or report it, if it's really bad. The commuity generally has a way of silently excluding people who aren't liked or of decent quality anyway, so... Eh, or maybe not. I guess I'm not really active enough to judge. I miss talking about Digimon. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]Ah, fair enough. Sorry about that ^_~ I don't imagine Naruto's quite finished yet, though. He can still go Kyuubi on Pein if he needed to. [quote name='Gavin][SIZE=1']Really what annoys me is this fight came off cheap when with the right writing (even if it took ten chapters) could have come off as a decent testament to Naruto's growth in skill.[/SIZE][/quote]Yeah, definitely. I'm still hoping for some kind of redemption for Kakashi, but... well... I guess we'll need to wait for the end of this fight to find out just who out of Chouza, Shizune and Kakashi is really dead. I'm betting Tsunade's going to die or become useless very soon, too. Correction: More useless. [/COLOR]

[quote name='Magus']So... If Naruto missed all those bodies with that attack and sage mode couldn't last afterwards, then what? It's a double-edge sword that shouldn't have been used liked that. And now look where it's got him. Sure it's down to one last body, but in the end he didn't get the job done. [SIZE=1]Unfortunately, I won't quit hatin until I get something good. So, yeah, cheers to ya :)[/SIZE][/quote][COLOR=#503f86]Hang on a sec, let me just... [/COLOR][quote=Magus]As cheap as Sasuke's power-ups... That should be cheaper than Sasuke's power-ups. Going by that spoiler, he just wiped out 5 Pein bodies (5 Akatsuki members I suppose) with one move each... Took everyone else 4-6 chapters to kill a member of Akatsuki. (Sasuke too)[/quote][COLOR=#503f86]Aah yep, there it is :P You can't complain he's unrealistically haxxored and then complain that he's not powerful enough to destroy the last, most powerful of the bodies that he'd already defeated five of. Had we had a greater build-up to the development of Naruto's powers (i.e., the series focusing on NARUTO, such is its name, than Sasuke), this bit wouldn't be so bad. I'm quite enjoying it at the moment.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503F86]They really didn't tear her clothes that much. It hardly seems worth shouting about, heh. I'm still annoyed that Inoue can't really do anything, though. She's had plenty of time to strengthen herself mentally against Aizen's confinement. Presumably she's just twiddled her thumbs the whole time she's been sat up there >.>;[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]Hi everyone ^___^ It's been a while since I ventured outside the confines of the Manga Alley, so apologies to the new crowd who I haven't properly introduced myself to and gotten involved with. Anywho, I'd like a critique of a website I've built from the more net-technically inclined of y'all to see what you think. I know the denizens of OtakuBoards know a good site when they see one, so I value your opinion on this, heh. I created it to spread interest about my Nazreal series of stories (which I hope will turn into books by getting published, eventually), so there's nothing particularly exciting about how it's put together. I built it on Moonfruit (I'm sure that'll send up some alarm bells along the line, heh), so it's hardly extravagant. The biggest niggle I have is that you can't appear to have more than one background; what you initially choose has to stay for the whole site unless you place another image over the top, which I've done, and it looks a bit scrappy at times. Still, I like the overall effect so far, and I'd really appreciate everyone else's views. Plus, you know, some hits :P Linky here: [URL="http://www.nazreal.com"]www.nazreal.com[/URL] Thanks in advance ^__^[/COLOR]

[quote name='Ace'][FONT=Comic Sans MS]...I am a martial artist. A Kata is a series of moves strung together in a pattern that almost looks like a dance. While they would hypothetically work in certain situations, it is STUPID STUPID STUPID to try to actually do them in the middle of a fight to the death.[/FONT][/quote][COLOR=#503f86]Being a martial artist as well, my understanding of katas is that they aren't just moves strung together for the sake of looking like a dance; they're applications of moves as if using them in a particular sequence, or a reference guide for the moves you've learnt. Hence, after learning the kata, you can apply the moves (bunshin) to a combat or sparring situation. If you can assume Naruto's Sage Mode allows him to sense a series of attacks, he might know which parts of the kata would fit the situation. Which seems unrealistic. Either way, it is a slight misappropriatioin by Kishimoto to call it a 'kata' rather than an attack or Frog Fu anyway.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Ace'][FONT=Comic Sans MS]There's this nonsensical cut during this part involving Tsunade and Sakura sharing some kind of sentiment that isn't fully explained because there's too much happening and you can barely recognize what the first two panels are supposed to represent.[/FONT][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]Actually, as I suggested earlier in the thread, it shows the image of Tsunade's body returning to her actual age rather than the visage she protects her 'looks' with. She's old. With regards to Kakashi dying... I'm almost past hope that he's coming back, but I can't help but feel it's mentioned too often for it not to become a point for something else. Like when you build up a storyline for a surprise revelation to come back as something different (Itachi). I have a feeling Kishi would be up for pimping out a storyline like that just to try and build interest in a waning, fairly bloated combat storyline. After all, we were told Jiraiya was dead only twice, once when Pein confirmed it, and once when Tsunade told Naruto. So that's my denial for you.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Raiyuu']I expect next time he DOES need an intensive training mini-arc we'll get some explanation of some things, like the precise reason he can now hold his mask on indefinitely.[/quote][COLOR=#503F86]That is, if there is a next time. I wouldn't be surprised if we were shown a flashback to when he achieved bankai with Yoruichi giving some sort of information that is crucial to be remembered at an upcoming point in a battle, though. He'll probably be told it'll shorten his lifespan, like every inherent power seems to in manga >.>;[/COLOR]

[quote name='Gavin'][SIZE=1]Obviously the only real improvement he could make would be the durability of the clones themselves, but if he managed to do it, it could certainly be counted as another step towards succeeded his teachers. He'd hardly have any need to try to learn his father's jutsu of appearing to be everywhere at once when he could literally be everywhere at once on a battlefield.[/SIZE][/quote][COLOR=#503F86]Well, unless he could make every clone produce a Rasen-Shuriken, that is. I have to agree though; considering the strength of the Itatchi and Kisame clones earlier in the series, durability and widening the jutsu he uses when controlling Kage Bunshin would be cool to see.[/COLOR]