Naruto Shippuden Episode #500 - SERIES FINALE DISCUSSION

[DangerMouse]

This is some fairy tail music

[ben0119]

Great OST here.  This composer is awesome.

You end it there?!  Show us the damn wedding, damn it!

[DangerMouse]

Edited September 1 by DangerMouse

[DangerMouse]

Just now, ben0119 said:

Great OST here.  This composer is awesome.

Yeah, I love this music composer!

[CorbeauKarasu]

THE END

[ben0119]

1 minute ago, DangerMouse said:

This is some fairy tail music

This guy is the same composer for Fairy Tail and Testament of Sister New Devil, right?  That show also has some Fairy Tail-sounding music.  He's really good.

[OwlChemist81]

"Ok, are you ready!?"

REALLY!?

No vows? No wedding bells? No everlasting kiss with applause?

What the hell!?

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/naruto-shippuden/episode-500/.113831

Yeah, B- sounds about right.

...turn the page!

[ben0119]

Well, it's officially OVER.

I liked the concept of this series and how it started out, but didn't like the idea of Sasuke leaving and not being brought back, or that we were supposed to sympathize with him in the first place.  Never mind the weakly built friendship with Naruto.  That's probably why I didn't continue the series on my own after it left Toonami.  Then, in Shippuden, the story went even more off the rails.

Still, it's cool to see it all come to fruition finally.  And I like Naruto and Hinata together. 

[Dark_Cloud_Overhead]

2 minutes ago, ben0119 said:

Great OST here.  This composer is awesome.

You end it there?!  Show us the damn wedding, damn it!

Yeah, gotta say I feel a little cheated. Oh well. Honestly, I can't even remember when Naruto actually reciprocated Hinata's feelings. Did i just miss that? ::googles:: Ahhhh... Okay, so it was in a movie "The Last" where it happens apparently. Now I'm gonna have to see if I can find that to watch somewhere later on.

[ben0119]

8 minutes ago, OwlChemist81 said:

And THAT is why Sarada exists in Bort!

At least Sarada is a lot better character than either of her parents.

[ben0119]

1 minute ago, Dark_Cloud_Overhead said:

Yeah, gotta say I feel a little cheated. Oh well. Honestly, I can't even remember when Naruto actually reciprocated Hinata's feelings. Did i just miss that? ::googles:: Ahhhh... Okay, so it was in a movie "The Last" where it happens apparently. Now I'm gonna have to see if I can find that to watch somewhere later on.

I think it happened in the series too but not as outright.  He did program her against Pain.  So that The Last movie is canon?

[DangerMouse]

10 minutes ago, ben0119 said:

This guy is the same composer for Fairy Tail and Testament of Sister New Devil, right?  That show also has some Fairy Tail-sounding music.  He's really good.

Yup, that's the one.

[Dark_Cloud_Overhead]

Yeah, apparently it's considered canon. One of the only ones that is. Don't think it's officially available anywhere for streaming unfortunately. Actually, nevermind. I guess it is. I guess whatever I was reading that said otherwise before was outdated.

Edited September 1 by Dark_Cloud_Overhead

[DangerMouse]

8 minutes ago, ben0119 said:

Well, it's officially OVER.

I liked the concept of this series and how it started out, but didn't like the idea of Sasuke leaving and not being brought back, or that we were supposed to sympathize with him in the first place.  Never mind the weakly built friendship with Naruto.  That's probably why I didn't continue the series on my own after it left Toonami.  Then, in Shippuden, the story went even more off the rails.

Still, it's cool to see it all come to fruition finally.  And I like Naruto and Hinata together. 

Same, Naruto and Hinata is a good ending.

[Sketch]

A fine final episode though what a tease to not show the ceremony. Seeing Iruka and Naruto's relationship come to this conclusion was nice. I think he's much more of a big brother than a father figure but he did somewhat raise the kid.

It's a happy ending for Naruto, Hinata and pretty much everyone. Because I fell off of Shippuden early on and only occasionally glanced back at it, it kind of feels like my High School reunion with people I haven't seen in decades.

All that said, WTF Toonami you didn't do ANYTHING for the occasion? No mention in the block intro, no promo, no tribute video, not even bumps specific to the wedding. Absolutely nothing. Business as usual and they didn't even get a tape from Viz that contained the full ending sequence for the final episode. Total bullshit. This is not how you send off a show that has been airing for a decade. This is emblematic of how lifeless Toonami has become. Sure they made a new video game review but why do that right now instead of celebrate this show in any way at all? You had Steve in a recording session for that review and the intro for the RickAniMorty block debut and you couldn't have him say a few words for the end of Naruto Shippuden? They make bumps for marathons for pete sake but won't do special bumps for this? They really aren't allowed to do anything fun besides game reviews now it seems and I'm not sure why they even bother with those when most aren't sponsored. The absolute state of the Toonami experience right now...

[Toonamiguy321]

1 hour ago, Sketch said:

All that said, WTF Toonami you didn't do ANYTHING for the occasion? No mention in the block intro, no promo, no tribute video, not even bumps specific to the wedding. Absolutely nothing. Business as usual and they didn't even get a tape from Viz that contained the full ending sequence for the final episode. Total bullshit. This is not how you send off a show that has been airing for a decade. This is emblematic of how lifeless Toonami has become. Sure they made a new video game review but why do that right now instead of celebrate this show in any way at all? You had Steve in a recording session for that review and the intro for the RickAniMorty block debut and you couldn't have him say a few words for the end of Naruto Shippuden? They make bumps for marathons for pete sake but won't do special bumps for this? They really aren't allowed to do anything fun besides game reviews now it seems and I'm not sure why they even bother with those when most aren't sponsored. The absolute state of the Toonami experience right now...

Usually I just like to joke about how mad I am but am legitimately disappointed by this. It didn’t have to be huge. TOM and Sara could have done a little “haha that was long huh” and that would have been enough. And I gave Demarco the benefit of the doubt the entire night. 
 

Ok it wasn’t in the intro, it’s 2 hours into the night after all

Ok it wasn’t at the start of the episode because it’s a sendoff

Ok it’s not at the end of the episode either…

Really thought this would be a rare time Demarco follows through on a promise. But thank our stars we had time for another literally who indietrash game nobody cares about. We just don’t get enough of those these days, do we? 
 

Just you watch, come October they will port over OG Naruto or restart Boruto and Demarco will be like “Naruto didn’t need a sendoff cause it wasn’t going anywhere! :)”

Edited September 1 by Toonamiguy321

[[classic swim]]

RIP random video game catching a fade over Naruto. 

[Jman]

Toonami finished the run of literally one of the biggest anime in the past few decades, one big enough that a mere comic crossover with the Ninja Turtles lit the internet up, one that is getting a live-action movie from the director of Shang Chi, and this is what they did for it.  Nothing.  DeMarco’s excuse seems easy enough - 

[Sketch]

It requires basically no money. If they had Steve for a 2 hour session recently (VA standard) for the game review and the special intro for RAMTA they easily could have had him record some lines about saying goodbye to Shippuden.

They didn’t even mention the show was leaving on Facebook. You would only notice Shippuden wasn’t on the schedule anymore if you cared enough to look carefully at the schedule image itself. It’s like they don’t want to admit it’s gone.

[MasqueradeOverture]

The entire concept of Shippuden was broken, as if it was written by a severely neurodivergent child whose never interacted with another human. The only real way for it to have made any sense was if it were a Sasuke Vader story. His radicalization is too deep, thus it's up to Naruto and Sakura to come to terms with what he's done and take him down (with a possible "Redemption Death" as the extra saison).

It really warrants it's own alt-story, like a Pluto type deal.

[Jman]

1 hour ago, MasqueradeOverture said:

The entire concept of Shippuden was broken, as if it was written by a severely neurodivergent child whose never interacted with another human. The only real way for it to have made any sense was if it were a Sasuke Vader story. His radicalization is too deep, thus it's up to Naruto and Sakura to come to terms with what he's done and take him down (with a possible "Redemption Death" as the extra saison).

It really warrants it's own alt-story, like a Pluto type deal.

Getting someone with Urasawa’s skill and control freak personality to do an AU for Naruto ala Pluto would be amazing for numerous reasons, not all of which I’m sure are positive.

Edited September 1 by Jman

[rpgamer]

...Why tf is anyone even upset at a lack of any sendoff? I mean.. shit, none of the other shows ever really get any acknowledgement when they leave. "But Naruto is huge!!" So? It's also so bogged down with filler and atrocious writing that nobody who truly cares that it's leaving was ever waiting week to week to tune in. The actual story ended months ago, it's not like this finale was actually some major to-do wrapping all the things up. We've gotten inconsequential fluff for half a year now. What is there to send off other than to say "thank fuck that's finally over"?

It's just not even worth the effort to give it any extra attention as a "finale" since none of this adds anything of value to the story. The story which ended back in March.

[PokeNirvash]

What a long, strange trip it's been... I was still in elementary school when Naruto first premiered in the U.S., and now here I am with a job and apartment and bills and taxes and all that stuff. It's insane that I stuck around this long, but I'm so glad I did.

17 hours ago, Top Gun said:

Our long national nightmare is over. 

17 hours ago, Mr. Idea Box said:

I am completely surprised that Naruto somehow aired the entire story on Toonami's airwaves. Sure, there have been some setbacks throughout history, the four-year gap that allowed for Disney X.D. to scoop up the rights being chief among them...

Not to mention the last eleven episodes of the OG season never airing on Cartoon Network. Sure, they were part of Filler Hell, but the last one actually had Naruto and Jiraiya leaving the village, setting up the timeskip to begin with, so it's still a loss.

14 hours ago, Dark_Cloud_Overhead said:

Do those two ever walk on their feet anymore? LOL

Gai's wheelchair-bound, on his hands is the only way he can walk. Lee, on the other hand, is simply in it for the challenge.

14 hours ago, ben0119 said:

You end it there?!  Show us the damn wedding, damn it!

14 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

REALLY!?

No vows? No wedding bells? No everlasting kiss with applause?

What the hell!?

14 hours ago, Sketch said:

A fine final episode though what a tease to not show the ceremony.

You want the ceremony? Do as DarkCloudOverhead said and watch The Last, the ceremony's all in the ending credits. Better yet, watch this video.

[Toonamiguy321]

3 hours ago, Sketch said:

It’s like they don’t want to admit it’s gone.

Probably even moreso since they have nothing to replace it

30 minutes ago, rpgamer said:

...Why tf is anyone even upset at a lack of any sendoff? I mean.. shit, none of the other shows ever really get any acknowledgement when they leave. "But Naruto is huge!!" So? It's also so bogged down with filler and atrocious writing that nobody who truly cares that it's leaving was ever waiting week to week to tune in. The actual story ended months ago, it's not like this finale was actually some major to-do wrapping all the things up. We've gotten inconsequential fluff for half a year now. What is there to send off other than to say "thank fuck that's finally over"?

It's just not even worth the effort to give it any extra attention as a "finale" since none of this adds anything of value to the story. The story which ended back in March.

It’s not about the content of the show. It’s that it’s FIVE HUNDRED episodes long and somehow the block managed to air every single one across multiple business and administration restructures without someone coming in and cancelling it early, or the block failing and getting canned entirely. Yea, other shows didn’t get a sendoff, because other shows weren’t 500 episodes long. Iirc Bleach got a sendoff, and only the last quarter of that aired on Toonami itself. 
 

A lot of us are relieved to see it end, but that’s kinda lost in the fact it does not, and likely will not get a proper replacement. But, just because we are happy to see it go doesn’t mean we don’t want to see it given a little earned respect for airing in full. Especially, as Sketch pointed out, Blum was very recently in the studio for the R&M special intro and the indietrash game review. A singular 10 second comment by TOM/Sara at the start of the episode would have been enough. 

[Jman]

And naturally The Last is on Netflix because of course it is.  

[Dark_Cloud_Overhead]

Ramen place was.... amazeballs. I've always thought Naruto was weird for liking ramen so much, but now I think I'm weird for thinking he was weird. I guess that's the difference between authentic Japanese ramen and the laughable by comparison, pale imitation that I usually cook up for myself.

[Sketch]

11 minutes ago, Jman said:

And naturally The Last is on Netflix because of course it is.  

Viz added that very recently too. They get it!

Hulu seems to be required to keep the dub uploads about a year behind Toonami so unless people bought the DVD/BD or digital, Toonami was the first way they could have seen dubbed episodes in the past several years. So it’s very nice of Viz to offer The Last on Netflix for those kinds of folks who were following it on Toonami.

[Jman]

Even if Toonami didn’t give the show a big send off, it’s worth noting just how big Naruto was and is for that matter.  How else do you explain our blonde idiot ninja becoming synonymous with ramen as a food in certain places?  I still remember a few years back, coming across a ramen place with an outdoor signboard drawing Naruto’s face on it.  “Dattebayo!”

The original manga started in the “we don’t discuss this shit in good company” era.  Now?  On a morning bike ride, I came across a family walking a baby on a stroller, and the dad, middle aged, was wearing an Ichikaru Ramen T-shirt with Naruto’s face on it.  That’s twenty plus years of manga, anime and games right there ingrained in people as they grew up.

What’s next?  A movie in pre-production that if it does get made, well, odds are the director will want Brie Larson to play Tsunade (the director and Larson have collaborated frequently).  More games, more Boruto stuff.  For all the negative one can say, it’s a property that’s firmly etched in pop culture.

[Otakuninja9000]

It's crazy how this show just ended after so long.