Naruto 3-in-1 11 (volume 31-32-33) Review

I owe a lot of thanks to the person at Viz Media who thought of collecting some of their popular, multi-volume manga into these delightful omnibus editions. It works so well for shonen manga and I’m sure that even non-shonen manga read well in this format. More manga for less money! What’s not to love? Well, if you’re talking about this particular 3-in-1 volume of Naruto, there is one thing. One character, to be exact, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The opening volume to this omnibus, volume 30, includes the final few chapters of the Kazekage Rescue Mission arc. Sakura and Granny Chiyo are fighting Sasori, one of the Akatsuki’s members. With this fight, Masashi Kishimoto has given readers multiples examples of the kind of jutsu and attacks that puppet masters wield in battle. Seeing the experience of Granny Chiyo’s mastery of puppet jutsu used against the powerful and inventive puppet jutsu of her grandson, Sasori, is very enjoyable. Throwing Sakura in the mix and having her show off her surprisingly strong physical attacks simply adds to the enjoyment of this fight and this story arc. It’s also a good showcase of Sakura’s new abilities. This is the first time we see Sakura fight following her training with Tsunade and it’s impressive. I find that Sakura has been grossly underused in Part One and it’s nice to see her get some much deserved attention here. It’s very successful and make for a few great. She’s fearless compared to the younger Sakura we used to know. In this fight she proves to be strong, resourceful, and a commendable team player.

Naruto 3-in-1: volumes 19-20-21 review

Naruto 3-in-1 volume 7 is an omnibus edition of the original volumes 19, 20 and 21. Like all of the previous Naruto omnibus editions, this volume collects a very nice selection of stories. Each volume tells its own story while also serving as satisfying continuation of the series. Volume 19 is the direct continuation of the previous volume’s story. Naruto and Jiraiya have just found Tsunade, another of the Three Legendary Shinobi, and they are trying to convince her to accept the position as the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure village.  Orochimaru and Kabuto are also after Tsunade but their goal is to have her heal Orochimaru’s arms that he can continue with his plot to acquire the Sharingan and destroy Konohagakure.  The whole volume is an extended fight sequence and as exciting as it is to have the Three Legendary Shinobi fight, it was a bit of a disappointing fight. Part of it had to do with the fact that all three were incapacitated in some way. Orochimaru is unable to use his arms since his fight with the Third Hokage. Tsunade is emotionally crippled as she is struggling between her responsibilities as a Konoha ninja and her more selfish goals. Jiraiya, well, he got poisoned by Tsunade in an earlier story. The other reason the fight was a disappointment had to do with the type of fighting. All three used summoning jutsu and the whole fight escalates in scale and it actually becomes less interesting sine the summoned animals (toad, slug and snake) do much of the fighting. Still, it’s not all bad. We get to see some interesting fighting combinations like Gamabunta (the chief toad) spitting out oil and Jiraiya igniting it with a flame ball. It’s also nice to see Kabuto and Tsunade using their medical jutsu to fight.

Volume 20 served as a nice change of pace. It’s breather volume, taking place between a story arc that just finished an another one that is about to begin. Masashi Kishimoto takes the time to catch up on a few of the other characters and develop them further. He spends time shedding new light on Naruto and Sasuke’s mutual friendship and rivalry. He also spends some time on Rock Lee. Lee is still recovering from the injuries he suffered while fighting Gaara in the Chûnin exam. I have to admit I’ve always been a little disturbed by Guy’s teaching techniques. It’s like brainwashing to a degree. Lee is limited in what he can do. He’s only able to do one of the three main types of justsu. Guy acts as if that’s not a handicap at all but it is. He convinces Lee that even without special abilities he’s able to achieve the same heights in fighting abilities as all of the other genin (low-level ninja). Part of Guy’s teachings are true, Lee can still become a great ninja, but what I don’t like about Guy’s message is that he doesn’t seem to acknowledge that everything Lee will achieve will come at a high price. We witnessed Lee’s incredible taijutsu (physical techniques) during his fight we Gaara but it has left him nearly crippled. It’s nice to get to catch up on all the younger ninjas as the series has had some really hectic plot developments and it elevated the series to a whole new level of action and story but a little breather from time to time is nice.

The final volume of this collection, volume 21, is the beginning of a new arc. After being healed by Tsunade and recognizing Naruto’s impressive growth, Sasuke feels like he hasn’t progressed as a ninja as well as he should have. He’s recently been spurred to achieve greater strength following an encounter with his brother, the man on how he will like to get his revenger for annihilating the Uchiha clan. Sasuke departs to join Orochimaru to become stronger. This leads to Tsunade sending out Shikamaru on a mission to bring Sasuke back to Konohagakure. Shikamaru has always been one of my favourite characters in Naruto. I think it’s great that we get to see him actually lead a team. That’s what he is really good at as opposed to one-on-one fighting. He’s a good fighter but being a ninja is more than just being a strong fighter. Giving Shikamaru this mission and having us follow him on it gives the reader a slightly different look at the world of Naruto, a world in which countries military is made up of ninjas. I was pretty excited about this story arc when I first read it and I’m excited about it now, too. Even though Sasuke isn’t one of my favourite characters (he’s too much of a brooder and feels much too sorry for himself) it’s nice to see him get into action. He’s been moping a lot for several volumes now and if he’s serious about getting stronger, he’s got to go out and do something about it. I don’t think he’s going about it the right way but that’s what makes the story interesting. I’m also excited about this arc because we’ll be seeing some of the Genins in action; some in particular we haven’t really seen do much before. 

 

All three volumes collected in this omnibus edition are a tad underwhelming compared to the crazy volumes that preceded it. The series really came into its own as of the 5^th volume, the start of the Chûnin exam. It continued to reach new heights with the end of the exam and Orochimaru’s attack on the village in volume 13. It’s only natural that things started to come down a bit in order to recoup and prepare for the next big storyline. Naruto is also a series that has tons of regular and recurring characters. Kishimoto has regularly been introducing characters since the first volume but in volume 20, he gave the readers the time to catch up with a few characters before starting the next art and though it wasn’t as exciting as some of the stories, I appreciated the change to catch up. The Sasuke Retrieval Team is made up in part of some ninjas we haven’t spent a whole lot of time with before and the spotlight chapters on Choji and his battles (one inner and exterior) for his self-confidence was a rather nice way to start off the new arc. It’s unnecessary to say, but I’m really looking forward to the next 3-in-1 omnibus!

Naruto 3-in-1: volumes 16-17-18 review

Naruto is one of my favourite manga series of all times. It’s also one of the first manga I’ve ever read. It all started when I was in grade 7 or 8, when Shonen Jump was first published here in Canada. I had a friend who would buy every single issue and because he was a kind and generous person he lent it to me every single time. He would read it first and because he knew I wanted to read it after him, he would hurry up and read it as fast as he could which was a big deal because he read slowly. I love all of the series in the first couple of years of Shonen Jump except for Yu-Gi-Oh!.

When I move out of my home town I kept on reading Naruto because I love nearly everything about it. In the last couple of years Viz has been publishing 3-in-1 omnibus editions of popular manga series that have several dozens of volumes. I’ve been collection One Piece and Naruto. I’ve also been interesting in picking up Full Metal Alchemist as I really liked the first anime but I’ll wait until I’ve finished buying a few other series I’ve got on the go. Before the 3-in-1 publications began appearing in bookstores, I haven’t read Naruto in about three years. It’s been great to be able to revisit the series and fall in love with it all over again.

I haven’t reviewed any of the previous 3-in-1 volumes and but I might at a later date. Right now I just want to talk about the greatness to be found in volumes 16, 17 and 18. I find that long shonen series have a cyclical nature to them. Single issues or chapters build saga or story arcs which make up the huge story of the entire series. The story arcs in Naruto aren’t as clearly defined as they are in other series (Dragon Ball or One Piece are good examples) but it’s still part of the overall structure of the series. Because of the differences in style and narrative technique between comics and manga, I generally consider manga to be a quicker read than comics. The storytelling, the art style and the publication format all seem to indicate that. Contrary to my dislike of excessive decompression in comic book, I do not feel the same way towards manga which regularly uses decompression, particularly shonen manga. I find manga can sometimes be disappointing to read if you’re reading in the monthly format or the collections. The monthly format of Shonen Jump just doesn’t have enough content to truly satisfy and stories can take forever to come to a conclusion. I remember being surprised by the small number of chapters it took to tell the story of Buggy the Clown and the cat pirate captain in One Piece. It felt like they took forever when I first read them in Shonen Jump. Reading shonen manga in volume can also be frustrating when you’re waiting months for the next volume to be published (I’m thinking of you 20th Century Boys) but that doesn’t really matter if you have several volumes and you’re reading them all at the same time but eventually, you will be all caught up.

Reading the stories in the 3-in-1 editions isn’t nearly as frustrating. For one, I’ve already read all of these Naruto stories so I know what’s coming up. It’s also nice because of the amount of story you’re getting in one chunk. The 3-in-1 editions come in at 500 to 600 pages. Depending on the pace of the stories, a single omnibus edition can contain most or all of a story arc. With the sixth omnibus edition, containing volumes 16, 17 and 18, Masashi Kishimoto ends the storyline from the previous volumes, setups the plot for future stories while telling an epilogue and preparing the groundwork for the next story arc. The stories of volume 18 are the first chapters from the next storyline. For a bit of perspective, volume 16 ends the attack on Konoha, has parts of the aftermath, includes Kakashi’s decisions on Naruto and Sasuke’s training and introduces the Akatsuki. Volume 17 is the transition volume. It includes the continuation of Jiraiya’s training with Naruto, the continuing story of Orochimaru and the beginning of the search for Tsunade. The last volume, volume 18, includes the meeting of the Three Legendary Shinobi thus really kicking off the next storyline and it also includes more of Naruto’s training. That’s a lot of story!

I love the Three Legendary Shinobi because it adds so much depth and history to the world of Naruto. I also really love the parallels between the multiple generations of ninjas of Konoha village. Kishimoto does an excellent job of using his flashbacks to add depth to characters and story. The sheer amount of story included in this omnibus is just one of the many reason to love it. The story is supported by great action and the art which has changed a bit since the series began is still very, very good. The amount of detail that goes into the series is great and it’s one of the series strength that the action, characters and backgrounds are clear and easy to read despite the detail and the black and white art. If you’ve been avoiding these omnibus editions, you should really give them a look. The two series I collect have more than convinced me this is the way to read long running shonen series.