Poll of the Day > Naruto is actually pretty good.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Im in the middle of the Chunin Exams - Episode 33. I expected different of this show.... but Im pleasantly surprised. I also havent noticed any filler except for the recap episode at the end of Part One. I guess theres a few minutes of flashback most episodes, but its really not too bad.

The only complaint I have is my suspension of disbelief is not buying how the whole ninja system works. The villages are cities within nations, basically military, and theres constant espionage and suspicion between villages (and so I assume also between the nations), but they allow children to take these dangerous exams in other nations to keep peace? And every nation has the same ninja hierarchy and graduation process? If Naruto had failed the exam in episode one, would Team Seven be short a person? And how old are these kids? I think Im one episode they mention Naruto was 12, but hes also 2-3 years older than his teammates, so are Sasuke and Sakura 10 year olds?

But I just ignore all that stuff, mostly. Im really enjoying it. I appreciate Netflixs skip recap feature.

Whats it about?
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A ninja looking for his lost pet fox, and his best friend looking for his lost older brother. And the two of them both have crushes on both a nerdy girl and their teacher - leads to lotsa wacky situations!

Its kind of like Ouran High School Host Club, but with Ninjas.

I think Kakashi made it quite clear that if one of them failed then they all failed. Thats why he wanted them to work as a team.
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aDirtyShisno posted...

I think Kakashi made it quite clear that if one of them failed then they all failed. Thats why he wanted them to work as a team.

I mean before that, at the academy. 27 students passed Irukas class and became genin, so they were able to make equal groups. But if Naruto had failed (like he did twice before), only 26 wouldve made it. So would one group be a teammate short? Wouldnt that completely mess up the whole groups-of-three international genin dynamic?

MrMelodramatic posted...

Im in the middle of the Chunin Exams - Episode 33. I expected different of this show.... but Im pleasantly surprised. I also havent noticed any filler except for the recap episode at the end of Part One. I guess theres a few minutes of flashback most episodes, but its really not too bad.

They flash back to a LOT of the same shit which you'll notice more and more as the series progresses. Other than some weak fights between more experienced ninjas, the Chunin Exams is one of the better arcs and it has a few of my favorite fights in the show. (My favorite coming far later, when Naruto fights Pain.)

MrMelodramatic posted...

The only complaint I have is my suspension of disbelief is not buying how the whole ninja system works. The villages are cities within nations, basically military, and theres constant espionage and suspicion between villages (and so I assume also between the nations), but they allow children to take these dangerous exams in other nations to keep peace? And every nation has the same ninja hierarchy and graduation process?

There is constant espionage, but the system is part of their efforts to keep peace between the major villages following some pretty epic wars that devastated the countries in the past. More importantly, it's a way for the villages to showcase their talents to prospective clients while concealing the higher-end stuff.

And the games themselves are set up in a way to evaluate potential ninja.

MrMelodramatic posted...

If Naruto had failed the exam in episode one, would Team Seven be short a person? And how old are these kids? I think Im one episode they mention Naruto was 12, but hes also 2-3 years older than his teammates, so are Sasuke and Sakura 10 year olds?

They probably would have promoted somebody else or part. And it's unlikely that Team Seven would look like it did without Naruto since the three of them were put together rather deliberately; Sasuke and Sakura would likely been on other teams. Kakashi probably wouldn't have been involved at all. (And if Naruto hadn't been on the team, I'm not sure what would have happened with Sasuke down the road since (spoilers for the next arc or arc after that) the fact he felt like a failure compared to Naruto was part of the reason he felt he had to get stronger and led him to leave the village. He wouldn't have even encountered Itachi at that point.

As for the ages, they're pretty nebulous, but the fansites list them as 12-13 for part 1 of the anime.
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Hmmm I dont think youre right about that last part. Iruka seemed okay with passing only 26 students. It wasnt until two days after the pass/fail final test that Iruka passed Naruto (because of the whole shadow clone thing).

Youre right that the teams themselves would be different, but I kinda doubt they retroactively failed a kid so that Naruto could graduate and they could keep the multiples-of-three number of new ninja.

MrMelodramatic posted...

aDirtyShisno posted...

I think Kakashi made it quite clear that if one of them failed then they all failed. Thats why he wanted them to work as a team.

I mean before that, at the academy. 27 students passed Irukas class and became genin, so they were able to make equal groups. But if Naruto had failed (like he did twice before), only 26 wouldve made it. So would one group be a teammate short? Wouldnt that completely mess up the whole groups-of-three international genin dynamic?

It probably was specifically designed for the number of graduates to be divisible by 3 but even if not, for the Chunin Exams specifically, not everyone from a team mightve been recognized by their squad leader as being ready to take the exams. As such its possible that some people would be paired up with other squad members to make up a group of 3 in those scenarios. If not intentionally paired up then I wouldnt be surprised if, say there were 5 students of the Hidden Leaf Village without a 3 person squad, then only the first 3 to arrive would be able to participate and become a single squad with the other 2 failing.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

Hmmm I dont think youre right about that last part. Iruka seemed okay with passing only 26 students. It wasnt until two days after the pass/fail final test that Iruka passed Naruto (because of the whole shadow clone thing).

Youre right that the teams themselves would be different, but I kinda doubt they retroactively failed a kid so that Naruto could graduate and they could keep the multiples-of-three number of new ninja.

While it's possible, I should mention that there are unassigned ninja. Otherwise I guess when the teams are arranged, they'd pair off however and then the team that needed a member wouldn't be able to participate in the Chunin Exams this year.

...and wait, 26/7 students passed? I don't remember there being 9 teams from the class, and the Konoha ninja teams who participate in the Forest of Death include older students who failed the test.
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27 students passed, and then I assume each of the nine teams had to do a survival exercise, like team seven did for kakashi. Before this squad, Kakashi had never passed a student, so I guess out of 27 students, only 9 stayed in the program. And all of them went to the chunin exams

And yeah, maybe its possible they graduate however many students and let the survival exercise trim that down to multiples of three.

BUT.

Kakashi passed all three of them without checking with anyone first, which seems unlikely to happen if they first needed to be sure of exact numbers. He was also willing to fail them all and expel them from the program, without first checking if an extra ninja or two were needed for another team.

Also the chunin exams are done (partly) to make sure one nation doesnt become super powerful.... but its not like failing the exam stops you from getting stronger and more skilled.

They havent touched on Gaara yet, but they mentioned he did a B-Rank mission as a genin, which is impressive. So if low-ranking ninja can do high-ranked missions without passing exams first, theres not any actual regulation on ninjapower.

idk man its whatever. Im liking the show. The background deets just dont add up for me sometimes.

MrMelodramatic posted...

27 students passed, and then I assume each of the nine teams had to do a survival exercise, like team seven did for kakashi. Before this squad, Kakashi had never passed a student, so I guess out of 27 students, only 9 stayed in the program. And all of them went to the chunin exams

Most teams don't have a real survival exercise. Kakashi was repeatedly noted as having been unique for his practice and, prior to Team Seven, afaik he'd only failed two groups.

MrMelodramatic posted...

so I guess out of 27 students, only 9 stayed in the program. And all of them went to the chunin exams

Oh, I guess the other option is they might not have taken the Chunin Exams at that point. Team Guy waited a year.

MrMelodramatic posted...

And yeah, maybe its possible they graduate however many students and let the survival exercise trim that down to multiples of three.

BUT.

Kakashi passed all three of them without checking with anyone first, which seems unlikely to happen if they first needed to be sure of exact numbers. He was also willing to fail them all and expel them from the program, without first checking if an extra ninja or two were needed for another team.

Again, once they get out of the Academy, team leaders usually don't send them back. That's something unique to Kakashi and it ties into his backstory.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

Also the chunin exams are done (partly) to make sure one nation doesnt become super powerful.... but its not like failing the exam stops you from getting stronger and more skilled.

They havent touched on Gaara yet, but they mentioned he did a B-Rank mission as a genin, which is impressive. So if low-ranking ninja can do high-ranked missions without passing exams first, theres not any actual regulation on ninjapower.

idk man its whatever. Im liking the show. The background deets just dont add up for me sometimes.

Wait, are you still on the Forest of Death? At any rate, when villages are short-staffed, they tend to send teams on missions usually outside of their pay grade. (And, mild spoilers, Hidden Sand apparently has fewer ninjas due to (slightly bigger spoilers) funding issues where their land contracts other villages for some assignments.)

Granted, even the Bridge Mission was supposedly a higher-grade mission and they filed it as a lesser one to avoid paying as much.
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I thought what made Kakashi unique was that he had never passed anyone who took his test, not that he had a test. Could be wrong, though.

At the jonin (is that what theyre called?) meeting, it definitely looked like there were only nine rookie genin, so something happened to the other 18...

So if they dont get sent back to the academy, and theres not enough for a full team, then occasionally 1-2 graduates have to take a year off and hope theres an off number of graduates next time. Sucks. Would also suck if you passed all the tests but theres 28 kids in your class who all passed so you get left behind. Would suck super hard if you graduated, got your headband, then found out two days later that the class clown who was held back twice did some extra credit and youre not actually a ninja anymore lmao.

MrMelodramatic posted...

I thought what made Kakashi unique was that he had never passed anyone who took his test, not that he had a test. Could be wrong, though.

The only other "test" we see is Guy getting into a sparring session with his team, where I can't remember him ever stipulating that he'd send anybody back to the academy. Getting sent back to the academy right after leaving it is pretty rare.

MrMelodramatic posted...

At the jonin (is that what theyre called?) meeting, it definitely looked like there were only nine rookie genin, so something happened to the other 18...

Probably because only those nine genin were taking the test that from that class. In general, the show tends to be pretty weak when it comes to very minor supporting characters.

MrMelodramatic posted...

So if they dont get sent back to the academy, and theres not enough for a full team, then occasionally 1-2 graduates have to take a year off and hope theres an off number of graduates next time. Sucks. Would also suck if you passed all the tests but theres 28 kids in your class who all passed so you get left behind. Would suck super hard if you graduated, got your headband, then found out two days later that the class clown who was held back twice did some extra credit and youre not actually a ninja anymore lmao.

afaik, the classes don't seem to run a full year like that, plus because ninja are always dying they could place more experienced genin on a rookie genin squad. Remember that a lot of ninja stay genin forever. You meet some of them later on. And keep in mind that genin can actually be pretty powerful, the chunin rank isn't necessarily an indication of strength.
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Yeah. I got into Naruto long long ago when on Cartoon Network they had a marathon of it. It was like 100 episodes they played consecutively.
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Believe it!!!
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Lobomoon posted...

Believe it!!!

Believe in the you that believes in yourself.... no, wait, that's Gurren Lagan.

A believing heart is your magic! ....no, wait, that's a butchering of something from Little Witch Academia

I've got it this time... Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen! ...no, wait, that's Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

I think you had it right the first time.
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Personally I wish it would have ended way earlier than it did. I hate almost all Shonen jump manga/anime as they always milk their show runners into the ground. Much like DBZ(would be much better over all if it ended with Frieza), Bleach, One piece, and the likes.
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The show is more enjoyable when you don't pick aspects about it apart.

You need to look into what episodes to skip. Naruto is one of the most notorious series for filler. It's got like 60+ episodes of low quality filler at the end.

MrMelodramatic posted...

But if Naruto had failed (like he did twice before

actually this bothers me, because if i understand it right, it means that he was with two other groups of children at one point

so where are those children, why are they never mentioned or shown or talked about

if not, then was Naruto by himself those two times?
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jramirez23 posted...

Yeah. I got into Naruto long long ago when on Cartoon Network they had a marathon of it. It was like 100 episodes they played consecutively.

I got into Naruto before an English dub even existed for it! Specifically, I started watching it when they first encountered Zabuza. I watched it weekly until the fillers started at the end of the series and I switched the manga and read the manga instead of watching the anime for most of the time.

OK, and about if Naruto had failed, they don't have to graduate the kids in multiples of 3. If they had an off number there should be plenty of Genin teams that are missing one or two members. You're in the Chuunin exam, you should be seeing Genin die. And it does state at some point that usually Genin teams don't take the exam on their rookie year.

Also, I don't think Iruka graduated 26 kids I'm pretty sure he only graduated the rookie nine. He's not the only teacher after all.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

A ninja looking for his lost pet fox, and his best friend looking for his lost older brother. And the two of them both have crushes on both a nerdy girl and their teacher - leads to lotsa wacky situations!

Its kind of like Ouran High School Host Club, but with Ninjas.

I don't think you're watching it right
The boys like each other and the girl id's just there
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I mean sure, it starts out alright, but it's no One Piece. That's a long-running shonen that's worth watching.
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DANTE20XX posted...

I mean sure, it starts out alright, but it's no One Piece. That's a long-running shonen that's worth watching.

Only if you appreciate the fine art of mushroom-induced hallucinations.
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