Well every power has a weakness, it would be silly if they didn't. I don't see that as detracting from a character.
We had barely seen Konan's powers at that point so any potential threat they had is negated as soon as you see she can be rendered useless by pushing her into a river.
In a world where you can summon items and animals and even people from out of nowhere and bend elements and perform crazy physical feats and defy death itself, I don't think what Killer Bee does is particularly notable. And as for being done before, it's pretty difficult to come up with 100% new material that hasn't been touched yet, and I don't think Kishi has had too much trouble with that if I remember correctly.
But those crazy physical feats use chakra. I remember in the Chunin exam one ninja who had surgery to make all his limbs malleable and stretchable, in addition to chakra. There is no similar explanation for B, like he magnetises them to his skin or something. He uses lightning to add power, but that's it. Even by the story's standards, this is physically impossible. How can you fight someone with swords tucked into your armpit, stomach, elbows, and underneath your leg? It just looks silly, and I refuse to accept he was able to beat Sasuke, a Sharingan user, and Suigetsu, an exceptionally skilled swordsman, with it.
Well I can't argue with that. But I daresay that while Naruto has become more DBZ-like in Shippuden, since the very beginning it hasn't been as focused on stealth and other typical ninja feats as you'd think it would be.
This stems more from my problem with the series as a whole with calling them ninja when they don't behave like ninja, admittedly.
You're pretty much right about that... but my main point is that Kishi is still able to create memorable characters with interesting connections and an engaging main storyline in my opinion. As much as I'd like him to spend more time and creativity increasing the quality of the battles, I'm still interested in the history of the Gokage, and the abilities of characters like Darui, and how Kakashi got his Mangekyou Sharingan, and Madara's personality and past, for instance. It's unfortunate that you can't find anything at all to like about Shippuden.
I went off
Naruto around the time Sasuke abandoned Konoha because nothing actually happened aside from Naruto and Sasuke getting power-ups. It was dragged out for as long as Kishimoto could manage, both the fight and fighting the Sound Four (not to say we didn't get some interesting fights out of it, though), and in the end, it meant nothing. Sasuke still leaves to train under Orochimaru, leaving everything pointless. Oh sure, he has respect for Naruto, but that bit of character development was shoehorned in at the start by Sasuke acting rude to Naruto, one of the few ninja he respects and considers his equal. The Chunin exam has him say to Naruto that he can't wait to fight him
because he considered him a worthy opponent. That's all undone there only to be restored anyway so what was the bloody point?
And even after skipping the story ahead two years, it's clear Kishimoto has no idea what he's doing. The story was rooted on Naruto ascending through the ranks against all odds, your typical underdog story, but rather than focusing on that - a simple story well-told - he decided to diligently ignore that and make it a typical chosen one story. Naruto, the one who told Neji to screw fate and do what he wanted, is now prophesied to unite the shinobi world, and if it wasn't clear he's super-special-awesome by virtue of birth yet, he's also a descendant of the First Hokage!
This isn't even mentioning all the asspulls, either. Just as the Kyuubi is about to break out, a vision of the Fourth Hokage appears, apropos of nothing, stops it, shoots the breeze with Naruto, then disappears because his work is done. Or how about Nagato resurrecting a village he spent the past several episodes destroying and proving Konoha could be hurt? Deus ex machinae in the bloody extreme. Oh, and of course what's been done to the Tailed Beasts as a whole. Originally, they appeared to be real mythical beasts, creatures who would show up one day and decide to wreck your sh
it, but no, out of nowhere, they're just by-products of a much bigger beast. There is no indication anywhere that hinted at the Jyuubi itself, more proof that Kishimoto has no idea what he's writing and is making this up as we go along. There's also his habit of involving the Uchiha clan in absolutely bloody everything - they're apparently all a bunch of cackling villains with a stranglehold over everything with an immensely overpowered weapon. The Sharingan can do more than just improve the user's perception, it can also create unstoppable god-fire and warp reality, and it's in the hands of every major villain - Madara, Danzo, Sasuke - for no reason other than it's grotesquely overpowered. It's this reliance on single plot elements that show Kishimoto is a poor writer - what's the best way to establish a villain? I know! Give 'em a Sharingan! There are apparently enough of them lying around!
And the character derailment. I don't get how fans can stand behind this. Naruto hyperventilating, sobbing and collapsing at the thought of bringing Sasuke in and having to fight him, even though he's never meant to quit in the face of insurmountable odds and indeed did fight with him at the end of Part I. If he's older, wiser and more powerful, and he's already forgiven the guy who killed his mentor, why is he bursting into tears now? Especially considering Kishimoto turned him into a badass with Sage Mode. Sasuke looked like a noble demon, loyal to his squad, ready to sacrifice himself to save them, but then it turns out he's perfectly willing to betray them and has gone from anti-hero to complete monster, and whose actions rarely if ever get addressed in the story. It's as though him not actually succeeding in committing horrible acts. Sakura started off promisingly enough, but that all went out the window because she was a woman and thus prone to crying and being rescued by the boys at the drop of a hat, even though she's
older and wiser. And is prepared to do little more than believe in them, despite the fact she has superhuman strength.
It's the appalling plot, and the way Kishimoto treats his characters - shoving them to one side or inverting what they are so more glory can come to Sasuke, who he outright stated will make more powerful to match Naruto, and letting his acts of terrorism go unanswered - that have made
Shippuuden unwatchable. For every good thing it does, it screws up five other things. To the people who like
Shippuuden, and I really don't mind if you do, let me ask you this: Do you honestly love where the series is going? Do you wholeheartedly support the direction Kishimoto's moving it in? Or are you just settling for mediocrity because it's all "dark" and "edgy"?
There's nothing redeeming about
Shippuuden for me.
Nothing.
