Oh boy! The last ten episodes have been exploding with action filled to the brim. But it is so much to handle in one single post, I have split them into two: Part 1 is the Sasuke vs. Deidara portion, and part 2 is still awaiting future episodes, but it will be awesome I can say already. It will be Jiraiya vs. Pain. So glad that Naruto Shippuuden has finally pushed it to the limits. No more boring recaps, and thank God for no stupid filler story arcs. We have moved away from the utterly stupid arc of Yukimaru and Guren and all the sexual tension between Naruto and Yukimaru. Add to that, Sasuke has killed Orochimaru and absorbed his abilities, and is now on the move to seek his revenge against his elder brother Uchiha Itachi. What I absolutely love in this part is the emergence of Akatsuki’s immensely powerful Ninjas and the extreme mystical characterisation of them. No one knows about their abilities and yet there is so much sickness that surrounds them. Remember Hidan and Kakuzu who killed Asuma. Thank God for Shikamaru. But Kakuzu had one sick ability of a Voo-dooish black magic using the blood of the opponent. We also got a short flashback arc of how Kakashi got his left eye Sharingan. But there is so much more history about Konoha which needs to be explained faster. Anyway, coming back to the last ten episodes – 121 to 131. Sasuke is on the move, has collected three really crazy and strong Ninjas to team up for his mission to kill Itachi [ yeah right!]. The team is called Taka and the members are -

Suigestsu

We don’t know much about him other than he was a test subject captured by Orochimaru and kept in a huge bottle filled with liquid, much like Neo was kept [ remember Matrix? ]. Sasuke freed him and has skills with the sword, and now he possesses Zabuza’s blade, Kubikiri Bocho. He can transform into water, and hence, has instantaneous healing power and also can transform and elongate his body parts [ like Mr.Fantastic]. He aims to take on Akatsuki member and Itachi’s mate- Kisame Hoshigake and then capture his Samehada.

Karin

She has a strong sense of chakra, even stronger than Kiba and Akamaru. From her smell she can tell the number of Ninjas , the types of Ninjas- human or otherwise etc.  She was a former assistant to Orochimaru, but now is obsessively in love with Sasuke. Its quite funny sometimes, when she acts tough and fights with Suigetsu, and at the very next instant, she blushes to see Sasuke.

And then we have… Jugo

He is mentally unstable, sporadically fluctuating between a bloodthirsty and a docile personality. It is all a bit weird coz Sasuke reminds Jugo of Deidara and that Sasuke will protect him from becoming a monster is why he joined the team. The whole Orochimaru’s cursed seal was originated from Jugo, and the brief battle between Jugo and Sasuke was quite cool.

Akatsuki is after collecting the Bijuus and they know that Konoha has the biggest one – the nine tailed fox Jinchuuriki sealed inside Naruto. Sasuke is on the hunt to find Akatsuki members to get his lead on Itachi. And he encounters Akatsuki’s Deidara. And boy, we haven’t seen the best of Deidara yet. He was last seen fighting with clay bombs in the Village of Sand fighting with Gaara, and then was sent to another dimension by Kakashi. He had lost an arm in the last battle, and now he is all about showing off his skills as an art form. He is accompanied by the jolly and funny Tobi. Sasuke encounters Deidara and what happens next is a battle of monstrous proportions. Just feast your eyes on the following screenshots.

Sasuke vs. Deidara Screenshots.

Deidara’s Kakuru C4 jutsu is beyond my comprehensive power. I am speechless. It combines Nano technology with Ninja awesomeness. The clay bombs that Deidara spreads out are tiny particles suspended in the air, and as Sasuke breathes it in, he inhales them. And then Deidara detonates them! Sasuke – scatters, or does he?

It was all an illusion. Sasuke had worked on Deidara with his Sharingan’s Genjustu.

And the real monstrous Sasuke attacks Deidara with his Chidori.

It’s so awesome that I had to show it twice!!!

Of course, Deidara and Sasuke’s battle doesn’t end here. Deidara transforms himself into a living bomb in an effort to kill Sasuke and prove his art is supreme. But Sasuke escapes by means of using Orochimaru’s humongous snake and covering himself within it. Although Sasuke is heavily injured by it, he survives the attack. That should teach him a lesson of what the Akatsuki is capable of doing. Sasuke has grown to become an arrogant man who is way too confident over his abilities, and now that he has Orochimaru’s abilities, he thinks that he can conquer Itachi. How wrong is he!

But then, with all of these happening, we get to know of something so awesome. A revelation that shook me to the core. While Deidara was accompanied by Tobi, we all believed that with Deidara’s bad ass explosion, Tobi must have evaporated. But we get to see something that can be termed as the major ‘twist’ in the storyline. Tobi reveals his original identity as the one, the only – Uchiha Madara. And with this the awesome trio of Sharingan users is complete – Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Madara. Have a look below.

SHARINGAN

Jiraiya suspects that it was Madara who summoned the Nine tailed Fox monster Junchuuriki which almost destoryed Konoha, and which killed Minato Namikage while he sealed the Bijuu inside Naruto. But Madara was one of the founding fathers of Konoha along with the First Hokage, and he was defeated by the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju. It was believed that Uchiha Madara died in that battle. Until recently, when it was revealed that he is the strongest member and the founder of Akatsuki. Whoaaaaaaa!!!!! That moment was just fucking brilliant.

And to end, just a glimpse of what is coming up.

Yes, that is our friendly, but legendary Sannin of Konoha, Erosennin Jiraiya Sama with the summoned Toads.

Can you contain the excitement? I can’t wait for Thursday!!! Zor se bolo…Naruto Shippuuden rocks!!!

]]> http://www.oneknightstands.net/naruto-shippuuden-sasuke-vs-deidara-recap-121-125/feed/ 39 http://www.oneknightstands.net/sketch-kira-deathnote/ http://www.oneknightstands.net/sketch-kira-deathnote/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:14:24 +0000 Sujoy http://www.oneknightstands.net/?p=814

I have been randomly experimenting with my new tablet. And one of the many things which I wanted to test on it was the signature Frank Miller style of art [as seen in Sin City]. And I interpreted it in a Kira aka Yagami Light sketch. The hair leaves a lot to be done. But trust me, it was getting messy. Thank God for Ctrl+Z. I will try out doing Sin City and other Anime characters in the Frank Miller mode [ that's what I'm gonna call it - White on Black ]. But for now, have a look at my work, and do lemme know what did you think about it in the comments.

For the higher resolution image,  click the pic above.

Also, suggestions for characters etc are very welcome. Ciao!

First attempt at Sketching on my new Tablet: Trust Slim Widescreen TB-7300

I know the hair is all messed up, and it looks like it has been hurried. And yes, it was. I just wanted to get it done. But surely, there will be more sketches pouring out once I get my hand working on my new Tablet. I have improved since yesterday, and in a couple of weeks, I will be on a roll. Do leave your suggestions as to what you would want me to draw. Lemme just inform you though, that I am very much inclined towards Jap-anime or Chibi characters and Superheroes/Heroines. One thing I don’t like is to invest time in coloring. So, most of my stuff will be B&W, unless I just can’t resist.

Also shout out at the comments section if you liked this one (or otherwise).

And yes, for all you gadget lovers, you can drool over the unboxing of my new Trust Tablet over here ( in my tech-blog Techkeyla). Peace..out!

Watching The Half Blood Prince made me realise a lot of things. One of them was that how an almost 3 hour movie with wizardry, dark-lords, death, and zombies could be turned into a 2.5 hours soap-opera. I mean, give me a break from the Love potioned Ron Weasley, or the Harry-Hermione emotional atyachar! I paid friggin 11 quid for this seat. Now just blast my eyes with some fireworks already! And yes, when you choose certain scenes for 3D over others, please try and select the ones which could be termed ‘sexy’ rather than plain-ol conversations in the hallway, or a lounge chair morphing into Mr.Jim Broadbent. #fail #fail #fail.

But yes, one of the other things which has emerged from the many discussions I have been having with my friends [especially that David bloke], is that how similar Voldemort – the ultimate dark lord, and the ultimate dark-Ninja we know of – Orochimaru are. So here I am, doing my analysis of their similarities and the differences as well. Whether, Harry Potter inspired Naruto [as in JK Rowling inspired Kishimoto] is a very sensitive debate which is out of the scope of this argument. We will be restricting our analysis to whether Voldemort and Orochimaru are indeed similar or not. Part 2 of the Analysis will be trying to answer a Kick-Ass question, literally – In a duel, who will kick who’s butt [and who will eat the dust] -Voldemort or Orochimaru. Pick your side!

First things first. The analysis chart with the Comparison Parameters. Here it is – the Curious Case of Voldemort vs. Orochimaru.

Separated at Birth? Or the same man?

Now for the big battle between the two. WHO WILL KICK WHO’s ARSE?

a) Why will Voldemort Pwn Orochimaru?

~ He’s got Avada Kedavra – the Death Spell.

~ He can kinda dodge Orochimaru’s attacks with his teleportation wizardry.

~ His soul is split into 7 horcruxes. So he can’t die until those are destroyed, one of which is *ahem* [ deleted to avoid spoilers ]. So to kill Voldemort, you have to destroy that too. Too much to ask for.

~ Orochimaru’s snakes can be controlled by Voldemort as he knows how to speak to them in Parseltongue.

~ Can Orochimaru withstand any Wizardry spell, even a basic one like – Petrificus Totalus

~ If Sasuke can pwn Orochimaru, Voldemort can surely do it too….. or can he?

b) Why will Orochimaru totally pwn Voldemort?

~ The ridiculously huge snake Manda can totally consume everything that Voldemort has – him, his Death Eaters and everything.

~ Sasuke did not defeat him. He was just a bit sick when Sasuke got the better of him. But Orochimaru cannot die. So Avada Kedavra might not be relevant in this battle.

~ Any other spell of Voldemort can be easily dodged by a Ninja of the level of Orochimaru.

~ Manda cannot understand Voldemort speaking to it in Parseltongue, coz it speaks only Japanese.

~ Orochimaru can disarm Voldemort but not the other way around! Huaaahahahaha.

~ Someone mentioned – Oro could kill Voldemort with a Kunai or a neck-bite, and then making him his new vessel. How evil will that be!!

~ Ninja Powers rock. There are way too many jutsus that Orochimaru knows, and most of them are the dark ones. And he has experimented them on himself, and his army of followers – not just a bunch of losers known as the Death Eaters.

So…you guys decide who wins the Battle of the Darklords. Me deciding Orochimaru would be unfair as I am a Naruto Devotee more than a Harry Potter fan. And then, both of them belong to different universes – one from the world of wizardry and the other from Ninjas. Wizard Spell vs. Ninja Jutsus is quite an unpredictable situation and could swing in any direction. Because Magic is Magic, and Jutsus are well…Jutsus. What you say? Shout out loud in the comments section

The best frigging episode of Naruto Shippuden..
in a long time:  Episode 113: The Serpent’s Pupil

I have waited a long time for this. Really long. For all those people who are still watching Naruto Shippuden, can definitely understand the utter frustration that we have went throughout the last couple of months. The entire arc has been shifting way too far from the main plot which kept us glued to Naruto at the first place, and that is Konoha,Uchiha and more Sennin, Genin and Junins. Instead the anime has been hovering over such stupid plots such as the Crystal Lady -Guren and the 3 tailed Biju controller-Yuukimaru. I hated that entire arc where everyone had a single piece of dialogue – You are the place where I return to. I think you can hear me scream out so loud right now. That one line makes me cringe every single time I hear it, and you know how many times it was being repeated. That kid Yuukimaru is just one stupid, annoying kid who carries around that crystal with a daisy. And Guren was another arse of a lady. Tragic melodrama oozes out from every corner possible when the two confront each other. But screw all that, we are back in BUSINESS. Shippuden’s latest episode: The Serpent’s Pupil showed to me, why I fell in love with this Anime at the first place. And you know what..It does not have a single frame of Uzumaki Naruto [except for the title credits and the end credits]. And it still rocked me socks off..!!!!

With intensely pleasing recaps of Sasuke’s Chuunin exam, Orochimaru’s dented curse of bonding, and eventually Sasuke’s choice to give in to Orochimaru’s desire to take over his body – everything just fits perfectly in the Serpent’s plan. Or does it sound too easy for the replication to begin? Man, how excited was I to see Orochimaru’s Jutsu get sealed by Sarutobi! How cool was it to see flashback of the sound village Shinobis that Orochimaru sent to capture Sasuke! And how cool was it to see just a little flash of Sasuke’s Chuunin exam combats..!!! While you must know that Orochimaru is almost hitting the limit that his current body can hold, and can only withstand the pain to go through the replication. Kabuto believes that Orochimaru is the greatest Ninja there ever was, is or can be! Orochimaru’s track record has been quite impressive, especially when he single-handedly battled against Erosenin Jiraiya and Tsunade. And with the power of Uchiha’s Sharingan, there would be none to challenge him. Kabuto has been the ever-serving bitch to Orochimaru, feeding him with pills and meds et al, and taking care of him [ you know, changing nappies and stuff,LOL]. While he is getting jubilant a bit ahead of his time, Sasuke-kun has other plans. WoooHoooo!!!

Sasuke has always been one of the most intriguing characters ever on any Manga/Anime. He has been a loner with a single focussed goal -Revenge against his elder brother Itachi. And that has driven him to the dark side to be trained by the dark lord Sauron…I mean serpent Orochimaru, and gain the powers he wanted. Sometimes he is a bit of a show-off, and exudes the overconfidence and extra X-factor with his looks, moves and swagger that even Orochimaru gets intimidated. And exactly that’s why Orochimaru had selected him as his next vessel. But little did he know, that Sasuke was thinking otherwise. Sasuke’s training montage in this episode, jumping back and forth his early days of his Sharingan development and back to his full form of Chidori is mindblowing. I couldn’t stop smiling, and yes, that is the perfect reaction. P.S. That image you see, does not imply any homo-erotic thought of Orochimaru.

And finally the screen is scorched!!
Sasuke vs. Orochimaru.

[Note: I wrote Sasuke's name before Orochimaru] The moment that we have all been waiting for..is HERE. Sasuke gives a long speech proving us that Orochimaru is just a worthless serpent of a Ninja. He has always been overshadowed by the power of the Uchiha, and all he ever was just a prodigy. He has only gained his powers by toying with thousands and thousands of lives, experimenting with bodies in the lab, and creating monsters, swapping bodies from one to another, and of course break every rule of the Ninjas. His attempt to get the better of Itachi was in vain, and so his next best option was Uchiha Sasuke. The best line in this episode was when Sasuke says to him: Orochimaru, you’re weaker than me. There is no more need to give you my body”. Woo-Hoo. Sasuke tries to tear Orochimaru’s body with his blazing Chidori, when Orochimaru throws up and takes the form of his original self – a serpent [reminded me of the J-Lo starrer Anaconda]. Orochimaru tries to wrap Sasuke with his never-ending body, but Sasuke is way too powerful now, or is he? Sasuke takes the form of a hawk. Will the hawk make the serpent eat dust? OMG!!!! The anticipation is through the roof. I can’t wait till Thursday!!

Okay, I have been on a long long vacation from Naruto. The last episode I saw was Shippuden’s Episode 045 where Naruto, Sakura and Yamato are planning to explore the secret behind Sai’s diary. On the other hand, Sai is with Kabuto and Orochimaru and are on their way to Sasuke. It has been almost 5 episodes in between, and I saw Shippuden’s 051-052 special 40 min episode yesterday. And it seems I didn’t miss a thing. I am so very much furious now. Naruto used to be my favorite anime. Not only because of the Ninja fights but also because of the detailed characerisation of the different protagonists and the layers of complicated emotions embedded within. But this arc is getting on my nerves now. Wanna have a sneak peek of what happened in the episode : Sasuke’s Anticipated Appearance! The Emotional Naruto Shippuden Special. Read on.

Remember the first episode of Shippuden, where we actually got to see a teaser of Sasuke’s appearance. Naruto and Sakura running around a dark tunnel and then, an explosion. Naruto runs towards the light at the end of the tunnel,to find Sasuke standing on the top of a rock. Sai is already there. Sakura and Yamato enter next. And then Naruto and Sasuke exchange dialogues about why Sasuke didn’t kill Naruto, and all that bond blah blah! Yeah, all that happened in the first episode of Shippuden. And now, that happens here yet again at almost 1/3rd the pace. I am so irritated to the core now. These Tokyo TV people and Naruto makers need to tighten up the belts and nail some good episodes right away or the fan base is gonna be very upset (more than what it is now). I mean, the anticipated appearance of Sasuke special has been nothing more than an expanded version of the teaser. Nothing more, nothing less.

And if you think I am lying see it for yourself. Oh I forgot to mention, it contains more flashbacks -one of Sai, Naruto, Sasuke vs Itachi, Sasuke vs Naruto, Yamato, Sakura ugh!!!! I am completely fed up. Only addition to the story is the Kyuubi’s advice to Sasuke to not kill Naruto. He says that if Sasuke kills Naruto, he’ll live to regret it. Now wtf was that? Naruto not resorting to using the Kyuubi’s powers and Sasuke is totaly kicking everyone’s ass including Yamato’s wooden ones. I think I’m gonna start watching Claymore now. Naruto is becoming more and more of a mental burden to me which leaves me with utter dissatisfaction week after week after week. Kishimoto C’mooooooon!!!!!