Naruto Gaiden: Nanadaime Hokage to Akairo no Hanatsuzuki

This was a fun little post-series story that I really enjoyed. It was entertaining and adorable and heartfelt all at the same time, and it sated my desire for seeing more of the next-gen characters. Let's just say... I hope we'll be seeing A LOT more of Cho-Cho in the future. That girl is a riot! And actually, I'm surprised it didn't feature more of Boruto, but I'm sure that will be resolved sooner or later.

Anyway, storywise, it steered a little too close to cheesy on a few occasions, but overall I think it set up what could be a really central theme of a sequel series: Just how much do our parents determine who we are? Frankly, I'd be shocked if the question didn't come up at all given how important the next-gen characters' parents are. The scenes where we got to see the original characters (who we've now known since they were children) interacting with their own kids were my favorite parts of this story.

The only thing, I feel, left for me to address is something I'd heard from the Naruto community long before I actually got my hands on a copy to read it myself. There were some waves being made about how the Sakura/Sasuke relationship is being handled now that they're canon. (I personally have no complaints, but let me explain a little...)

To start, there's one scene where Sarada's upset because her own father didn't recognize her. It's been that long since Sasuke's been home to see his family. And Naruto tries to comfort her... by telling her that her father's a great shinobi. And my response was along the lines of, "Well, that's great, but it doesn't excuse him being a shitty father." Which IS my opinion. I didn't really expect his marriage to be much different from what it is, but I am disappointed in his utter lack of parenting. (I mean, I knew he wasn't home OFTEN, but I didn't think it had literally been, like, 8 years!)
The scene that was really causing a stir was the one near the end. Basically, Sarada wants to know if Sasuke really loves her mother, and his response seemed to make a lot of people think that he was insinuating that he was only still with Sakura because of their daughter... Whereas I thought his response quite obviously meant, "Of course I love her, I wouldn't have had a child with this woman if I didn't love her." It's just not in his nature to show it, and Sakura understands that.

So that's my little rant. I did really enjoy this little side story, and I'm excited to see what happens next in this franchise.

so this is my first review , I hope its good enough
story: 10/10

Although the story hasn't gotten that far, the story seems to be going rather well for this short story. It starts with Sarada missing her dad Sasuke Uchiha as she has no recent memory of meeting him as he hasn't visited for over 10 years. Sakura gets ill and Sarada decides to follow Naruto to her father with her best friend Chouchou. Meanwhile some mysterious person is tring to revive the akatsuki and they have sharingans.

art:10/10
The art is like how it was before while the old characters have matured and the younger generation are in the spotlight. Sasuke's new look doesn't suit him too much and you can't help but wonder why Sarada wears the same glassess as Karin.

characters: 10/10
The characters in this manga are surprisingly interesting especially Sarada Uchiha. shes interesting and an overall cool character. Boruto on the other hand seems to be a carbon copy of younger Naruto however we haven't seen much of him so he has room for improvement. Sasuke and Sakura are a disappointment. Sasuke not knowing what his daughter looks like threatens her with a sword and tells her it's not her business. Sakura hasn't matured and is exactly the same as pre-teen sakura; always frowning over Sasuke. Naruto has matured the most and became the 7th hokage. finally Chouchou the girl that provides us comic relief but at the same time annoys us.

enjoyment:10/10
If youve gotten this far into the naruto universrse you might as well as continue as this has everything that you loved about the old naruto as well as a strong villain approaching (apparantely a bigger threat than Kaguya but we'll have to wait and see)

conclusion: 10/10
Just read this manga and you won't regret it- unless you hate naruto.

Let me get straight to the point...
Only sasuke sakura fanboy/girl would find it worth watching...

Reason:It does nothing else but..

Expectation: The Next gen.. Wow what abilities, what personalities? What quirks....?

Outcome: Justify Sakura character, Give her a reason To be the MVP.. Give her a happy family with a bit of feelings for her with Sasuke having to leave for a mission...
All the villains are just to feed Sasuke , Sakura love story and Sarada feel good....
The antagonists almost defeats the Op Naruto leaving him licking his wounds with everybody lamenting how weak he has become and Then comes the Mvp....

Enough with the hate

Here comes the final ratings
Story:5
started with a bang ended with a puff....

Art:7
what is expected of Naruto the series

Character:3
Nothing more than ever contradicting character outline

Enjoyment:1/9
Varies on what you wanted from the series

Overall:5
No comments.. Judge yourself

So basically this is just more Naruto! This time the war is over you get some nostalgia with all the new children. 5 chapters in and I am pretty sure I can predict what enjoyment I will get out of it.

Story: 7
I mean when they finished Naruto I thought it was over, but really anything at this point is stretching the drawn out timeline, so it really doesn't deserve more than 7. But who came here for the story? Lets be honest this is the amazing Naruto kickstarted again

Plot Preview: (NOT REALLY SPOILERS but you need to know at-least the start of this new arc)
Just some new guys with sharingans are messing with all 5 villages and they are the new Akatsuki. Sasuke is not in the village but he is protecting them remotely by tailing new threats.

Art: 9
It is the same quality as Naruto. But the new characters (children of the old characters) seem a little bit forced in terms of looks, because they had to mashup the ships.

Character: 8
Same characters bro. The new children ones are well they are still like 9 or 10 so they really only possess childish stereotypes.

Enjoyment: 10
More Naruto = Better Life (If you can't tell by now I really like Naruto) Still exciting it hasn't lost its edge if you bought all of that stuff at the end of the original Naruto series.

Overall: 10 (This should be 8.5, but Naruto is what started my love of Anime so I weigh enjoyment much higher than others)
The Manga picks up where it left off, and it does a good enough job to continue reading Naruto.

But this is basically more Naruto, I mean who doesn't love that?

After the dreadful ending of "Naruto", many fans were left wondering if the series could get any worse. With this sequel, Kishimoto has proven that it can, in fact, get worse.

After the ending on "Naruto" left a bad taste in my mouth, I wondered whether I should start reading this or not. As an old fan of the series, as well as since I had nothing better to do, I decided to read it. The story starts off right after chapter 700 of "Naruto" and focuses mostly on Sarada Uchiha, the daughter of Sasuke and Sakura. I won't go into much detail, but Sarada, after looking at a picture of Karin, went on a quest to find out who her real mother is. The whole premise sounds like one of those cheap soap operas which your grandma probably watches.

The art style is okay, there's nothing bad about it, and there's nothing too exceptional about it either, so there's no point writing much about it.

As for the characters, they haven't changed much. Naruto is still the usual idiot, Sakura is still rages about everything and Sasuke manages to become even more unlikable. The new character, Sarada, has all the bad personality traits of her father: she is insecure, and looks like she'll decide to "destroy Konoha" every minute. As for the villains, Kishimoto has chosen to create some new ones. However, due to his limited creativity, they are (spoiler) still related to the Uchiha clan, even though there are countless other villages and families to choose from. Anyway, the goals of the main villain are stupid, and they are overall very forgettable.

After the Pain arc, my enjoyment of "Naruto" has fallen more and more after each chapter. I thought this manga would capture once again the spirit of the beginning of "Naruto", but at this point, it is so bad that it becomes funny.

Overall, after having read 9 chapters, I'll rate this manga a 4/10.

Okay then...

To begin the review I will say that reading this was a complete waste of time

now without further ado

The art- 5/10
It's the same old art from the later parts of the Naruto original manga, which I find it not very good.
If we look at Kishimoto's mid part 2 or even his later part 1 art we will see how much he actually regressed regarding his art style in the series, in the later part 2 the art already wasn't that good and Gaiden follows suit

The story- 3/10

It was completely pointless
You can't say that "oh it was just a side story" or "this wasn't really a sequel" as an excuse no it doesn't work like that
The kakashi gaiden that happened between part 1 and part 2 was well executed, it's plot points were solid and it gave us an emotional message and conclusion. This gaiden however tried to sell itself as the story of the new generation when in truth that wasn't anything like it

We just had a pointless villain and then a stupid way to make drama between the MC's that (unsurprisingly) in the end proved to be another one of the author's countless thoughtless trolls

This troll in particular also managed to erase one of what could be this story's chief messages turning it instead into just another wasted opportunity

The characters- 4/10

Well where to start...
Basically we have Sarada as a main character, her conflict was kind of interesting even if it seemed something more suited to the maury shows than a ninja series, in the end however this conflict was not only poorly resolved but it also managed to destroy Sarada's character potential

Sakura just became more pathetic.

Sasuke is just more of the same old.

and Naruto's TNJ are still a contrived and stupid plot point, however the older version of the old MC's just can't seem to invoke the same charisma the original version of him had, which is a shame.

Enjoyment - 2/10

It was horrible, I read that expecting nothing amazing and was surprised on how much Kishi managed to screw up his story with pointless plot threads and forced drama without an ounce of good interesting storytelling

Overall- 2/10

Factoring my own enjoyment and Gaiden's technical flaws...I have to rate this 2/10, there is no other way to describe this series.

This is a shame though since Naruto used to be quite the huge thing for me back then, it lost a bit of it's magic during part 2 and then lost a lot more of it during the contrived war arc, it just didn't felt like Naruto anymore.

This gaiden is just a continuation of the poor state this series got into.

My Review from Japanator:

It’s been a few months since I published my review for Boruto: Naruto The Movie, so make sure to check that out as well. It is important to note that Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring is the prequel to the movie so obviously you don’t need to watch the movie to enjoy it, but you definitely need to be familiar with the main series. Taking place after Chapter 700, this chapter focuses on the new generation, mostly Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha's daughter—Sarada.

Although meant as a prologue for the movie, and just a side story, this Gaiden wasn’t really enjoyable for many reasons. To address the elephant in the room, I feel like Cho-cho’s role felt rather forced and added no substance to story. While I understand that she was added for comedic relief, sometimes it was just executed at the wrong times and it just felt rather annoying more than anything.

Another big issue was the main antagonist of this Gaiden—Shin Uchiha, who easily is one of the most forgettable villains in the series with a lackluster motive, probably a lot worse than Obito Uchiha. His goal is to erase peace as he thinks it’s detrimental to human evolution. The only memorable things about the character are some of his attacks, like his Kamui-like jutsu and his Weapon Manipulation Technique, which I thought it was cool.

I always thought that Kishimoto was great when it came to delivering fights, especially near the end of the series, as well as other fights such as Sasuke vs. Itachi. Aside from seeing Shin’s Weapon Manipulation Technique, Sakura in action, and some Naruto and Sasuke Teamwork, just like the antagonist, this fight was hardly enjoyable as well.

However, this Gaiden does have its highlights that made reading this tolerable, such as seeing Orochimaru, and the jokes that revolve his new body, the early interactions between Boruto and Naruto, the new generation and of course, Sarada reuniting with Sasuke and learning the truth about her family. Like I stated, in my Boruto: Naruto The Movie review, I really like that Sarada wants to follow the path of Hokage, as opposed to Boruto who wants to be more like Sasuke.

While I wasn’t expecting too much out of this Gaiden, it was still overall disappointing. I felt like I was reading it for the sake of reading it every time a new chapter came up. I really thought that reading the entire Gaiden in one sitting would make it more enjoyable, but I was wrong. I was really hoping to see something feature the new generation but maybe next time.

I just read Naruto Gaiden again and I want to say that this 10 Chapter manga is the worst story Kishimoto has put out yet. Yes. Worse than early Part 2 Naruto and Final Arc Naruto. Kishi had all the time in the world to make a great story like with The Last and the Boruto movie but for some reason he decided to take inspiration from Keeping up with the Kardashians for Naruto Gaiden.

Sarada is a Mary Sue. She gets all the power ups in the world without proper training and Chouchou just reminds me of Jar Jar Bings. The "comedy" in this is just the worst. None of the new characters most of us were interested in, like Mirai, Metal Lee or even Himawari got some lines to make this story better.
Naruto and Sasuke also have been nerved for this arc to make Sakura look good AGAIN. Onion Boy is probably the most forgettable villain since Gateau and the whole "who's your mommy" conflict could have been resolved in one chapter without this stupid melodrama.

It's also amazing how many plotholes have been condensed into this one story like why would Sarada claim that her father left her when she was a baby but then remember a time that she held hand with her parents when she was a little kid. Why does she know how to use her mother's punching skills when it took Sakura one year to master them. Why would Sasuke write a letter to Naruto but never bother to write a letter to his family? Why did Sasuke take on this mission to look for a villain for the Boruto movie and never bother to visit his own family? He didn't have a problem to eat some dinner with them at the end of the manga. While we're at it. Sasuke's mission that he got when Naruto was already the hokage became entirely pointless because the villain of the Boruto movie still attacked Konoha and kidnapped Naruto. Why couldn't Onion boy see Sakura even though he had Sharingan eyes all over his body? I could go on and on.

Sakura became even more unlikeable than she already was in this story. Yes she took care of Sarada and put on a few moe faces here and there(she even stole Hinata's Ch.700 design lol) but why the fuck did she paste her own image over a friend like Karin that helped giving birth to Sarada? What kind of asshole friend would do something like this? Why didn't Sakura just answer to Sarada instead of destroying her own house and bringing her daughter to tears?

Taka, Yamato and Orochimaru were entirely pointless to the plot and I wonder why Kishi even bothered to write them into the story.

Naruto Gaiden is bad. Almost nothing works in this 10 chapter abomination. While Sarada is likeable at times, she still is a complete Mary Sue and her story crumbles apart near the end and the action bits are some of the worst in all of Naruto. The Uchiha cancer also took over the story again even though 90% of the Naruto fandom was already sick and tired of it.

What bothers me the most about Naruto Gaiden is that this whole manga feels insincere, like Kishi didn't want to put any effort into the plot. He always had a few hickups throughout the story of the Naruto manga but this could have been justified because he was always pressured to produce a new chapter every week for multiple years. Naruto Gaiden had months to get a half decent story but it still turned into shit.

Naruto Gaiden is a side story definitely not a continuation of the main series.Personally i enjoy reading this every week because it is an extension of the main series however if i really look at it this series is essentially unnecessary.Dont get me wrong i want more naruto content but the plot of this is essentially some baby mama drama.You would think boruto the son of the previous main character would be the main character of this series but he isn't.The main character is sarada and the story follows her on her quest to find out who is her mother.Actually i like that sarada is the mc and not boruto,sarada is actually a good female character unlike kishimoto's other failed attempts to develop females this one actually succeeded.Sarada has gotten a lot of development in the 9 chapters i have read than her mother sakura got in the entire series of naruto.The sad part about this series is that it is only gonna be 1 volume long so about 10 chapters and kishimoto mentions someone "beyond kaguya" which looks like wont be expanded upon till maybe the boruto movie.Which begs the question what was even the point of this sidestory if the villain isn't even shown.This series is just about sarada really i don't hate that i like it because this shouldn't be seen as like a naruto part 3 just a side-story to develop characters.
Story:7 I pretty much already went over this in detail.

Art:7 The art of naruto has always been good.

Character:7 This is obvious sarada's story and i like her though i do dislike the apparent nerfing of naruto in this series.

Enjoyment:7 I enjoy reading this from week to week i find the whole is sakura the mother situation hilarious and amusing.

Overall: 7 I enjoy reading this its good but its not the greatest thing ever nor is it better than the original series however its provides good entertainment.

I'm disappointed with this whole spin off / sequel ( I don't even think if you can even call this crap a sequel).

I only read this spin off because i did like part 1 and 2 in some parts but this...it throws logic out of the window, already established by kishimoto himself. We got introduced with the new k11, which i was happy to see what's up with them, but no... kishimoto only focuses on chocho, trying to be funny but she isn't, and sarada with uchiha family all over again!

I thought we're going to see at least 2 volumes about the new k11 doing the gennin/chunnin exams. To see their abilities and personalities and compare them with their parents. In the gennin/chunnin exams we could get a villain like garaa, you know the ''cool!'' kids that believes they're better than others, coming from different villages and i was hoping to see something besides UCHIHA. I was left in disappointment.

The villain that we got in this spin off was terrible. Oh my god, if we compare shin with kaguya, I would freaking choose kaguya any day of the week. His reasoning about revenge is stupid and it doesn't make any sense to have a revenge at this point of time / timeline, which he could have done it when naruto and sasuke fought and were in their weaken state (He was in the fight watching from far away, there's a scan that it shows a person seeing the fight but never participated...)

Let me finish my review of this spin off with sarada and this whole pointless drama. She's a sakura v2, let's just state that she's no different than her mother. This whole drama or plot that we got in 10 chapters was pointless. We got barely character development in my opinion.

The only good thing that I found positive was to see the new kids, that's it!

Overall this manga was a 4 out of 10.

[note: Only vague spoilers]

Before starting this review of Naruto's side story, I want to point out something. Yes it's a side story, not another arc of Naruto and not a sequel. So it's very baffling how some took this as seriously as the main manga, even though this is just an epilogue, with a self contained villain.

From the beginning, this is about the next generation of Ninja, and severing as an epilogue for the upcoming movie. It's not about Naruto and Sasuke, so them not taking the spotlight makes sense, yet, so many people think they are nerfed or something. It's not that Naruto became weak. He is still as strong as he was in the war, if not stronger. It's just there is no point for him or Sasuke to one shot the villains. The focus and spotlight is not on them, it's on Sarada. The same goes for the Boruto movie, they will most likely won't defeat the main villain in it, Boruto and Sarada will.

[Story] [7/10]

The story is simple and straight forward. It mainly driven by Sarada's conflict with her father, with the mystery of who is her real mother, as there were hints, that made her feel doubtful that Sakura is her biological mother. Which they are later confronted with a new villain. It's nothing complex or impressive, but it did serve, as an engaging narrative for Sadara's small journey, and self reflection, as she find her own ambition and goals by the end of it, and feels satisfied by herself.

That and accompanied by a plot twist, albeit an obvious one, regarding her birth mother. Which led, to very endearing and emotional moments, so it was used well.


[Characters][10/10]

Since this is mostly character driven, the characters shine in it. I just loved seeing them as grown ups, felt like I would never get bored if this went on a 100 chapter, of simply just their interactions. Naruto became wiser, and helped Sarada along her journey, his Hokage look, really suits, gives him the air of a mature person.

From the next generation, mainly Sarada and Chocho got a lot of screen time. and Chocho is a really funny comic relief character, so I liked her. Sarada is a well written character, being a female uchiha makes her really refreshing, as she develops after finding the Sakura might not be her mother, and realizes, there are more important things than blood relations, there are much more deeper connection. Which delivered the most endearing and heartwarming scene in this manga, her flashback with Sakura. It's emotional moments like this, is where the series as whole, really stand out at the top for me.

This manga also showed, the more caring side of Sasuke, which was quite awesome, and made the story being about their family worth it.

[Enjoyment] [10/10]

I honestly had low expectations of this. I just thought it would be about the new kids, with nothing interesting happening and them being mirror images of their parents. And thankfully, I was really wrong. I enjoyed it so much, and it gave me some nostalgia, and made me very excited for the upcoming movie, it has everything that I ever want.


As long as you don't expect another serious arc from Naruto, I think many will enjoy this, especially if they cared/had emotional investment of the main series. But if you are one of the fans, who only liked/read for the action and story, you will be disappointed, as this is a character driven side story, with a focused emotional aspect.

I felt Gaiden is more for the fans who wants a slice of the nostalgia from the naruto universe than an actual story with good development. I read it wanting to see the characters and how they were 12 years after the ending of Naruto and it was a nice trip down memory-lane. Plot-wise, I do think some aspects were drawn out for the sake of a storyline but overall, it's a good read.

Story: 6
The plot was very predictable, nothing was suspenseful. The basic "a new villian appears but somehow the main character, in this case it's Sarada, somehow defeats them with the power of love for her family and her village. I'm a sucker for those storylines and the moments were very endearing. Some parts were really unnecessary in my opinion but without them, we will not have any drama LOL.

Art: 9
It's still the same style, which I know now that I should be grateful for after looking at Boruto. I love how Sarada is a blend of both Sasuke and Sakura.

Character: 7
It's more focused on the children and I do love these little munchinks very much. Chocho is hilarious with her remarks and giving a bag of chips to Sasuke so he can make up with Sarada. And Naruto being the uncle who tries too hard to be cool, who would have thought the day would come so soon, haha.

***SPOILERS***
I'm not a fan of how aloof Sasuke is now, even to his own child and wife...considering how he's disappeared for so many years and he knows it affected Sarada so I docked a star. I love the mother-child moment between Sakura and Sarada though :)

Enjoyment: 9
I'm a sucker for Naruto because it's one of my first anime so it did have an impact on my childhood and was a positive impact on my life. This story is basically bringing all the cute essence of Naruto (family, friends, believing in yourself, etc) into a nice, compact 10 chapters (minus Sasuke leaving for so long) so it's a nice re-read.

Overall: 8
When reading this, you gotta know what you're looking for. If you're looking for a great plot with character development then please turn away. If you're looking for a short read to quench those Naruto feels then please do go ahead and read this. It's nice seeing all the characters again and their new life now and seeing how little ninjas are and the potential for them in the future.

This is my review on this manga. Oh and expect to be spoiled. Okay, so before I get into this, I would like to say one thing. THIS IS MORE OF A INTRODUCTION TO THE LATEST NARUTO MOVIE. If you could not get that hint, then gosh you really have bad analytic skills. I bet I was one of the few that enjoyed that Naruto ending. I did find the manga in general rushed. More could have been done to explain the final villain.

This is more of a sequel. Presenting team 7 and their kids as well. We do get a small appearance from shikamaru's kid though. The story is about sarada finding here "real mum", whilst dealing with a villain and his son(created by Orochimaru) interested in resurrecting the Akatsuki. As always I found this series amazing, the nostalgia was so real lol. Three major flaws I found however, was the lack of the mastermind(Orochimaru), pacing was ridiculous(felt fast as hell) and the villains where just off. If anything they got me wondering about Orochimaru lol. Oh I perhaps forgot to mention the character that was once hilarious, but got annoying after a few chapters. The story gets a 8-9/10.

Art as always was amazing. As well as detailed. So a 10/10.

Characters like Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura got some pretty good development. Sakura is not as useless as I though she was. Sasuke has grown pretty badass and Naruto is more mature then ever. Apart from that we get Sarada and Chocho as well. What I loved about this 10 chapter series was Sarada's development. She grew not thinking much about becoming a ninja to thinking about the Hokage role. While, Boruto dislikes such a role. For me this is an amazing transition. So this is a 8/10 from me.


Here is a summary:
Story: 9/10, pacing Kishimoto. Pacing. Felt like this should have been a 50-100 chapter series. People who lack analytical skills, should know by now that this is not the end. A ninja stronger then Kaguya will appear.

Art: 10/10 the art is always amazing.

Character development: 8/10. Especially for Sarada.
Enjoyment: 9/10. Nostalgia is mostly the reason. Seeing Naruto was awesome.

Pros:
-Naruto and cast. Seeing them was nostalgic.
-Finding out that a villain stronger then Kaguya will appear.
-Sarada choosing to be Hokage and Boruto finding it ridiculous.
-Kabuto a good guy, but I do find babysitting 500 kids ridiculous and funny.

Cons:
-Pacing
-Orochimaru: his participation was lacking. Plus that mofo is always suspicious.
-Shin was disappointing, but I found it ironic that he was inspired by a amazing Uchiha. However, he chose a path that Itachi was against.

Overall: 9/10.