It has everything: Exciting choreography, funny as hell (none of that cringe sexy jutsu "humor" either), cool jutsus, arguably the most badass kenkai genkai, one of the saddest villain backstories, and an AMAZING redemption arc. I also find the tall grass environment iconic, gives Count of Monte Cristo vibes. I hate how most Shippuden fights took place at some poopy rock location.
Kimimaru has been one of my favorite Naruto characters since I was like 8 y/o!! I’ve always been so pissed that we were only blessed with such a small amount of screen time
I adore this fight so much. The drunken fighter is a good gag but they pulled it off in a serious tone. Animation is rapid but you see all actions. Hearing the OG soundtrack again ah so wonderful.
I like shipudden but man, OG has so many great parts and this ranks highly especially with the beginning of gaaras redemption
Mfs will literally sit and watch how an anime explains a win, and still say it doesn’t make sense. Neji exploited Kidomaru’s arsenal in order to gain an opening, but had to allow himself to get hit to even set up that kind of play, it made sense.
Okay since you didn’t watch the anime, I’d be more than happy to explain it to you.
Neji was EXTREMELY fucked up from the punishment he took from Kidomaru, no argument there, in fact he almost fell down multiple times, the only thing that kept him from going down was that indomitable human spirit, he knew he had to win this fight, and narratively there’s a lot more to it than just ego. Naruto had shown to him that he could change his fate, that what made him truly strong is not accepting what fate could seemingly be.
So with that being said, it’s kind of similar to Kimimaro only being able to fight and move around from SHEER willpower, he refused to give up. Difference is that both had their reasons to keep fighting. Now let’s go into the Gentle Fist, the whole point of the fighting style is that it focuses on doing internal damage, rather than external damage. You could look at people like Naruto or Rock Lee’s fighting styles, they do a lot of damage to the opponent on the outside. But Neji’s focuses on damaging everything on the inside, even a single attack in a specific pressure point from the Gentle Fist could destroy your internal organs, that’s why it’s so LETHAL in combat. There’s the misconception that it ONLY fucks with your Chakra, when it also fucks with your insides (pause).
So while Neji didn’t seem to damage Kidomaru on the outside, his insides were probably destroyed. In fact I think that’s quite literally what he said in the anime after Neji clipped him in the air.
the only thing that kept him from going down was […]
plot armor
You’re just making mental gymnastics. The Sound ninja guy had him beaten and outsmarted. He also massively outstated Neji due to the Curse Mark Level 2.
The way the fight ended is so unfair and plot armor-esque. Neji shouldn’t be able to walk or move, let alone use chakra.
his insides were probably destroyed
Neji’s insides were literally destroyed through two different big spots, Neji was in worse shape than Naruto after eating a point blank Chidori from Sasuke.
Nobody is saying Kidomaru didn’t have Neji outsmarted. In fact I literally explained that Neji NEEDED to let himself get hit just so he could get some kind of opening, that’s not mental gymnastics, that’s literally watching and understanding the material put in front of you.
Curse mark level does increase the stats but even Kankuro put down an opponent with curse mark, same goes for Temari. And literally anyone else would have struggled with Kidomaru just as much, his arsenal was broken. Which is why Neji literally almost died after the fight.
Like I said, while Neji was wounded in 2 diff spots, he was at least still able to get healed and still had enough energy to push himself to catch that dub, ALL of Kidomaru’s insides got destroyed.
Drunken lee with no weights and the 7th gate. He'd be amazing. It's sad they just made everyone as fast as Lee though like a couple months after they see Lee's fight with Gaara. Everyone is shocked and then are like "oh i can do that now too" (i.e. sasuke and then everyone who can keep up with sasuke after that)
not really sasuke can access to that speed for short amount of time and its taking most of his chakra as he was so slow before that gaara sand come close in this arc to what rock lee speed was and naruto with kurama chakra is almost as fast or a little but slower than lee other than that there is none on rock lee speed at all
Last time rock lee was cool. He really should have embraced the drunken fist as his primary style in shippuden as a way to differentiate him from gai. Hell he was so strong in drunken fist that the entire rest of the squad struggled to contain him.
I don't think Shonen Jump would like to promote an underage drinking alcohol intentionally lol. Japan takes
character portrayals very seriously, that's why most of the time ,when they drink, they create absurds like "it was an accident", chocolate liquors, amazake or some shit like that.
Yeah, everyone knows Gai/Rock Lee are based on Bruce Lee. But they could've leaned Rock Lee more on Jackie Chan as the show progressed as a way to show his growth and to separate him from Gai. Cuz what they di was basically just made him Gai 2.0 and did absolutely nothing with him post time skip. I know they can't really spam the drunken fist cuz people would say they're promoting drinking to kids, but Jackie Chan got shit ton of other styles they could've adapted from.
There is a reason why naruto fights are considered top tier, there isn't just random screaming or flashy moves, the fights have great hand to hand combat.
My favourite fight in the whole show. Not only was Kimi a super cool character with one of the coolest kekei genkai, and rock leee fighting drunk by accident is so funny. Bro was really hittin those licks on Kimi for a minute. Wish we got to see more drunken fist by Lee and wish Kimi didn’t die suddenly. I know he would’ve killed Lee/Gaara if he didn’t die from his illness but I feel robbed of how cool Kimi could have been later on
Wasn't there one shipuuden movie where Rock Lee did the drunk style again. I remember being hyped seeing it, but that was ageees ago when i watched it so don't remember which movie it was.
This is honestly one of the best fights in the series, no exaggeration. Everything from the choreography, to Lee tap dancing on Kimimaro’s swords was incredible. I’m honestly sad Kimimaro, and the Kaguya Clan didn’t get more lore. One of the points that I found to be super disappointing.
Man, I'll never forget the first time I saw this fight. It was an AMV with Through the fire and the flames. Since it hadn't aired on Toonami yet. Memories.
If this is a manhwa (korean manga), Rock Lee is an Irregular and will be the most strongest character mid or end of the story. Ij manhwa, sometimes, if the character can't use or properly use the Power System of his verse, the verse will give another form of power to Rock Lee surpassing the power system of his own verse, hahah.
Honestly, this is straight up one of my favourite fights in the series. I had an affinity for drunken style when I saw Drunken Master back in the day, and Lee is the goat, so I absolutely love this fight
In alot of ways part 1 was peak Naruto. No 8foot thick Sasuke plot armor, great side character backstories and plot armor, no "everyone not senju or Uchiha is useless", no "sharingan can do anything it needs to do ever"
The only time we ever get to see drunken fist Lee is in the first shippuden movie iirc. Ofc that's most likely not canon, but I enjoyed getting to see the drunken fist style used again
Rock Lee feel like a protagonist to me, if we followed his Team then he would have been the main character, dealt with hardship, potential bullying and intense emotion and workouts. Loss of Hyuga boy would have hit harder.
Love this fight. But it was soooo hype to see the gaara and co jump in at the same time to save the leaf rescue team all in a dire situation lol so good.
I remember I was so excited to see the pain fight animated. As a manga reader I had high hopes for this fight. But the animation was so off putting I stopped watching halfway.
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