So Much for Concern for Spoilers!

I put the anime Naruto Shippuuden on hold last April but started up again about a week to a week and a half ago and am (again, as I was in April when I put it on hold) caught up with every episode that's aired so far.

So anyway, something relatively big in the plot line is going to happen in next week's 2-part episode: one of the major supporting characters is going to die. I had this spoiled for me about a year ago by a friend who had read through all of the manga. At the time, the manga was about three seasons' worth of material ahead of the anime, and so what I'm watching right now is right about where my friend was last year. So I was a little miffed that he spoiled it -- I hate spoilers! -- but it wasn't too big a deal because, like I said, this character is only a supporting character. He's by no means one of the main characters in the show. But he's still someone fans recognize, and within the context of the Naruto universe the implications of this character dying will be a little heavy.

Fast forward to this morning. Like a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons, I sleepily woke up at 10:20am and finished the latest-to-be-aired episode of Naruto Shippuuden. When I reached the sneak peek for next week's episode, I was stunned to both read onscreen and hear the narrator say what you see in this screencap. If you're planning on watching or reading Naruto some day, if you hate spoilers, and if you're not caught up yet, I'd advise not clicking on the link. Otherwise, have at.

So, why the blog update? Now that I've explained everything, my reason for blogging is pretty simple: I'm upset that the Japanese TV execs have decided that anybody who watches Naruto in Japan must already know all about this character's death and therefore there's no reason to conceal it. The reason I'm upset is, it's stupid of both the execs and of any Japanese or American critics listening to my argument to assume that just because somebody lives in Japan and likes Naruto that they necessarily read or keep up with the manga. After all, pick me up, plop me back down on Japanese soil, and you'd have your proof right here! You might say, "Well Ryan, it's not as though you could read the Naruto manga :p", but my answer to that is, "It's not as though scanlations of the very newest chapters don't already exist on the internet either. :p" Remember my friend? The one who told me about this character's death back in September of 2007? Yeah: he read the scanlations. So even Americans have had access to this knowledge for at least a year now.

The reason I don't read the manga isn't because of a language barrier nor is it because of money, because both of these obstacles are overcome by pirate-scanlations. The reason I don't read the manga is because I hate action manga. Not because I hate the action! And not because I hate manga, either! But because both of them together make for a very poor combination in my opinion. When I want to watch a show jam-packed with ninja fights, I want these fights to be played out in real time onscreen, not a bunch of static cels with zig-zag lines meant to signify rushing wind, explosions, or complex martial arts moves. And so my take on this situation is, I'm positive that there are people just like me who live in Japan; and therefore the TV studio's decision is sort of a slap in their faces. It's as though they're being told, "Thank you for your patronage. Thank you for choosing to watch our show when you could have just read the comics and not payed for cable TV or sat through our commercial advertisements. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In return for your patronage, we would like to SPOIL THE PLOT FOR YOU! :p HA HA!"