Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulquiorra
Hidan was a boogeyman like Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers and not suppose to be complex. If Kishimoto failed with Hidan, it was in making him more silly than threatening; probably thinking this would add a dimension to his character. But it ended up taking a lot of the menace out of the character.
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I imagine Hidan's silliness was probably intentional. I agree with
Hunter and
James that Hidan's acts aren't all that graphic -- but out of all the Naruto villains Hidan was definitely one of the most disturbing concepts. He's an insane masochist who belongs to a cult that teaches its clergy to revel in slaughter and torture. Really, that's the type of thing you'd expect in
Berserk or
Hellsing. To offset the perverse and occult nature of his powers, I think Hidan was treated less seriously and made less threatening than most of the other villains. Maybe the black humor was overboard at times, but if Hidan were treated completely seriously, I don't think he'd really fit into Naruto.
Nagato is probably the most well-developed villain so far, though his personality was bland. Oro takes the prize in that category. Madara and Obito's backstories are too tangled and I'm really hoping they get through the flashbacks soon. I'm guessing we'll see Obito get his completed Zetsu-clone body next chapter and then see him learn about Rin's death (and I wouldn't be surprised if Madara had a hand in that).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ronin myael
i kinda agree with shining celebi, flashbacks (especially ones that tell sob stories explaining why the characters did what they did) disrupt the pace. unless the said flashback reveals something that is vital to the plot itself then it's useless. one good example is the kabuto flashback. kabuto's story could have been revealed hundreds of chapters before that, why reveal it at the heat of an ongoing battle? it disrupted the whole fight. sure, we learned about kabuto's past, but was it essential to the plot?
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Yeah, Kabuto's story could've been left untold. The only thing it really provided was a motive for his acts, that being that he felt he never had an identity so he decided to create his own from stealing the unique abilties of others.
However, one thing to remember is that the story is mostly told from the perspective of the heroes. Usually villains are only featured when encountering the good guys. 9/10 times this will during be some sort of battle, so it's really to be expected that this is often the time the mangaka will take time to give background about them.
Sure, there are some non-action "breather" moments that focus on the villains like in Part I where we saw Kabuto and Oro alone in their hideout discussing events that foreshadowed the debut of Itachi and the rest of Akatsuki. But overall, flashbacks are easier and more entertaining than pure exposition, even if they do disrupt the fights.