Seki continues to goof off, and Yokoi continues to watch him and occasionally try to thwart him. In this volume, Yokoi has to borrow Seki's Social Studies textbook and learns that

There are zero new developments as far as characters and character relationships go. Goto still thinks Yokoi is under Seki's thrall, and Seki's sister still desperately wants to play with him while he resists and ignores her.

My favorite thing in this volume was the edited textbook. It was really cleverly done and something that I could imagine a bored kid doing in real life.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Seki continues to goof off, and Yokoi continues to be fascinated/charmed despite herself. Or she tries to thwart him, especially when his games showcase his sadistic streak. In this volume, Seki tries (and fails) to outwit Uzawa. Also, Yokoi teams up with Seki's mom during parent visiting day in an effort to defeat his games. Goto continues to think Yokoi is passionately attracted to Seki. And the robot family is back again. Yokoi

This volume renewed my flagging interest in this series, at least a little. It was nice to see Seki's mom, who turns out to be an expert rubber band shooter. Yokoi continues to be self-deceiving, telling herself that she can ignore Seki anytime she wishes when what she really wants to do is watch and see what his latest game will be.

I'm running out of new things to say about this series...

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Yokoi continues to watch (and sometimes thwart) Seki's goofing off, and Goto continues to misunderstand Seki and Yokoi's relationship. Seki

Okay, the premise is now seriously wearing thin. The only reason I'm still reading is because I have a pile of these via the library. They're not bad, but it all feels so same-y, even though Seki's games are always changing.

I like Seki's ingenuity, but it just isn't enough to carry a multi-volume series. Also, sometimes Yokoi frustrates me. Seki's weirdness should be normal to you by now, just ignore him and pay attention during class like you keep saying you want to do!

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

All the hidden villages are united in a war against the Akatsuki, which means people from different villages are teamed up together and need to learn to work with each other. The teams find themselves fighting Kabuto's reanimated puppets, and some of the battles are bitter – for example, Sai must fight his brother, and Kakashi finds himself facing off against Zabuza and Haku. Meanwhile, Naruto is continuing to train with Killer Bee, unaware that all of this is going on.

I have less that 20 volumes to go before I'm done with this series. I've been reading it for so long that it feels like I need to make it to the finish line, but this volume made me wonder if I'm going to be able to manage it.

Part of the problem is that it's been so long since I read the volumes prior to this one. The result was confusion – so many characters I either didn't know or could barely remember. Personally, I think Kishimoto is better at depicting one-on-one battles than large-scale wars. I miss the days of reading extended battles that were really just an excuse to reveal characters' thoughts and emotions and to maybe throw in a flashback or two. It should have been a more emotional experience, seeing characters I knew and loved, like Haku and Zabuza, reanimated and forced against their will to fight. Instead, I had to struggle to feel anything. There was just too much going on.

I continued to dislike Killer Bee's efforts to rap all his lines. I can't wait until Naruto is finally done training with him, because I would like him to go away. Why does such an annoying character have to be so important?

I'll wrap this up with a quickie comment about the jutsu Kabuto used to reanimate people. We're told that it can't be broken, even with the caster's death, and yet

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[This is the last one tonight, I promise!]

This volume was incredibly hard for me to follow. It felt like a mishmash of battles and happenings.

Here's what I can say: Guy's taijutsu moves in the volume were ridiculous. “Those who open the Seventh Gate of Shock perspire blue sweat” (49), which looks like chakra aura. See what I mean? So ridiculous. I have to wonder what was going on in Kishimoto's head, because, in addition to that, there was a flashback of Jiraiya and the Pain kids dressed in full-body frog suits.

And, unrelated to any of that: The island that's actually a giant turtle that Kumogakure has been rearing for generations made me think of Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)