@Kakashi Hatake either way even if he hadn't see gai and lee he was still super unstable to begin with from the times of his childhood where his dad literally tried to murder him
Undoubtably one of the best fights throughout the whole series simply because Lee is the total embodiment of what we humans can become or at least the closest thing we try to attain
This might be the best fight in the show. When Lee takes off his weights and Gaara realizes he can’t see him anymore I get goosebumps. Bro was flabbergasted.
@@orange8216 The funny thing about final valley was that half the move Sasuke and Naruto used was never shown to that point. Sasuke just randomly turned into the cursed hawk form. Naruto randomly slammed Saskue with that 100 clone tentacle technique completely out of nowhere.
I love how konkuro basically went over to talk to Naruto strictly to play with him and get info and yet just gives up all of gaaras secrets like no problem. "Man, does this guy have any weaknesses?" Kankuro: "man, let me tell you those weaknesses!"
@@jordanforce3743 while he isn't a saying everything out loud, he does say more about Gaara to Naruto than gaining Intel. Like his role was the exact opposite of "gaining Intel"
It could also be that he was only revealing surface weaknesses, with the goal of seeing how the other villages would strategize against it. Kakashi and Guy likely already figured out those weaknesses, so Kankuro wanted to see how the leaf village fights when it's pushed up against a wall.
According to how fast Lee was, Kishimoto should've upgraded his skills, strength and speed as he grows but too bad he was wasted just like that, a rare Shinobi like Lee deserves more screen. He was one of the strongest at an early age
@@blackheartedevil Minato speed was entirely based on his preparation and Ninjutsu he would be better to train Shikamaru with Lee he would just have nothing to teach him.
The power system was so much more well thought out and interesting in part 1. I love how each character had a distinct moveset and fighting style. It was showcased in this fight in particular, but also throughout the chunin exams. Kiba: Overwhelm the opponent with nonstop combo attacks with Akamaru Shino: Control the battlefield with his bug army Ino: Has an incredibly powerful jutsu with massive risk, so is generally better as support. Choji: His rolling boulder can pack a punch, probably one of the best jutsu for breaking through walls and defenses. However, it is quite slow and predictable, and he can't really do much else. Shikamaru: His shadow possession jutsu is quite impractical and difficult to pull off at first glance. Thus, he needs to be crafty to defeat his opponent. Sakura: Very... vanilla. She didn't come from a clan, so the only ninjutsu she knows are the ones she learned at the academy like the illusion clones. Tenten: Her fight with Temari was not shown in the manga, so she actually has no canon feats. We do know she's a weapons user though. It makes sense that that's an area she'd chooose to specialize in, as, like Sakura, she wasn't part of a clan, so she didn't have any training in ninjutsu outside of the academy. Neji: His 360 degree vision, rotation and taijutsu skill make for a formidable defense. And with his Gentle Fist, can take anyone down in a few hits. Hinata: Ghetto version of neji. Kankuro: Uses chakra strings to control his puppet while he hides. It's a simple and likely chakra inexpensive jutsu. His taijutsu is poor and he likely doesn't have a large chakra pool, so he relies on making good use of his puppet. Temari: Specializes in long-range wind ninjutsu. She's one of the few genin that is able spam ninjutsu like that, meaning she likely has decently high chakra reserves. However, her ninjutsu isn't anywhere near as powerful as Gaara's. Rock Lee: Focuses solely on taijutsu as he has little choice. His fifth gate is the single most devastating attack in the chunin exams. Any of the genin other than Gaara loses to it. Gaara: The opposite of Rock Lee. His incredibly powerful sand shield protects him from almost any attack automatically. This, combined with his ability to control the sand and his absurd chakra reserves thanks to Shukaku, makes him pretty much the only character that can fight using nothing but ninjutsu, without ever needing to engage in taijutsu, or even so much as bother dodging a kunai. Naruto: Has a very powerful ninjutsu (arguably the most powerful in the chunin exams, aside from Gaara's sand abilities and chidori) in his shadow clones. In addition, he is the only genin aside from Gaara with enough chakra to spam such powerful ninjutsu, and spam it he does, something even most jonin can't pull off. He doesn't know any other ninjutsu at this point and isn't particularly skilled at taijutsu, so he ends up relying on his army of clones and his huge chakra pool to overwhelm his opponent. However, he can be quite crafty with his clones. Sasuke: Probably the most versatile genin. Sharingan, good fire ninjutsu, good taijutsu. He can fight you up close, from distance, you name it. Notice that most ninjas do not spend the whole fight spamming powerful ninjutsu (unlike in Shippuden where they spend the fight trying to one-up each other's explosions), as they do not have enough chakra to do so. Gaara and Naruto are exceptions. Even jonin like Kakashi have this issue. In the case of genin, they also don't have a large repertoire of ninjutsu. A genin's arsenal consists of the ninjutsu taught at the Academy (so basically the illusion clones) and maybe one C-rank jutsu their clan taught them (Shikamaru and his shadow possession, Sasuke's fire jutsu, etc). And, if they're really lucky, a Kekkei Genkai. The only ones who even had access to powerful ninjutsu were Naruto with his Shadow Clones (which he learned by stealing the First Hokage's scroll), Gaara with his sand abilities, and, later, Sasuke with chidori. These are jutsu that most of the other genin could die even attempting, due to the chakra required. The power system just has a depth to it that isn't there in Shippuden
Gaara's sand ability wasn't due to Shukaku. His dad Rasa explained that the sand protecting him was his mother Karura's will when they were fighting each other. This was explained in Naruto chapter 547 pg15 & if you don't feel like reading it then just type in on RU-vid Gaara vs Rasa.
you might not see this but im currently rewatching the entirety of shippuden and I completely agree, watching fight scenes from part 1 is a breath of fresh air. shippuden has its own share of great fights like naruto v pain, Kakashi v obito etc but most fights just go off a ridiculous power scale and as you said are just each person one upping some strong ass ninjutsu. as cool as the 4th ninja war arcs are the fights become really tiresome after a point because you can only watch overpowered characters create explosions so many times. I still love shippuden but you make a great point.
The animation here will never not be extremely impressive to me. It's so fluid, and to think that it's all hand drawn just makes it even more amazing for its time. The animators didn't have to go this hard, but they did. They did it for us.
temari :you really think you will be able get through gaara's defenses just by dropping a couple of pounds of weight? rock lee : ima end this man's whole career
Gaara won by an inch. I'm still unsure as to how the gourd cushioned him that much. Mentally, Garra got annihilated. That dude's entire world was rocked.
@@ramonsanchez4751 When did Kishimoto say that? And yeah, I don't know how the 5 Gates couldn't make him bleed but Naruto's 2K Barrage could. I'm sure all those Narutos punching him would hurt beyond belief, but I don't know how the 5 Gates couldn't make him bleed. Gaara was legit getting bounced like a volleyball.
@@professionalfangster1510 lee had the whole thing won actually he made one mistake. He closed his eyes because of the pain and gaara used that moment to substitute after that attack lee was out of gas.
This is why Rock lee is my fav. Sure, just like the others, he speaks for like to hours but it's a breath of fresh air. Him and his master is a reminder that you don't need jutsus to kick ass.
@@sunday3504 I get it🤣 with more weight itll hit harder but all that weight makes him move slower so technically his leg power is most effective without weights
@@JankSentient I watched my hero academia first and they copied so much, leg weights, overpowered teacher. Quiet rivial (todoroki) pissed off kid that doesn’t believe in hero’s, and so much more Jesus
Kishi wrote as the more human character. She's not part of a special clan, or she doesn't have a demon inside of her. She's kinda normal. So they like to display audience emotions thru somewhere similar as the audience, us being normal people.
“A sand manipulating jutsu, hm? It will not be easy getting through that. But nothing ventured, nothing gained!” These words ring in my head every now and then. Simply because Lee acknowledged how hard it’s going to be to even touch him, but he’s going to brute force his way through it anyways. No matter what it takes. Legendary.
What makes it even cooler is that he does, sort of. He figures out how to get past the defenses and land a blow on Gaara, someone no one had done before.
Gara since he came in the show was the best villain and character in all of naruto there is something in his character that makes me cry and get so exited every time he is fighting either a ally or enemy
Temari: “come on you really think you can get through Gaara’s defense by just dropping a couple pounds of weight?” Lee: *Drops few hundreds pounds of weights* Also Temari: *°0°*
I loved it when I read it in Shonen Jump many moons ago. Gaara was my favorite character and even my friends used to call me that and I got them in Naruto. I knew this would be big when it came to the States full force.
I distinctly remember sitting in my living room when I was 7 or maybe 8 years old watching toonami having no idea what anime even was and when I saw Lee drop those weights my mouth dropped probably just as hard, it was truly an eye opening moment for me and here I am over a decade later at 22 years old re watching this fight and cannot belive just how good the animation is the choreography the music and especially the actors in this scene, one of THE BEST anime fights of all time
@Aiwash you and I both. That feeling when toonami came on Cartoon Network Saturday night is one of the most nostalgic memories in my heart. Especially when naruto started at 9. Bro I feel so old
Yeah it use to piss me off too and I felt the same way (feeling and thinking he was a little bitch for having mommy there) but I got over it the more I saw Gaara progress as a person and as the series grew.
One thing this anime taught me is that natural born talent beats hard work anyday. The hardest working characters in the show were always getting their arse kicked left and right by natural born talents.
They didn’t even care enough about Lee to tell us who his wife is, according to an interview, the writer didn’t even think about who his wife might be.
An amazing fight for sure but episodes I think atound 15 or 16 which was Naruto and Sasuke vs haku. Or Naruto vs orochimaru in the chunin exams were what got it going for me
Guy sensei was not wrong when he said "LEE YOU ARE A GENIOUS OF EFFORTS"!!! Literally one of the best fights in naruto . Lee is a inspiration to all of us!! My man Lee 🥺🥺😭😭
@@soulreaver6546 well that sounds like a narrow minded and rubbish as MOST English dubs are completely excellent and great all around. The entire English dub voice acting for this anime is nothing sort of phenomenal and outstanding. And not only that. Most to if not all English dub voice acting has been nothing short of the word fantastic since the past 20 years. This isn’t the 90s anymore where your anime English dub get any guy off the street anymore, hell no far from it. Most English dubs are amazing all around and a lot of people are just downplaying their worth as they are all high in scale and gold quality.
I don't know if it's real, but I remember I read somewhere the manga writer wanted to have Lee to win the fight because he was very powerful but because of the story, he stuck with Gaara
@ghost But Naruto and Sasuke did that to the entire shinobi world.... Gaara is top 10 strongest shinobi in the world by the end of the series, easily (among the remaining living shinobi and no I’m not counting Boruto).
The commentary makes this fight 10 times better, so many anime’s just have people standing and watching lifelessly. Not here, everybody puts there two cents in.
This is an almost perfect scene. A kid considered a reject of the village was revealed to be one of the strongest people in the room and the first to harm another villages secret weapon. But still couldn't win which makes it a more natural sudden power up. The music is bumpin', the animation is good, the voice acting is decent enough and the stakes are set well
4:53 Weird thought, but I always imagine it'd be hilarious if Lee's weight's hitting the floor cut off Temari mid sentence. "Come on, you really think you'll be able to get through Gaara's defense by dropping a couple of... *CRASH*
If Lee and Neji fought here, instead of Gaara vs Lee I believe Lee would have smoked Neji. You seen how shocked Neji looked after seeing Lee take his weights off and run up on Gaara? Neji would have underestimated him and would have gotten way more than he bargained for. And once Lee opened up his gates, it would have been over right away. When Lee was doing the Hidden lotus to Gaara, he said "are you watching Neji? I was saving this for you!" They were on the same team, so you gotta think that Lee def knows how Neji fights and his strats. If he was saving that for Neji, he def put alot of thought into that move to be able to counter even a genius like Neji. However, that's just my opinion. Love Rock Lee. Total bad ass, just like Guy
Lee was the strongest person in that class by a Huge margin. Only person he could fight that would even be remotely close to his power at this point is gara
Bro if humans walked around with weights that weigh one thousand fucking pounds, we'd die. A well built human using steroids could at most, lift like, 700 pounds.
@@J_meel_the_Goat Yes obviously not 1000 pounds but he's the closest people can get to minus the gates. If humans wore like 100-200 pounds when running and Start to train they can be really fast
I like how Kankuro is friendly enough to spend time talking with naruto in these early episodes. Back then it was obvious that the sand team was apart of "the bad guys" but even so Kankuro stood out as being the; non edgy, familiar one. Which is funny considering his jutsu and appearance.
