The Holy Shonen Trinity, the Big Three. Any longtime reader of Shonen Jump will recognize these, some of the biggest titles in manga and anime, and it's time for two of those shonen heroes to throw down.
Naruto Uzumaki, ninja prodigy of the Hidden Leaf. And Ichigo Kurosaki, the enormously powerful Soul Reaper from Bleach.
The fourteenth episode of season four stands as another hallmark title of the series, as two of the anime world's biggest, longest-running, and most prolific heroes come head to head in a duel for the ages. The hosts will match abilities almost divine in nature against a genealogy that transcends dimensions, the power of the soul made manifest a energy against the soul as a weapon, for Naruto Uzumaki and Ichigo Kurosaki are both legends whom have hit heights that seldom have reached and fewer still in such short time, but popular they may be, only one has the kind of strength needed to establish their superiority in a death battle.
To begin, Wiz and Boomstick look at the origins of Naruto Uzumaki, born in the Hidden Leaf Village, better known as Konoha, yet having origins that stretch back to the very roots of chakra itself. A thousand years before Naruto's adventures began, the princess Kaguya Ōtsutsuki arrived from another world and, upon losing her faith in humanity, ate the fruit of the sacred God Tree, thus becoming the first progenitor of chakra. When she committed acts of cruelty upon the humans of the world, her twin sons Hagoromo and Hamura, who inherited her chakra, stopped Kaguya when she merged with the God Tree to become the Ten Tails, Hagoromo in particular splitting the Ten Tails' chakra and creating ancient monsters known as the tailed beasts from it. Hagoromo would later go on to be called the Sage of Six Paths and bear twin sons of his own, Indra and Asura, choosing Asura to be the heir of the chakra he developed and successor of his legacy, much to Indra's envious fury. Centuries would pass and Indra and Asura would continue their feud and legacies through the clans they founded. A thousand years later, on the exact day Naruto would be born as Asura's latest incarnation, the village of Konoha was attacked by one of the chakra beasts; in particular, the nine-tailed kitsune monster known as Kurama. Minato Namikaze, leader of Konoha at the time, would give his life by cutting Kurama's chakra, the monster's life force, in half; Minato absorbed one half into himself and placed the other half of Kurama's chakra in his infant son, Naruto. Naruto would only understand this truth later on in life, and instead spend his early days as both a mischief maker and an outcast in Konoha, where he would also cultivate his lifelong aspirations of becoming the Hokage, much as Minato was. In order to even hope of reaching this position, Naruto took up classes at the Academy in his hometown and, while he failed to graduate three times, he nonetheless strove to attain the rank of Hokage; training with esteemed ninja such as Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya, Naruto learned how to properly manage and utilize his chakra, thus setting him on his way to becoming the next Hokage on a journey that would span several years and see countless allies and enemies emerge on the path to his goal.
The origins behind Naruto's conception and the massive inherent talent such a conception bears, combined with the sheer commitment he has put into his craft in the mission to become the next Hokage has paid off more than handsomely. Even at the age of twelve, Naruto was capable of moving at speeds faster than the eye could track and could later dodge a lightning-speed in a feat comparable to Minato. More impressive than this, Naruto has even dodged a stream of natural energy that moves at the speed of light itself. With his durability, he has survived impalement, the removal of his soul from its body, and even a direct hit from a sword made by one of Kaguya's direct descendants, made of chakra and both long and powerful enough to slice the moon in half. His physical body, however, serves as only one half of Naruto's prowess, relying on the aspect of chakra for the other. In the world of Naruto, chakra is instead a form of energy that exists within all life to varying degrees, split up between the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and lightning; the more physical and spiritual energy one has, the greater the pool of chakra they can draw from. Naruto's lineage of the Uzumaki clan, famous for a number of aspects including plentiful chakra, means he has a large pool of chakra himself, leaning more towards the wind element, and allows the usage of mystical techniques known as jutsu. Through his training and the massive chakra reserves of his bloodline and Kurama's own contributions of chakra, Naruto proved capable of mastering a great number of jutsu across the five chief elements, his preferred jutsu being the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Rasengan. The Shadow Clone Jutsu, also known as the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, sees Naruto divide his chakra into a number of body doubles with their own tangible presence and the exact same physical capabilities as the original. The Rasengan, meanwhile, consists of forming a sphere of pure chakra and slamming it into a target; from the original and simplest variant of the Rasengan, Naruto has developed a number of more advanced forms, one such example being the Wind Release Rasenshuriken, a pressurized wind current that encircles the primary Rasengan and can cut on a cellular level. The Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Rasengan are but a few examples of the jutsus present in Naruto's repertoire, with several other examples allowing him to summon giant toads, substitutions, and transforming his body into various objects; one of the more esoteric abilities the Konoha native possesses is a variant of the latter, specifically, distracting his foes via transforming himself into a nude woman, known simply as the Sexy Technique. This, however, only scratches the surface of the numerous abilities Naruto can perform via jutsu, let alone what Kurama offers once the tailed beast had befriended the ninja, and, perhaps most importantly, various states of transformation that grant Naruto numerous new abilities and vast increases in power. First off is Sage Mode, which Naruto learned from the toad Fukasaku, and with it, he can draw on the ambient energy around him and use it to survey his surroundings, while also amplifying his physical capabilities. With Kurama's aid, Naruto also has a number of transformations that call upon the power of the tailed beast; the primary one simply titled the Nine Tails Chakra Mode, like the Sage Mode, increase Naruto's physical strength and energy output, which was upgraded to the Kurama Chakra Mode. The Kurama Chakra Mode further increases Naruto's strength, speed, and durability, while also allowing him to sense negative energy and form additional arms made of chakra to assist him in battle; further improvements also enabled Naruto to conjure an astral form of Kurama and use its most destructive attack, the Tailed Beast Bomb, an orb comprised of a mix of positive and negative chakra capable of destroying mountains. As impressive as this may seem, however, Naruto still has one final form, gifted to him from his history as the most recent incarnation of Asura, the Six Paths Chakra, and with it, Six Paths Sage Mode. Six Paths Sage Mode grants Naruto astronomically high increases in his physical attributes and adds a few others to the mix; the mode lets Naruto fly, firing truth seeking balls made of the five elements, and even transform the balls into weapons which automatically disintegrate anything they touch. Technically, the Six Paths Sage Mode is the last form Naruto has discovered, but he can draw upon the ambient energy of his surroundings and combine his forms to produce the Six Paths Asura Kurama Sage Mode.
That mixture of a unique lineage, mythical entities at his disposal, and constant training and development of his skills is what have helped elevate Naruto to a league unlike that seen in his world. The ninja has proven himself capable of fighting off multiple tailed beasts at once and destroying meteorites with a single Rasenshuriken, while his chakra can withstand the intense heat of the Amaterasu jutsu, a form of fire jutsu that can burn other flames, and managed to fight long time friend and enemy Sasuke Uchiha. While Naruto is indeed an impressive combatant and one with many more feats under his belt than need be counted, he still has a few crucial flaws that can be exploited. Naruto has never been one for strategy in his fights, rushing headlong into danger with minimal planning, and in the unlikely event his supply of chakra is drained, Naruto will die once his reserves are expended. But in the face of adversity and overwhelming odds, Naruto has continued to emerge victorious with these threats doing little to stop him, making amends with Sasuke, uniting the two halves of Kurama during the final defeat of Kaguya, and finally succeeding in his lifelong goal of becoming the next Hokage, paving the way for a new generation of ninja to thrive thanks to that million to one chance of unfolding events which is his life.
- Naruto: (gripping the ground) I'm not gonna run away. I never go back on my word! (steadily uprights himself) That's my nindo, my ninja way!
That being all which needs to be said about Naruto, the host move on to the competition he faces, one Ichigo Kurosaki, whose life in the neighborhood of Karakura Town would be an ordinary one, if not for the fact that he possessed the unnatural ability to see the souls of the dead. While Ichigo knew Isshin Kurosaki as a father, in truth, Isshin was once a shinigami, also known as soul reaper, guardian of the dead whose responsibility it is to escort the deceased's souls to the afterlife, lest they become violent Hollows. His mother, Masaki, meanwhile, was a quincy, an ordinary human with the power to control reishi, but was possessed by a Hollow which she then transferred to Ichigo upon his birth, meaning Ichigo has a genealogy of quincy, soul reaper, and Hollow. Much of this would be hidden from him, even on the day that, as a nine-year-old child, he found a wandering Hollow which then killed Masaki. It would not be until years passed that Ichigo would come to learn the truth from Rukia Kukichi, who held the position of shinigami herself. Rukia, assigned to patrol Karakura Town, felt a strong presence from Ichigo and revealed that he was a shinigami in secret, sharing with him a fraction of her power. Rukia would then go on to guide Ichigo through his newfound responsibilities as a shinigami.
The meeting Rukia held with Ichigo are perhaps the only simple part of the shinigami and his endeavors from that point; this being a fact best pointed out by how, when engaging in shinigami activities of any sort, Ichigo sheds behind his physical form for one made of reishi. Within the context of the Bleach universe, reishi is a mystical element that comprises the presence of all spiritual bodies and serves as the core component of Ichigo's powers. With the aid of reishi, Ichigo can move fast enough to leave multiple afterimages in his wake, cut through giant monsters with minimal difficulty, and survive blows that knock him through multiple city blocks. Of course, as impressive as these showings are, shinigami need a weapon with which to escort lost souls and destroy noncompliant Hollows, a sword connected to its owner's soul known as a zanpakuto; Ichigo's is known as zangetsu. Every shinigami possesses a fragment of the zanpakuto's soul within their own, and unlike most other shinigami, Ichigo actually has two zanpakuto to his name, one from his quincy mother, the other a hybrid of the soul reaper and Hollow elements of his upbringing. As shinigami and Hollow are in perpetual conflict with one another, Ichigo struggled to maintain a proper balance between the components of his latter zanpakuto; in the process, he discovered a great number of techniques, including his trademark Getsuga Tenshō. The Getsuga Tenshō takes Ichigo's reiryoku, his spiritual sensitivity and willpower, and converts it to reiatsu, actual pressurized force that, in the case of the technique, is manifested as a massive shockwave. His quincy zanpakuto, meanwhile, grants him Blut Vene powers that tremendously amplify Ichigo's durability. His shinigani training also helped teach Ichigo the ways of swordsmanship and the shunpo, an exceedingly quick flash step. Despite the powers that come from his lineage, his ultimate trump card comes in the form of his ever-increasing series of powerful forms, the first one being the shikai, which is Ichigo's base form, already powerful enough to block a soukyoku with destructive strength equivalent to a million zanpakutos. Following the shikai form is bankai, a form shinigami normally require ten years to attain, as it requires the shinigami to summon the spirit of the zanpakuto to the land of the living. Ichigo, meanwhile, was able to reach the bankai state in a matter of days, and has a massive increase in his physical attributes while in bankai. After the bankai form comes the Visored Hollow Masked Ichigo form, released when Ichigo relented and let his Hollow roots indulge in the action his shinigami form took; should Ichigo lose control, his Hollow form will fully take over his body and adopt the Vasto Lorde form, which can recover from injuries quickly and surviving nuclear bomb-strength hits. On a less malevolent note, his training with Isshin once he learned of his father's history as a shinigami gave Ichigo the opportunity he needed to ascend to the dangai form. As dangai Ichigo, he can casually destroy mountains, survive attacks that tear at the fabric of time and space and even explosions that have dozens of destructive potential stronger than actual nukes, and in turn gives Ichigo access to the ability to merge himself with the Getsuga Tenshō to form the Mugetsu, an overwhelmingly powerful attack that comes at the expense of also draining Ichigo of his powers. In the aftermath of losing his powers, Ichigo then went on a process of recovering from the ordeal, gaining the fullbringer form that was even stronger than his Getsuga Tenshō in the shikai form, making peace with his shinigami, Hollow, and quincy roots, and combining the latter with the Vasto Lorde. Combining the quincy within with the Vasto Lorde, Ichigo can likewise combine their signature destructive attacks of the Getsuga Tenshō and the Grand Rey Cero to make an even stronger hybrid of the two and further amplify it with his bankai state.
To many outsiders, Ichigo would seem like a formidable foe, and that assumption would be a correct one. Between the numerous forms Ichigo adopts and their own increasingly stronger physical feats, Ichigo is every bit the notorious shinigami that his reputation and accomplishments make him out to be, but that does not mean in and of itself, that he is the perfect warrior. As stated before, the usage of the Mugetsu is incredibly dangerous and drains Ichigo of his power, Hollow, shinigami, and quincy alike. In addition, he has little to offer in the way of strategy, hacking in front of him with his zanpakuto rather than have any plan of attack in mind. Even if such a mindset is a dangerous one to have in a profession like escorting souls to the realm of the dead, Ichigo has made it thus far, defeated the leader of a secret society of quincy at war with the shinigami, and even carried on his own legacy with a son bearing the same powers, suggesting that for all his brash behavior on the field, Ichigo clearly has a display of competence that makes up for his shortcomings.
- Ichigo: Now I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute soul reaper. And I'm combining my powerful spirit energy with this blade in order to protect my friends!
The two fighters have been studied and studied again to be ready for the match of a lifetime. One advertisement for the Blue Apron cooking service later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
Bathed in the glow of the midday sun, a serene mountainside waterfall is where Naruto Uzumaki, seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, meditates atop a rock, a few chirping birds landing beside him on the stone. The thicket leading up to the clearing, meanwhile, is how Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute shinigami, arrives at the battlefield, staring at the ninja and sensing the odd energy, mistaking him for a Hollow. Kurama's warnings go unheeded as Naruto has drifted to sleep in the middle of his practices, but he awakens in time to find the shinigami leaping towards him, zanpakuto drawn.
FIGHT!
As quickly as he notices Ichigo, Naruto vaults off the rock, barrowly avoiding a slash from the shinigami's sword as he tosses a set of kunai at Ichigo. Ichigo then draws a smaller blade from within his soul reaper robe and bats the kunai away; much to Naruto's surprise, he finds himself unable to spot Ichigo while in shinigami form, but luckily for him, Ichigo's movements can still be picked up audibly, letting him dive and roll out the way of an incoming tackle. The ninja rushes through a path in the forest, dodging pure energy swipes from the zanpakuto until he rests behind a tree. Invisible in the physical realm, Ichigo continues hunting his assumed prey, while back at the tree, Kurama insists it guide Naruto on his escape from the demi-Hollow. The shinigami gathers his reiryoku and unleashes it in his signature Getsuga Tenshō, which the son of the Hokage barely rolls past. Ichigo slides into view and runs the zanpakuto clean through him, only for the shadow clone to burst into smoke, leaving a bomb behind. The now-distracted Ichigo is left wide open for the real Naruto and his numerous shadow clones, all charged with Rasengan spheres, to gang up on the unsuspecting shinigami and send him flying with consecutive blasts. Naruto, now in Sage Mode, jumps after Ichigo and with his new-found ability to see the reishi comprising him, delivers a vicious headbutt that sends Ichigo barreling to the side of a riverbank. Ichigo frees himself from the impact in time to spot Naruto channeling Kurama Chakra Mode through himself and dozens of shadow clones.
This time, Ichigo refuses to back down, letting loose his Visored Hollow Masked Ichigo form, and with it, another Getsuga Tenshō that forces the army of Naruto to descend and stare down their masked foe. The primary Naruto launches a Rasengan and follows up with a lightning-speed assault, Ichigo quicker still to dodge a leaping axe kick and parry a manifested chakra arm. The remaining Narutos rush to offer their aid, but Ichigo has proceeded to dart across the battlefield with shunpo and arm himself with both zanpakuto, stopping only in confusion for a moment once he witnesses a shadow clone perform the Sexy Technique. The moment Ichigo rears an arm back, however, three further Narutos burst out and launch a trio of simultaneous Rasenshuriken. Ichigo calling forth his bankai form and unleashing a bloodcurdling howl is enough to block the projectiles and force a Naruto to stop in his tracks. The Getsuga Tenshō that follows, infused wth further reiryoku, knocks Naruto through the forest, stopped only by the ninja summoning a chakra manifestation of Kurama which destroys the projectile in its tracks.
Ichigo avoids the apparition's punches until one catches him out of nowhere, the Kurama chakra drawing its arm back to see Ichigo, slumped inside a crater, resting in a pool of his own blood. The labored breathing from the shinigami makes it clear that he still intends to carry the fight on, a massive burst of reishi forcing Kurama to stagger back, knocking the Narutos back as the chakra dissipates from the blast. A burning vortex of purple energy swirls about the sky, centering on Ichigo as he unveils his merging with the Getsuga Tenshō to form the Mugetsu. A massive wave of black rushes forward at blinding speed and consumes the shadow clones, finally enveloping Naruto himself in the pitch black abyss.
A desperate cry for help is answered as a brilliant golden light bursts through the shadow, to Ichigo's shock and fear. In the middle of the newly-formed crater is an infuriated Naruto, wrapped in the golden aura of his own final form, the Six Paths Asura Kurama Sage Mode. All the spent reishi takes its toll on Ichigo, knocking him out of his shinigami form and leaving him only in his casual attire; right as he descends to the ground, Kurama readies a pair of massive chakra spheres; positive cyan swirling in one, in the other, negative chakra, a mix of blacks and purples. The now-normal Ichigo picks himself off the crater, his face bloodied. Eyeing a nearby stick on the cracked earth, Ichigo picks it up in a final act of defiance towards the Hokage. A pair of ferocious grunts from Naruto and Kurama alike are what precede the chakra spheres being lobbed at the former shinigami and a ray of negative chakra following; the ensuing Ultra Big Bomb Rasenshuriken can be seen well out of orbit as it atomizes Ichigo and miles of land around him. Naruto wills himself back to normal and lands atop one of the few surviving trees, pondering Ichigo's aggression towards him.
K.O.!
While the remains of the explosion transcend time and space, momentarily interrupting the combatants of another duel for the ages, Naruto decides to rewards his victory with a hearty bowl of ramen, only for a suspiciously lengthy arm to swipe the bowl from him, much to his frustration. The hosts admit that Ichigo was outclassed too greatly to hold his own against Naruto; proving to be inferior in training, skills, and healing compared to Naruto is one of the many setbacks Ichigo had to face in his fight against Naruto. In addition, shinigami may be invisible in the physical realm, but they can be touched and have a tangible presence in the realm all the same. To compare their experiences in matter of the soul, Kurama is able to sense the emotions of others and Naruto has even seen his own soul as it was ripped out of his body before, compounded by the fact that with Asura's Six Paths Sage Mode, he could sense the movements of Madara Uchiha's clones and even hold his own in a battle against several copies of them at once. A further point against Ichigo's favor is that chakra and reishi have different means of usage, but are still spiritual energy. On the topic of speed, Naruto has been shown to dodge lightning-speed punches and even beams of actual light; in comparison, Ichigo has been acknowledged by fellow shinigami Kirinji as having made a week long trip in slightly more than nine hours and that Kirinji has also compared said speed to Ichibei, who, while capable of hitting a foe who was over two thousand miles away from him and appeared next to them in a single second, has been outsped by at least twice that amount before. Comparing the maximum speeds of Ichigo and Ichibei, Ichigo can hit speeds of almost 320 million miles per hour, much less than the light speeds that Naruto has shown reaction to; thus, Ichigo's movement speed is far exceeded by Naruto's reaction speed, but is still faster than the ninja's own movement speed, making it a fair assumption that Ichigo's reaction speed would also dwarf that of Naruto's. However, this advantage was negated by how Naruto's association with Asura's powers gave him greater battlefield awareness, which would prove problematic for Ichigo to work past, further compounded by Ichigo's history of having difficulty with defeating foes that have higher spiritual energy than him. Ichigo's decuple multiplier from his bankai form is his only transformation explicitly given numbering, but for the sake of convenience, the hosts assume that all his forms likewise give him the highest possible boost, which still would do little to aid Ichigo; for example, the Hollow Masked form was barely able to overpower Arrancar, while Ichigo's allies suffered the same fate even after they quintupled their power during the fight. Further driving home the point of how outclassed Ichigo was, they assume all the forms, many of which appeared in contexts unrelated to one another, all had power multipliers of ten and could stack with one another, using Hollow Masked Bankai Ichigo's fight with the Arrancar Ulquiorra as a reference point. Ulquiorra's transformed form is said to be able to destroy the spirit city of Los Noches; the wall surrounding Los Noches is large enough to where it is said a walk from one corner to the gate in the center takes three days, meaning the city itself has a square area of 200 thousand square miles and that to destroy it would require 440 thousand megatons of TNT. Putting that number into their assumed formula of Ichigo's power gains means Ichigo's reiatsu would have the destructive capability of over 440 billion megatons of TNT by the end of his series. Meanwhile, almost all Naruto's chakra burst a hole through the hollow moon of his world. Measuring the size of the blast puts the destructive potential of Naruto's chakra puts it at 480 billion megatons of TNT, 40 billion more than the intentionally highballed estimate of Ichigo's reiatsu; and, unlike Ichigo's estimates, Naruto accomplished this feat without any of his forms or transformations, meaning Naruto can dish out and take blows stronger than Ichigo can handle. Even any technicalities regarding outlier feats can be disqualified for both combatants on the grounds that they were under circumstances that required outside help or had no direct destructive potential. To simplify the subject to its basest elements, although both heroes are some of the most well-known and beloved in their fields, Ichigo had the advantage in speed, but Naruto had the edge in essentially every other category to far greater extremes than Ichigo was capable of ever considering keeping up with.
- Boomstick: Naruto sure got the Shonen Jump on Ichigo.
Wiz: The winner is Naruto Uzumaki!
Naruto vs. Ichigo contains examples of:
- Brought Down to Normal: After Ichigo fails to kill Naruto with his Mugetsu, he ends up losing his powers.
- The Cameo: Not only does Monkey D. Luffy feature briefly in the opening, his rubber arm is shown stealing Naruto's ramen bowl at the end.
- Chainsaw Good: One of the throwaway lines in Naruto's rundown mention Boomstick's enormous chainsaw and its equally large fuel tank as a metaphor for Naruto's vast chakra reserves.
- Childhood Friends: A line in Naruto's rundown implies that Wiz and Boomstick were friends in middle school.Boomstick: I remember when you ran like that in middle school.Wiz: Hey, that was for research!.
- Continuity Nod: The blast that destroys Ichigo transcends time and space to reach Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro's eternal duel amidst the stars.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: And how. Even while intentionally overestimating Ichigo's capabilities and giving him multipliers in ways the original series never did, Naruto is still capable of overwhelming his defenses and shrugging off his attacks without needing any super forms.
- Death or Glory Attack: Ichigo's Mugetsu, which is his strongest move but at the price of stripping away all of his Spiritual Energy.
- Defiant to the End: Ichigo tries to continue the fight, even after losing his powers.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ichigo's Mugetsu costs him all his powers and therefore a victory.
- No-Sell: Through combination of his defenses and Super-Senses provided by both Six Paths Sage Mode and Kurama, Naruto is able to avoid and completely tank everything that Ichigo throws at him, even the Mugetsu.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Ichigo is visibly annoyed by the Sexy Technique.
- Pop-Up Trivia: While juxtaposing facts about the characters and their accomplishments has always been a series mainstay, this episode marks the first time the factoids appear to the side of the screen, albeit without any sound effects to announce their presence.
- Serial Escalation: Each time either character starts getting the edge, the other will unleash their next Super Mode to counter it and turn the tide, resulting in power escalation the likes of which haven't been seen since Goku's constant transformations against Superman.
- Shout-Out:
- Footage of a young Wiz is shown, with him running around armed with a Minecraft-style sword.
- Boomstick compares the amount of Rasengan variants with the numerous confections crafted by Willy Wonka.
- Boomstick also likens Ichigo's early ability to see ghosts with that of Cole from The Sixth Sense, even emphasizing the point by having the iconic "I see dead people" quote with Ichigo's hair shopped in.
- Boomstick's attempts to pronounce Yhwach's name include "Ewok" and "You-Waka Waka".
- Super Form: To an even greater extent than the last episode; both combatants get at least five super modes that amplify their power greatly.
- Take That!: Boomstick goes over Ichigo’s various powers resulting from his bizarre heritage of being part Soul Reaper, Quincy, and Hollow. He also brings up his Fullbringer heritage, but only with “Nobody cares about Fullbringers”.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: After Ichigo gets Brought Down to Normal, Naruto now transformed into his Kurama avatar, launches two giant Ultra Big Bomb Rasenshurikens at him and then vaporizes him with a Beam Spam.
