It is pointless to try finding good writing in material that was clearly created just for fan service. Note: Dont take recommendations from obsessive Sasuke fangirls And I think I should move on from reading most bottom of barrel catalogues written work. Lets jump straight into todays review. Sasuke Retsuden is bad and it becomes worse because it is a canonical connected spinoff of the Naruto franchise. In metaphorical terms the car is mediocre at best but due to brand name pricing and history it becomes worthy of standing in the trash. Starting with the positives: 1. Dinosaurs This one is subjective but I personally love dinosaurs so I appreciated their inclusion regardless of whether they are out of place or breaking narrative establishment. 2. Its tailormade fan service. Do you want to see your favorite couple holding hands and helping each other over and over again? Do you want every fanfavorite character to be mentioned in few chapters even if they have no real role in the story? Do you want puzzles and mystery tasks that constantly reference older betterwritten lore? Then this weird manga is exactly what youre looking for. 3. Jijis creepy behavior and willful ignorance Strangely enough this part was written decently. His actions though creepy felt more grounded than anything else in this work. Despite being portrayed as acting this was the only piece of writing that had any subtlety or clarity. Good writing I guess. 4. All character designs fit perfectly in stories. Apparently thats a huge thing and if you dont agree. You havent read other Naruto spinoff novels authors are just throwing in most of the randomness of design without a single care that character design should reflect the storys world tone and personality. Thats why all designs in both the Sasuke Retsuden novel and manga are perfect. You can call them the most basic or literally the flattest designs but that would be a personal bias issue and Im here to talk about quality. And thats where positives ends. Now for the main problems: The plot And if you take away all of the irrelevant things from the plot it becomes three lines long: Sasuke goes undercover and finds Sakura is also there. Both won card games find the correct hand signs to perform to get a magical cure. And done. Seriously this is the entire plot line without irrelevant information. It follows one of the oldest clichs in fiction: A character falls ill so another sets off to find a magical cure. Thats not inherently bad but depends entirely on execution. Unfortunately the execution here is poor. Every single twist and turn is a convenience. Characters or items with key information appear out of nowhere. The villain has nothing to do with the story but still chooses to launch his master plan on the same day the overpowered main couple happens to be nearby. If you know two massive problems are temporarily undercover in your prison. Then why not delay your master plan of a lifetime by one or two days? The awful pacing can be sense in every puzzle symbol and riddle scenes which are all painfully obvious and obviously there only to pass the time. The Worldbuilding Lets be honest the original Naruto worldbuilding was already bad a chaotic freeforall where anything could happen. But this Sasuke Retsuden managed to trigger a selective suspension of disbelief breakdown. Its not that readers suddenly decided dinosaurs were too unrealistic its that dinosaurs clash with what the franchises worldbuilding has established. First: Tone Clashes Even in a chaotic world a story establishes a tone and genre identity. This franchise was based on magic called jutsu power spamming battles called combat and plot convenience named cells Dinosaurs dont break immersion because theyre too weird but because they belong to a different genre. So their sudden inclusion feels like the author copypasted them from a different story rather than integrating them into this one even though far more ridiculous things have happened before in this franchise. Second: Sociopolitical Dynamics For the first time in the franchise the story attempts to introduce democracy and geopolitical themes such as prime minister. But the treatment is completely unrealistic. The author clearly has no understanding of how democratic systems work especially in the context of prisons or political leadership. That said its ultimately irrelevant. The worldbuilding is so carelessly written that its not worth analyzing in depth. The author treats it as disposable filler so I might as well too. Character Assassination When a character is written well fans should be able to explain why beyond just saying hes cool. But here the new author not gonna say her name misunderstands what made these characters likable in the first place. Sasuke here is reduced to a confused overly stoic mess apparently to set up some kind of emotional moment that doesnt land. Sakura on the another is okay as ever but tbh she is stripped of any personality beyond being a simp as if the new author saw no writing in previous stories and no reason to develop her character. Maybe they thought the cool factor was all that mattered. Or maybe they needed Sasuke to feel confused for a certain plot twist to happen. Either way the original nuance is gone. And thats a bad thing from storytelling perspective. What makes it more frustrating is that the original author Kishimoto was involved. So perhaps everyone else is wrong and the authors genuinely believe this is what the characters are meant to be now. Either Kishimoto want those characters to be this way or .... Who knows? Maybe well never really understand what they were thinking. Romance Writing There are only very few yet simple rules in writing romance: one of them is it must have an emotional throughline and build toward an optimistic or emotionally satisfying conclusion. So what does this story do instead? We get a onesided effort in a married couple where the emotional thread is just Sasuke feeling confused about whether he even made the right choice in marriage. And the development ends with him merely tolerating or reaccepting his family. Thats not romance. Thats reluctant responsibility dressed up as growth. THATS NOT HOW YOU WRITE ROMANCE. Theres no chemistry no mutual emotional progression and no payoff. The relationship lacks warmth tension and intimacyall the things that define a wellwritten romantic arc. It feels like the author had no genuine interest in writing romance but included the couple just to check off a box for fans. The Conflict How to put this The author sacrifices common sense and narrative integrity just to shove in more fan service. When youre writing about overpowered characters you need skill. You need tension clever setups moral dilemmas or strategic disadvantages. But here we have two of the strongest characters on the planet. One of them can teleport and shapeshift and the other is basically a living weapon. Why not lets make them do the classic almost got caught during disguise as messenger and save our enemies first? Whos idea was that? The villain? I seriously forgot his name. He has no presence no power and no relevance. Hes so far beneath the any character and He exists solely to create fake tension and meaningless detours like characters getting captured in ways that defy logic. And if that wasnt enough apparently the elite ninjas of Konoha who are trained tactical and supposedly missionfocused start prioritizing random animal lives midmission because why not? Its not an emotional beat. Its just sloppy irrational writing to delay the plot. The bottom line: a weak villain makes for a weak story and this villain couldnt challenge a background character from a filler arc let alone the main cast. Final Thoughts This story is horribly written there are payoffs when there is no setup and there are poor setups with extra dramatic payoffs. The entire storyline is just dragged around by poor writing choices or plot convenience called coincidences but what makes it worse is that its not a standalone piece. Its a canonical spinoff attached to a massive franchise with years of established lore character development and fan expectations. Instead of elevating the story this spinoff drags the entire brands credibility into the dirt. Its filled with shallow callbacks character assassination lazy writing and fan service so forced it feels like parody. When you build something on a strong foundation but add garbage on top youre not continuing the legacy youre ruining both. Conclusion: Sasuke Retsuden is bad and It becomes worse because its official canon. And it becomes insulting Unless youre one of those fans who will watch their favorite couple do literally anything no matter how boring or outofcharacter this is not worth your time.