The Chunin exam arc is better than I remember it (Manga version)

Here is my opinion on the Chunin exam arc :

– The manga in the chunin exams arc is actually extremely fast pace , it goes from point A to point B and it feels that it does not waste anything
– Sasuke and Naruto who we thought were the Top Genin Dogs , get humbled by a weight Lee and then Gaara and Neji appear to be as the “Top 2” to beat
– The story also keeps you in your toes since bad thing after bad thing happened to Team 7 , specially at the forest of death
– There is a lot of planting seeds and more foreshadowing for the future of the manga , such as Orochimaru planting the curse mark on Sasuke or the destruction of the leaf coming soon
– My only problem of the Chunin exam is that at first it kind of show us that the “Ninja World” is very big and you can find extremely strong Genins as it was foreshadow by Kakashi in the land of waves , but in the end we end up with the same 12 leaf genins + sound ninja + the 3 sand siblings and the two fodder ninjas from Kabuto team.
– The highlight of this arc is the fight of Gaara vs Rock Lee and the pre-eliminareis , and it was an insane fight.
– We also have lots of themes like Hard Work that is demonstrated by Lee , Natural Talent like Sasuke , Unstoppable Destiny that Neji mentions , the enigmas that surrounds Orochimaru and Gaara , and the “Never give up” of Naruto.
– From the finals , probably for me the best fight was the Shikamaru vs Temari , while the Sasuke vs Gaara and Naruto vs Neji are more action packed and it had great moments , Shikamaru outplaying Temari and having the 200 IQ moves was something unique to see. Also Shikamaru should just threat Temari that if she did not give up , he was gonna undressed her LOL.
– Finally , a little bit sad that the Chunin exams did not finished since it would been hype to have a Naruto vs Sasuke in semis , and Shino probably been the ultimate dark horse and getting to the finals against all odds.