That's good to know - I'm not sure if I could take much more of her being pointless without trying to throw something through the TV

It takes a while for her to get to that point though, (Vol 5/6).

She's not useless throughout though, just not powerful.

Ah, see, this is where the Manga shines. It's always been clear that Sakura has book-learning and precision, but lacked raw power and maturity. So when the story picks up after the two year training break it's no surprise that she's become hardass - it is, in fact, intensely satisfying.

I gave in to temptation and bought Season 2 and she's already toughened up enough for me during the Chuunin Exams. About to watch Naruto fight against one man and his dog...

Have you seen Shikimaru fight yet? Do you want more? The Naruto Kiba fight has an annoying turn in it, I cringed and laughed, but mostly cringed.

Ordered Haruhi vol 2 & 3, annoyingly hard to get and the delays on Series two are going to be annoying.

I can't say I noticed anything annoying about the Naruto Kiba fight except that it lasted about 3 episodes, but that seems to be par for the course with anime for these sort of shows (Oh Lords of anime, won't you please one day make an anime show that's designed to fit into an hour-long slot instead of a 30-minute one, so we can get some meatier plots within an episode?)

I loved how the Shikamaru fight ended :)

I thought the Rock Lee/Gaara fight was brilliant. As was the Neji/Hinata one. Actually when i think about it, most of the Chuunin exams story arc is brilliant.

just been watching school rumble disc 3, loving it
also finished Mar set...not a bad anime at all

I've never heard of it before, but for €12 I simply couldn't resist nabbing season 1 of Heat Guy J from Zavvi. It actually looks pretty good, and although I rarely pay attention to the little reviews on the covers, there are quite a few thumbs up from some fairly respectable magazines on it. Is it any good? I'll watch a few episodes tonight.

Also got Street Fighter Generations for €6. I remember disliking it upon first viewage, but, sure, I'll have another try at it. I had some change left over so I thought "why not?".

It seems to be permanently on sale, and never above more than about £16 or so... It's nothing groundbreaking, but is immensely digestible fun