After a promising opening, the episode crawls quickly back to flashback territory.
What They Say:
Naruto reproaches Sasuke for attempting to kill Sakura. Then Sasuke reveals that he killed Danzo with his own hands. He goes on to declare his intent to purify the Uchiha clan’s name by annihilating the Hidden Leaf.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s something to be said for context when it comes to fighting difficult battles and going through awkward and uncomfortable situations. Naruto has certainly been through his share of them over the years with the various people he’s encountered who have their own history that’s mingled with his and that of the village itself. With his continued efforts to save Sasuke, he’s intent on showing him that things may not be what they seem and that Sasuke does have a true friend to the end, something that Naruto never felt like he really had when he was growing up. The two are similar in a few ways but very different in others in an attempt to create a yin and yang relationship between them.
The opening of this episode finally brings the key parties back together again as we see Kakashi going up against Sasuke and the two having quite the fight, even after Sasuke expended a lot of energy in fighting against Danzo. With Sakura now involved in the situation and trying her best to get on his side so she can try and sway him from the inside, everything starts to fall apart as Naruto arrives. There’s actually a decent moment as Sasuke rattles on about things and makes it known that he did kill Danzo, a high level member of the Hidden Leaf and that he does intend to destroy the village as a whole in pursuit of his goal of the Uchiha resurrection. Purification can only occur with the utter destruction of what has come before in his eyes at this point. It’s been skirted around at times and said somewhat differently before, but now is the time when Sasuke can say it clearly to those that have been trying to win him back and make it clear why their end is just a step on the way to his end goal.
Sadly, while things do build up a fair bit here as the tensions rise, a good chunk of the episode is given over to flashbacks showing us the pain and suffering that Sasuke has gone through over the years. And it shows very recent flashbacks as well, such as the Danzo piece and the last time Sasuke and Naruto faced off against each other in a similar situation. While context is definitely important as you build towards a big moment, when you hit us over the head repeatedly with the reminders, as has been done for the last two hundred episodes, it becomes migraine inducing. Sometimes you really do need to get to the point and make it clear. With Naruto and Sasuke, we really do get the point with the things that defined them as young children and now define them as teenagers in a harsher way, and we see the different paths they’ve chosen. Drawing it out like this with flashbacks is what kills it, more so than the side stories.
In Summary:
Episodes like this are hugely frustrating. Every time we inch closer to the next big moment, it slows down more by bringing in more supposed context in order to spread it out. Some shows can get away with this to some degree for some time, but Naruto ends up spending more time doing it overall and it can turn into a drain. While fans rightly decry the lengthy runs of filler episodes, these are the pieces that hurt the most because you’re in it for the real material only to have the equivalent of a couple of pages in a chapter suddenly become two or three episodes. There are some decent moments here and if you’ve just dropped into the show for the first time you’ll pick up the context quickly, but it’s a numbing episode overall.
Grade: D
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
Oooooo this part of the series, yeah, I remember this and feeling the same way. Yay they see each other again, maybe NOW will be that big, much needed… oh nevermind guess not >.<