The drawdown of events continues as everyone returns home to figure out what’s next.
What They Say:
The formation of the Allied Shinobi Forces is ratified by the Feudal Lords of the Five Great Nations. Each Kage returns to their village to prepare for the coming war
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s a whole lot of change going on in the world of Naruto but it may not be the kinds of changes some fans get into it. It’s all about the driving forces of politics and intrigue, which we saw come to light with the way the Allied Shinobi Forces were created and now ratified at the start of this episode by the Feudal Lords. It’s a significant change to the makeup of the various villages and how the lands are dealt with, and it comes at a very complicated time for Hidden Leaf in particular. Wtih Danzo now dead, not long after his own taking over the title of Hokage even if temporary, it’s now fallen to Kakashi who has a kind of bemused and resigned nature about him when it comes down to it. Having this aspect of things fall into his lap as well definitely makes it for a difficult time.
The creation of the Forces is information that is making its way to the various lands pretty quickly as well, which is in some ways surprising to people like Kagezora as the Feudal Lords aren’t the types to move quickly, though it is welcome that they are dealing with this in a swift manner. This does give us some good material to work with as Kagezora works with his inner circle to go over things and explain what’s going on, but it also means that we get a fair bit of flashback as well since that’s the easiest way to have him explain what happened and to take a shortcut with it. On the positive side, the revelation to him and the others that Danzo is dead is definitely a shock, though it’s handled in a restrained manner, and it should lead to a lot of questions, concerns and plans being made because of the uncertainty it does introduce and the fact that someone took down a Hokage with as much power as Danzo has.
There are some tensions that do arise from the rank and file though, which is definitely appreciated, as it’s little surprise that some have an issue with working with other villages they consider to be unfriendly with at best. Considering some of the tensions that have arisen over the years, it’s definitely going to make working together a real struggle at times, but incidents where you face death can help turn the tide and a group like the Akatsuki with what they’re capable of may be a proving point when it gets to the heat of battle itself. This adds the potential for a nice element once things progress down that path, but for now it’s just putting it out there and remains to be seen whether they will actually use it when push comes to shove.
In Summary:
After the recent material between Sasuke and Naruto, the drawdown of excitement isn’t a surprise as it focuses on the clean-up and having everyone return to their respective villages. There’s been a lot going on with the larger scale events that have been in play, so taking some time to get everyone back, figure out where to go next and discuss some of it makes sense and doing so in a quiet manner is appropriate. I disliked how quickly that Naruto and the others got back to the village, and that the small time they have there is kind of pointless, but the preview for next week gives some hint at silliness (unfortunately) but also dealing with Kakashi in some way about being the new Hokage, which is what I want to see explored at least a little so we know where things stand. This episode spends time with a number of characters and does some good stuff overall, even if it has to deal with a frustrating bit of flashback as well.
Grade: B
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.
