Naruto’s seal is the focus of discussion, and flashback.
What They Say:
At Mount Myoboku, Naruto prepares to store Gerotora within himself, but hesitates as it also holds the potential risk of unleashing the Nine Tails on the world.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Naruto now at Mount Myoboku, he’s getting himself set up to handle the training that’s coming in regards to the seal that binds the Nine Tails deep inside him. The brief recap at the start shows how things have changed over the last few years for Naruto and what Jiraiya did to help strengthen the seal for at least awhile to help deal with it. It’s definitely a useful recap to show what was done since it was awhile ago and not something that’s brought out every episode. With Jiraiya having such a strong concern for Naruto, it definitely made sense for him to be involved like that. But as we can see, it was definitely a much younger Naruto that was worked on and he’s been through an immense amount of things since then and has actually managed to control the Nine Tails better than thought possible.
For better or worse, the bulk of the episode does revolve around this kind of flashback material to help showcase the evolution of Naruto’s relationship with the Nine-Tails. Those early days with a young Naruto aren’t as grating as some other flashback pieces because it is an area where he gets the seriousness of it, and it’s tied to Jiraiya whom he respects probably more than just about anyone else. The more recent flashback material where he had to confront the Nine-Tails is well done and it makes it clear just how much progress he’s made, which comes across nicely when he’s talking with the Sage Frogs as well, for the most part, as he doesn’t have the usual kind of youthful enthusiasm and pushback we saw years ago in similar situations.
It’s not without its humor though, particularly when one of them ends up going back inside the seal in his body through his mouth, and it’s definitely one of those moments that you want to capture and really photoshop with to put other things in there. Thankfully, it’s not all about flashbacks and Naruto as we do get some of the Akatsuki members coming together and Madara dealing with one that he considers a traitor based on recent actions. It actually turns into a pretty creepy moment as a reanimation jutsu has been used and even that has Madara slowing down his punishment on him a bit to take it in, both to make sure it can be handled and likely to see how he can take advantage of it himself. It takes an interesting turn because of this and the negotiations that get underway are amusing in a way considering how it started off with an intended bloodbath.
In Summary:
With the bulk of this being about working through what Naruto has to deal with in regards to his seal, it’s both good and bad that it’s mostly told in flashback. The present day material accounts for a couple of minutes at best with this area, but considering some of this goes back a good ways, it’s definitely useful since it serves as a good refresher and it’s not material we’ve been constantly shown over and over like the Sasuke/Naruto relationship. There is some new material mixed in and the end has more of a look at what Madara is up to now as well, which includes a new alliance that you know will not last long based on the personalities that are involved. Whiel it is largely flashback, it’s not a bad use of it and there’s enough new material mixed in to make it worthwhile.
Grade: C+
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.
