Bring in the bad guys!
What They Say:
Lee and his team are on guard duty at the front gate, but they’ll have to be more vigilant than the TSA to prevent Orochimaru and Kabuto from sneaking in! Lee is flummoxed by Guy-sensei’s new “Smooth Operator Fist,” but not half as much as he is by Orochimaru’s love letter.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While we’ve had a good run in the first six episode with various members of the Hidden Leaf Village and the silliness of it all, this episode decides to change things up a little while still keeping to what makes it fun. Bringing in some of th ebad guys can definitely be a dicey proposition since it can skew your feelings on the main show in some ways to see them altered here, unlike the main characters which have always had some form of humor to them. That said, having the characters of Orochimaru and Kabuto used in this form just delights me to know end since it’s a comical kind of flamboyant evil that he has which is just tweaked perfectly here. Watching him, you know what the original character is but also how easily it can or could have skewed in this direction.
Orochimaru and Kabuto are doing the best to cause some trouble inside the village but they have to actually get inside first, which can be a problem. Luckily for them, they have a plan in trying to go through as tourists of sorts and are even all Hawaiian’d up for it with the outfits and luggage. What proves to be a real problem though is that the front gate, where Guy is on guard duty with a few others, is done completely in airport security style. And Rock is completely into it as the pair tries to get through while dealing with the idiocy that is Rock. It’s so silly and simple yet so laugh inducing that I just adored seeing these two trying to come up with ways to get through the security inspection, dealing with the scanners and all the tricks they try. And to see Orochimaru screw up by misreading the situation as well. It hits so many good notes here that you really want to see more of Orochimaru and Kabuto in the future.
Because of this encounter and the way it unfolds, Orochimaru is now setting his sights on this trio of characters of Rock’s group as what he needs to deal with in order to achieve his own goals. Of course, there’s little information and that means the pair must do research on them by following from a distance as they train and so forth. There’s a lot of fun with this, especially as the training looks more like a skit to Orochimaru more than anything else, but he eventually does orchestrate things so that he can take down Rock individually, which leads to a hysterical fight sequence between the two. Orochimaru’s snakes are adorable in this form and seeing Rock getting himself carsick so he can do drunken style fighting is just priceless, especially the reactions from the bad guys. It hits so many fun notes here as they get it on that you just have to laugh.
In Summary:
There are times where I feel that I shouldn’t like this show because of what it does. But every time I watch it, I just fall more and more in love with its silly, awesome self. This episode changes things up a fair bit with Orochimaru being in it but it does things so well with such fun gags and sharp moments where it uses the characters to great effect that you just have to laugh. And loudly. Rock is spot on here for a lot of reasons but the real winner is Orochimaru as he’s just very well done here in this approach. From the airport security aspect to the training sequence and the actual fight, it leaves you wanting more and more. Hopefully Orochimaru won’t be overused, but I’ll look forward to each appearance.
Grade: B+
Streamed 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.
