As the units progress in the war, they’re finding more and more problems to deal with.
What They Say:
The commando unit is in hot water as they engage the reanimated Kekkei Genkai shinobi, which include Zabuza Momochi and Haku. Luckily, Kakashi and his unit arrive in time to assist them.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the saying goes, no war plan goes as you want once it encounters the enemy. And often it’s thrown into chaos long before that. The Allied forces here have a lot of numbers on their side and a wide variety of abilities and strategists to work with, but they’re also only allied in name so far as well. They’re working together but it’s not completely smooth and seamles, especially as they find more and more opponents with connections to their own pasts along the way. With the main commando unit that we’ve followed for the last couple of episodes with Sai in it, they’re having a hell of a time making any progress here and are encountering some really nasty opponents. Having to deal with the Kekki Genkai group only heightens that.
This squad is definitely a problem since it’s brought back from the dead through reanimation some older known quantities in the form of Zabuza and Haku, characters that we knew earlier in the series that I’ve frankly long forgotten if they had a real impact. Luckily, there are some flashback moments that help to show some of the connections with a younger Naruto for example and that makes it feel a little more important. With the here and now, they’re both unaware it seems that they’ve been reanimated at first, but it sinks in and the arrival of Kakashi only further cements it, especially since he relates some of Naruto’s growth which in its own way helps to ease their hearts and shows them that what they did in life definitely made an impact.
In Summary:
Unfortunately, this kind of approach while good does keep us from really having a lot going on here as it’s more about standoffs and dialogue rather than progress and action. Kakashi showing up to step into things to help Sai and the remains of his group is good, but it’s a lot of posturing more than anything else until the last couple of minutes. And even then it just turns murky instead of something really engaging, though it does set things up well enough. The idea of a lot of reanimated former friends and allies is definitely a good idea from Kabuto’s point of view and something that can be a big psychological wedge to use, but it’s going in the usual tradition here by being all about lengthy setup. There are things to like here, but it comes across as an episode that’s just about bravado in a way, puffing out its chest and saying what it’s going to do rather than just doing it.
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.