The personal aspect of so many fights continues to be key here, especially for Kakashi.
What They Say:
Kakashi and his unit devise a strategy to take on the Kekkei Genkai shinobi, but it’s foiled by Kabuto, who uses the Reanimation Jutsu to summon the most powerful members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the war continues on, some of the smaller events are starting to take shape as well. While the focus is heavily on the action, thankfully, there are some other events going on that are intriguing as well. With the time spent in recent memory showing what Sasuke was up to and the group that’s allied around him, seeing them make their move out of the prison that they’re in, with Jugo actually being helpful, is welcome to see. His helping out Suigetsu to find all the blade that he’s looking for, or at least the one he needs at the moment, shows some growth between them as they’re starting to work together more. Well, when not disparaging Karin at least.
When it comes to Kakashi and his large group of skilled ninja warriors, they’ve run into a pretty serious problem along the way. While this was never going to be an easy or straightforward war fought just by basic weapons, it’s taken a curious turn here now that Kabuto has revived the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, a group that Suigetsu reflects on as well as he’s been searching for their swords. Because of their origins in the Mist, they obviously go for a misty design here on the battlefield and that adds to the spooky and atmospheric nature of the match that’s about to get underway. The gang of seven definitely have a disturbing air about them because of the mist but there’s also the whole revived aspect as well. What works really nicely though is that Suigetsu reflects on the various swords that the Seven carry as the fight gets underway, tying the two stories together lightly and effectively.
While that provides context, the main thrust of events here is the fight with the Seven Ninja Sworrdsmen as they are tough opponents. What’s definitely welcome is that Kakashi instnatly has an effective plan to try, but not guaranteed, and they put it into action. No hesitation, worrying about it or trying to get others to come on board with it. Just soldiers doing what needs doing and working hard together to do it. It’s also one that while straightforward with its action, has enough history behind it because of Kakashi’s connection to them but also the deeper one with Naruto that exists since he went up against them early on in his career as well. It gives the sequence a lot more depth, but it doesn’t dwell on it in a way that really makes it more overly dramatic than it needs to be. It’s an effective sequence of events with the right amount of emotion.
In Summary:
Naruto: Shippuden is light on the Naruto aspect, though we get a flashback to his younger days that’s wholly appropriate. The episode focuses heavily on the main encounter with Kakashi and those of the Seven here and it’s pretty effective overall, both in action and emotion. Kakashi’s reached his point where things are changing though, as this encounter was the one he needed to really cement things for him and also to free him in a way. Combining all of this with the material happening with Jugo and Suigetsu is pretty solid as well since it has events moving elsewhere that will intersect down the line and we get some additional fighting going on elsewhere that starts to up the ante a bit as well. We’re still getting a slow build towards the action overall, but you can feel the swell of it all starting to rise more through this episode.
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.
