Nothing says fun like giving these characters fireworks to play with.
What They Say:
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The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the fun in the last episode focusing on the new theatrical movie for the main Naruto franchise, we got a lot of tie-in silliness that let the main cast have their fun while Rock and the others got involved as well. With this episode, it’s back to business as usual as we get more summer silliness from the cast. This time around, it kicks things off with the dog days of summer and the treat that will come from it with a fireworks show. The team in general in the town is working hard to get things together for it, impressing Rock and Tenten, but not enough to stop them from playing imagination with their own set of fireworks that has Rock lighting himself on fire like a rocketship.
While we do get that brief but important moment of fire safety that basically tells us not to do this at home, we do get a lot of fun as there’s some competition between people to come up with the best fireworks display. Rock is really intent on showing his best here, but the competition is stiff as we see everyone else getting judged by Tsunade. There’s some fun and creative bits here that lets the festival shine well. The fun gets even more so when Orochimaru shows up on the scene and takes down Rock’s group plainly with a few choice words, leaving Rock all to himeslf while Orochimaru has his own fireworks to use. While I wanted to see his giant snake get used here, things do end with a softer note and a mild step closer for Rock in terms of Sakura.
The second half of the episode deals with some comical material in its first segment where you have an imagined future between Rock and Tenten (portrayed by Neiji) that has him being all aloof and cool, pretty much discmissive in many ways. Seeing the evolution of that supposed relationship is hysterical, especially when you get down to kids being involved as well. It’s all done to try and figure out what she needs since she’s coming across as quite depressed these days. While we do get some reveals about it in a small way, it’s fun watching how everyone tries to do what they can to make her happy, which the guys view as getting her in a relationship – even if it’s with Orochimaru.
In Summary:
With a very fun first half with all the fireworks, Rock Lee has a good time in this episode as the competitive and showy nature of many of the characters comes to the forefront. While I had hoped that Orochimaru would go big once he appeared with his own firework snake, it still had some good moments and ended a little tenderly. The second half didn’t work quite as well for me, but I definitely liked the way it all came together for the start with the imagined romantic future and married life of a few of the characters. The show is uneven at times, which is a normal thing for a comedy, and it hits some good stuff here overall.
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.
