The summer heat is getting to the cast here….
What They Say:
It’s a sweltering summer night, but Guy-sensei wants Lee and the boys to cool themselves off without air conditioning. Can a scary ghost story get the job done? Lee and Konohamaru set out to solve one of the “Seven Mysteries of the Leaf” – “The Tears of Mount Hokage.” What is the truth behind the otherworldly tears the 3rd Hokage’s monument sheds in the dark of night
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With some fun summertime themed episodes so far in the series and in this season in particular, the show continues that theme this time around. The heat is high and you can definitely feel it with the heavy clothes and full length outfits that they all wear, so it’s not a surprise that they’re complaining about it. Unfortunately, as much as they want to go someplace with air conditioning, they’re not allowed to since they’d be a sorry group of (cool) ninjas at that point. And because Guy’s just giving them extra training in this way.
So they opt to head into the school classroom where a small group of them, lead by Guy, will tell ghost stories into the evening in order to distract themselves from the heat. It’s certainly a staple of the summer episodes for many series to go this route, so getting to see the group tell some amusing and not scary tales works just right. The stories are rather predictable in a way, from late night bathroom visits that goes awry to Rock’s overdue videotape that scares the crap out of him. Amusingly, Tenten gets one of the scarier stories and it’s all just good fun in the end with how it plays out to kill time. With Guy dressed as he is, you can’t help but to smile throughout this story and its obvious gags.
With the second half, it moves on from the scary stories being told to one being experienced as we get the whole seven mysteries of the village angle being played. It has the core group going on a play mission of sorts, but it takes an odd turn since Orochimaru is caught up in things since they end up investigating a place that he’s working out of. So that means all of his traps must be put into effect to scare them off as best as he can. It definitely has some cute moments as it progresses and they’re faced with these traps and even Kabuto ends up getting a bit riled by things considering what’s used for traps. He does look good in an orange maid outfit though.
In Summary:
As the show deals with another summer episode, it goes for predictable angles to be sure but it does them with a good bit of humor and silliness that works well for it. The scary story side has a lot of base fun to it as they rattle off what they think is scary to them but has no effect on anyone else, though Tenten may break through on that. With the seven mysteries gag played in the second half, it brings back my favorite pair of bad guys in this series for some more fun. Something about Orochimaru in this series just makes me grin like nothing else, so seeing him and his cohort get into more things is just plain enjoyable. Yet another week where against all odds, the show just makes me smile.
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.
