What They Say:
Temari leads the attack on the Third Raikage using Wind Style, but even her strongest jutsu is not enough to penetrate the Raikage’s invincible armor.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Naruto now back in play in the series in terms of the war, we got to see some good hands on stuff in the second half of the previous episode as what the group was dealing with split off. While that let things dominate there, the show pushed off to the side the fight with the Third Raikage, since he was willing to be defeated since he realized being reanimated like this was not the right thing, unlike some of the others. Unfortunately, because of his power level and basic approach to life, he can’t just simply accept being killed and that means the group he’s facing has to actually take him down, and hard. But they’re holding back some and not bringing out the big powers that they need to deal with him. And they’ve also run into the problem now that Kabuto, having lost some of his other minions, has taken direct control of the Third Raikage.
While Temari and the others are struggling with him even before that happens, everything goes up several notches when Naruto arrives and brings his oversized powers to the forefront. It’s a good couple of sequences that happen as the power levels are pretty high and Temari’s group does what it can to aid and assist him. But the Third Raikage has been boosted even more because of Kabuto and is using some incredibly powerful jutsus, enough to push back against Naruto and cause a significant number of casualties. The guy wasn’t the Third Raikage for nothing and even though the less than smooth handling of Kabuto he’s able to show exactly why.
Not surprisingly, the majority of the episode is given over to the fight between all that’s involved here, with only a tiny bit of flashback to help answer a question that Naruto has, which works wel. The animation for this is up several notches as well, giving it a strong flow as we see the two sides going at it and what they’re capable of. For Naruto, who starts off all flame covered and shifts back to normal, it helps to reconnect him with everyone but also just lets everyone get down and dirty into the fight itself. Well, except for Killer Bee who we get to see taking a leak, a scene I really could have done without. Seeing how it all comes together definitely works well though, especially since it pits Naruto directly against the Raikage and there’s such a great sense of power about both of them that makes it compelling.
In Summary:
While the war isn’t exactly progressing at a fast pace, we’re getting some decent bits of it now that Naruto is firmly involved and some of the bigger players are coming into events. The focus on the Third Raikage here dominates the episode and it brings things to a good conclusion, though it’s just of a particular subplot rather than anything significant long term. Kabuto has quite a few pawns in play and is using them well and we get a nod towards what’s next at the very end here. But the thrust of this episode is rather well done and it feels like we’re getting back on track with more meaningful action episodes where things really do matter rather than fluff that just serves to draw things out. Naruto gets a lot of the screen time here and I can’t complain about that since the support side gets their time to shine as well. Good stuff overall that has me hopeful that things are moving where they need to be.
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.
