Naruto: Shippuden Episode #322 Anime Review

What They Say:
The reanimated shinobi appearing before Gaara and Ohnoki is revealed to be none other than Madara Uchiha himself…which raises the question of who the masked man claiming to be Madara really is.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Madara revived and not terribly pleased about it by coming back in this state, nor is he all that thrilled that it was Kabuto that worked the reanimation jutsu in order to make it clear, there is a certain sense of a thrill coming from him in the realization that there is a new allied army that’s standing before him and that he’s the threat to them. He wields an incredible amount of power and knowledge and it’s hard to imagine much, if any, of it has been lost from what he terms his “glory days”. And as the allied forces get a clear look at from the get go, he’s not going to be an easy one to capture or take down either.

To make matters worse, Naruto’s not at the power level that he should be, having used up a lot of his chakra in previous fights. And as we see Madara going at it as he slices and dices through huge swathes of the allied forces, it’s just disturbing to watch because he does it with such ease. And it’s given the proper importance as well with just the softest piece of music to play out during a lot of it, adding to that overall sense of unease one should have in the face of such an opponent. The scale of the fight goes big quickly, as it should since there are so many forces here and so many powerful members on the allied side, and the visual design of it is striking and intense, making for the large amount of action material to flow and feel right and truly important.

As the fight progresses, Madara really outdoes himself and in a way really takes me out of the show, even though I suspect that there’s some legitimacy to it in past episodes and skills. By drawing down a meteorite from the sky to crush the Tsuchikage, we get a pretty impressive scene where it just goes to a grand scale and really highlights Madara’s power and absolute command of things. And it also lets us see that the Tsuchikage has quite a bit of skill and power himself for his age, which makes him capable of fending off the already hard to believe attack. But when he draws down a second meteorite on top of it and crushes a large swathe of the allied forces below – but doesn’t kill the Tsuchikage – it just kind of works and doesn’t for me. It’s impressive but it’s something that feels like it crosses out of the bonds of believability, no matter how it actually looks.

In Summary:
The return of the series proper, getting past the majority of those awful filler episodes, is certainly welcome and it’s definitely been a long time in coming. Like many fans, it’s a big cup of water after walking the desert for months. You just savor it, but there’s something that keeps you from overdosing on it. I like the episode a lot, it’s technically very well done and you have to love the way that Madara handles the situation and his attacks as it’s just powerful (but not bloody or brutal). But it also goes too far over the top for me, as the series is wont to do at times, with the meteor attacks and so forth. This is the start up of the series proper again so there’s definitely a whole lot to like but I’m admittedly being a bit cautious and hedging my bets a bit.

Grade: B+

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

Chris Beveridge

http://www.fandompost.com

Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.

He likes to write a lot, as you can see.

See author's posts