A double episode week is here, but you can mostly tune it out.
What They Say:
Naruto finds himself inside Four Tails’ inner world, where he promises to free Four Tails from Madara’s control. Listening in on their conversation, Nine Tails recalls all the time he has spent sealed inside Naruto.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Naruto: Shippuden doubles up on episodes this week, which the series does from time to time, and that’s often a bit of a mixed bag. Thankfully it usually only happens while dealing with the core story material itself and not filler episodes, but there’s that part of me that often feels like too much Naruto can be a bad thing. With the way this arc has gone since getting kickstarted again, it’s been interesting but has also had some lulls to it. And with the double episode method, they can often space material out a bit more so that it’s not as rushed, but it can also dawdle in other ways. Pacing, for me, has never been one of the series stronger suits. Still, in dealing with Four-Tails and the kinds of things that have happened to the Tailed Beasts and the varying levels of trust they have with the Jinchuriki, it can make for some interesting dialogue and moments.
While there is this standoff between the two since Four Tails makes it clear they he won’t treat him as an ally simply because he’s freed, the first of the two episodes wants to spend a good bit of its time on a flashback, which is also the bane of double episode weeks. From the perspective of Nine-Tails, we see how he was first introduced to Naruto when Naruto was a baby and he understood what the Fourth Hokage was planning to do with him. Looking back at specific elements of Naruto’s past with how he was using the power of the Nine-Tails at times, it’s an interesting perspective that’s treaded far too lightly, but leads to some decent moments as Naruto grows, uses the power more and begins to have his first real introductions to Nine-Tails. And that is an interesting balance since for so much of it, Naruto thought of it as his own rather than that of the Tailed Beast, which allowed Nine-Tails to exercise more of himself through him as it went on.
Unfortunately, as interesting as the material is, it pretty much dominates. So much so that while we get a touch of new material at the start of the first episode, it spills over into the second episode by a large degree, taking down the first half of it with more of this, albeit with a few nods to other ongoing events in the war being given its due. When it gets back to what’s going on in the present with Four-Tails being taken down with Naruto inside of him still, it ramps up the intensity nicely and lets Naruto finally start going at things again, finding the balance between thinking and action that can still be difficult for him. Sadly, as fun as it is to watch how this starts to come together and the way Naruto deals with things when it comes to Four-Tails, it’s all just surrounded and filled with so much back story that it loses a lot of its intensity. The result is something like seven to ten minutes at best of new mainline story material here in a two episode event.
In Summary:
With the structure of this double episode week, it’s definitely in the best interest if you’re a long time viewer to watch the prologue of the first episode and skip to closer to the middle mark of the second episode. There are some interesting things when taken from the Nine-Tails perspective, but most of it is stuff that long time viewers will have already understood and figured out. It’s certainly not bad in its own way, as I liked how they dealt with it from Nine-Tails perspective, but it was largely material that just left me bored since it’s pretty much all been there before. When it comes to the new material, what little there really is overall as it probably constitutes twenty-five percent of the two episodes combined, is nicely done and would have been really solid on its own rather than how it feels here as if it’s kind of shoe-horned in. The second episode is definitely worth the time just to have the scene with Four-Tails barfing up a multitude of Shadow Clones of Naruto. It’s the bit of laughter needed while also being an amusing and interesting way of dealing with a situation.
Grade: C
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.
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