What They Say:
“Villages did not exist when Hashirama was a child. It was during this strife-filled time that he met Madara Uchiha.”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When it comes to the back story for the Naruto world, I have such a love/hate relationship with it. Honestly, at this point, it really needed its own series running in parallel to give it the time and attention it needed and so that it doesn’t just completely disrupt the ongoing storyline. There’s a lot of key and important information in a lot of it, but it’s often also drawn out in a way that really gets aggravating, especially the further into the series we’ve gotten. Every time Naruto turns up again, we get an episode or two of him and then some more important back story. Such is the case here as we get back to a young Madara who has just met Hashirama for the first time, which is definitely interesting enough in itself after what we saw in the previous episode with the various Hokage.
There’s a lot of things going on with the kinds of issues that have created grudges and rifts between the various clans that exist, especially after the last Warring States period and all the animosity that still ferments among many people. Seeing how that plays out here with some of the younger members just wanting to move on from that, especially since they occasionally have friends with the other side, is of course welcome. But the harsh reality of what their elders are doing keeps coming into play as killing after killing happens, retribution and its endless cycle works its way through. And we have that in the present storyline as well, which is one of those things where you really struggle with what the series will do. Can it break the cycle in a believable way? Or do you just admit that while there might be a respite from it for awhile with what will happen at the end of it, it will all come back around again. Which is pretty depressing to think about.
As it goes on, we do get some nice time between Madara and Hashirama as the two of them “get” each other and understand what they’re going through. But they’re also both dealing with the ghost of their families around them and the losses that are there, with Madara even saying that if he was better with his skills, there are those that might still be alive. It’s the kind of damaging thoughts that build and build within him, among many others, which helps to make clear why he took the path he did. It is nice to see how Madara and Hashirama get along here and that they do, at times, get to have something resembling a normal childhood. And while it’s part of the larger events that are about to come to the forefront, I have to admit there’s still a good bit of simply, well, not caring at this point as well.
In Summary:
Back story is back story and it has its place and it will impact things to come since that’s the reason they do these things. That said, after all the back story we’ve had in the last hundred or so episodes and how little forward motion we’ve had, it’s pretty hard to care in the slightest about any of it. We’ve been inundated with it for so long with how it breaks up the present day storyline that it’s pretty much accepted, but it has furthered my overall disinterest in the series even though I still tune in and keep hoping for more of the war and the events that will follow. There’s some nice moments in here, but so far it feels pretty forgettable.
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.
