And so this portion of the arc concludes.
What They Say:
Naruto wants to bring Sasuke back to the village, but Sasuke burns with a desire to bring Naruto down. Why is Sasuke so confrontational, and how did his feelings toward Naruto develop? The truth rises to the surface during Sasuke’s relentless attack. Where will this battle lead? Find out in the conclusion of the “Jiraiya Ninja Scrolls.”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Naruto: Shippuden series has been in a bad place for most of the past year and I’ve struggled to find things to say about it while knowing I’ve ended up in a rut of repetition. But therein lies the problem with the show in that it’s doing the same thing. While there are obvious changes, we’ve gotten this story within a book within a dream for far too long now where it wants to rewrite the past in a different way without fully committing to it. The possibilities are certainly there to do something really strong within this framework but they’ve ended up just revisiting far too familiar material with just some basic modifications. That we end up here with Naruto telling Sasuke it’s time to come back but that he won’t come back is pretty much something we’ve seen half a dozen times so far.
But hey, Naruto’s feelings will get through and he’ll bring back his friend – against his will! I know, I know, there are deeper issues at play and meaning to it all, but that’s not what this arc is about. That’s the main series that has more layers to it. This is the Cliff’s Note’s version done by somebody daydreaming while watching the series. There’s a lot of material here that goes on in between the fight sequence with the two leads, and even the fight stuff slows down quickly with a lot of sword holding and all going on, so it loses a lot of its momentum in kind of standard form. Honestly, it doesn’t take long – not even the first half of the episode – before boredom sets in for multiple reasons and you’re just running out the clock to finish it off because there is absolutely zero meaning to any of them.
In Summary:
Naruto: Shippuden essentially leaves me hugely bored once again and just glad that we finally get out of the dream sequence that Tsunade has been stuck in. With hundreds of characters that can be drawn upon for this particular arc and style of storytelling there were a million ways they could go and they shot themselves in each foot repeatedly. So when we get that pullback at the end it’s just a reminder of how badly the team here has failed. Hopefully the next storyline with the Itachi piece will work a bit better and I’m going to clear my mind and look at it with fresh eyes next time around.
Grade: D
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.
