Sending the gang to the pool is all fun and games, especially when Orochimaru shows up!
What They Say:
It’s summer in the Leaf Village, but the pool’s empty! Lee and the gang set out to fill it, but are they playing into Orochimaru’s hands?! Lee wants to take Sakura on a date, so he, Neji and Tenten go to check out the newly-opened “Super Happy Orochi-Pool Park.” And of course, lying in wait is…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the recent focus on Guy and the way Rock Lee works so hard to measure up to his expectations, the show has certainly had its fun moments. But it’s also felt like it’s veered a little too far into the less than enjoyable side due to how it’s been sort of cruel as well. It made sense to show that Rock is like he is, and that Guy wants him to find his own style and voice in things, but something about it just didn’t have the flow of silliness to it that I’ve come to expect from the series. Rock’s so earnest at times that it can almost hurt in watching just how hard he wants to please those he holds in high esteem. Thankfully, the show looks like it’s ready to have some real fun here.
Which means we get a summer episode and some poolside fun as the gang heads there to train. Which is just awkward in general in some ways since we get the plain silliness of the group changing, from Neji doing it slowly to the manly way that Rock does it. Naruto of course takes it over the top with his transformation jutsu that has him all done up as Sakura, which turns into a hilarious confrontation that’s worth the price of admission alone. While there’s a whole lot of fun with the pool itself, it also has its threat of violence with Orochimaru showing up to cause some trouble and to mess with Rock. Orochimaru continues to delight here as he has almost high school quality capers in mind and often the appearance with them that just makes me laugh out loud regularly as he attempts to cause trouble. Having that combined with a bunch of the main characters playing in the pool, wearing swimsuits and ending up in a spot of trouble makes for a whole lot of fun.
The second half goes in another familiar direction for young characters as Rock has decided that he really wants to ask Sakura out. But he’s the type to overplan things, so he decides that he’ll check out a recently opened amusement park named the Super Happy Orochi-Pool Park. There’s no real surprises here, but it is quite comical to see what Rock discovers there. This comes after some danger and training with Rock and his squad and really hits the right spot. Seeing things like Orichimaru and Kabuto doing cooking and the like is more fun than I would expect. And seeing Rock prepare for a wishful date that he wants is just as much fun since he tries to go through things while Orochimaru tries to thwart him. Having a goofy make-out book doesn’t help Rock much either since he takes all the right ideas from it, leading to some very awkward but oh so appropriate scenes for him.
In Summary:
Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals gets back on track quite well here with a pair of very amusing stories that centers largely on the pool and amusement park. The training material that’s present in each episode isn’t bad, but it feels like we just saw enough of that. So when it shifts to the fun of the park, and especially when it brings in Orochimaru, it just hits the funny in all the right ways. Orochimaru is really developing some serious hate towards Rock for the various things that go wrong because of him and most of it is without Rock ever realizing it, which makes it all the more fun. The characters here all continue to be a lot of fun as they go about their days doing all sorts of things, but when it just goes for the plain old silly here, it works the best. And it even makes you enjoy the characters in more ways, causing you to really root for a Rock and Sakura relationship.
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.
