The push to keep Naruto out of the fight may end up ending his life.
What They Say:
Fourth Raikage Ay attacks Naruto in an attempt to prevent the Jinchuriki from falling into Madara’s hands. Ay is unwilling to listen to either Tsunade or Killer Bee’s pleas to change his mind.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The efforts to keep Naruto from throwing himself onto the field of combat is the issue of the day here once again as the Raikage does what he can to show him he’s nowhere near ready. With Tsunade watching on, we get a pretty good sequence of events as the very powered up Naruto pushes back hard against him. Naruto’s reasons continue to be good ones for wanting to get involved since people are fighting and dying because of him, but there is also the real fact that in if he’s defeated, it gives the Akatsuki exactly what they’re after. And with the stakes being what they are, it’s not something that those who lead the villages can really risk.
Where things change up a bit here though is that even as Naruto struggles against him, Tsunade is ready to change her position on things and to try and find a way to work with Naruto instead of against him. This puts her at odds with Raikage, something that does not go over well with him, but it also allows Killer Bee to step up and push back against his older brother. And there is that growing sense that Bee has really managed to grow a lot and is finding a new sense of purpose since having worked with Naruto that leads him to having something to fight for now instead. The look on the Raikage’s face when he realizes that Bee has truly grown in strength is a very, very good one.
The show spends a good bit of time early on with a flashback piece showing the two brothers and what they went through years ago when he became the Raikage and that works more effectively than I thought it would since I tend to hate flashbacks at this point in an arc. But using that and the growth we see in them both now, especially Bee, helps to smooth that out. The show also spends a good bit of time with Naruto doing the exposition thing about his own past and life, how it’s lead him here and what he intends to do as he convinces the Raikage that what he’s doing is right. Seeing the others come to his defense is not a surprise, but seeing Tsunade get so involved really is well done. And the soldification of Killer Bee behind him is a big plus as well since it draws on the two brothers pasts quite well.
In Summary:
With the focus on this group of four overall for the episode, it has some pretty good material when it comes to the dialogue and exposition but also to the back and forth fighting. I liked what we got from Naruto and Raikage but also the brother versus brother aspect with the additional background that was necessary for it to really resonate. The reasons for keeping Naruto out of the way are sound ones to be sure, but there are other considerations that have to come into play that the Raikage can’t quite put his head around at the moment because of his own background. We get a bit of a sliver of other material within the show about events elsewhere, but it’s nothing compared to what this one is about in general. And the focus on these four works to the shows advantage, giving us a serious and worthy episode in a sea of recent fluff.
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.