The most boring shinobi war ever continues to drag on.
What They Say:
Omoi’s unit is attacked by Ameyuri Ringo of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and loses one of Omoi’s men. Omoi attempts to avenge his comrade, but Nurui orders everyone to retreat.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
In a situation where I hate sounding like a broken record, the war between the Allied Shinobi Forces and the Akatsuki continues to be one of the dullest ever. Having started in on the simulcasts awhile ago, during the Pain attack on the Hidden Leaf Village, I have to admit I expected things to be a bit more interesting here. But instead we’ve had a series of drawn out and pointless side stories and little in the way of the main characters. When it does shift to the main characters, it’s either been nothing to take note of at all or some mildly decent action, such as what we’ve seen with Sai, Kakashi and Guy in the last couple of episodes. But even that is just painfully simple.
With this episode, the focus shifts to Omoi’s group of shinobi as they’re the latest to be attacked by one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. The use of this group has its own bit of potential since they’re powerful fighters, but they’re not characters that really resonate well and the people they’re generally coming across are third stringers, at least for me. They’re characters that have largely been unseen for quite a few episodes, which isn’t a bad thing to do overall, but it just reduces the impact. Especially when there are so many first and second string characters getting the shaft here with an overly long vacation. The show gives us a lot of action overall as Omoi and those he’s with try to make their way further along and deal with Ameyuri, but it’s all just that, action with no heart or connection.
In Summary:
There’s not much of anything to see here, really. If you’re a fan of Omoi and his minor group, there are things to like just in the fact that he gets as much screen time as he does. If you’re not, the episode is pretty much another round of spinning wheels because it doesn’t change much of anything when you look at it. The action is decent but without any heart which makes it just an exercise in animation rather than storytelling. And that’s what’s killing the show at this point in that it’s not really telling a story but just working through various set pieces with characters who have had minor roles at best over the course of its run. And all at the expense of the lead characters, and the viewers.
Grade: C
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.
