What They Say:
When the team gets assigned to infiltrade an illegal chakra-trading ring, Lee goes to Sai for advice on how to blend in with the crowd. A nefarious neer-do-well keeps leaving the village bathrooms a filthy disgusting mess, so Tsunade appoints Lee’s team as guards.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a show that’s focused on comedy, sometimes it is fun just to watch them try and do something serious. Such is the case here at the start of the episode when Neiji and Tenten are shown doing some undercover work and generally staying in character fairly well, though they do stand out compared to everyone else there. With the designs of the characters, they’re actually pretty cute when they go in this way in trying to be serious. Of course, everything goes down the toilet quickly when Lee shows up in a disguise that is anything but a huge beacon saying “Look at me!” to everyone in the room.
Thankfully, Lee does realize after some coaxing from others that there is an issue with what he does and he wants to learn how to be better at it. His intentions to become the best there is and to live up to the standards set by Guy does at least have him willing to go the distance to train. And he’s also smart enough, sometimes, to go to those that can teach him what he needs. Hence working with Sai on the best way to blend into situations so that he doesn’t get found out. Of course, it’s not going to go smoothly since Lee has such a weird view of how everyone goes about their day and what they notice. While he goes through all of this, there’s a mild bit of Orochimaru coming into play as well, but it’s mostly background material and is just amusing when the two of them and Kabuto “blend in” together at a ramen shop without Lee realizing who they are.
The second half goes back to something we haven’t had in awhile with toilet humor. And pretty much literal toilet humor as the show revolves around the problem going on in the village where the bathrooms aren’t being taken care of by people, which has Tunsade assigning Lee’s team to latrine duty. It’s amusing to watch for what they do show of it, but the show brings Orochimaru into it as well as he’s confused by why Lee’s team is doing all of this and he sees it as a huge opportunity. There’s a simple aspect to all of this and some of the humor is fun when it comes to the way the gang tries to ease the potty problem, but mostly it’s just fun watching Orochimaru seem like he’s at the top of his game here even though he doesn’t really accomplish anything.
In Summary:
Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals has some cute bits here throughout, but a lot of it just feels like it’s spinning its wheels. Admittedly, the thought of more toilet humor was a positive for me since some of that at the start of the series before it lessened a lot was a big part of the draw because it was fun. The show isn’t bad here but it’s not doing anything that makes you laugh a lot or really get into it with the stories either. The humor makes you smile and some parts are pretty good, especially in the first half here with the disguise side of things, but the second half doesn’t go as far as it could. Though the final sequence with Orochimaru did make me laugh far more than I expected to.
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.
