The fight against Nagato goes all out, though things turn in some surprising directions.
What They Say:
Itachi uses the ultimate genjutsu technique Koto Amatsukami to free himself from the Reanimation Jutsu. Itachi then joins Naruto and Killer Bee to fight Nagato, who is still under Kabuto’s control.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Naruto having made some headway in his dealings with Itachi in the previous episode, including some rather tender moments in its own way, the face off against Nagato is what’s taking center stage here. Naruto’s grown a lot in the last hundred or so episodes through the various training that he’s undergone, but Nagato is still something that’s definitely very, very different. Even as he fights him at the start here, he realizes that Nagato is using things Pain never did and it’s pushing him pretty hard to cope with it, even in his heightened state. Of course, Naruto doesn’t help his own case in some instances, making things worse with some of the attacks.
The fight takes an interesting turn relatively early on here as we get Naruto and Killer Bee working together, but it’s the help of Itachi that really changes the course of it all. With him working to get past the control via the reanimation that Kabuto has over him, coming back into this form gives him a lot of potential to do more than he thought possible before. And by aligning himself, at least in some ways, with Naruto allows for a pretty engaging fight to unfold. It’s not something one would have expected based on their encounters all those episodes ago and it makes for a good sequence of events overall. Naruto’s push back against Nagato is well done and filled with a layer of emotion that resonates just right, especially with the ghost-like imgaes that appear towards the end of the fight that helps to usher Nagato on to the next world in a more peaceful manner.
With Kabuto having lost a key tool that he thought would be instrumental in achieving his goals, it’s amusing to see how he takes it and lashes out. But the show spends more time with a good bit of dialogue between Itachi and Naruto, especially when Itachi talks about how Naruto could easily follow the path of Madara with his sense of right and power. It’s a humbling bit in a lot of ways, especially since Naruto does have the habit of trying to do so much on his own because of his power level and what he can handle. The nod towards how his parents worked together is pretty good though and makes the connection that’s needed. Seeing this from Itachi really is surprising, but it’s the right moment from the right person that shifts the narrative where it needs to be for the war that’s really (hopefully) about to come into the forefront again.
In Summary:
Naruto: Shippuden continues to move along fairly well here with what it’s doing by getting Naruto to face certain realities. Having it come from Itachi of all people is what’s needed since there’s a different sense of clarity coming from this reanimated man. Naruto’s been separated from friends and the Leaf village for so long and ended up in so many situations where he’s the key to things that seeing his mindset move this way isn’t a surprise. There’s a lot to like here, from the fight itself to how Nagato deals with the outcome of it and through the extended dialogue that Itachi starts with. It’s not a huge episode, but it’s an episode that feels meaningful and those have been few and far between for awhile.
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.