What They Say:
Naruto and Killer Bee face off against the masked man originally thought to be Madara Uchiha, in addition to the reanimated Jinchuriki. Naruto is shocked when he recognizes one of the Jinchuriki.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With so much going on in the past couple of episodes as Madara has shown up and has properly schooled most of the Allied Forces in a big way, Naruto: Shippuden takes an awkward approach of heading into back story territory once again with a healthy dose of black and white and full color flashbacks. One of the things that has hurt the show for many is the way the filler operates in bringing out so much back story that makes things too busy and more complicated than it needs to be, and it drew out the present day story. There are some good back stories that can be fleshed out, and the appeal of going back here to see how Pain attempted to draw in the Six Tails in order to use him for his own goals provides for some great looking set pieces.
Focusing on Utakata, we get to see some of the quiet time for his life and how he was doing his best to survive with Hotaru, wanting to do right, but also realizing that a life on the run was all that was really open to him. In a decent dialogue sequence with Naruto, we see how the two go on about life as Jinchuriki and the kinds of things they have to deal with, allowing Naruto to be one of those few people that can actually get through to someone else because he really does understand. The conversation between them is enlightening enough in its own way, but it draws out a fight that should be filled with a lot more intensity and style since it has Killer Bee and the super powered up Naruto going at the group arrayed against them. We get some mild moments of this, and it works really well, but overall it just feels lacking.
In Summary:
With a revelation that Madara isn’t quite who we thought he was all this time, which is kept until the very end, the majority of the episode deals with what he’s done and manipulated when it comes to the Six-Tails, Utakata. Pitting him against Naruto and Killer Bee works nicely enough and we do get a fair bit of back story here, but it doesn’t really add all that much overall and it’s easy to expect that it will have minimal if any impact as the fight goes on and things really get down to business. I do like that we’re starting to get a better idea of who the fight against really is, but I can also understand quite a lot of fans feeling like they’ve been trolled for a long time as to their identity.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
Oh man.. This was for sure a step backwards.. But things are looking up in terms of action and story progress…Hopefully…..
really? is there anyone out there who does not read the Manga? i mean this damn anime has been going on for a decade. spoiler alert?! oh stop all that and read the G$%DD###M Manga already!
I certainly don’t read the manga. The anime is where I get the story from. It’s like complaining to people excited about a movie that haven’t read the book yet. Why complain about it?