What They Say:
Kabuto attempts to bring Sasuke over to his side by pointing out that they both are fighting for the same goal: to bring down the Leaf Village. But Sasuke quickly rejects him.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s always a bit difficult getting back into Naruto after getting a week off from it since it can break the spell, so to speak. Especially when you know you’re dealing with a couple of episodes that revolve mostly around flashback. The series has done some good stuff as of late when it comes to Itachi and Sasuke coming up against Kabuto and seeing what he’s really capable of, though it got more drawn out as it went on. With Kabuto showing a larger range of powers that definitely makes an impression on them, especially with what he’s gained from Orochimaru, there’s certainly a connection there to be dealt with. And someone like Kabuto, who has spent a lot of time around Sasuke because of his service to Orochimaru, there’s an obvious push to try and win him over to his side.
The episode focuses on this back and forth dialogue between them heaivly for the first half as we get them facing each other down in this dark and poorly lit cavern with a couple of flashbacks to past experiences and a bit of actual understanding between Itachi and Sasuke as Itachi basically says that Sasuke is like he is because of him. The Uchiha family history is vast and convoluted to be sure and with so much of it sprawling over the entire series, it’s easy to lose track of it. So some of the flashback helps as we get nods towards how Kabuto used to do good for Hidden Leaf and how there are real issues among the Uchiha’s that have splintered things over the years. But even in a situation like that, we see the way that both Sasuke and Itachi work together in the face of such an opponent as the action gets underway.
The action side of it is naturally drawn out a bit as you’d expect, but it works well enough since there has to be some gauging going on considering the power levels. But the show also opts to spend some time going into Kabuto’s past, where we see him as an orphan that’s taken in by a group and given a name since he didn’t have one. This leads us to all sorts of church-ish religious aspects along the side as we see how Kabuto is brought into the group, the education he’s given and some of the other interactions. Perhaps my memory is hazy after over five hundred episode of Naruto, but I can’t remember much that plays up this kind of aspect of the show, at least in regards to more Western origin religions, and it just feels kind of odd and out of place here as it starts to tell this part of Kabuto’s story.
In Summary:
With the next couple of episodes focusing a bit on the back story to certain parts of the series with a few flashbacks along the way, new material it may be, there is that sense of dread there. The old adage is often to show it, not tell it, but in a case like this series, I’m more than happy to get more of the just tell me stuff instead rather than showing me. This episode does a good bit of showing of the past with what’s going on with the three main characters we’re dealing with here, and there is an interest in what Kabuto is like as a child, but it’s the kind of piece that really needed to be done ages ago to drive his own narrative better than to do it here towards what’s presumably near the end of his story. Still, it has an unusual feel to it and that kind of works, but it just doesn’t compel me to really want to know it with how they’re doing it.
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.
