What They Say:
Danzo deliberately misleads Hanzo, telling him that the Akatsuki are attempting to sabotage the peace talks between the Hidden Rain and Stone. Believing his story, Hanzo sets up a trap to crush the Akatsuki for the sake of his people.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While the series has done some decent work in the last couple of episodes to expand our knowledge of the past with how Obito took on the Madara mantle and how the Akatsuki began, we also got that one key piece of knowledge that had to be coming. Danzo is involved somehow. As we’ve seen with most of the major turning points in the series, Danzo has his fingers involved in it some way and that just makes things worse for what you would call normal thinking folks. Bringing him into the mix certainly wasn’t unexpected, but his arrival does just add to that overall bleakness that you know is coming with what the Akatuski are up to and how it’s going to impact so many things.
As the Akatsuki have made their way out into the world and done a lot to achieve their goals, their mission becomes even more intriguing when Hanzo signifies his approval of what they’re doing, making it official in its own way so they can get involved in a more public way. It’s one of those big wins for the group that is still largely dealing with the issues between the two villages that have such a bad history that they want to end once and for all. Though it’s upbeat for a good part of it, there’s also just a simple somber aspect as well with how it plays out, even as Yahiko and Nagato get ready for the next phase and ironing things out. And while Yahiko has his grand goal, he’s also being used by Madara, who knows that in order to gain more of what he wants, he needs to tweak Nagato more in order to get it. Which is intriguing because you know where it’s going to go for Nagato and the persona he takes on.
Of course, the change that happens here is one that radically changes what the Akatsuki are all about, as some of them learn of what’s about to happen and try to stop it only to be destroyed by Madara. The hope many found in the Akatsuki is about to be twisted and perverted, which makes certain members obviously more sympathetic as we get both sides, and seeing it unfold is difficult to watch, especially for what the core trio of Yahiko, Konan and Nagato go through. The evolution, forced as it is, of Nagato is a particularly difficult piece and seeing what he goes through here definitely adds more weight to events we saw many, many episodes ago, making this for a good origin story that I wish we had aspects of before.
In Summary:
The exploration of the past is a hallmark of what this series is about but it can do it both right and wrong. While the initial material with Obito didn’t do much for me due to its context in the present, I’m definitely enjoying it more in seeing the formation of the Akatsuki, the hopeful nature and how the betrayal went in that caused so much damage with characters that we’ve gotten a good bit of story on already, and background material as well. The episode moves at a good pace here overall and it definitely goes big in the final act with Nagato that just reinforces the tragedy of the relationship that he, Konan and Yahiko had. Good stuff all around and the kind of background story that I wish we had more of.
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.
