A new journey begins for Itachi.
What They Say:
“Itachi’s Story – Light and Darkness: Moonlit Night”
Itachi joins the ANBU and is quickly promoted to captain. But he must report directly to Danzo, and is placed as a double agent to observe the Uchiha clan, who are in the midst of planning a coup d’état. With dissatisfaction rising within the clan, the Uchiha ultimately decide to carry out their revolt, and the fateful night approaches. less
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After taking a week off as the winter season as a whole came to a close, Naruto: Shippuden returns with more of Itachi’s Story. The first few episodes of this has been decent so far and is certainly a world apart from the filler we’ve had for the past year in many ways. While there were a few bright spots along the way, the show has felt like it’s collapsed pretty handily. So decent storytelling, better animation, and a sense of weight about it even with the familiarity of the events through other eyes can go a long way in making this engaging to watch. Itachi’s not a character I’ve ever felt a strong affinity for, though, so there’s still some lack of real resonance for me here.
With a decent episode focusing on Itachi and Shisui the last time around, this one has Itachi making his way into the ANBU now. The organization is one that certainly makes sense for what it does in the big picture, but the way we see it at times really paints it in such a dark light that it’s hard to really get enthused about it as it has too much of a Big Brother oppressive feeling from the shadows. The Hidden Leaf village hasn’t been presented as a place of peace and happiness as its total being, but there’s been that element of they’re the good guys in the world. The ANBU is a seriously black stain on it and when you add in Danzo as well, the whole thing just takes such a malevolent tone about it that it’s a cancer within the village with what it represents. Itachi certainly sees aspects of this but his own goals are driving him still.
Itachi’s being placed within the Uchiha clan as a double-agent certainly works well enough here, though there’s always that hard to believe element to it considering ties and so forth. But the manipulation of youth, the changing of perspective as tweaked by others, and other events alongside that can certainly force things in a dark path. And Itachi was seemingly always open to such things because of the very nature of the Uchiha. There are some expected and known very dark moments here and it does work well with the established material in this story so far, allowing you to really connect with the sadness and the pride that’s mixed in with all it represents. It’s one of those moments you know but when you see it the whole thing does go up a couple of notches. The fallout from it is certainly interesting as well and how it pushes things in the other expected direction. Since it’s all predetermined in a sense, there’s no big moment with that but it’s good to see how it all plays out.
In Summary:
Naruto: Shippuden continues to work its Itachi story and as we now move into the Akatsuki phase there’s a potential for some interesting material to flow from it. With the range of characters there and getting to see another side of the organization it has me a lot more interested in it than the already familiar beats of what happened here. It’s solidly done and well executed and there are some big moments in this episode with good payoff. It’s just not lighting a fire under me and the nods at the start with the present day events just reinforces that I’m waiting for this series to simply end.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
