“A Special Mission”
What They Say:
Finally, the truth will be revealed… Do not miss the unveiling of the legend.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the lengthy storyline in the past having concluded in such a way that it made absolutely no impact on me and only further served to reduce my interest in the show, Naruto: Shippuden challenges me to lose even more interest. One of the more frustrating aspects of the show when it works with anime original episodes is that they have a go-to well of stories they tell from when the gang was younger, the early days that either predate the series proper or take place after the teams get formed. If you mapped all of this out it’d probably occupy so much time that most of the cast would be old and gray by now as these time periods are just overstuffed at this point. Add in that this was the segment of the series originally that kept me from being interested in it and it’s a recipe for boredom.
The premise here is simple enough as the core trio of Team 7 find themselves ensnared by a former ANBU ops man who is working as a photojournalist of sorts across the lands. His goal here is all about getting a look at Kakashi’s face under the mask and he orchestrates a few different ways to do it and draws the kids in to help since they’re very curious themselves. From breaking into certain facilities to trying to trap Kakashi in comical ways, it’s all simple and goofy stuff that doesn’t really do much other than pass the time. Some of it is cute but I’ll be damned if it’ll be memorable for most of it. For the small segment of fans that are super excited about seeing Kakashi’s face in full form in the animation, something we only got briefly in the manga realm, there’s at least the payoff there.
But the rest of it? It’s an episode of characters who I like in the present but really struggled to like in this form back when the show started, making this an utter chore to get through.
In Summary:
This series really needs to finish out the currently storyline from the manga that ended some time ago and decide what it wants to do. I can imagine them carrying on with a whole lot of potentially interesting stories to fill the gap between it and the Boruto work with ease. But right now the show is just spinning its wheels and that’s only hurting it over and over.
Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
