TwiddleGeek

Finally, finally, finally the fillers end and Naruto begins again. After 85~ episodes of filler, Naruto is finally back on track. With this, the trinity of Pirates, Ninja, and Shinigami has returned. That means One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach are all back to their main story arcs. Hallelujah! Back to Naruto though, for those not familiar the events of Naruto Shippuuden happen after a 2 and a half year time jump.

So more or less everything is as it was. Naruto has supposedly been under training, something that would have been cool to see rather than the filler we’ve had. Sakura might not be useless now, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Everyone else in the village is pretty much still just everyone else. Naruto, Sakura, and perhaps a few others have grown a bit, but nothing too dramatic. Naruto’s new style is basically just a slightly different jumpsuit, while Sakura’s new style looks more or less as she did before.

Storywise we get a whole lot of reintroductions, some movement with Akatsuki, and the promise of a dramatic showdown between Naruto and Sakura against Kakashi. It’s almost ashame we’re still dealing with Akatsuki and hunting down Sasuke after all this time. From the brief clip shown of him at the intro, he seems more or less as he was except now he’s wearing a robe. I hear that sequence is quite out of order, so maybe in about 35-50 episodes we’ll see the conclusion of that clip.

Also known as: What do we get after all that filler? Not a whole lot, and true to classic Naruto style this episode is filled with flashbacks. Naruto and Sakura prove they’ve both mastered basic Ninja techniques and concepts, while at the same time proving they still can’t even get close to Kakashi. Toss these two into any real ninja anime and they’d both be dead before you can say “Dattebayo!”

Naruto still uses his mass shadow clone technique which still manages to do nothing but make a hundred 1 hit clones of himself. He seemingly hasn’t even mastered the Rassengan without the use of a clone. Sakura on the other hand has basically gained ridiculous punching strength Tsunade style, but still can’t manage to actually hit anything.

Meanwhile bad things go down in Gaara’s neck of the woods, as the Akatsuki bunch makes short work of the village guards. I guess that explains how the heck Gaara could have possibly made Kazekage in 2 1/2 years… he’s apparently the only one in the village who’s competent. Whether he can stop the threat however, remains to be seen.

Gaara, apparently being one of the few competent ninja in Naruto, spends the episode single handedly holding back the intruder while the rest of the village stares on blankly. Not that I’m complaining about Gaara getting more screen time or anything, but you would think somebody in that entire hidden village of ninja could perhaps lend a hand. Meanwhile Kakashi pulls some impressive slight of hand with speed seal forming against Naruto and Sakura. Then, just because it was impressive, they flash back to it again a few minutes later in the very same episode.

These episodes feature not one, but two large scale battles as both Gai and Kakashi’s teams encounter Akatsuki members. Gai’s non-stop memory ‘jokes’ are hilarious, and it’s always fun to watch the over the top taijutsu “DYNAMIC ACTION”. That weird sword kick trick was especially awesome, and with Lee, TenTen, and Neji as backup — it’s hard not to love that team. They may not be the series stars, but they’re all fun to watch.

Kakashi’s team does considerably less against Sasuke’s older brother. I’d call it a staring contest, but it’s not even that. Kakashi may be seriously cool, but with Naruto, Sakura, and an old lady? I don’t expect very much. Hopefully the next episode will get somewhere, but it looks like it’s going to be another ‘Naruto fails to understand even basic ninja techniques he just heard explained a few minutes ago’ episodes.