It’s rather interesting how this episode plays out. For some reason, I figured it would have been done better. I’m not disappointed, but it’s a huge part of the story and I was left wanting. If there was a moment to spend a bit more time on the animation, I thought this was it.

In the first half of the episode, we see Kabuto and Orochimaru talking about their plans and strategy. This acts as a review of a large part of the series story, going all the way back to the Chuunin exams, probably almost 2 years ago now. They review how Orochimaru tested, watched, and tested again Sasuke’s skills to see if he was worthy of being inhabited by Orochimaru. Meanwhile, Sasuke sits in meditation in his room. As Kabuto leaves, commenting on how Orochimaru’s body is wearing down and won’t last much longer, Sasuke get’s up. While Orochimaru sits in his bed, pondering on how he would take over Sasuke’s body, a blade flies through the door at Orochimaru. Barely blocking it by letting it stab him in his arms, the door then gives way to Sasuke, holding the blade. Sasuke tells Orochimaru how his drive for revenge would have let him do anything, even giving up his body. However, Sasuke didn’t like how Orochimaru did things, nor did he thing Orochimaru was strong enough. Sasuke approaches Orochimaru, and just before giving the final blow, something flies out of Orochimaru’s mouth. Now we see his true form. After so many experiments and tests and manipulations to his own body, Orochimaru had turned into a great white snake, with a human-like head. With snakes coming off his body, Orochimaru surrounds Sasuke. Using the seal on his neck, Sasuke transforms freeing himself.
And with that, the episode ends. We are left wait for the final part of the battle for next week. It’s going to be great!

In case you just can’t die without know what in the world happened the past 20 episodes or so, let me fill you in: Nothing. At least nothing that is really going to make a difference in the show. Allow me to explain:

The filler arc started with a lone ninja sending off word that he may have found Orochimaru’s hideout. Of course, Konoha sends off our familiar ninjas to investigate. Meanwhile, Kabuto enlists the help of a women named Guren whom he expects to fulfill a certain mission in return for him taking over her body. She has a unique ability to create crystal out of anything. She grabs a posse of bad guys and they head out. Their mission, as it turns out, is to protect a boy who has a mysterious ability. We find out later that he has the ability to control one of the tailed beasts, the three tails (also called “sanbi”).
While Konoha is on it’s way to investigate Orochimaru, and while Guren on the way to the lake where the Sanbi is found, the groups naturally clash. Afterward, Naruto runs into the boy (called Yuukimaru) who controls the beast. Naruto makes a statement that will haunt if you watch these episodes. He says as long as someone is thinking of you, you have a place to return to. I think it was said an average of about FIVE times each episode following that. It was the most redundant statement I’ve seen in a series.
I’m getting frustrated writing this thing. Let me finish quick. Both parties end up at the lake with the Sanbi. Konoha tries to permanently seal the tailed beast, while Guren and gang try to stop them. While all of this is happening, Guren starts to care for Yuukimaru, and eventually turns sides and decides to protect him. Her gang members are manipulated and killed off by Kabuto, and in a final desperate attack, Guren takes out Kabuto with herself.
Now it gets lame. After many a battle with the tailed beast, and trying to control the creature, (everyone actually gives up by now and just leaves) Akatsuki come in, knock the thing out and drag it away in five minutes. Rediculous.
While they’re doing that, Guren Miraculously survives, and goes back to take care of Yuukimaru, while Kabuto reports to orochimaru and Konoha returns and prepares for other things.

Honestly, there were a few moments where the animation was pretty cool, but for the most part the story was redundant, predictable, and just obnoxious. There are only a couple moments of cannon within the whole story, but for the most part, it just deviates and doesn’t do anything for the overall story.

It was a rather long haul, with hardly any story actually happening in the process, but we are now going to be moving on once again with the real story. As such, expect a review of the past few episodes and for reviews and new videos to be posted shortly.

They got a lot of interested people watching their every move now after they posted the subtitled the ending and opening songs for Naruto. Very interesting of them to do it. Especially their “tagline” at the end of the opening.
Does this mean they might come back? I don’t think so. I think that they want to subtitle Naruto again, but they already started a new project and have tried to move. They aren’t going to be trying anything weird like picking up an old project.

Just so you know.

Also, this site is rather out of date. If you are looking for review of the most recent Naruto episodes, rest assured that you are not missing anything. We are pretty heavily into fillers right now, and there is another 4 confirmed episodes before we possibly get away from them. Once they are done, I will put up a brief review of all the episodes up to the fillers, and then finish it off with a summary of this horrendous filler story arc.

So, as time passes, more and more Naruto episodes are available to watch for free. But where to watch? Crunchy Roll is the only site to show the episodes the day of Airing. Unfortunately, the quality sucks. I paid for a membership to test it out and see how good it was, and I was dismally disappointed. If you are willing to wait a week, sites such as Hulu (love their superbowl commercial, by the way) and Joost will broadcast them for free, and in much better quality. The final source, however, is the best, but also very illegal. A couple of groups have stepped up and taken the place of Dattebayo, as soon as they stopped supplying fansubs. One such group is Horrible-Subs. A google search won’t help you much, though, as they only have a placeholder site. If look up their name and torrents however… *wink* *wink*
Another group has been Taka, but I wasn’t very impressed with their quality. I had a hard time understanding their subtitled releases.
Keep in mind, downloading these videos from Fansub groups is technically illegal.
The best place to see your options is a site called Tokyo Tosho. Good luck, and Enjoy Naruto!

Whatever you do, do NOT pay to watch Naruto episodes online. The quality is absolutely unacceptable. There is stuttering, poor resolution, the dumb player won’t load the whole video (forcing you to be streaming and downloading while watching) and the worst part was when I got a “connection lost” error three times. I was not happy having to reload the page and find where I was again multiple times.
Perhaps five years ago this would have been an amazing technology, and a huge move on the part of the Anime industry. As it stands, this service is an embarrassment. It’s like walking into a computer store and all they had were computers with Windows 2000 on it. The technology for quality, high resolution streaming is out there, and we get shafted with the older model.

With all of that said, I’ve searched diligently for better source of subtitled episodes. I want to be clear, however, that the only legal way of watching these episodes is through Crunchyroll or similar video sites (a week after release).
Go to Google. Look up “Taka Fansubs”. That should lead you in the right direction. I am in no way affiliated with, or support the group.

Well, strangely enough, despite their ridiculous efforts to state that they are stopping the translation of Naruto after episode 91, sure enough, there is a Naruto Shippuuden episode 92 now available for download. The fact that Dattebayo is playing a prank on us at the moment is absolutely undeniable. It’s just a matter of which part is the prank. I’m currently downloading the torrent that is up for download, and will make a notice here as soon as I know.

UPDATE: The episode for download is indeed a troll. The Naruto intro is in place, but then the show quickly switches to a random anime about talking cars. So, if you are downloading, you can stop. Crunchyroll is still the only place that the episode can currently we watched at.

That’s right, no more sneaking around in the dark downloading illegally, watching crappy youtube uploads, it’s official. Naruto Shippuuden can now be watched online at several sources. Crunchyroll, Hulu and Joost are a few. You can even watch Naruto episodes online here, as well. Simply view the episode summaries to watch the full episodes 1-8. As more become available (just a few days) they will be added to this site for your viewing pleasure.
Now for the bad news. It looks like Dattebayo is going to follow through with their threat to stop fansubbing Naruto. For those of who are unfamiliar, Dattebayo has been providing free, quality Fansubs the same day that shows air in Japan. These are not streamed videos, but full, high quality videos. There are a lot of mixed reactions to this, some are glad to see the anime industry make the move, while others are sad to see their high quality releases stop.
Also, we will no longer be able to watch the episodes the same day of their airing for free. Crunchyroll is the only site that offers immediate viewing of the episodes. The cost, however, is $7 a month, $20 for three months, and $60 for a full year subscription. I’m still in limbo if I really want to pay that kind of money. The other benefit, however will be that the episodes will be high quality 720p resolution.
As for my opinion on the matter, I’m torn. I see the good in it, but I’m also frustrated at the loss of my source of entertainment for years. In the end, what everyone will do about it will vary, and be personal decisions.

Ah, yes. Kicking Akatsuki’s trash. Deosn’t really get much better than that, does it? This episode effectively finishes off the current story arc, leaving behind Kakuzu and Hidan. Next week we get started on a new story arc, and it looks like we will get a bit of Orochimaru and Sasuke action again. Seriously, there are so many stories and sub plots in this show, it’s ridiculous.

Anyhow, Naruto finishes setting up his technique and starts to attack Kakuzu. He sent in a couple of clones earlier to gain combat experience against Kakuzu (which really impressed Kakashi that Naruto had taken that skill a step further), from which he new that he would need at least three clones to keep him sufficiently occupied until he landed the technique. So, after sending in the clones (that phrase is just screaming for a cheesy pun joke, but I’ll resist) he rushes at Kakuzu with the new rasengan in his hand. Just before landing the deadly blow, he loses the technique and it fizzles away. Yamato and Kakashi jump and save Naruto before Kakuzu can have his way. Meanwhile, Shikimaru’s tags do a nasty number on the body of Hidan. Small body parts find themselves at the bottom of the large grave. However, true do his nature, he is absolutely immortal, and his head continues to scream and yell at Shikimaru, cursing the whole way. Shikimaru finishes the deal by using another exploding tag to bury Hidan, once and for all. He finds the lighter, and then leaves, catching up with Sakura and Sai. The pary then sets to meet up with the rest of the group. Going back to Naruto, he wants to take another try at the deadly akatsuki. Everyone objects saying that the same thing won’t work twice. He insists, thinking about Sasuke, that if he can’t cross this bridge, he won’t be able to grow up. The group obliges. He then sets up for another run, and Kakuzu switches his body for a more long range fight (thinking that he needs to stay away from the technique). Again, naruto sends in three clones. Kakuzu mearly flies above them, heading toward the Naruto bearing the new rasengan. Kakuzu attacks and stops Naruto, only to find it was a clone and that Naruto had anticipated that attack. From behind, the real Naruto then unleashes the full power of the technique on Kakuzu. Caught in a huge blast of countless wind attacks, Kakuzu falls limp, battered, and undoubtedly dead.

Such an amazing couple of episodes! This was truly one of those episodes where you are led into this nice little trap, where you think something to the effect of “oh crap… They’re screwed”, and yet they come out alive, or even tun the tables on their enemies altogether. I, for one, was thinking that there was no possible way that these two monsters from Akatsuki would ever be stopped, but before I get any more into that, let’s start from the beginning of episode 86.

Episode 86: Shikamaru’s Genius

So we ended the previous episode watching Hidan stab himself while Shikamaru watches in horror. With his demented laugh Hidan watches as Shikimaru falls to the ground. Thinking he has won the fight, he turns to walk away. Just then, Shikimaru jumps up slashing at Hidan’s throat nearly cutting his head off. Hidan is shocked and unable to understand why he is still alive. Shikimaru then binds him with his shadow once again, and then proceeds to explain that the blood he had ingested was in fact Kakuzu’s blood, which Kakashi stole earlier. You then see a couple of scenes where Kakashi steals the blood, hands it off to Shikimaru, and how he fakes an injury using Kakuzu’s blood. Meanwhile, as Kakashi and Kakuzu are battling, Kakuzu suddenly stops his attack short, grabbing his chest (where Hidan had stabbed himself). The curse works, and Kakuzu falls dead. Just then, the creatures that came out of his back suddenly start rushing toward the dead body. The team of ninjas are unable to stop one of those creatures from giving his heart back to Kakuzu’s body, reviving him. He then splits his own body apart, with strands coming out of every limb and his back, and releases another deadly set of elemental attacks at the team of Ninjas. Just then, Team 7 shows up to block the attack with the countering wind/water attack.

Episode 87: When You Curse Someone, You Dig Your Own Grave

The next episode keeps things moving right along. Shikimaru’s still holding Hidan with his technique. The only problem is that it seems to be wanning. Hidan slowly stands up and starts to move toward Shikimaru. Shikimaru mearly baits him by acting scared, as when Hidan was in the right position, Shikimaru suddenly increases his shadow strength and then uses his shadow to reach out to all of the explosive tags he set up. He wraps Hidan in the tags, then opens up a gaping hole in the ground that he prepared earlier. As it turns out, Shikimaru had planned all of this well in advance, and Hidan is shocked by the foresight of the plan. Trapped and helpless, Hidan starts cursing at Shikimaru. Paying him no attention, Shikimaru then sees a vision of Asuma, in which the “Will of Fire” (or will to protect one’s friends in the the fire country) is passed on to Shikimaru. He then throws the lighter at Hidan. Meanwhile, Team 7 sends Sai and Sakura to help Shikimaru out. Naruto starts to prepare his half-finished new technique as Yamato explains that he is about to see a completely new Naruto. We then get a glimpse of the eyes of Naruto which are slit, similar to when he starts to release the Kyuubi, only they remain blue, showing no influence of the monster inside.

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