Naruto Shippuuden

Fillers are over!! Halle-freakin-luja! So, this is what I’m going to do. VERY short summary of the episode, much longer summary of the ending.

Naruto is still trying to bring Sora back from his out of control state, and Asuma is still fighting Kazuma. Asuma is getting nowhere with Kazuma until Sai, who snuck out of the hospital uses his techniques to bind Kazuma. After pointless conversation, Kazuma releases himself lunges at Asuma, but finally Kazuma falls dead having failed.

Naruto, on the other hand, keeps lunging at Sora getting beaten up. Finally, the chakra fully leaks out of him and then just dissipates because it didn’t have a body to inhabit. To that I say “super lame pointless ending”. No fighting, no inspiring Sora to come back, nothing. Just like letting the air out of balloon.

Sigh… However, after all these shenanigans, Sora leaves (so as to not interfere with the main story no doubt), and we suddenly cut to a scene of a girl running down a hallway. She outruns a large triple bladed weapon and escapes into a large canal area. We then see two men follow after her in the now very familiar flowered patterns of the Akatsuki robes. As they emerge, we see that these are two members whom we have not seen before, named Hidan and Kakuzu. The girl? She’s the two-tail Jinkuriki. Yeah, that’s right. It’s on!

This episode is REALLY slow. Also very frustrating. (Stupid filler stories…)

So here we are with Sora going nuts. Everyone is trying to stop him while Asuma and the newly revealed Kazuma are fighting off on their own. Pretty much nothing works on Sora, despite the reapeated efforts (if it doesn’t work the first time, why do it again?!). Naruto does his “I understand how you feel” thing and instead of solving the problem, Sora’s released chakra resonates with the real chakra inside of Naruto. Naruto begins to develop the fox’s cloak as well. Sora sprouts the fourth tail becoming the fully formed Fox that we’ve seen when Naruto went “four tails” as well. Naruto starts to change as well but stops the tranformation returning to normal. Everynow and then we see images of Sora, apparently his “inner conciousness” where he faintly hears Naruto’s voice.

And that’s pretty much it. Yeah, they took 30 minutes to do all of that. Really not cool. To be honest, part of me was really hoping that this episode would be the end of the fillers, but alas, tis not going to be.

The only really interesting aspect of this episode is the new intro promoting the new Naruto film. It clearly depicts Naruto and Sasuke working together, or at least not trying to kill each other. I’m not sure as to what kind of story they have developed, but it looks like it’s a side story exploring the bonds between Naruto and Sasuke. Considering how they can’t mess up the story and that movies generally have to be “filler” in nature, I’m guessing that a new enemy has arrived and Naruto and Sasuke find themselves having to temporarily work together. Personally, I see scenes like this movie and think to myself “Oh crap, they’re screwing it up! What are they doing?!”. I’ll cross my fingers and wait for it’s release to reach the America’s. Once released, I’ll most likely write about it, but it will take months.

Holy crap these episodes are really, really crappy. So crappy, that I don’t even feel like doing a full review and summary. This time around I’m going to keep things simple.

So Naruto and Asuma are the only ones still in a tough place. Asuma, trapped in his lightning cage controls his knuckle knife thingy (which was outside the cage) and breaks down the barrier. He then chases down one of the four ninja  and is suddenly able to kill him. Really, it was out of nowhere. Before he was struggling, but now he just kills him no problems. Naruto is still battling the crazy chick. After a while of fighting, He notices that she is really using different bodies which is why she is able to use so many different elements. He then realizes that her hair is really important. To sum up a really stupid fight, this girl turns out to be nothing BUT the hair. I nearly laughed when I saw a floating ball of hair with glowing eyes floating toward Naruto. It was easily one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in a filler in a long time.

Anyway, moving onward, Furido notices that one of the four Lightning Ninjas were destroyed and dissapates his ressurection technique. Not giving up, however, he goes to plan B where he releases the Chakra inside of Sora. Now let me explain: when the Kyuubi first attacked Konoha, some ninjas took advantage of the attack and collected some of the chakra that leaked off. They cultivated it and inserted it in Sora. So basically, Sora is another version of Naruto. Now that this chakra is released, he starts to develop the fox’s cloak and some tails. Naruto is trying to talk him down, but Furido released the chakra completely so there’s no stopping it. Also, All the other ninjas arrive, including Asuma. Asuma suddenly realized that Furido is Kazuma (yes Sora’s Father). So off go Kazuma and Asuma to fight to the death as sora lays there screaming about the pain (and his screaming, by the way, sounds like a mix of a cat getting strangled and a dog in heat-in short nothing pretty or even remotely clos to normal human noise).

Pretty much that’s it. Really crappy episode. But at least it looks like we’ll be getting some four tail action next episode.

It’s here and ready. Be patient on a summary though.

So the fillers are continuing this week, and there is barely any improvement. There are a couple scenes that were nice animated scenes, but story wise (and just your general Naruto feeling), the episode failed. I doesn’t seem to matter what the producers do, if it’s not cannon story, it just doesn’t fly. Period. Even if you like the fillers, I’m sure that you would admit that they don’t really compare to the overall grandness of the main story.

It starts off with everyone still in their personal battles. Naruto fighting the Vain girl, Yamato fighting the stone guy, and Sakura the Lady with a guy sounding voice. Sora is still with the Leader Furido and Shikamaru is still analyzing trying to come up with a strategy with Tsunade. Naruto escapes falling to his death after being electrocuted off of the roof and continues to fight. He is eventually smothered in a mudslide created by an earth and water technique. Yamato tries using earth against his opponent with no luck. He then uses water to soften the ground and get him stuck in mud. Using a wood technique he then creates a tree that squeezes to death the enemy ninja (which seemed especially gruesome for the series…). Sakura gets poisoned into a hallucination, but just when her opponent moves in, Sakura uses a replacement technique and quite literally beats the living hell out of her. (Remember that she has some rediculous strength.) As a result these victories (except for Naruto) the zombie ninjas and the barrier are destroyed. Asuma is trapped in a new lightning technique. Sora tries to talk with Furido about how he doesn’t want the village to be destroyed. Furido, now considering Sora to be weak, starts beating him. So, with two enemy ninja killed and Asuma, Naruto and Sora in trouble, the episode ends.

I don’t know why, but I know that there is no scheduled Naruto this week. So, take a break, try going outside a bit. Or just read up on the goodies of E3.

This episode is so… eh. I could probably sum up the entire plot within a couple sentences. In fact, I would call this episode a “filler” of the filler episodes. It was obvious that they were trying to drag things out for the next episode. Animation was weak and disappointing (really disappointing actually).

In this episode Asuma gets to the power plant just in time to see the corpses of the The four Guardian Ninjas, Seito, Tou’u, Nauma and Kitane resurrected. Asuma and the dead ninja converse as friends, but are forced to battle.  Three of the four split to perform, as Asuma finds out, a technique called “Limelight” that destroys everything between the four ninjas. As such, Sakura and Yamato are sent after two of the three while Asuma stays and battles Kitane. Naruto is still pursuing Sora (who is trying to find Furido). Sakura Yamato and Naruto, however are all intercepted by the enemy ninjas who started the whole thing. As they begin to battle, Sora finds Furido and learns from him that he does intend to destroy Konoha. In this state, with everyone beginning personal battles, the episode just ends. It really does just “end” too. Usually it’s clear that the episode is drawing to a close, but in this case the end credits (which are really cool by the way) just kinda pop up out of nowhere. I think that speaks of the poor quality of the episode… Either way, it’s becoming clear that filler episodes are drawing to a close within an episode or two.

It’s up, and I’ve got it. Now as to when in the world I’m going to watch it….

These are some pretty awesome episodes. To be completely honest I nearly forgot that I was watching “filler” episodes. In fact, the epic scale of the story, and how it’s developing is making me start to wonder how they will naturally revert back to normal episodes.

Episode 64:  Jet Black Signal Fire

This episode is the lesser of the two. Animation looks like fillers, and the story (until the end) is predictable. We start by Anbu pursuing Danzou. They catch him trying to rendevous with  a ninja from the Hidden Rain village (an enemy territory). As they bring him back, Sora see them taking him to an interrigation room where Asuma is also present. As Sora hides himself he listens to the conversation. We learn that the Rain ninja was actually a double agent and giving information to the two Konoha advisors as well. The Hidden Rain village was not responsible for the attacks. They then figure out that the purpose of the attacks appears to be to capture Sora. The members of the room discuss their options trying to push Tsunade into “disposing” of Sora. Just as she was about to refuse, Sora is caught sneeking in on the conversation. He is naturally upset, thinking that everyone wants him dead, and merely asks a question of Asuma. Asuma admits that he killed Sora’s father. Enraged, Sora attacks Asuma but is unable to affect him. The battle is taken outside where Naruto notices what’s going on. Naruto jumps in and blocks an unsuspected attack from from Root. Sora then leaves. Furido finds him, however, and encourages him to kill not only Asuma, but the Hokage as well to avenge his father. Later that night, Tsunade is attacked by Sora who is saved just in time by Naruto. The two ninjas run off into the night while Tsunade gathers herself and starts preparations. At the same moment, a lightning storm hits which knocks out all the power in Konoha. Suspecting foul play, Tsunade starts making preparations.

Episode 65: Lockdown of Darkness

As the city is plunged into Darkness, Tsunade raises the emergency level of the village, preparing for an attack on all sides. Coming from the front appears the four enemy Ninjas that started this whole story. Konoha tries to stop them, but after several impressive earth element techniques the defense is merely brushed aside. Meanwhile Tsunade sends every Ninja out except for Asuma who she sends after Sora. While he is pursuing, the four enemy ninjas set up a defensive Barrier to prevent the village from escaping. Asuma sees this and is able to catch up with Sora. He tells Sora that their goal is most likely the destruction of the entire village. Sora is shocked, not realising their true intent. Sora takes off and Naruto continues to pursue him as Asuma goes to help defend the village. The four enemy Ninjas then release their special weapon. Using an earth technique they resurect an entire ninja clan as their army. And in such conditions we are left to wait for next week.

And as such it will take me a while to get to watching it. I will do what I can to write about it tomorrow night. No idea what took these guys so long to get it to us! In fact, it was just barely put up probably minutes ago as of this writing.