Even thought the anime industry is rather niche, it has a strong cult following and it surprises me that it’s taking so long for the industry to get caught up with technology. For a long time now, people have been wondering why we have to wait so long in the US for official releases of Japanese Shows when fansubber groups can put out decent quality episodes the same day of the airing. Well, they’ve finally gotten on top of things, and we will now be able to watch an officially english sub-titled release of Naruto episodes the same day. However, there are some drawbacks. First, these episodes will be viewable only on the Crunchyroll video site. They will be streamed, so for those of us who have been using bittorrent will find this to be a considerable downsize in quality. Secondly, in order to watch the videos the same day, you will have to pay for the Crunchyroll subscription service. The details of this service are still in the works. If you don’t want to pay anything (being of the mentality that television is free for them, why should we pay) then you can wait a week after an episode airs and it will be released for public viewing.
As a result of this announcement, the most prominent Fansubbing group who has provided Naruto subs for years, has announced that they will stop subbing the show. Knowing their long tradition of playing pranks on their visitors, it’s not all together unlikely that they are just saying it for fun. I’ll keep an eye out on this and make any other announcements as I know more.

Every now and then, the producers of the show decide that a particular fight scene or story element is worthy of a little bit more attention. As a result, it get’s a noticeable boost in the animation quality. I remember the first big fight, Naruto fighting Haku. After watching that episode, I was hooked, completely and entirely, on the show. There were several other fights, Orochimaru verses Sasuke during the Chuunin Exams, Lee versus Gaara also in the Chuunin exams, the Third Hokage versus Orochimaru, Sasuke versus Naruto in the final clash before the time skip. Then we have Sakura getting her turn as she helps defeat Sasori. The quality in this most recent episode is truly of top quality, and rivals the fights in all of these previous scenes. It feels like you’re watching a movie, as opposed to watching a weekly television show.
The only problem I had with this episode, however, was that it ended, and then will leave us hanging for two weeks!

Geez I’m behind. As much as I wish I could say writing and talking about Naruto is my entire life, it’s really not. Forgive me for going out and neglecting this site for more than a month!

There have been some absolutely killer episodes, however. Seriously amazing stuff. The full episode reviews can be found on their respective pages, but allow me to divulge my personal favorites:

Episode 82 – An amazing emotional journey into the shocking death of Asuma. We see how certain characters react to the news and events, and of particular focus is that of Shikamaru. As we watch him explore Konoha, as well as his feelings, there is a sence of foreboding and shear sadness that is beautiful and moving.

Episode 84 – Oh boy. Now they’ve done it. They just couldn’t leave well enough alone, they had to go out and find Akatsuki and pick another fight with them. You’d think you would learn that attacking an immortal guy is rather stupid. Well, as stupid as it may be, it leads to some impressive animation. Very good stuff.