What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The seasonal nature of the show continues to be fun and has some cute gags brought into it, such as right at the start here where it shifts us to the Village of Sand where even though it’s autumn, it’s near impossible to tell. What it also heralds is the return of Gaara to the series as he’s on his way to visit Hidden Leaf and that means a lot of fun is in the offing, especially since Lee continues to view him as a great friend that can only become greater through competition and the like. The only thing I didn’t need was seeing Lee and Gaara in sumo gear for a bit.
Thankfully, Lee and the others decide the best thing to do to build up friendships is to do things together like playing Mariko Kart, eading manga and just having fun. Lee’s surprisingly on board with all of this, but it’s Guy that throws a spanner in the works as he wants him to go in other directions, including battle, since that’s where real friendships are forged, in the heat of battle. Thankfully, they do avoid this and we instead got more wacky stuff with actual kart racing and the like, making for some very fun sequences to watch. It gets to be too much for Tenten, especially when both Gaara and Neji really start getting into it all, bringing the fancifculness of kart, gaming and manga into the real world.
The second half shifts gears in a very different way as we get Tenten realizing that she’s gained a little weight and that has her completely panicked. Believing that the animators must be hungry lately with all the food that’s been drawn, they decide to put their “autumn diet” into effect and the girls all head to Guy for some intense, harsh training in order to lose weight. The girls intensity is a lot of fun to watch here as it both scares the crap out of Guy but also inspires him to take it to the next level. It’s like a twisted vicious cycle between them as the more intense they get, the more intense he gets, since they want to hit their goal of getting in the shape they want. Guy’s passion is great here since he finally feels like he’s getting through to them without realizing their real goals.
In Summary:
Rock Lee has a pair of varied stories here that definitely works well overall, especially since they work two very different angles and sets of characters. Bringing Gaara in for the first half and essentially letting everyone just goof off is great, giving them a chance to blow off steam and forge friendships how they’re often made. The second half takes Lee out of the picture entirely, a rarity in the series, and lets the focus be on Guy and the girls as they use him to achieve their goals, which gives him a great feeling even though he’s unaware of the truth. There’s a lot of fun to be had with both episodes in their intensity and what they do, but I do dislike the whole intense attitude the girls have about the need to be skinny since that just plays into the wrong media stereotypes. Which is pretty pointless when it comes to anime as every character is essentially drawn to be attractive if they’re a main or supporting character.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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