What They Say:
Tsunade continues to read Jiraiya’s novel. Chunin- and jonin-level ninja have gone missing, and the Fourth Hokage, Minato, orders a search mission with teams of genin led by Guy and Kurenai. Kakashi’s Team 7 is also dispatched, but the hero Naruto Uzumaki, despite being the Hokage’s son, has the misfortune of being labeled a loser.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Naruto: Shippuden had me somewhat excited the last time around with the idea of getting a Tsunade dream story. The character is one that definitely is among the best of the series for personality, experience and the kinds of things she does while still trying to do the right thing. It’s not a black and white character but rather someone with some nuance to them in the bigger scheme of things. With the politics, fighting and the scale of events that are at play she’s handled it all quite well while also protecting the village (most of the time) and ensuring Naruto’s safety. So when she gets her chance at a dream story that could add some new views on her, having it so that she’s reading a story by Jiraiya was just problematic at the least and crushing in general.
This installment plays up some of what came before as we get the various teams going out to search for the missing chunin and jonin ninjas of late. It’s straightforward enough in itself but they try to overcompensate with things as we get the Young Naruto aspect that’s made even worse than he was in the main story because of his father being the hokage. This means he gets no respect for a wholly different reason than before. On top of his being what he is, which still unnerves people. Naruto is basically played as someone who shouldn’t be out there in general. One scene in the first half has Team 7 out searching and as Kakashi gets sucked underground, Naruto is literally chasing butterflies up a tree. Frankly, why would anyone want to keep watching after that?
As the episode goes on…. It’s pretty much as bad as you can imagine. There’s a lot of sitting around talking, Lee running around trying to find Guy as he went missing like Kakashi, and the Team 7 team pulling together to do what they can and be serious. It’s just so mind-numbingly boring that there’s little to really find worthy of watching here. I get the reason for the filler so they can pad things out and hopefully go out on a bigger note with the main Madara arc, but this is not the way to do it.
In Summary:
There’s really not much to say here. It’s bad from the start and just becomes duller and less interesting as it goes on. After finishing the episode there really isn’t anything worth saying about it because it’s just a nothing story within a dream that’s designed to kill time. And it looks like we have at least another two or three episodes worth of these sequences ahead. Tsunade gets totally shafted with her dream sequence, a two-parter no less, that focuses on an alternate world Young Naruto. It’s just painful.
Grade: D+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV 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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