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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 08 October 2008 16:00 |
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Page 1 of 4
 Here we go, with another batch of Naruto episodes, and the battle for Konoha village is well underway. Will Orochimaru win the day, or will he be lucky to get out of the village alive? Can Naruto help Gaara defeat the demon inside and learn to be, you know, normal? Will I be able to resist the urge to annoy Naruto fans by giving the release a kicking? :) Read on to find out...
The 13 episodes here are split up into three clear chunks, with a brief interlude in between. The first section, the closing stages of the battles between Naruto and Gaara & Sarutobi and Orochimaru, take up episodes 79 and 80; the second, the appearance on the scene of Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki and their efforts to capture Naruto, run between episodes 81 and 85; and finally we have Naruto's roadtrip with Jiraiya as they search for Tsunade and work on improving Naruto's skills, which takes us up to the cliffhanger at the end of episode 91. Let's look at each arc in turn.
When we left Naruto and Gaara at the end of the last volume, their battle had grown to frankly ridiculous proportions, with their proxy demons having taken over the show in a battle that you could have seen from many miles away. The key is that, in many ways, Gaara and Naruto aren't all that different, at least in terms of what they've had to live through - both have deadly creatures sealed inside them, both have had to deal with the power that gives them and the tendency it brings to make them outcasts. The difference is the direction in life they've taken as a result. Sure, the outcome of the battle is no real surprise, but the character work that goes on while that's playing out is worth watching. Not enough to make me feel any sympathy for Gaara, mind you (and I suspect you're meant to feel sorry for him), but enough to give me a better understanding of what makes him tick.
Likewise, the conclusion to the Orochimaru / Sarutobi fight had been clear for a while, and with no clear winner, Orochimaru lives to cause problems another day. He just may need to find someone else to do his dirty work for him. In some ways the outcome was a shame - I liked Sarutobi - but it's always a pleasant surprise when a series is willing to kill off key characters.
The second arc introduces Sasuke's big brother, persona-non-grata in the Leaf Village after killing his entire clan, excluding Sasuke, and very much turning to the Dark Side. Now he and the group he works with have realised the value of the Nine-Tailed Fox that's sealed within Naruto, and they've come to get their hands on that power - leading to both trouble for Naruto, and a chance for Sasuke to deal some revenge on his brother for all those killings. Big brother, of course, equals more powerful brother, and the sibling battle is short-lived, but the arc serves as a good introduction to yet another group that's going to cause problems down the line. Itachi and Kisame also have access to some high-level jutsu that delve into the psychological side of things, and these are used to create some very spooky and powerful scenes that are the highlights of the set.
Finally, we get to Jiraiya's and Naruto's search for Tsunade. This is combined with more training for Naruto - which is an exceptionally dull passage of story, as boy wonder gets to play with balloons and rubber balls for three episodes - and also ties in with Orochimaru's search for someone who can help him regain the use of his abilities. With Tsunade being the best medical ninja in the show's world, you can see the inevitable coming together that brings us neatly to the set's cliffhanger ending. Tsunade and Jiraiya are both characters that I have a lot of time for - being a sannin seems to require being a little unhinged, and while Orochimaru has tipped the wrong way with his obsessions, Jiraiya and Tsunade both tend more to the comedy side of things, and that makes them great fun to watch.
This set is better than the previous one, although it still gets stuck into the occasional rut that stops it from becoming really enjoyable. The focus on more powerful characters makes for more enjoyable battles, but also means that characters like Sakura and Sasuke get pushed to the fringes - poor Sakura gets probably about 5 miunutes of screentime in the whole set. The usual warnings about "if you like this sort of thing..." apply, but even from a non-fan's standpoint, this was a decent release.
For full episode summaries a screenshots, check pages 2-4 of the review.
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