Naruto: Shippuuden – Akatsuki Assemble

- The Summoning, Reinforcements and An Old Score?

My Shounen side is getting well and truly satisfied lately. This was another good episode of Naruto which kept the story moving along nicely. Quite a bit of this episode was centered around Kankuro and the poison that’s slowly killing him. The two retired sand elders (Chiyo and Ebizou) came back to the village in order to try and help out a bit. Chiyo, a poisons expert and Sasori’s grandmother, worked for over a day to try and find an antidote for the poison before admitting that it was beyond even her! She then angrily admits that the only other person who could possibly cure such a poison is Tsunade (who she hates because of a past feud). The only hope for Kankuro now is that there is a medical ninja among the team coming from Konoha.

As Team Kakashi hurry through the forest and finally reach the desert Naruto is especially anxious to reach the sand village and hopefully help rescue Gaara. Unfortunately they are forced to take refuge in a cave while a vicious sandstorm rages outside. As Naruto’s emotions run high Sakura has to remind him that Temari is even more worried than he is.

While all this is going on Deidara and Sasori reach the secret Akatsuki hideout, which is sealed with a huge boulder. After releasing a seal to enter they are greeted by what looks like a hologram of the leader of Akatsuki (possibly?). He performs a technique which seems to summon a huge statue of a Demon from the ground, the staute has it’s massive hands bound by a chain. Holograms of the remaining Akatsuki members appear standing on each finger of the statue, Deidara, Sasori and the leader jump up to join them and the begin some kind of summoning technique. Apparently this will take three days or longer to complete. Before very long the statues mouth opens and what look like several dragon heads made of energy appear and strike Gaara (who is laying on the ground before the statue).

Back in Konoha a bad omen worries Tsunade and she wondersif team Kakashi will be ok. When she learns that a certain team have just arrived back at the village she rushes out to meet them, enter team Gai! Tsunade greets Gai and co beforeimmediatley sending them to back up team Kakashi in the sand village. Gai and Lee are their usual energetic selves and everyone seems excited to be meeting up with Naaruto again.

The sandstorm finally lifts and team Kakashi make it to the sand village. As they arrive (with Temari) they learn of Kankuro’s condition and Sakura rushes off to try and save him. Upon reaching his room the female sand elder, Chiyo, spots Kakashi (Konoha’s White Fang) and rushes at him aggressively. What past score have these two got to settle?

I’m really glad that Naruto is moving along at a good pace, they could have spent several more episodes getting to the sand village and throwing filler in before showing all of Akatuski, but luckily they didn’t. Having not read the manga and being only slightly aware of the other members of Akatsuki it was rather exciting for me to finally see them, even if they were only holograms. We are finally learning about their plans for the Jinchuuriki and their goals as an organisation.

My only criticism of this episode is that it’s moved at such a pace there was none of the usual Naruto character development. This isn’t a terrible thing as i’m sure there’s lots to come, but having an episode without any flashbacks was quite odd. Also watching Kankuro writhing around in pain for five minutes is not the most interesting, but it does make you aware of the severity of the situation. Surely Sakura saves him though?! I guess i’ll just have to wait till next week to find out. Hopefully there’s more on Akatsuki to, I love those guys (especially the cloaks ). I’m also a big Kakashi fan as well and I can feel some back story about him, in relation to Chiyo, coming up soon.

The animation this week was good, it seems to be sticking to a highish standard so far in Shippuuden. After years of turmoil fans of the Naruto anime finally have something to be happy about. Go watch it now!

Remember ladies! Sake is good for the skin (and breasts?!)

Naruto: Shippuuden – Team Kakashi Heads Out!

- Kankurou vs Sasori, Sand Elders and Naruto’s On His Way

I’ll get this out in the open now, I am a big fan of the Naruto anime. Thats to say that I get excited when there’s a new episode each week and look forward to watching it. Having not read the manga these are exciting times for me. Even if the pace is a little slow and there is some ‘filler’, I am still enjoying Shippuuden emmensley. Oh, if you are going to leave a Naruto related comment, please don’t talk about anything that hasn’t happened yet as I don’t want it spoiled.

This weeks episode had Kankurou the puppet ninja squaring off against Sasori, the genius puppet ninja. Sadly Kankurou didn’t know this before the fight began and obviously he took a beating. The Village of the Sand continued it’s efforts to repair the damage it sustained and track down Gaara. Team Kakashi left to aid the Village of the Sand and alerted Temari of Gaara’s capture.

The fight between Kankurou and Sasori was a little boring as it was so one sided, Sasori was merely playing with Kankurou and I would have liked to see Kankurou look at least a little dangerous. The lack of movement made it feel drawm out, but I guess thats expected when two puppet masters fight. The re-building of the Village of the Sand is also not terribly exciting, seeing people moving rocks and having crisis meetings should only hold so much screen time. Back at Konoha things are a little more exciting, it’s good to see the new dynamic between Kakashi and his former students and you can always rely on Naruto and Jiraiya to provide a little comic relief. I was also pleased to see Naruto and co going to aid the Sand as I didn’t know this was going to happen. Hopefully the action and pace will pick up in a few episodes.

Overall I still enjoyed the episode even though it wasn’t high octane. Seeing the characters progress is nice and Naruto and Sakura’s sentiment gets to me, yeah i must be a real sucker

The aniamtion quality seemed a little up and down this episode, but it’s mostly good enough. OP is brilliant as always, really loving the song again as I recently got the full version. Story is progressing well, hoping to see more Akatsuki soon as I think they are really cool. Bring on more Naruto!