Invitation to the Party

Jiraya’s dead, Pain says his secret is really important, if Jiraya had known, they would have lost. He had to fight him anyway if he was going to get the Kyuubi. He prepares for that. Zetsu is preparing to accompany him when the other Zetsu states there’s a fight he wants to watch more. Sasuke and Itachi.

Some interesting details, Madara shows his interest in Sasuke, Kisame is shown has having a really huge chakra.

Naruto finds Sasuke but, Madara, still acting as Tobi, interrupts them. The scene was generally well done and actually quite funny lol.

The animation was between good and bad but, this wasn’t a very action oriented episode. Really nice, Naruto keeps the quality level high.

The preview shows an amazing next episode. There will be some flashbacks but, all new drawn stuff, very high quality, with that sketch like look. As for the action bits, they looked strange. Still looking forward to the next episode.

• Next Episode: The Longest Moment

The Gallant Tale Of Jiraiya

What an awesome episode, Jiraya tries to take some more information out of Pain but, he accomplishes nothing. Still, Pain looks really cool stating again he’s god. He tries to fight Jiraya and he manages to defeat one of the bodies but, not without some more major damage. He’s now stabbed and missing one arm.

He still needs to find something out. The frogs urge him to escape but he needs to do this. So, he and "Pa" go there once again and he finally realizes what Pain is but, they crush is throat and he can’t talk, he’s not even in Sage mode anymore. They then stab him to death. He’s really in a hopeless situation.

Still, he remembers Naruto’s, and his own, way of the ninja. The "flashback" was really deep and emotionally moving. He forces himself back to life writes his finding as a code on Pa’s back. Pain quickly comes back but, the frog manages to escape with the message. His fight wasn’t in vein.

He dies knowing he has done good and that he had the ending of a true shinobi. He silently entrusts Naruto, the promised child, to finish what he started. If anyone ever has any doubt if Naruto really is this anime’s main character, this settles it.

In my opinion, this episode was perfect, I’m even wanting to name it my favorite episode ever. It’s not every series that makes me feel like this even after reading the manga. Anyway, the material was awesome, and the anime creators did well. Really really nice episode, loved it.

The next episode will jump right to Sasuke’s climax, almost. It will be a special, and right now, I believe the animation and general production will be good. I’m really happy that Studio Pierrot is keeping this level of quality.

Completely loving this series right now, as much as I love the manga. It’s the one I’m looking forward the most. Just seeing Itachi’s glare in the OP, can’t wait for this new episodes to come.

• Next Episode: An Invitation To The Party

Meeting The Six Paths Of Pain

Even though the first shots show the low production quality, giving me the immediate feeling this episode is going to be bad, the script quickly turns funny. After that, the fight proceeds nicely. It’s one of the rare Naruto episodes that manages to be really good without a huge budget.

And anyway, the animation does look nice in some scenes. The manga is portrayed nicely with Pa and Ma’s conversation being improved and really funny. The fight and Pain’s secrets are also well done and suspenseful as Jiraya uncovers more stuff.

The fight isn’t one of the most frenetic but, it’s well paced and intelligent. It ends with a nice cliffhanger, which doesn’t mean much to me but, still nice lol.

Also important, in this whole arc, it’s doing good in capturing the weird/bad feeling that Pain and his strange summons and techniques created in the manga.

Really liked this episode. It’s probably the first Shippuuden episode without a super budget that I’m rating 5. The next one seems really good too, can’t wait.

• Next Episode: The Gallant Tale of Jiraiya

Activate! Sage Mode

It’s battle time, presented in super high quality animation. First, about the animation, even though it’s the usual Naruto high budget, there’s a few differences in style, like the way the smoke hangs in the air. Really cool, liked it a lot.

Pain uses the chameleon summon and Jiraya puts up a barrier, so he switches to an offensive summon. A dog that can split endless times.

Jiraya decides to go into Sage mode, which makes him much more powerful. For that, he needs to summon the two elder frogs and a lot of time. So, for the most part, Gamaken fights the various summons Pain uses until Jiraya completes the jutsu.

Once he does, the battle takes a turn and Pain summons two more "Pains" lol.

Really nice episode. Would be a rather bland episode if it wasn’t for the animation though. It’s a pretty simple episode, Jiraya fights summons, Jiraya goes into Sage mode, Pain summons two more bodies. But the animation and direction made it awesome. Still, I hope the rest of the fight in the other episodes doesn’t have an huge drop in quality.

• Next Episode: Meeting The Six Paths of Pain

Infiltrating Amegakure
Jiraya’s Decision

The special starts with a little recap on the whole series, focusing on Sasuke and Naruto’s will, handed down to him by Jiraya. Anyway, Jiraya infiltrates the Hidden Rain but, Pain notices immediately. Later on, Jiraya confirms that Hanzou, the powerful Rain leader has been defeated by Pain and that the constant rain is in fact Pain’s jutsu. This just goes to show how damn strong he must be.

Jiraya captures some genins for interrogation and new awesome OP appears. About the song, not much to my personal taste but, the video itself is awesome. Really well animated, really stylish with a lot of brutal scenes about some stuff to come, always without being too much of a spoiler for those that don’t now.

Back to the episode and by the way, "Konan" said out loud sounds really funny in Portuguese. Anyway, Jiraya sends the Kyuubi’s seal key to Naruto, in case he dies. More theories about the first Kyuubi’s attack and a lot of stuff are shown. This is scene made me remember something important concerning the current developments of the manga, about "that" jutsu Jiraya mentions.

Anyway, they talk, Nagato explains his plans. Whatever happened to Nagato, really changed him. It doesn’t look like Jiraya will try to talk him down anymore, he’s just going to try to defeat/kill him. Can’t wait for the fight.

The animation really surprised me, the whole episode had beautiful art and nice animation. I hope the rest of the fight gets this treatment, because it will be epic.

I liked the ED, not much for the music but, the art was cool.

This was an awesome episode, even with the minor filler. The next one seems on par with Sasuke’s fight with Deidara, really can’t wait.

• Next Episode: Activate! Sage Mode

Tales of a Gutsy Ninja
~Jiraiya Ninja Scroll~

This special episode shows Jiraya’s past through his childhood until he became an adult and received his prophecy. He first begins training seriously so he can impress girls, specially Tsunade. Then, by being stupid, he one day transports himself to Mount Myoboku, the land of the toads, where he receives said prophecy, makes a contract with the toads and trains the Sage techniques.

About the prophecy, he’s basically told that he will have a disciple that will completely change the world, either for complete peace or complete destruction. And he himself will be responsible for the result. He will have to make a choice that will affect his disciple.

Now, obviously, Naruto comes to mind as the child in the prophecy, and it’s easy to see how he has been slowly changing the world, specially when he united the Sand and Konoha. Jiraya’s journey was the most filler filled part of the first episode. It wasn’t perfect but, it was well done enough and interesting.

The second half starts with the Sanin’s meet with Hanzo on the battlefield. Hanzo was one of the strongest shinobi around at the time. The art in this scene was really lacking, although the fighting wasn’t half bad. (By the way, IMPORTANT, the English version is missing a lot of scenes, like this fight, I advise you to watch some fansub using the Japanese raws, like Taka’s releases.) Their meeting with the kids afterwards was also badly done, in the art and animation department. Anyway, Jiraya stays with the kids, still looking for his disciple.

He trains them and that’s when he first witnesses the Rinnegan and everything from his prophecy starts making sense. By the way, I had no idea Nagato’s hair was red lol. Could Nagato or Yahico be the prophecy child? Maybe Minato? Well anyway. Orochimaru is also shown a great deal and we can see some of his progress towards what he later became. Tsunade also shows to be in love with Jiraya since this times.

Basically, Naruto’s origins are finally revealed and he seems the best candidate for the child of prophecy. Now it’s time to come back to the present where Jiraya’s invading the Hidden Rain, looking for Akatsuki’s leader. I hope the animation gets better when the next fights start.

Overall, nice episode, even though the art, animation and execution were poor most of the times. But, the plot, dialog and everything else was mostly good. By the way, I think they changed Jiraya’s interest in peaking to an interest in Tsunade and getting girls.. Maybe they are trying to dramatize their relationship more than in the manga.

• Next Episode: Amegakure Infiltration!

Twilight

Karin notices everyone from the Konoha platoon. Hebi has to move fast. They will continue to search for Itachi and only make contact with Konoha’s shinobi if it’s really unavoidable.

They split Sasuke’s scent using Juugo’s birds and Naruto goes Kage Bunshin so he can check everywhere. And so, he encounters.. Itachi.

Naruto’s encounter with Itachi was really cool. The scene had all the important details, like Itachi’s smile. The gengutsu scene was also awesome, I really liked the art direction here. Meanwhile, Jiraya has discovered that Akatsuki’s "leader" is in the Hidden Rain. So, he plans on going there to verify the information, before devising an attack.

While discussing with Tsunade, she shows signs of liking him. Tsunade is worried, this whole conversation seems to have an higher purpose for the author. Of course I couldn’t tell what it was the first time I read it. They also talk about Naruto, how he evolved and his resemblance to his parents, majors hints here lol. Meanwhile, Naruto’s conversation is not shown and he omits it from his teammates

Overall, really nice episode, even though the animation wasn’t much for half of it. The next episode will be some kind of Gaiden about Jiraya. Not sure if will all be a flashback, there will probably be some filler, at least I don’t remember it taking two episodes in the manga.

• Next Episode: Tales of a Gutsy Ninja

Disappearance

Deidara really left a mark, although it could have been more intense. Sasuke didn’t that worried, considering there was no way to escape. Anyway, he managed to escape the blast at the last time, by forcing Manda with his sharingan. Still, he caught some of the blast. It was enough to kill Manda and leave him in serious condition. Sasuke acts humble for a change, I didn’t remember this anymore. I’ve been recently condemning his arrogant attitude in the manga lol.

Anyway, his companions arrive and they take care of him. Their search for Itachi has progressed and they are closer to him. Meanwhile, the Konoha platoons rush to the scene. Kiba shows his improved skills and makes it possible for them to find Sasuke. Everyone’s moving and things are certainly going to clash.

Pain and Konan also make a full appearance. Konan hints that Pain never lost a battle and can even make it rain. Naruto is in for trouble. I liked what they did with Uchiha Madara, they improved the scene alot from the manga. Although this deserved some better art. Still lI iked the mood a lot. The Rain village, along with The Cloud is my favorite village, really, and can’t wait to see the Cloud animated and colored.

Nice episode, pushed the plot forward without much playing around. I would be pretty excited right now, hadn’t I read the manga already.

The next episode will continue this situation and also start the new "sub-arc" about Jiraya. That is probably going to fully develop in the special after the next episode. I hope the special episode has superb animation, like 123, Jiraya deserves it.. but, being so few episodes since 123 came out.. not sure. Although Bleach has been able to boost some really nice animation in various continuous episodes and Naruto seems to be saving budget in this las episodes.. there’s hope. Can’t wait.

• Next Episode: Twilight