SYNOPSIS:
Team
7 is back in action again!
With
the aid of Naruto and gang, Idate managed to break from the
clutches of the Rain ninjas only to face off with former Konoha
Jounin-turned-traitor Aoi.
Can Naruto and Sasuke turn the side around and defeat the
Aoi who wields the powerful Sword of the Thunder God? Back
at Konoha, the desire for more power made Sasuke fall into
a trap set by Orochimaru.
Lead by the nonchalant Shikamaru, a new team is formed- consisting
of the wacky Kiba, Neji, Chouji and of course the number one
hyperactive ninja Naruto - tasked to bring back Sasuke. Join
them in their new adventures as the true power and dark past
of Chouji is revealed!
REVIEW :
(Episodes 104 -121)
Naruto
is the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a shinobi who wants to obtain
the title of Hokage. However, an incident occured 12 years
ago, when a demon fox attacked the village and many shinobi
fell, until the 4th shinobi sealed the demon within a baby
(Naruto). As a result, the adults see Naruto as the demon.
Now a Genin, Naruto is part of a three-man team - the members
are Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and their instructor, Kakashi.
Together, they will face many challenges, make friends, face
deadly enemies, and try to survive each other. The
storyline can be divided into numerous story arcs, which are
concerned with specific missions or events that occurs. As
such the first few episodes here is concerned with Tea Country
Race Arc: the first of the filler arcs, which covers a small
stand-alone adventure where Team 7 help Morino Ibiki's younger
brother, Morino Idate, win a race with very high stakes, and
learn that he is more than the coward he thought he was. Coincidentally
he also stole the Sword of Thunder God from the Leave Village.
The
highlight is of course the battle between Aoi and the Team
7. As Aoi was wielding the stolen Sword of Thunder God, he
became almost invincible to defeat. Sasuke using his new skill
manage a crack in the sword and was injured and falls off
a cliff, Naruto continues the fight with Aoi and was nearly
defeated until he found a way to overcome Aoi. Naruto uses
extensively his new skill as well in this episode. The skills
they used are enough to make you wanting for more.
As
the story progress, Sasuke feels he should be the one who
battle Aoi and won which subsequently lead to Sasuke's decision
to seek Orochimaru for more power so he can avenge his clan,
an inner turmoil for a need to win Naruto, and leaving the
Leaf Village. Most of the focus is on the team chasing Sasuke,
consisting of Shikamaru, Naruto, Neji, Choji, and Kiba and
along the way, those helping them (Rock Lee, Gaara, Temari
and Kankuro).
In
the following episodes, more is concentrated on individual
members to excel and trying their best to defeat the four
henchmen sent by Orochimaru, the henchmen underestimating
Naruto and his team, left behind only a single person to deal
with them. This resulted in a number of fierce fights among
the team members and the evil henchmen. One problem with the
Naruto plotlines is that the various episodes focus and emphasis
on each individual Genin for too long, spanning an average
of 2 to 3 episodes to create a build up to a final battle
thus there’s a lot of times where you feel like “Come
on…just get on with it!” No doubt there are some
new skills and power shown by the individual team members
that may leave you glue to your TV set. But for those who
couldn’t stand constant cliffhangers or repetitive story
flow will find these slightly slow moving to your liking.
Guess the makers of Naruto are trying their very best to milk
this cash cow.
Loyal Naruto fans will lap this up despite the above-mentioned
flaws. However for those non-diehard Naruto fans, I would
suggest to you the movie version which is reviewed here
instead.
RATING
:
Review
by David Wolf
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