Naruto Shippuden Episode 266 - The First and Last Opponent - Review / Thoughts

After last week's disappointing episode, I wasn't sure what to expect with Shippuden 266. Thankfully this week's episode was a major improvement over the last one, and as such was actually pretty good.

This episode covered 2 whole chapters worth of the Manga for those interested, and there was no kind of filler shown in the episode as far as I remember. We got to see the Seven Swordsmen showing off their skills and their individual blade techniques which was pretty awesome, plus of course Kakashi vs Zabuza and Haku was continued too.

That fight very closely mirrored the original fight between them, and I can see that's definitely going to be a love or hate type situation for a lot of people. I can't remember how I felt at the time of first reading it in the Manga as it's been quite a while, but I thought the idea of it being this way was actually quite a nice touch as it didn't drag things out unnecessarily, and it was also giving somewhat of a nod to the original Naruto series which is good for the long time fans of the show.

The episode itself was a major step up from last week too. The animation and characters actually looked fine throughout, and the music choices were pretty good as well. It was a little disappointing that Kakashi only used Raikiri considering all the techniques he has, but I guess that's to be expected nowadays.

One thing that does disappoint and annoy me though is what looks like a missed opportunity for the next episode. Kakashi got really pissed off at the end of this episode, and for me it was probably the best moment in it, and so of course we expect to see him kick some serious ass soon. Unfortunately judging by the episode preview though, they will be skipping the fight with the Seven Swordsmen once again.

For Anime only viewers, Kakashi and his squad vs the Swordsmen was skipped entirely after what you saw in this episode, and so me (and countless other fans) had assumed and desperately hoped that this would be included in the Anime instead. Naruto is always looking for filler episodes and ways to buy time, so it would only be logical to add a nice filler episode or two showing a pissed off Kakashi taking them on. If they do skip it I will be very unhappy, and unfortunately it does seem to be the case.

But back to this episode, overall while it had nothing special, it was still a pretty enjoyable episode all the same and well worth watching. The upcoming material should be pretty awesome as well depending on how the Anime team handle it, so there will hopefully be some good stuff ahead even if they skip Kakashi's rampage once again.

*Just a quick note: Naruto will not be on next week, as there is a Pokemon special on instead. The next episode of Shippuden will be shown in 2 weeks' time*