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*

Naruto Shippuden Episode 265 - An Old Nemesis Returns - Review / Thoughts

The review you are going to see now for Shippuden episode 265 is going to be a bit different than what I was going to type out originally. Why you ask? Because I actually took some time to think about what happened, and realised just how many things in this episode were wrong or annoying.

I'll start with the least annoying part - the flashbacks. Ok, we all knew they would be using them and that, as always, the Anime team would stretch them out even longer just to fill in some time. What could be worse than longer than needed flashbacks? Answer: Flashbacks that mess with original canon material.

For you see, flashbacks tend to get on the nerves of fans at the best of times, but unfortunately the studio will also decide for some reason to actually take a lot of liberties with said flashbacks, and alter or change some events in a way that either doesn't make sense or else cheapens the original part. Today we are faced with the latter.

Remember how Zabuza was so badly injured after his fight with Kakashi that he had to ask to be brought over to rest by Haku at the end of his life? Well in this one no such thing happened, instead he just walks over and falls down next to Haku of his own accord. Also, it completely missed out having to pull the blades out of himself, plus the part where he killed Gato for disrespecting Haku. It showed Naruto's speech to Zabuza, but then it just showed Zabuza killing a few nameless guys instead.

What else was annoying? The god awful animation and art throughout the episode. Now normally I am not one to complain, but seriously, it looks so bad I can't help but bring it up. Kabuto probably got screwed up the worst, compare him to other episodes and they look nothing alike, it's as if the team in charge of this episode were trying to draw him from memory and a brief description, and as a result he came out of it looking terrible.

Oh, and special mention to the fact that for god knows what reason, they decided to give Haku lipstick in this episode. Yes, you read that right, THEY GAVE HAKU LIPSTICK. We all know the way people got confused about whether Haku was a boy or girl, that was the point at the time, but of course we know he's a boy. Why the people in charge of this episode decided then to make him wear lipstick is just beyond me, not just in the flashbacks, but throughout the episode he is seen wearing it. I haven't facepalmed so many consecutive times during a Naruto episode for a very long time.

The other poor thing about the episode is the soundtrack. Now I like both the original's and Shippuden's soundtrack, and when used right it can really add to the emotion and atmosphere. Unfortunately though the choices here were pretty bad, it was ruined by the wrong song choices at the wrong time, and misusing the awesome theme from the Minato and Kushina episodes was the thing that really stuck with me.

To begin with this review was going to be different as I said, I was going to say how it was nothing special but nothing bad all the same. After really thinking about it though (and for the reasons above), I honestly can't say that anymore, and saying anything other than this being a very poor effort from the Anime team would be a lie. So an episode basically full of flashbacks, poor music choices, and awful animation and art. I guess this is what happens when you send your best teams to go and work on the upcoming movie.