Review for Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 8 (2 Discs) (Review)
Sunday, 12th February 2012, 16:40

Page 1 Page 2

Introduction
It was all going so good. The previous two instalments of Naruto Shippuden got things interesting again, amped up the story, the action, and the excitement, culminating in a major development for the ninja of the Hidden Leaf village, when one of their most loved and respected members was slain by the Akatsuki. And now that the eighth collection of Naruto Shippuden episodes is upon us, two problems immediately become clear. The first is that the gap between volumes has now stretched to the point that watching the show is becoming difficult. I put the first disc in, pressed play, and realised that I had no idea what was going on. It’s been so long since Collection 7, that I’d forgotten where the story was. If this keeps up (and given Naruto Shippuden 9’s release date of June this year, it looks to get worse), then Manga Entertainment would be best advised to stick the final episode of the preceding volume at the head of the next volume, just as a reminder. The second problem, and far worse in the opinion of many fans, will be that just as the story was getting good again, we start another stretch of filler episodes, filler that will take us to the end of Collection 9. From episode 90 to episode 112 will stretch the Sanbi’s Arrival filler arc. Episodes 89, 90, and 92 of this set do contain some canon material though, so you can’t just disregard this collection.

15 years previously, the Hidden Leaf village was plagued by the Nine-Tailed fox demon. The Fourth Hokage ninja sacrificed his life to defeat the menace, and sealed up the spirit in the body of a newborn child. That orphan grew up as Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous prankster with great ambition. He wants to be the strongest ninja of them all and be granted the title Hokage, leader of the Hidden Leaf village. In the first Naruto series, we followed him on his training as a ninja, tutored by Kakashi, and partnered with his ideal girl Sakura, and his archrival Sasuke. Of course Sakura was sweet on Sasuke, which didn’t help, but slowly the three became firm friends.

The dark clouds of ambition tore that friendship apart though, but it wasn’t Naruto’s ambition. It was Sasuke’s, sole survivor of the Uchiha clan, slaughtered by his brother Itachi. He grew up wanting revenge on Itachi, and wanting to gain in power and strength as quickly as possible. Sasuke gave into the temptation for easy power, offered by the renegade ninja Orochimaru, when Orochimaru infiltrated the village during the Chunin exams, and assassinated the Third Hokage. Sasuke left to join Orochimaru, and Naruto swore to get him back. For the last two and half years, Naruto has been in training with the sage Jiraiya, and he’s now returned to the village, empowered and ready to rescue his friend. But Orochimaru and Sasuke haven’t been resting easy either, while the Akatsuki group of renegade ninja, of whom Sasuke’s brother Itachi is a member, have been accelerating their plans, and top of the list is obtaining the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, the one that is currently sealed up in Naruto.

Manga Entertainment present the next 12 episodes of Naruto Shippuden spread across 2 discs.

89. The Price of Power
90. A Shinobi’s Determination
91. Orochimaru’s Hideout Discovered
92. Encounter
93. Connecting Hearts
94. A Night Of Rain
The aftermath of the battle with the Akatsuki duo has taken its toll, with Naruto’s new Rasen-Shuriken ability so powerful that it actually puts him in hospital. Worse, it becomes clear that it’s too damaging to his chakra to be used again. Elsewhere, Orochimaru’s own plans are advancing, the day that Sasuke is in full mastery of his abilities, and ready to be Orochimaru’s next vessel come closer, and in preparation, Orochimaru orders that the ninja Guren be brought before him. Guren originally wanted the honour of being Orochimaru’s next vessel, before Sasuke came on the scene, her Crystal abilities marking her out as a unique ninja. Now Orochimaru offers her the chance to regain his favour, if she helps his plans for an odd young boy named Yuukimaru to come to fruition. The pace of his plans are accelerated though, when an Anbu black ops agent discovers his hideout and sends word back to the Leaf Village. Kakashi, Shino, Kiba and Hinata are sent on a mission to track the hideout down, and if possible, rescue Sasuke. Meanwhile, Naruto is looking for another new powerful jutsu, now that he can’t use the Rasen-Shuriken. Fortunately Jiraiya shows up to offer him some new training.

95. The Two Charms
96. The Unseeing Enemy
97. The Labyrinth of Distorted Reflection
98. The Target Appears
99. The Rampaging Tailed Beast
100. Inside the Mist
Finding out where Orochimaru’s hideout is becomes secondary to finding out what Guren’s mission is. With the team of rogue ninja she has at her disposal, just keeping up with her is a major hurdle. Kakashi’s team needs back-up, which means that Naruto has to put his training aside to join Sakura, Sai and Yamato. The time runs out for him to perfect his new jutsu when they catch up to Kakashi’s team, and find them trapped inside a giant crystal. Orochimaru’s plan finally becomes clear when they learn that he’s competing with the Akatsuki group to take control of the Tailed-Beasts. Yuukimaru and Guren’s abilities in combination should be able to control and tame the 3-Tailed Beast, missing since the last great ninja war. But they’ve underestimated its power, and soon all sides are in equal danger.

Picture
Naruto Shippuden is now presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. It looks as if in this volume, we’ve gone back to the NTSC-PAL conversion; certainly the blended frames evident of such are apparent once more as is the 4% longer running time. However the image is just as sharp and clear as the previous volume, with little of the softness of a standards conversion, and this also may be why thankfully, in this collection of episodes, the egregious judder that has so afflicted Naruto Shippuden of late appears to have been eliminated. Shippuden’s animation and its character designs are sharper and crisper than those in the first Naruto series. It’s certainly more detailed while the colours are a little more muted. As we are in filler mode, the guest character designs take a beating and become rather plain.

Sound
The DD 2.0 English and Japanese stereo is more than adequate in recreating the original experience, and given a little Prologic magic does offer a pleasant ambience and some discrete action. Yasuhara Takanashi takes over the music reins from Toshiro Masuda, and the result is if anything even less memorable than the music from the first series. But it works well enough in driving the action, and it doesn’t get overbearing. Once again, I only sampled the English dub and found it acceptable if unspectacular. It certainly isn’t the worst I have heard, but some of the actors don’t seem particularly suited to the characters.

Next Page