Naruto 218

[BioAlien]

It is out.
http://yhbt.mine.nu/t/n218.torrent

[ShinobiNiNaritai]

Yeah!! been waiting to download since yesterday.

[JaySee]

How disappointing. No real thought put into this episode. The 3 bad guys all died pretty pathetically. Not to mention the huge plot hole in Kankuro's puppet magically being repaired. At least they put some spotlight on Ino's uselessness. Now what about the other girl?

I loved the WTF looks on Neji and Hinata.

[DarthEnderX]

See, I thought this episode rocked. This is the kind of filler I can get behind. A full half hour of fighting.

And I thought at least 2 of the fights ended well.

The only real downside I had with this episode was how crappy Lee was. Both in effectiveness, and animation. Lee and Naruto should have been able to beat that guy without Gaara's help.

I think what I liked best was it had what I really like to see in this show, but hardly ever do, and that's tag team attacks.

Having the same characters using the same moves in 1-on-1 battles over and over gets really boring. I always think it's cool when two people use their powers together in interesting ways. I think the last time we got to see something like that was way back when Naruto and Sasuke fought Zabuza.

[Danad_corps]

I'd say this was a typical filler-quality episode (in other words it sucked). Somehow BOTH puppets were restored from being totally obliterated and Rock was extremely ineffective and somehow got injured badly in the fight even though he trains with Gai-sensee and gets the shit beat out of him practically everyday from it (you would think he has worked up some tolerance to pain and that his insane speed would have helped him to dodge the dudes slow-ass attacks).

The only part I liked was that they actually did a sneak attack (when naruto kicked the dude in the back of the head) which was actually ninja-like compared to their extremely blatant taunts that occur during the beginning of each and every fight.

Although seeing the tag team attacks like DE said was cool, it was also pretty damn pathetic. Naruto and Lee were pretty damn useless in beating that dude (i mean all they had to do was find sharp stick and throw it at him as Garaa showed towards the end), Ino was ultimately useless as hell being blown away after charging straight-on numerous times in a row (one would think to change his/her battle plan after the second foiled attempt), and Choji's team had absolutely no teamwork until the end where they miraculously all worked together flawlessly (talk about your flukes). Furthermore, when the hell will you ever find time in a fight to stop and talk to your teammates about your battle strategy? What person, after deciding that they are gonna kill someone, would just stand by and pass up multiple opportunities to slaughter his/her enemy?! Ahhh...the more i think about it the more it pisses me off. I'm just happy that its gonna end real soon. That and that i was right about the whole bugs telling Sakura who is injured.

Anyone else think that Neji and Hinata were kinda useless? Shino could have pretty much covered their responsibilities.

BTW, Where is Garaa gonna get a new gourd from (i'm sure that a crack-patterned gourd isn't exactly fashionable and/or exactly replicable)

[Yukimura]

@Danad: I think he makes the gourd out of his sand, if you remember back to the chunin prelims he shattered it to break his fall when Lee did that 4th gate Lotus attack thing.

This was an odd episode indeed, people were blatantly and almost graphically killed, which I don't think we've seen for quite a while. There was blood, there was penetration, it was nice to see those aspects again after so long. It's been so long actually that I was shocked when they showed the armor guy get impaled and I nearly shit myself when the Hydra sword guy got puppet massacred with blood streaming down the puppet parts. Good times. Otherwise it was decent I guess. Garaa pwnage though that giant dragon thing seemed unnecessary. If all it took to beat Garaa was to get him wet why not just push him into a river or something...or use a basic water jutsu? The triangle of doom was just too over the top for my tastes.

[Kraco]

Well, I it wasn't as bad as many of the fillers in the past, and I think it continued decently the previous episode. Aside from the armour guy fight, which was so senseless it was beyond redemption. Like has been said, Naruto and Lee for some reason didn't even try to fight. And also, how come the dude was impaled so easily? His armour protected him perfectly when Gaara threw him to the ground with enough force to create a crater (and considering he had no helmet, his head must have been solid bone to remain uncracked). Taking that into account, his defeat so easily made no sense whatsoever.

Well, otherwise it was quite nice. I like seeing Shikamaru and Temari together, and now even fighting together. The other group was fighting uncoordinated for a while, but it only makes sense they eventually begin to sense how the others fight, so it's not like they would ruin each other's attacks forever.

[Mr. Roboto]

i didn't think this was a bad episode but there were somethings that bothered me. it seemed like they tried to cram too much action into one episode. they probably could have taken this episode and made it into two and made the fights a little bit longer. although, i'm all for getting rid of fillers asap.

also, i didn't think that lee used any chakra when doing his taijutsu. i would have thought that he would be the perfect one to fight that guy. i think gai should sew a flask onto lee's bodysuit in case he gets in trouble he can just get drunk and fight much better.

[JaySee]

Why would Gai do that? Lee turns into a maniac when he's drunk. Not to mention it's ILLEGAL.

In the Narutoverse you can send kids off to die, but you sure as hell can't let them drink! :D

[Animeniax]

Crappy episode, and a bad way to continue a story that was pretty well set up the previous two episodes. The fights were ridiculous and frustrating. It once again proves the fault of "ensemble casts". 75% of the participants don't do anything or just look dumb. I really liked how Shikamaru's genin team (Ino and Chouji) are made to look so useless. I guess Asuma is a poor teacher.

The super ultimate bad-guy technique was laughable. They have to form a 1/4-mile sized triangle with the target dead center in the middle. That's amazing.

I agree with Mr. Roboto, they could have milked this arc for a few more episodes of fighting action. Instead, they finished off the bad guys too easily after struggling with them most of the episode. The bloody deaths were cool though.

Episode rating: C-

[Danad_corps]

@Yukimura: Thanks for the info. I forgot about that little tidbit.

I agree Animeniax and Mr. Roboto. This episode was poorly planned out and poorly executed (some of the animation was horrendous).


The super ultimate bad-guy technique was laughable. They have to form a 1/4-mile sized triangle with the target dead center in the middle. That's amazing.

Hahahaha so true. Not only was a 1/4 mile triangle but it looked like it had to be equilateral. If, on the off chance that they had to fight ANY random stranger, they would be screwed measuring everything off before they got a chance to use their Ultimate "Wet T-shirt" weapon.

[Super5]

This episode was ok except for the gaping plot holes. For one, Kankuro's puppets were suddenly whole again after being obliterated in the previous episode. I guess they tried to explain this away by having Akamaru gather the puppet bits, but c'mon, you can't remake 2 complex puppets in a few minutes. Also, Rock Lee doesn't use chakra in his normal attacks as far as I know. His taijutsu is driven by pure stamina, I'm sure this was mentioned somewhere earlier. He should have been mopping the floor with that guy...

The other ridiculous aspect was the sand javelin that Gaara used to kill the chakra-absorbing guy. His armor can absorb chakra, so how can Gaara do anything to him using sand? It doesn't make any sense.

The defeat of the wind-user was pretty awesome, though. Finally some strategy in fillers, and we get to see Shikamaru and Temari in action together. Anyway, I am looking forward to the conclusion of this arc next week since Gaara is going to kick some ass.