Naruto Shippuuden Episode 8-9

[poopdeville]

Good episode. The pacing in this episode was far better than the others so far. Though it did annoy me that the "Decoder" took what seemed like hours to figure out that Gaara got kidnapped. Even then, she seemed to walk to Tsunade's office.

The other episodes clearly had a "movie pace". The music had a lot to do with my perception. Lots of build up, but everything seemed like it was just a prelude to something awesome. This was a huge improvement. The episode was exciting for what was going on in the episode instead of what the show promised later.

On a similar note, the Kankurou/Sasori fight was fun to watch in the same way fights from the first series were. Instead of people doing stuff silently, they narrated what the characters were thinking strategically.

More on the music. I hope they play some goddamned rock and roll during the fights like they used to.

[?igma]

The fight was rubbish, I always imagine two sticks in my head, fighting in stick-motion.

Now we have one bulky stick that swings around a tail and deflects all the little stick poison thingies. Doesnt move, no background music, no apparent emotion. Second stick, waves around his hands in all sorts of motions without any obvious link to his stick puppets. His movements have purposely been made slower to make the difference in power and skill apparent and obvious.

And the lame sentence "You can't beat me because I made those puppets" only provides more material for the story. The actual fight couldn't have been won to begin with.

People can't go and glorify a fight that had nothing of the energy and thrill the Gaara and Lee fight had as if it was a good fight. It had nothing. No new ideas, no show of any new talents, strategies. It was a bloody nintendo games pokemon fight.

[JaySee]

I was wondering about that sexual harassment line as well. I was hoping one of the Japanese speaking members would comment about that translation. Is it correct or did DB take a lot of liberty?

I'm surprised no one has said anything about the horrible animation during the walk to the Hokage's office.

I agree that Kankuro's line about wondering when he was poisoned was completely idiotic. He got hit once and with no subtlety. No one's going to think "Hmm... when did I get poisoned?" That line would work if he was barraged with hits or he got some tiny little nick somewhere and was otherwised never touched. They should have just made him think back immediately to that hit to remind the stupid people in the audience he got hit, thus he's poisoned and have him say "I must've gotten poisoned then..."

[Animeniax]

Hey ze lonewolf, are you French or something? Got your white flag ready?

Kankurou gets stabbed with a giant spade in the guts, then wonders when he could have possibly been injected with poison. Then it dawns on him, "oh yeah, I just got stabbed with a giant f*cking spade in my guts, I guess the poison entered there, maybe!" That's not a plot hole, that's poorly written characterization and filleristic material. When I saw the purple goo on the spade, I thought Kankurou had purple blood, like the stuff on his face, not that it was poisoned. My bad. But it didn't take me 10 minutes to figure out how he had been poisoned. After all, I saw a giant f*cking spade stab him in his guts.

The problem I have with them berating Bleach and not Naruto is that they slam Bleach for reason x, y, and z, then praise Naruto for those exact same reasons. Or they nitpick on some minor detail to bash Bleach, then gloss over all of the terrible major problems in Naruto and call it a good episode. And these are people who have enjoyed both series at some point, so it's not like it's some kid who's just into bashing Bleach and praising Naruto. How can you rag on one series for doing something dumb, yet praise another for doing the same dumb thing? It makes no sense. If you didn't realize it, click on the main forum page and then click on Bleach to see what I'm talking about. We discuss all kinds of anime on these boards.

And in addition to what ?igma said, the whole "I made those puppets so you can't beat me with them" is dumb. Like people can't devise new tactics with the same weapons? Sasori can somehow predict everything the puppets can do under Kankurou's direction? That's like a master sword maker saying he can beat anyone who uses one of his swords. Well, sort of.

[RyougaZell]

The only bad comments on Bleach's week this episode were the horrendous new songs. Do you see anyone praising Naruto's songs this week? No? Then get over it and grow up.

Geez....


Yes. Kankurou's line was dumb. But the middle of a fight... do you rationalize what the hell happened? He never noticed that Sasori was using poison until he was poisoned. He was too busy escaping from the tail to notice the purple poison. And he thought he had blocked the tail, but seems just a little needle's touch was enough, since the poison was so powerful.

[Kraco]

While I don't consider that fight particularly enjoyable - mainly because it was so evident story wise how it would end even before it began - it's still reasonable to assume, seeing how Kankuro collapsed right afterwards anyway, that the poison was also foggying already his mind at that point when he wondered how he had been poisoned.

[ASSpirine]

If I understood correctly, Sasori's name is Chiyo Basaama? Don't think Baki will be talking about someone else from the Akatsuki that's from the Sand village. Those two elders, they are siblings huh? So Chiyo Basaama will be the grandson of the female, don't tell me the male is the grandfather... Or this is some sick village, where siblings are mating with each other :P
And, uhm, did the male elder had no eyes at all?... At least it didn't seem like it...

The Kankuro-Sasori fight, at first I thought Sasori was a scorpion like human type thingy, so I figured the poison was during the stab when it happened. So not a surprise.

Wonder what Jiraiya has to do, is he so occupied to help Naruto? And also, when does Tsunade ever get to do missions? The third did missions if needed, think this is a situation where it was kinda needed.

[mage]

If I understood correctly, Sasori's name is Chiyo Basaama? Don't think Baki will be talking about someone else from the Akatsuki that's from the Sand village. Those two elders, they are siblings huh? So Chiyo Basaama will be the grandson of the female..

Sasori is the guy that fought Kankurou. Chiyo is the old lady.

[Kraco]

Wonder what Jiraiya has to do, is he so occupied to help Naruto? And also, when does Tsunade ever get to do missions? The third did missions if needed, think this is a situation where it was kinda needed.

I very much doubt the Fifth would bother doing any missions unless they involve infiltrating a sake bar...

[Penner]

Heya ppl.

Just one thing ..what the hell is up with everyone and their 'god-complex', they just run up and expect to beat down Akatsuki members?
Why have they gotten so massively overconfident, i mean, they are fighting Akatsuki ffs, not random thugs..these guys are some of, if not THE, most dangerous guys in the entire naruto universe (aside from a select few, Jiraya, Tsunade, Orochimaru etc..)

And yet theyre shocked & surprised when they get their asses handed to em lol, good thing they get their asses kicked to get a little reality-check imo :P

other than that, good ep. ^^

[RyougaZell]

Heya ppl.

Just one thing ..what the hell is up with everyone and their 'god-complex', they just run up and expect to beat down Akatsuki members?
Why have they gotten so massively overconfident, i mean, they are fighting Akatsuki ffs, not random thugs..these guys are some of, if not THE, most dangerous guys in the entire naruto universe (aside from a select few, Jiraya, Tsunade, Orochimaru etc..)

And yet theyre shocked & surprised when they get their asses handed to em lol, good thing they get their asses kicked to get a little reality-check imo :P

other than that, good ep. ^^

Before this battle Suna ignored the existance of Akatsuki. Yuura told them a few eps ago.

[Psyke]

Just one thing ..what the hell is up with everyone and their 'god-complex', they just run up and expect to beat down Akatsuki members?
Why have they gotten so massively overconfident, i mean, they are fighting Akatsuki ffs, not random thugs..these guys are some of, if not THE, most dangerous guys in the entire naruto universe (aside from a select few, Jiraya, Tsunade, Orochimaru etc..)

It's not a matter of 'god-complex' or over confidence. Any self respecting ninja/shinobi would go after some one who kidnapped a family member, regardless of whether they die in the process or not.

And no matter what, Akatsuki members are still...... only human.

[Animeniax]

I've never liked Kankurou, from way back as a genin picking on Konohamaru, and even now as a chuunin. He's a pretty crappy ninja, with a gimmicky skill set and foolish look. He deserves to get beat down.

The Akatsuki may all be human, but they are also all S-class wanted criminal ninjas, making them some of the most dangerous ninja in the world. No chuunin will stand a chance against them. Even the legendary Sannin and some kages will have problems dealing with them. Unfortunately, not everyone in the Naruto world knows who the Akatsuki are or what they are capable of. So you can't really blame an idiot pig-headed Kankurou for thinking he could beat some guy, when he doesn't know what he is dealing with.

@Kraco, sorry dude, but he was conscious and able, and still looking to gain some advantage from his defeat. I can't say how the scrap of Sasori's face mask will help the Sand village's cause, but they elaborated enough on that scene so you know it means something.
So it's still pretty ridiculous for him to wonder how he was poisoned. It's also kind of crappy how Sasori didn't finish him off, falling into the cliched "bad guy leaves some crackpot scheme in place to finish off his adversary, instead of seeing to it himself".

@masamuneehs: Your comment about Baki doing well in this episode perplexes me. I was thinking the exact opposite, that he looked inept and incapable as a leader through most of the last 4 episodes. They have him posting orders well after the fact, like securing the village and checking for other attackers. Then he orders people around and they ignore his orders and get killed or hurt bad. And in the end, he takes a stroll to beg for help from the Sand village retirement community. I was thinking the entire time, maybe if he uncovered the other half his face, he'd use the other half of his brain too.

[JaySee]

Yes. Kankurou's line was dumb. But the middle of a fight... do you rationalize what the hell happened? He never noticed that Sasori was using poison until he was poisoned. He was too busy escaping from the tail to notice the purple poison. And he thought he had blocked the tail, but seems just a little needle's touch was enough, since the poison was so powerful.

Kankuro was retarded:
1. He's shocked Sasori uses poison. Sasori, the guy who made his puppets and the tactics he studies and copies.
2. He did not escape the tail, it hit him and tore his clothing.
3. No way in hell did he think he blocked the tail when he gets off the floor grabbing the hole in his chest.

While I don't consider that fight particularly enjoyable - mainly because it was so evident story wise how it would end even before it began - it's still reasonable to assume, seeing how Kankuro collapsed right afterwards anyway, that the poison was also foggying already his mind at that point when he wondered how he had been poisoned.

No one said the poison affects his mind and he was more than lucid enough to block Sasori's finishing attack, AND take a swipe at him, AND grab a piece of his face mask, AND tell that it was Sasori that poisoned him. His mind seems A-OK.

If I understood correctly, Sasori's name is Chiyo Basaama?

Chiyo is the old lady. Basama is an honorable way of saying old lady/grandma. Naruto uses the familiar version on Tsuanade, bachan. Sasori doesn't have grandparents. He has a grandparent. Chiyo did not have sex with her brother. The old man isn't his grandfather. He's his grand uncle. I don't know why you people think of this incest crap.

Other heavy handed crap: Temari's cup breaking (why does everyone insist on including these omen moments in anime?), tons of recap, Naruto's 2000th speech about him and some monstrous person "being the same" and how the power of friendship is important.

Both were in the manga. 269

[DB_Hunter]

Sasori doesn't have grandparents. He has a grandparent. Chiyo did not have sex with her brother. The old man isn't his grandfather. He's his grand uncle. I don't know why you people think of this incest crap.

Lol owned!

As for why Baki didn't run to the siblings and walked instead, from my perspective they were up on a high cliff and it was pretty windy... he might have gotten blown off maybe if he ran...?

[Kraco]

No one said the poison affects his mind and he was more than lucid enough to block Sasori's finishing attack, AND take a swipe at him, AND grab a piece of his face mask, AND tell that it was Sasori that poisoned him. His mind seems A-OK.

He lost his consciousness. According to my experience consciousness and mind are somewhat connected to each other. You might disagree, of course.

He could have fought like he did even with a mind starting to be affected due to his heavy training. The fight honestly wasn't so intensive to begin with, and it never looked like he - or Sasori - fought 100%.