Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 54: Nightmare ]

Oh! What’s this?! Shippuuden has finally made the jump to WIDESCREEN?! WOOT! OK, maybe I’m exaggerating the excitement more than I should but still I thought it was a good move even if it did take them 53 episodes to finally implement it. Some (lol more like the majority, eh?) people will be pissed that from here on out a filler/anime-original arc will be starting which is indicated in the OP sequence and at the beginning and ending of the episode. I’m not particularly bothered. After all, I went through the entire two-year filler-a-thon in the prequel and didn’t die. Besides, there’s a new original chick in the OP sequence that is EXTREMELY HOT. I think she gives me quite the incentive to watch the fillers even more attentively.

There were some rather hilarious moments in the episode and ones that I was looking forward to since the first time I saw them in the manga. These moments being when Sai decided to start calling people by a nickname and ended up calling Sakura “Ugly” which earned him a punch straight to the jaw, almost calling Choujo a “fat-ass”, and calling Ino “gorgeous” which he did because he thought calling her the opposite of her traits would be better (in other words he was going to call her Ugly just like Sakura). Of course he got his ass beat down by Sakura for doing so.

The best part of this episode, for me, is the new OP. Blue Bird sounds gorgeous to my ears and I’m already loving it to death. It matches the sequence perfectly and is very reminiscent of BLEACH’s Hanabi (which is also done by Ikimono Gakari). I think it just might be my favorite OP since the start of Shippuuden. ^^ As for the ED, it is nice but my least favorite of the two new songs. The sequence doesn’t do much for me either. Overall, it was a good but normal episode of Naruto. The things that made it enjoyable were the comedy, the new OP/ED, and the debut of the new widescreen format. Now this leaves Bleach as the last of the Shounen Trinity to move into WS territory.

Next episode will air on April 17th.

Let’s start this by pointing out the fact Naruto, 273 episodes later, has finally gone Widescreen. The previous OPs and the first scene implied the change, but now it’s finally materialized. I just wish they also had a high definition version, just goes to prove that they have gone to greater distances with One Piece than the other Jump anime.

I have to say though, this episode, filler or not, was the best Shippuuden episode I have seen in a while. How do I know that? I wasn’t checking the time to see when it’s going to end, and that’s always a good sign that brings me backs to when Naruto was interesting. This episode wasn’t serious, and was more about the gags, but it was still entertaining.
Sai’s attempts of accommodating among the different teams was hilarious, thanks to Sakura’s over the top reactions. And is it just me or I see an InoXSai going on?

And this episode gave me a little more hope of Naruto have a more prominent role in Shippuuden. In the first arc he was just there, all he really did well is fending off an illusion, barely. The arc after that, he was strong because his anger in the form of the Kyuubi took over him, so it is nice to see Naruto getting stronger like he did when he trained with Jiraiya, but whereas back then, we already knew what is the Rasengan, it’s a whole new experiment now.

So this episode was informative and funny, and I didn’t really wanted more than that to entertain me. The show is at its best when the episodes take place in Konoha and the characters interact among themselves, even if it is ridiculous at time.

<8/10>

I also wanted to take this opportunity about the new OP and ED. WOW. I am highly impressed. “distance” with the “You are my friend” and “Mezamero Yasei” are gone (thankfully in the case of the latter). The new OP, “Blue Bird” is by far the most dramatic of them all, and its visuals are by far the best considering they also compliment the song well with the blue bird chirping in the background. Sung by Ikimono-Gakari, who some of you may know from Bleach (ED7 – Hanabi), but as well the opening themes for both Ayakashi Ayashi and Ookiku Furikabutte (better songs that Hanabi IMO) so I knew the song is going to be unique, since the band is known for their harmonica segments. The ending, “Sunao na Niji”, has some of the key males like Naruto and Sasuke, wearing Tuxedo placed in various colored backgrounds. The animation was simplistic although it was definitely a better effort than Mezamero Yasei. Not to mention, one of my personal favorite bands, SURFACE, does the song. It is a beautiful song that I bet everyone who liked “Michi ~to you all~” can like. I hope that the song will ignite some surface fandom among some people, since I did gave their D.Gray-Man ending the title of the best anime song of 2007, and it was a hard year.

Great songs aside, we are also about to foresee some filler episodes. I did avoid most of them before I started watching Shippuuden, and since the characters seem to take a major role in the OP animation, this is going to be a somewhat long filler arc, but this episode was a good episode, and if the filler quality is going to remain as so, at least I’ll give the show higher scores than 5 or 6.