Naruto Unleashed: Series 6 Part 1

Introduction

The dreaded moment has arrived. The filler is here. This is the point where the Naruto animators ran out of published manga story, and rather than just take the show off the air, they decided to fill the gap with studio created stories that neither advanced the main storyline, nor did they live up to quality of it. It almost seemed like a challenge to see how long they could go without alienating the fan base, and it seems surprising that with eighty episodes of diversion, they didn't succeed in doing so. After all, Naruto Shippuden has finally returned the show to the main storyline, albeit with a slight change of name. I have to admit, that I have been curious about the filler, having heard horror stories of how bad it can get, and have experienced some similar diversions twenty or so episodes ago. Besides, you never know, some of it may actually be entertaining. But first, there is the small matter of rounding off the rescue arc, and concluding the climactic confrontation between friends turned bitter foes, Naruto and Sasuke. It's amazing how much you can at the same time dread and look forward to a boxset.

12 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. Not only does he want to be a ninja, but he also wants to be the strongest ninja of them all and be granted the title Hokage. He has more than a little competition, the Hidden Leaf village is a community of ninja, and Naruto had great difficulty just passing his entrance exams to qualify as a lowly Genin. Even when he did manage to get his certification, he was assigned to undergo training by the demanding Kakashi, partnered with his rival Sasuke and Sakura, the girl on whom he has a crush. What makes things difficult is that few see him as Naruto, instead of the dreadful fox demon that was sealed inside him.


This is going to be a review of two halves, conclusion to the main story first, and then the filler.

Having sworn to Sakura to bring Sasuke back to the village, Naruto finally caught up to him at a waterfall. But far from needing rescuing, it quickly became clear that Sasuke had made a fateful choice, and decided to pursue vengeance with the aid of Orochimaru. The curse mark on his shoulder had been awakened, and he was well on the way to gaining more power in his quest to find and kill his brother. It becomes clear that Itachi left Sasuke with a chilling ultimatum, to seek him out when he too possesses the Mangekyo Sharingan. But the only way for Sasuke to obtain that power is to kill his closest friend. Naruto on the other hand realises that the time for talk is past, and the only way to bring Sasuke back, is to beat some sense into him. The battle begins in earnest.

131. The Secrets of the Mangekyo Sharingan!
132. For a Friend!
133. A Plea From a Friend
134. The End of Tears
135. The Promise That Could Not Be Kept


With a friend to redeem, and a threat from the Akatsuki group to prepare for, Naruto has no time to waste. He's all set for some one-on-one training with the pervy-sage Jiraiya, when he sees Sakura depressed and about to do something stupid. He realises that he has one or two things to take care of first before he can begin training (about eighty episodes worth of one or two things), and he follows Sakura to the edge of the village. She's about to go off to rescue Sasuke single-handedly, and Naruto decides to join her. Except leaving the village without permission is an offence, which is when Jiraiya shows up with a mission to make their journey legitimate. Realising how stubborn the two Genin are, he's convinced Lady Tsunade to let them put that energy to use rather than just moping around. The three of them are to scout out the Land of Rice Paddies, which harbours Orochimaru's Village Hidden in Sound, to get an idea of where Sasuke may be hiding. Only when the mission starts, Jiraiya's pervy nature comes to the boil again, while Naruto and Sakura meet Sasame of the Fumo clan, who wants to rescue her cousin Arashi from Orochimaru as well.

136. Deep Cover?! A Super S-Rank Mission
137. A Town of Outlaws! The Shadow of the Fumo Clan
138. Pure Betrayal, and a Fleeting Plea!
139. Pure Terror! The House of Orochimaru
140. Two Heartbeats: Kabuto's Trap
141. Sakura's Determination


Naruto's all healed up, ready to begin his training, only Jiraiya is leaving. He has a mission, to seek out Akatsuki and see what they are up to, and he doesn't want Naruto tagging along, so he leaves him a strict training regime and skedaddles. But when Naruto happens to overhear Hokage Tsunade discussing the Maximum Security Prison, his attention shifts. Way back before he became a Genin, he was duped by a ninja named Mizuki who persuaded him to steal a secret scroll. Now it turns out that Mizuki himself was working for Orochimaru. Tsunade wants Mizuki questioned, and sends Jonin Asuna and Kurenai to the prison. Naruto follows, and arrives in the aftermath of a mass prison break. The Hidden Leaf Village ninjas' attention turns to recapturing the prisoners, but for Iruka and Naruto, it looks like there will be a rematch with Mizuki. Only Mizuki has a couple of relentless stupid brothers this time to help him.

142. The Three Villains from the Maximum Security Prison
143. Ton Ton! I'm Counting On You

Picture

Naruto gets a 4:3 regular transfer that is clear and sharp throughout. There are some minor compression artefacts that are only really noticeable during freeze frame. This is normally the point where I mention that Naruto's animation is of lesser quality than short run shows, if only to save on the nerves of hard worked animators, but for the final confrontation between Sasuke and Naruto, all that goes out of the window, as the animators have crafted a set of battle sequences that are fluid, vibrant, fast-paced, extravagant, explosive, dynamic, and stunning. If you feel you have been waiting 130 episodes for something special, then this is the moment where your faith is repaid. My jaw dropped at some of the animation in the conclusion of the rescue arc, and it's well worth watching more than once just to marvel at.

And then comes episode 136. It's hard to fathom just how, but the transfer actually takes a beating. One episode into disc 2, the smooth and well-defined video suddenly reverts to a horrific NTSC-PAL encode, soft, prone to ghosting, and with the most horrific judder I have seen in quite a while. The animation takes a major hit here also. From the vibrant, clear, and fluid animation of episode 135 and before, I'm suddenly looking at a parody of the show. The artwork is clumsy, doesn't match the previous character designs, and the animation looks like a slideshow. It's as if the animators gave it to the work-experience guys to complete, and took a day off down the pub.

Fortunately, it's just episode 136. Thereafter, the transfer is back to normal, while the animation, while it doesn't get back to the same quality as the start of the set, certainly improves, and subsequently varies between disappointing and good. But episode 136 did put the fear of God into me for a minute.

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. The themes are memorable and suit the story well, while the incidental music is a little more generic, but definitely gives Naruto its own musical identity. I 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. Translated subtitles are provided, as they should be.

Episode 136 is where the sound takes a beating as well. The finale of the Rescue Mission arc is grand, action packed, filled with stunning moments of sound design, and punctuated with a resounding orchestral soundtrack, and the next episode we're back to recycling the comedy tunes from the early part of the series, and it all seems flat in comparison.

Extras

Disc 1 has trailers for Death Note, MAR, Strait Jacket, the Naruto movies, and Bleach and that's your lot.

Conclusion

It took over five seasons, over a hundred and thirty episodes, but Naruto and Sasuke finally have their Obi Wan and Anakin Skywalker moment, as the two firm friends become bitter foes. In fact, it's probably a better climax than the damp squib of Episode III, simply because we've been following these two characters for so long, and we've seen their back stories fleshed out and developed. In fact, even as late as the first episode on this set, we're still having flashback episodes to fill in narrative gaps in Sasuke's motivation. The one flaw with these long running shonen shows is that fight sequences are often lengthy, and interspersed with pontificating antagonists, flashback sequences, pauses to explain some arcane ninja move or just an overlong freeze-frame to give the animators time to soothe their overworked nerves. That doesn't happen in this three-episode conclusion to the Rescue Sasuke arc, or rather it does happen, but you're actually glad of it, as it gives you a breather to take in what has just happened in the last exchange of jutsu.


This is the best animation that Naruto has seen, the fight between him and Sasuke is the most impressive yet, astoundingly well-animated, vibrant, fluid, and so large that you almost wish it was widescreen. Both Naruto and Sasuke reach deep to find new reserves of strength, and both find new abilities within themselves in the heat of battle. If you've been looking forward to this for the last however many boxsets, you certainly won't be disappointed. The arc concludes with one of those reflective episodes that take in the aftermath of what has just occurred. We catch up with those others of Naruto's team who fell by the wayside, and Naruto has to face Sakura and come to terms with what has just transpired. It's a necessary dramatic moment that acts as a wind-down from the intense combat of before, and should prepare us for what is to come. Naruto's recommitted to completing his mission, Jiraiya promises to train him up with some one to one tuition, and prepare him for the even tougher challenges that lie ahead.


Except what comes next hadn't been written yet. And if your Naruto fanaticism was sated by the first five episodes on this disc, your heart will truly sink with episode 136. The filler starts here, and for the next 80 odd episodes, Naruto and Jiraiya will be putting off the training and finding something else to do. I was expecting this filler to be bad, but it was no preparation for the first episode, which is the most amateurishly animated and simply hideous looking Naruto episode ever. It looks like a parody show, something put together by a bunch of fans on the Internet. My heart sank at the thought of having to watch three or four more seasons of this. Fortunately it was just the one episode.


Surprisingly, it turns out that the filler isn't too bad at this point. It actually makes some sense with respect to the story, and it fits in well. The biggest flaw at this point is that it recycles some character traits such as Jiraiya's pervy nature, as he re-enacts some of his antics from the Tsunade Search Arc. It also sets some characters back in terms of development. Sakura has had quite the development since the Chunin exams, as she's become more confident, and able to stand up for herself and her friends. But at the start of this first filler arc, she's back to self-doubt and relying on others. Once again we work through her neuroses until by the end she's back to her empowered self. The arc itself makes sense though, a scouting mission to the Land of the Rice Paddies, looking for Orochimaru's hideout, although since it can't advance the story, they obviously don't find him. But it does introduce some new characters and works through an interesting enough side-story. There is also an unexpected character development at the end, something you'd expect in the main story, as Sakura begins to train as a medical ninja.


We begin the next arc of filler at the end of this set, with the Prison Break in full progress. Again it's early days, and the story, filler though it may be, is interesting. In fact, it's downright compelling. The very first adventure in Naruto saw the orange one trying hard to qualify as a ninja, and tempted by a man named Mizuki to break the law and steal a forbidden jutsu. With his teacher Iruka, Naruto managed to save the day, and the duplicitous Mizuki was caught. With the obligatory Orochimaru reference thrown in (just to remind us what Naruto is all about at this point in time), we see the return of Mizuki, and he's been training up in prison all this time, and has made some powerful, if stupid friends. As we end this set of episodes, Naruto and Iruka stand poised for a rematch with Mizuki, and I'm actually looking forward to how it ends.


The moral of this story is, filler is nothing to be scared of. Once you realise that the main story is on hold and nothing will change that, you can appreciate the filler stories for the innocuous diversionary entertainment that they are. Nothing is going to change for the characters, indeed the reset button will be judiciously applied (Naruto started off that first arc bandaged in hospital, he ended it the same way), and it's all inconsequential stuff. But it is entertaining, and the prospect of seeing more of the minor characters certainly appeals. Of course, the filler may be watchable now, but who knows how it will be 60 episodes down the line? Naruto's filler may have started, but I'm still enjoying the show, and I'm looking forward to the next instalment. That's except for episode 136, which made my eyes bleed.