Board Thread:Episode Discussions/@comment-25319479-20160128123758/@comment-26037879-20160131030350

Yeaaaah, no. Just no. A 1/5 is what I give it, or a 1.5/5 really, and I'll explain why. I already said I would not watch anymore Shippuden, until we get back to the canon episodes. But, this was another exception I had to make because of my curiosity. Granted, I didn't watch a number of episode that came prior to this one, except for maybe one, but reading the summaries about them, I pretty much gotta good idea about what I was dealing with. And this episode, has sooooo many problems that I can point out.

1. After the chase — once Naruto, Shikamaru, and Neji arrive at their destination to where Sasuke is, Neji stops to fight Anko, and then Shikamaru halts to fight the other masked shinobi, only to reveal it to be Sai — after killing the paint clone. What makes this insulting is that we all know that it's Sai, and yet he's still wearing that mask.

2. Naruto becoming the four to five tailed Nine-tails too early — even in just his three tailed cloak that should've been enough reason for Yamato to try to restrain him. I'll extend somemore about that critique in a bit; let's continue.

3. Curse Mark vs. Sage Mode — okay, now this one I don't have too much to complain about, because I kinda liked this part; at least the idea behind it. When Naruto in Sage Mode, faces off against Sasuke with his Curse Mark, this was something I actually really wanted to see and what the outcome would be like. As we all should know, the Curse Mark is made up of Orochimaru's Chakra as well as a pinch of senjutsu chakra increasing Sasuke's power; however, Naruto in Sage Mode is when he's using fully balanced senjutsu chakra from natural energy. And watching the two fight in those states gave me chills in excitement. Naturally, seeing as Sage Mode is the outcome of a full control of natural energy, and the Curse Mark is just an artificial way of using natural energy, ONLY the pure Sage Mode would be triumphant. However, if there's one thing that I do have a problem with this fight, is how lazy it was. Sure, we have Naruto using Frog Kata against Sasuke — and naturally Sasuke not being able to perceive what had happened to him — that's always impressive, but how short the time limit was to how long Naruto could hold on to Sage Mode. SuperSaiyaMan wrote: Sage Mode Naruto in general should have just destroyed Sasuke. Seriously, even in that bullshit limit they gave him in the episode (5 minutes not 15 seconds) was enough time to at least paralyze him. I couldn't have said it any better. I know Naruto's Sage Mode lasts longer than 15 seconds or 5 minutes, so why the hell didn't it in this episode. That's just lazy.

And finally 4 & 5. — I put both of these two together because there's no other way to. They're both equally disappointing. Back to the Sage Mode time limit, after Sasuke had finished preparing Kirin, Naruto should've had Sage Mode on long enough to create a senjutsu-enhanced Rasenshuriken; making it even stronger than a regular one. Why was there a [lazily] flashing light in between to where Kirin and Rasenshuriken were supposed to have collided? We should've been able to see Rasenshuriken expand wide, and then get a powerful collision againt Kirin; plain and simple. And finally, one of the biggest peeves that hit me, the final fight. 1)We got a sense of deja vu. It was the fight between Naruto vs. Sasuke in Part I ALL OVER AGAIN! I mean talk about lazy. The same lines, same situation, etc. Only in a different location. 2)Remember when I said that Naruto going into four tails was too early, this is why. If they were gonna [pointlessly] give us that fight scene again, they might as well do it RIGHT, and do something new and different with it; like have Sasuke go into Curse Mark Lvl 2 and then have Naruto go into four or five tails Kurama form. THAT'S a fight I wanted to see. And then 3) Itachi dying. What?.....Just....What??? What a stupid way to kill him off! >:( By the time the episode ended and we were going to the end credits, I really thought that we were gonna get a "Next time:" when we were getting back to the original story; because we all know what happens next after Sasuke leaves. But nope, we're still in this fake-ass, pointless-ass, filler arc, that now I'm really turned off by the show. No more, no matter how persuasive they seem, NO MORE FILLER ARC EPISODES FOR ME! 1.5/5, thumbs down. Bambusek wrote: I think this filler arc should ended after part with Hizashi. The longer it goes, the worse it becomes. If this arc is suppose to be "what if", then it sucks, as pretty much nothing changed. Minato and Kushina alive? Doesn't matter, Naruto still hated in the village and an idiot. Uchihas not massacred by Itachi? Doesn't matter, Sasuke still turns into power hungry jerk. Danzo does not team up with Hanzo to ambush Nagato, Konan and Yahiko (that does not make sense really, it was an event from long past, so why it not happened in this timeline?)? Doesn't matter, Nagato gets stupidly deceived and hates Konoha anyway. The only thing that changed is the time when Sasuke goes to Orochimaru, but even this doesn't matter, the outcome is the same (lol ridiculously short Sage Mode).

And I personally feel for Kushina's fans. It must be painful to watch her turned into ordinary housewife with literally two funny scenes when she overreacted. For crying out loud, she was more important dead in the manga than she is here, alive. I know Kishimoto pretty much did the same in chapter 700 with Sakura and Hinata, but Sakura at least got some action in Naruto Gaiden, while for Hinata becoming a housewife is somehow fitting. And thus my point as to why I stopped watching the anime, and why I hate this POINTLESS arc! Done.