Board Thread:Episode Discussions/@comment-1018594-20150319124409/@comment-1458758-20150320112823

Gotta say, I really liked this episode, though it highlights some bad things.

Not the whole, Tenten is convenient or "Fight Your Rival" rubbish.

But if you think about it, in an arc that should really be focusing on the last member of Team 7, Sakura, we've barely seen anything of her, in fact, every hurdle and solution so far has come from Team Guy, with Team 8 dealing with Team Kazami, who were set as unique characters this arc.

So with Guy's team fighting the main Ame group, the main Suna group and Team 8 fighting the main Kusa group, there's woefully little for Sakura and co. at the minute besides having met Fu.

I've always thought Kishi was bad with female characters, basically always delegating them to support and such, but this arc really isn't helping when seemingly the best the writing staff could come up with was that "Tenten is convenient" and such.

As it stands, this arc, which should have been the opportunity to show Sakura as a strong and independant member of Team 7, with neither Naruto, Kakashi or Sasuke to back her up or outshine her, has been utterly lacking so far, and of the unique teams remaining, there's one Suna team with another Female Med Nin to act as rival. Which, if that's the direction they take, doesn't help Sakura to stand out in the slightest from anyone else in this arc.