Episode 218 Discussion / Poll

[monir]

Welcome to this week's episode discussion thread posted a few days before it airs in Japan (which is on Thursday).

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[ShikaShika]

Today's summary:

Spoiler:

Episode starts with Shikamaru and Temari talking. It's their usual half-bickering. Ino feels like it's like she's not even there. Cut to Kankurou-Kiba-Chouji, and then Gaara. Gaara actually looks a little a bit cool (enough to make me forget to get you screens ). The other two fights resume, Shika is trying to figure out strategies while they're relentlessly attacking, Kankurou thinks Kiba and Chouji are getting in the way. Gaara looks like he's doing a good job taking care of his opponent. But the leader of the bricks notices this and uses his weapon to do something. This triggers some effect in the other three guys weapons, and they all make some kind of combined effort to bring Gaara down (he's positioned in the middle of the triangle they form). This was a pretty decent way of making Gaara need help, at least it took all four to take him down. How exactly I don't know, though these weapons really are boring. And his opponent still looks like a dufus. He's saved by Lee and Naruto who're having trouble with the dufus. Shikamaru and Temari come up with a decent plan (it really is like Ino's not there) and take care of their opponent. Kankurou & co trick their opponent with a half-assed combo, and Kankurou finishes him off. Gaara (having been restored to health by Sakura) actually has to help Naruto and Lee before running after the main boss. Not sure if I heard him correctly but I think Naruto followed after Gaara shortly after, leaving the dufus to Lee alone. Shino relaid messages and scouted during the episode.

So, to summarize, two down, two to go. Shikamaru, Ino, Temari, Chouji, Kiba and Kankurou are most likely done for this arc. Shino and Sakura might be done as well. Neji and Hinata haven't really done anything so they've hopefully got something coming up. Gaara, Naruto and Lee definitely have some more fighting to do.

Opinion: Definitely a few steps up since last week, with even a few sparks of originality. The episode gets plus points for making Gaara look cooler than I had anticipated, making all four baddies cooperate to (temporarily) take him down and then have him help Naruto and Lee.

The Temari-fight was allright. I feel that the combination of wind and and shadow could have been utilized in more interesting ways, but meh. Ino is a one-trick character and it's hurting her, because she never gets to use it.

The Kankurou-fight was decent at most.

All in all, quite a decent ep as fillers go. I have only seen two filler episodes, but I imagine this is one of the best made. But judging on the same scale as canon episodes, I can't give much more than a 6.


Screens:

On a side note, I do like the current opening sequence very much. Though instead of Naruto's silluette doing taijitsu practise (which really is so unlike Naruto), I would have preffered him doing his trademark ninjutsus, or possibly a bit of both. Still nice though...

[monir]

I was going to pass on this episode after last week, but now I'll watch this one! *shakes fist at Shika.

Btw, nice summary and very nice camera-workmanship. I presume that's how you are taking the screenshots.

[Covenant]

Damn waiting until Friday sucks.

They need to move it back to Wednesday so it gets subbed by Thursday.

[iamtheSOUND]

Man, I haven't seen a Naruto episode in forever. I think since that episode on that Sea Girl thing. I kind of miss it so I think I'm gonna download this episode.

[ShikaShika]

Originally Posted by monir

I was going to pass on this episode after last week, but now I'll watch this one! *shakes fist at Shika.

Btw, nice summary and very nice camera-workmanship. I presume that's how you are taking the screenshots.

I hope I didn't get your hopes up too high, though if you've got the bandwidth to spare, I'd say it's worth a look. And thank you very much for complimenting my camera-workmanship! It makes it all worth the effort!

[EoT]

It was an ok episode, got to see alot of things we saw in the past.

Spoiler for for episode:

We got to see alot of stuff we saw from the sound arc, pretty repeative, I hope we can see something better from the leader of the group, because the rest of the guys died too easily

[Supaiku_of_Sand]

it was prettty good cant wait to se how it ends

[Covenant]

Friday night and it's still not subbed, this blows.

Not going to watch the raw it will ruin it.

[ChibiAlpha]

Decent, at most. Nothing too special, and all the enemies sorta remind me of the movie villains.

[EadTaes]

I had better hope then this. But it's still better then 90% of the other fillers.

They made the 3 first guys die way to easily. But then again from the way those morons acted they werent much of ninjas. More like ordinary people who recived a powerfull weapon and knew only how to operate it. Not know how to efectively use it in combat.

[Dantat]

woahhhhh, their ultimate weapon was to use a super-soaker on garaa's sand?, bahahahah

[Xelsol]

Meh 7/10... Pretty Anticlimactic, a little too predictable, and very corny in some parts, but still worth watching.

I did get to thinking though, last week a lot of people were complaining that the filler antagonists sucked because they had to rely on weapons and armor to go up against the sand siblings. Then I realized, the sand kids rely just as much on their weapons and armor. Temari with her fan, Kankurou with his puppets, and Gaara with his sand... imagine any of them without their weapons, and they would probably be pretty helpless. This is argumentative, of course, because as far as I know, we've never seen them fight without their weapons. So we really don't know how well they would do without them. But in reality, we've never seen these filler characters fight without theirs.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, sometimes the weapon makes the ninja.

But, that was what I was thinking halfway through this episode. In the end, the ease of their defeat made me want to completely retract my judgment on them. They really just sucked, plain and simple.

(BTW, two thumbs down for the "One Piece water-beats-sand no jutsu".)

[Hir0]

Nothing too special about the ep, it was actually pretty funny how they died,

Blue Hair Kid - Splash of Blood
Woman - Should have been cut to pieces and falls in a waterfall?
Armor Guy - Pierced in the heart by Gaara??!

[ShikaShika]

Originally Posted by Xelsol

(BTW, two thumbs down for the "One Piece water-beats-sand no jutsu".)

That was water? I guess I need to finetune my Japanese.

[EoT]

Originally Posted by Xelsol

Meh 7/10... Pretty Anticlimactic, a little too predictable, and very corny in some parts, but still worth watching.

I did get to thinking though, last week a lot of people were complaining that the filler antagonists sucked because they had to rely on weapons and armor to go up against the sand siblings. Then I realized, the sand kids rely just as much on their weapons and armor. Temari with her fan, Kankurou with his puppets, and Gaara with his sand... imagine any of them without their weapons, and they would probably be pretty helpless. This is argumentative, of course, because as far as I know, we've never seen them fight without their weapons. So we really don't know how well they would do without them. But in reality, we've never seen these filler characters fight without theirs.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, sometimes the weapon makes the ninja.

But, that was what I was thinking halfway through this episode. In the end, the ease of their defeat made me want to completely retract my judgment on them. They really just sucked, plain and simple.

(BTW, two thumbs down for the "One Piece water-beats-sand no jutsu".)

You hit it right on the spot except on behalf of Gaara, he can also create sand from the ground so he isn't only limitted to what is in his gourd (this seen in the sound arc).

[Guido]

It was a decent addition to this last filler arc.

Sure, I do agree the fights were cut short and the villains ended up big talk but biting the dust soon. However, there was cool and keen battle analysis to catch off guard those losers.

The main flaw as you already have pointed out is that the ninja enemies resort too much on their weapons to perform ninjutsu, and the same ground holds true for only Temari and Kankuro; Gaara can pick up any sand from any place not just the one from his gourd.

Later, like everybody else may have noticed this episode displays quite few references to previous arcs in Naruto before the fillers started.
1. Obviously, the return favor from Konoha shinobi to Suna shinobi to pay debt from the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.

2. Ino's low self-esteem and inferiority complex upon ending up useless in battle mirrors Sakura's issue of uselessness from the Chuunin Exam Arc.

3. My favorite scene in this episode was watching Shikamaru and Temari argumenting to each ohter, as if were a couple. I do feel bugged and pestered that Shikamaru always brings up his obnoxious remarks about boys and girls, but I guess is part of the charm between Temari and him.

[khoa1708]

Originally Posted by Guido

It was a decent addition to this last filler arc.

Sure, I do agree the fights were cut short and the villains ended up big talk but biting the dust soon. However, there was cool and keen battle analysis to catch off guard those losers.

The main flaw as you already have pointed out is that the ninja enemies resort too much on their weapons to perform ninjutsu, and the same ground holds true for only Temari and Kankuro; Gaara can pick up any sand from any place not just the one from his gourd.

Later, like everybody else may have noticed this episode displays quite few references to previous arcs in Naruto before the fillers started.
1. Obviously, the return favor from Konoha shinobi to Suna shinobi to pay debt from the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.

2. Ino's low self-esteem and inferiority complex upon ending up useless in battle mirrors Sakura's issue of uselessness from the Chuunin Exam Arc.

3. My favorite scene in this episode was watching Shikamaru and Temari argumenting to each ohter, as if were a couple. I do feel bugged and pestered that Shikamaru always brings up his obnoxious remarks about boys and girls, but I guess is part of the charm between Temari and him.

last filler? for real?

[monir]

Originally Posted by ShikaShika

I hope I didn't get your hopes up too high, though if you've got the bandwidth to spare, I'd say it's worth a look.

It was worth a look for these following couple of wtf-expression which I think speaks volume about the overall quality of this episode.



They are equally disgusted I believe. The animation gets a D-, the plot gets a C- for trying, and the music gets a B. I was going to give it a 4, but then changed my mind to a generous 5 since the episode had a *sparkle.*

[Guido]

Originally Posted by khoa1708

last filler? for real?

My friend this is the last of the filler stories and ends next week on episode 219.

Episode 220 is the last one for all of the first Naruto series, which airs February 8th.

February 15th is the start of Naruto Shipuuden (Hurricane Chronicles), which is the second Naruto series, going back to the manga storyline (the second part).