Naruto Shippuden Episode 331
What They Say:
Suigetsu and Jugo’s search for Sasuke leads them to one of Orochimaru’s old hideouts where they come across his research data, which could tip the outcome of the Fourth Great War. Meanwhile, Sasuke finally sets out to settle his score with Naruto.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Naruto: Shippuden has had some very good episodes recently and managed to do a great job in giving us a better look at the tailed beasts and who they really are on some level. And it even gave us a whole lot with Nine Tails, aka Kurama, that now has him working with Naruto for the time being to achieve their goals. Nrauto’s growth from baby until now has definitely been worth the watch overall, but some of the lulls between the great material can certainly be hard to watch. Such is the case to some degree here, having gotten the Sasuke tease in the previous episode (“Sasuke is coming”) and we get a good deal of flashback material to help remind the old folks that watch this show what happened years ago. And it makes it accessible for the hordes of new fans I’m sure are continually joining the series at this point.
The focus here is primarily on that of Jugo and Suigetsu as they’re still trying to find Sasuke, who has been off doing his own thing for a bit. Though they’re aligned with him, there’s still some distrust to be had there from Suigetsu, which is raised even more so when they delve into one of Orochimaru’s old haunts to search for clues and all of that past comes to the surface again. Some of it is amusing – and needed after all the recent serious material – where we see how the group that formed around Sasuke operated for a bit and the kind of casual silliness that did exist even with the always serious Sasuke around. I’m certainly no fan of Suigetsu, nor most of those that Sasuke drew around him, but it was fun to see the interplay between him and Karin once again.
The journey that Jugo and Suigetsu are on does reveal a bit of potential game changing information, at least to Suigetsu, as the discovery of some of what Orochimaru had planned back then is revealed to him and it appears to be a staggering thing that may get revealed later. Playing with this in the background, mixing in the flashbacks and showing a bit more of Sasuke’s journey is what this episode is all about at this point. With the White Zetsu intent on taking him out as well, we get some simple fun where Sasuke shows the way he can simply eliminate so many of them with just a bit of power and the kind of almost casual indifference he has over it. His movements are interesting to watch to some degree here, but again it’s all just light dressing for the main show which will be coming in the future.
In Summary:
Fans frustrations with the Naruto series are easy and regularly aired because the show does what it does so often. This episode mixes in some fresh material with a good chunk of flashback as it deals with Sasuke’s side of things while letting Suigetsu and Jugo have a bit of the spotlight. I did like the whole exploring Orochimaru’s place for clues – the guy had so many places to hide – and that there may be a game changer in there. I did like seeing some of what Sasuke is capable of in the present even if it feels like overkill. But I just can’t deal with all the flashback material since so much of the show is just so self referential like this that it just makes it agonizing for long time viewers like myself. There are a couple of good nuggets in here, but it’s the kind of episode you want to fast forward through a good chunk of.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.