Naruto Shippuden Episode 347
What They Say:
Years ago, Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan form the Akatsuki to realize their dream of bringing peace to the Hidden Rain. Starting out small, they gradually gain recognition and support from other shinobi, including Hanzo the Salamander. But Obito, disguised as Madara Uchiha, warns the three that their ideals will never be realized.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The previous episode did a decent job of showing Obito’s transformation into what he’s been for years now as he took on Madara’s name and began orchestrating things. Seeing him bringing Nagato on and then adding others to the ranks, starting the creation and naming of the Akatsuki, brought a lot of things into clarity with how it all came together. Fleshing it out is definitely welcome after all this time, but it also feels a bit anti-climactic in a way as it’s a fairly simple approach. Keepin in tone with that episode, we get more back story material here with the younger Kakashi dealing with events, including having to deal with the Pervy Sage for a bit, which is always a welcome addition to any episode of the series in any form.
The Pervy Sage provides a good sounding board for things here as Kakashi talks about what’s been going on and we get to see from him that the novels he writes are including things from his life and experiences that helps to flesh them out, which can also be used as amusing teaching tools when you get down to it. That sets a nice and rather pleasant feel to the show in the first half before it starts delving into what’s going on with the Akatsuki as their movements spread and some of what they’re doing is being picked up on by the spies and other information networks out there. It’s good to see that the Akatsuki were discovered early on, but figuring out what’s going on with them is a different story as well as understanding what kind of threat that they’d become years down the line. It also ties in nicely to the story we’d seen pieces of before with Nagato and his friends in dealing with their home of the Hidden Rain village.
The episode spends a lot of its time with this group as they start making their way out into the world, which includes dealing with the Hidden Stone group a bit and their connection to Jiraiya, something that we had seen long ago in some of the backstory episodes focusing on this group and their origins. It’s interesting to see them take the path they have here, exploring more of their time with the Akatsuki and how they bonded more, particularly between Nagato and Konan, which we saw a lot of in the Pain arc. It’s not always moody, but it hits some good moments as it goes on and allows you to connect with the trio more, which to my surprise is rather welcome after the events that we saw them through previously.
In Summary:
While we get a lot of material that mostly focuses on Nagato and his group, a few nice nods towards Jiraiya and Kakashi, the real takeaway here is seeing the final moments that brings Danzo in briefly to deal with Hanzo and we see that he is truly at the root of so many problems within this particular world. A master manipulator to be sure to achieve his own ends, even at the expense of so many lives and nations. I still cringe whenever he shows up on the screen and this is no exception. While there are some layering moments here with what Obito as Madara is up to, it’s one that focuses more on some of those that have been left behind and that doesn’t feel too terribly bad to reconnect with. A solid episode that adds a bit more nuance to things overall.
Grade: B
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.