Naruto Shippuden Episode 351
What They Say:
At the Foundation, Kakashi meets a boy who uses Wood Style, a jutsu that only First Hokage Hashirama was capable of using. Kakashi goes to Third Hokage Hiruzen’s library to seek answers and discovers records regarding Hashirama’s cells.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Seeing how Kakashi has dealt with things in the last couple of episodes as life has taken difficult turns has certainly been interesting to watch. The previous episode showed more of his relationship, tenuous as it really was, with Minato and how everything changed with the loss of him. We also got a bit of time with Danzo as well as we once again saw how he was trying to gain power in every way he could to fight the war he knows is coming and his strong belief that he’s the only one that can really do it the way it needs to be done. But while these elements are fun and interesting to watch, we naturally keep coming back to Kakashi as he dealt with his Black Anbu time and the overall nature of how he’s feeling these days.
The first half of the episode spends some time with Kakashi grappling with the things he’s learned and interacted with, but through an interesting meeting he gets introduced to a jutsu that the First Hokage used, which was deemed forbidden after a time. Kakashi’s natural curiosity is one that is well suited for being part of the Black Anbu group and we see how he’s able to learn more things while growing up himself and drawing more of his own conclusions rather than just accepting what he’s told, though still having proper respect for those in positions of power. Such is the case when he deals with the Hokage who gives him the time to understand what’s being revealed.
Interestingly, as events progress, the Wood Style jutsu naturally surfaces since you can’t have to unconnected events in an episode, and it comes as the Black Anbu set a trap for an attack on the Hokage. This also extends into the episode showing more of how Minato, through a flashback, had a lot of hope for Kakashi and that finally gets revealed to him, which helps to cement him more in being the type of person who will do the right thing. There’s a lot of little politics and the like thrown into the show here as we see more of how the various elders were conducting themselves at the time, especially in relation to Danzo, but Danzo also makes it clear that he really has his own agenda as we see him with Orochimaru working away in one of his underground lairs. While you can understand why Danzo does what he does, and agree on some levels, he doesn’t make it easy to get behind him.
In Summary:
While this arc is weaving a pretty solid tale overall for Kakashi and fleshing out some of the things that happened in the past, it’s having a hard time really maintaining a strong narrative about it. Partially because you know where certain aspects of it are going to go and the big picture has largely been revealed in the present. I do like watching Kakashi in these instances and seeing Danzo running around again gives me the villain you love to hate, aided only more by having Orochimaru make a new appearance which delights. But there’s just something lacking to it at this stage, more so after the recap-ish nature of the fight and death of Minato in the last episode that threw off the flow of things.
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.