Naruto Shippuden Episode 355
What They Say:
Danzo orders Tenzo to kill Kakashi and take his Sharingan. Reluctant at first, Tenzo decides to carry out his orders after learning that the Leaf Shinobi has come to be known as “Kakashi the Friend Killer.”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The arc did a decent job overall with the two part episode last week that showed us more of what was going on in the village that Orochimaru was using, having saved it, and the way without the special sacrifice that he essentially took the whole thing down and still went far with it. For Yamoto and Kakashi, it was one of those eye-opening moments in some ways and really reinforced the way that Kakashi viewed Orochimaru from there on, which has gone on for quite a few years since. That said, even with Kakashi having made some difficult decisions along the way, he’s still fully set with the ANBU group and is doing what needs to be done. Even if it really conflicts with what he might feel, something that he doesn’t always let on about easily.
With those events having now been reported back to the village, Kakashi finds himself in the position of having to head back there and do more investigations. But not surprisingly, once Danzo finds out about this, you can see how he’s going to start moving pieces in order to protect himself and Orochimaru from anything really dangerous happening with the larger project that the two have. Danzo continues to play the role well that he was designed for and it’s easy to dislike him in a big way, though a lot of the time Kakashi doesn’t exactly endear himself to the viewer either. Seeing Kakashi with another of the ANBU working through one of the secret bases is pretty interesting though since it has a kind of surreal effect with the masks, the darkness and knowing the kinds of things that Orochimaru could have hanging around in any of his many places.
The show works through some decent things here as we see those two main thread play out, but there’s also the interesting part that comes up more in the second as we see how Tenzo has been brought in to do a lot of things with Danzo pulling the strings in teaching and training him so that when Kakashi is paired up with him, he’s fully ready to kill him. Kakashi’s reputation has certainly been an interesting one to watch across the years, one he’s struggled with in a lot of ways, but with Tenzo having grown up learning about him and this aspect of him and the loss of Yukimi that has burned inside of him, it’s easy to see how Danzo could manipulate him into what he needed him to be – a weapon to deal with one of the more problematic members of the village that could reveal, if not undo, a lot of what’s going on.
In Summary:
With a bit of movement in time here as to when things happen, we get some decent material in a couple of areas, but it also feels like it could have been smoothed into the previous couple of episodes as well as that dragged on just a bit too long. While I’ve always liked Kakashi, he’s just not doing all that much for me in this arc as it’s straightforward and simple and a lot of it is just him hiding behind his mask while he works out things himself. What keeps it interesting, especially in an episode like this, is seeing how Danzo plays the game and manipulates the pieces on the board to his own advantage. That’s the main draw for me here in watching this anime original arc as we get a bit more about the Foundation from this period of time.
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.