Naruto Shippuden Episode 359
What They Say:
Kakashi visits the Uchiha District and notices that the community seems more antisocial than the last time he visited. Meanwhile Itachi finds concrete evidence regarding the Uchiha Clan’s coup against the Leaf. The fateful moment is fast approaching…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The politics and intrigue of the Hidden Leaf Village definitely has its moments across this series, though it took awhile to really get to it. But that made sense since Naruto was young and unaware are the early focus of the series was on him trying to cope with being on the outside, struggling to make friends and then working his way up in being a ninja while understanding what it was that resided in him. So there is a certain appreciation for going back in time to the days when he was just a baby and exploring more of what was going on then since it has an impact in the present with Danzo’s manipulations to take control of the village with his belief that only he and his plans would save it from utter ruin. And bringing in a greater understanding of Kakashi certainly helps, as does exploring more of the Uchiha clan.
With life moving forward and intrigue always out there, Kakashi has continued to grow and grow up since we saw him as the stripling this arc started with. He’s been through a lot and is a bit more mellow in a way, but there’s also the sense that it’s a cover and an act that he has used to protect himself and to ensure that people keep a certain distance. We see he’s still friends with Guy, which is always amusing, and there are some interesting moments as the two make their way to the Uchiha distract and walk through it. It mixes in some minor flashbacks for Kakashi with things he had done there in the past, but the coloring and tone of it all shows a far more distrustful place than it once was as everyone is keeping their distance and just observing what the pair are doing. It says a lot about the nature of the clan at this point, things we knew, but in a newer light.
As it moves on, we do see a good bit more of the intrigue in general with how the village elders and Danzo are starting to butt heads in some ways, and everything about Danzo is painted in such a dark and ominous light that it’s almost comical with the foreshadowing that’s placed on it, which we obviously know about already. But it does put us in the mindset of understanding more of what was going on then, and contrasting it with the daytime situations with young Naruto and Sasuke shows just how big of a situation that they’re caught up in that they had little control over. Some of what we get is interesting with the adults in an abstract kind of way, especially once the whole civil war issue is largely settled, and the elders work through plans to move forward to protecting the security of the village, but it just lacks the kind of impact it needs to really feel important.
In Summary:
Well, it’s nice that we see Naruto for a couple of seconds, isn’t it? I’m enjoying this arc in a kind of passive and casual way because while it does fill in some of the blanks with the past or expands and explores them a bit more, it’s all rather underwhelming in terms of pacing and actual key moments in a lot of ways. It’s better than pointless fart filler or other stuff that we got back in some previous anime original arcs and there is something to get out of all of this, but for me I still find the back story too many years too late. It’s interesting but not captivating or engaging outside of seeing familiar characters in their younger years and understanding their connection to events a little more closely.
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.