Naruto Shippuuden 168 breakdown. Watch out for the fangirs!!! @__@

He is so grounded for life. T__T

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another weekly Naruto anime breakdown!!! I’m your host, Tenrai Senshi, bringing you the…

*Sees Deathco4 running towards me along with an army of juvenile girls.* O__O

OMG!!!! MINATO FANGIRLS!!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY AND GOOD IN THIS WORLD, EVERYONE, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!

*Get’s jumped from behind, bound, gagged, pummeled by the army and then finally thrown into a dark closet.*

Deathcon4: No-one is allowed to so much as look at Minato, drool over him or even mention his name except for meeee!!!!

*Army of fangirls led by Deathcon marches away again, searching for more unsuspecting victims.*

X__X

We cry when we hurt and we cry when we laugh. We cry when we are lonely and we cry when we are reunited with those we love. It is through those tears that our emotions are given life, and although they may sometimes feel like a tormenting curse, at other times they are our greatest comfort.

*Finally frees myself from closet and crawls out into the open.*

If there is one thing we can all learn from this, it is that you should never mess with fangirls. Especially fangirls with steel baseball bats and, dare I say it… feather dusters. T__T

Alas, it isn’t safe to linger too long, lest the crazed mob should return to savagely torture me again, so I guess it is time to get on with the show. Firstly, to start things off, I think it is safe to say that this episode is one of those that many people wanted to see in the anime, because it showcases that all important meeting between Naruto and his father, the famed Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Much like with the rest of this arc, expectations are high and emotions are brimming, and for a good reason as well.

The real question is, did the anime do justice to such an important scene? I think it is safe to say yes, for the most part, although it was not completely without its disappointments.

*Puts on random breakdown music.*

Naruto, you punched Minato. Now the fangirls will be after you as well. *Sniff* T__T

Right from the beginning of this scene, from the moment Minato mentioned that Naruto was his son, you could already feel a bit of the emotion coming through as the music picked up, as well as through the visuals, which is to be expected. It is one of the definitive factors that separates the way emotions are conveyed through the manga and how the anime interprets them in a much more vivid way, and it is also one of those factors that make such scenes feel that much more tangible and complete.

However, there was still something that was bothering me despite all that. My real gripe with this scene wasn’t with the emotion or music, or even the animation, which was actually rather pleasant this time around. Instead, what disappointed me somewhat, was the fact that this scene still felt mostly incomplete in terms of overall content.

You would think that after leaving his son to live alone for 16 years of his life with a curse that literally made his childhood a nightmare, Minato would have a lot more to say to his son than simply giving him an apology, followed by a breakdown of the nature of hatred. I understand that time was short and that the pressing matter at hand was to give Naruto the advice he needed to deal with Pein, but I still hoped that the anime would add a bit more to this reunion to make it feel more solid.

Naruto’s reaction to his father’s appearance felt believable and tangible at first, but it feels like the animosity he felt due to the circumstances of his life just disappeared far too quickly to seem completely realistic and even despite a long monologue about how difficult his life has been living with his curse, Naruto seems to let go off those negative feelings rather suddenly and abruptly.

Sorry Naruto. It looks like blond hair and blue eyes were the only things you inherited from your father. <_<

Other than that, this scene was still great regardless of these flaws. For some, it was even emotional enough to bring tears to the eyes.

*Hands Mandi a tissue.*

Moving further along, to the other half of our episode, we find Naruto once again facing off with Pein, only this time with new found resolve thanks to the strength offered by his father’s words. Personally, I preferred the first half of the episode which involved the reunion more than I enjoyed the end of the battle with Pein, but it was still enjoyable regardless.

I too... will have an army of fangirls. Kisuzachi is simply the first of many. @__@

Sorry Kisu, it must be the avatar. People get confused, but if it makes you feel better, the same thing happened to Haku. <_<

*Cough.*

I think the most prominent change I should mention relative to the previous episode’s battle, is the animation, and many of you will be delightfully pleased to note that things have returned back to normal again. I did prefer some of the fluidity of the previous animation style, but there wasn’t much that I could find to complain about this time around, save for a few odd camera tricks and frame rate issues.

For the most part, the battle delivers right up until the very end. The only part I had a bit of a gripe with was the scene where all the Naruto clones appeared out of the rocks and debris littering the battlefield.

It's at times like this, that I wish my watch was a few seconds fast. X__x

I was hoping for a bit more oomph during this scene, but the animation seemed to make it feel more awkward than anything else. I just kept imagining this moment to appear so much more epic in the anime, but instead it looked more like a collage of frames that were simply stuck over one another as opposed to real animation. In addition to that, all of the cut and paste clones were moving in different and sometimes even absurd directions that really didn’t make any sense at all.

At the end of the day, the animation just seemed to cheapen the overall effect a bit, although it was still mostly impressive regardless. The only other thing I can say is that five seconds in the anime feels more like five minutes, another fault of the inconsistent pace that often translates very poorly from the manga panels, where time and pacing is largely determined by the speed at which one can read.

In the end though, I would say that this episode left me with mostly positive feelings, aside from a few nagging flaws, which were mostly insignificant in the big scheme of things.

This is for destroying Ichiraku's!!!!!! >_<

Well, that’s all from me this week. I hope you all enjoyed the breakdown. I know this one was a bit short relative to my last few, but hopefully it was still alright.

Here are last week’s caption contest winners.

2nd) Kantonkage: That Emo-chidori wound never did heal properly.

Iaregerman: My bellybutton can see into your SOUL!!!

Unfortunately, there were only two positions this week, mostly because I am too lazy to try and sort the rest into any order of preference. <_<

Here is this week’s screen.

*Insert caption here*

Oh yes… I did indeed. <_<

Well, let’s see what you guys can come up with for this one. Hopefully the entries wont involve any personal fantasies of any kind, but with the crowd we have, I am sure that is an empty hope.

Good luck to all of you! I’ll see you all in the comments section!

Cheers! ^ ^

*Gets ambushed by fangirls and dragged away.*

Save me!!! T__T

~ by Tenrai Senshi on July 19, 2010.