chuunin_archive | Naruto 154 (Reply)

Since no one did last week, please allow me;

Another Excellent episode, imho. ^^ This arc is really good. I love Raiga. I love little Ranmaru. I love Lee. And I hate Neji! It's all good. :DDD

First of all, of course, we have a new opening. I don't like it as much as No Boy No Cry (which I think is second only to Go! in really getting at the heart of the spirit of the show), but it's nice enough. The animation is a wierd trippy flashback sequence with some lying on the grass stuff, flashback recap and some more emo angsting over Sasuke being not there. Pft. They just can't get over the fact that he's in a cooler place than they are. ^^

No hint of the timeline jump being tackled yet, which is a good thing in a way (get some nice distance and keep me in suspense about the arc's most important unresolved issue; what is Sasori danna's hair colour?! O_O)). And no, no Gaiden. Yay! Original is good. That way we get two different threads of Naruto a week. :D

Here are some lovely pics. :)

Trippy group shot. Quite nice. :)

and some more trippy lying on the grass.

And right at the start, this best bit; Leeeee! Running out of his house. ^^

If you know me, you know I love Raiga. How can you not love this cute goth from Mist who buries people alive so that he can keep them at their best in his memory. Bless him. His wires have got crossed somewhere. ^^

Here are some random shots of the lovely Raiga.

Raiga goes into shock at how dumb Leaf genin can be (this happens to every 'villain' at some point)

And here is Raiga's very cute little buddy Ranmaru.

Aw!

(Just in case there is gender confusion, it's a boy. Un.)

And here they are being cute. :)

So sweet! ^^ See, Raiga is a nice guy at heart. And yes, it's like Haku and Zabuza's story. And it's good and it works. Ranmaru is a cute little guy and he pwns Byakugan, which makes him worthy of glomping many times over in my book. :) The flashback showing Raiga as a hunter nin of Mist was very cool; I love glimpses into people's pasts.

This was quite a dark sequence.

Eat electricity Kyuubi. Mwahahahaha!

Naruto did kage bunshin *yawn* and rasengan *YAWN*. But Raiga is fine, as seen nin the little preview clip for 155 (went he went off the cliff, I had horrible flashbacks of poor Aoi getting a dunking in the river...come back Aoi! I love you and your catsuit!!!). It's like I say; Naruto's fights are the most dull in the series; just read it as read that he wins and skip it completely. :)

Here's the swordsmen in silhouette. :) Kisame looks cool. But Kisame always looks cool.

And here's some images from the rather dull closing theme (not at all as good as Speed);

Hinata and Shino and a tree....

Lee and TenTen and a tree...

The rather lovely closing image.

The ending starts with a cutesy image of Sakura and Ino, but I loathe both of them and so if you want to see that, you'll have to find another screencapper. :P

Now then, this is from the game, from a commercial that was included in the raw;

O_O 3D Manda!

Orochimaru getting in on the swordsman action; sorry boys! I love you all, but Orochi's sword is specialer than yours. ^^

And this rather cool image.

And that's about it! :D *phew*!

Oh! Apart from this cartoon; this is similar to an earlier cartoon I did, but it expands on it and makes Kisame the victim. >:)