This episode makes a mockery of everything Naruto stands for and as a hardcore fan, there is a guilty voice saying I should be completely offended by it, but honestly, this episode was so off the wall and slapstick funny that I could not help but love every minute of it.
The premise is brilliant. Naruto and Shino are asked to attend a funeral on behalf of a “client”, the catch is that if the other guests at the funeral can make Naruto or Shino laugh, they will get a cut of the deceased’s fortune; cue some of the most surreal, weirdest attempts at humour seen this side of Cromartie High School. Given how serious this show usually is, it makes a nice refreshing change (especially within the confines of such endless, empty filler) to see the likes of Shino and Naruto just cut loose and laugh their heads off.
Episode 186 will not go down as the finest example of the Naruto anime, but right here, right now, I have to admit this is the most fun I have salvaged from Naruto for what feels like years.
Tag: Naruto
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Naruto – 185 – Grotesque Pet
And so begins another 23 minutes of pure time filling anime, Naruto-style. But despite it’s stupid premise, episode 185 wasn’t too bad; at least it was funny. These one-shot episodes are surely more suited to absurd comedy than say last week’s rushed mess of unoriginal drama.
I’m sure we all have a mild fear of wild animals, especially those that drop out of the sky, grotesquely attach themselves to our bodies and then grow bigger over the ensuing weeks. It’s disturbing how Naruto actually takes to his furry mutation (called Onbu) quite well, even if in one particularly gross scene, it pisses all over his back! Not to mention that he gets treated like a leper by his “friends” and of course, there is the smell too, how can Naruto stand the smell?!
As stupid as sounds, I have to admit I was even quite touched when Onbu carried Naruto back home; a nice display of brotherly-love never fails to warm the heart! This was hardly a return to form, but for what it’s worth, the gross out comedy hit all the right notes.
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Naruto – 184 – Ad nauseam
The filler wasn’t supposed to go on for this long. A black hole of 48 straight episodes, 18 hours of pure nothingness; it would be funny if I didn’t love Naruto as much as I do, but as it stands this is a damn travesty. And the frightening thing is, an end to this utter farce is still no where in sight.
So this is basically how every filler arc has gone so far; Tsunade hands Naruto a stupid task under the premise that it’s actually a really important mission, Naruto complains but does it anyway; meets up with random Konoha genin- this time, it just so happens to be Kiba. Two or three Kage Bunshin no Jutsu’s later and mission complete. Throw in some completely redundant character development for Kiba and his pet hound Akamaru along the way and repeat the formula ad nauseam, but next time with Rock Lee, or Hinta, or Neji.
The sad thing is that a lot of what makes Naruto so much fun is still present here. The art direction (no matter how blatant the limitations on animation are right now) is as electric, colourful and bouncy as it always was and Toshio Masuda’s soundtrack never falls to enthral, compel and excite me. I still love seeing the characters pull off their unique ninjitsu moves and kick ass- but honestly, I’m in dire need of a story now, a real story, where when characters get hurt, they stay hurt. A story where Naruto (the character) isn’t such a third wheel- it’s hard to imagine that just one year ago, we were amidst Sasuke’s defection to the dark side.
Ahh well, at least I got to see the slick ANBU elites in this episode, even if they were reduced to abducting a (nin-)dog. How the great have fallen, eh?