Naruto Unleashed: Series 6 Part 2

Introduction

There's no getting away from it, the filler has started, where the manga story runs out and is replaced by inferior stories created by the anime producers, and generally considered to be the nadir of the Naruto anime series. But, as I found out in the previous collection, there are two types filler, the anime equivalent of grout, sturdy, dependable if bland, and then there was the DIY nut who ran out of grout, and instead of buying more, decided to use flour and water paste on his bathroom tiles… I'm hoping that the appearance of the latter is delayed as long as possible, as there are three whole series of filler to go after this volume, before we get to Naruto Shippuden, and the return of the main storyline.

12 years previously, the Hidden Leaf village was plagued by the Nine-Tailed fox demon. The Fourth Hokage ninja sacrificed his life to defeat the menace, and sealed up the spirit in the body of a newborn child. That orphan grew up as Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous prankster with great ambition. Not only does he want to be a ninja, but he also wants to be the strongest ninja of them all and be granted the title Hokage. He has more than a little competition, the Hidden Leaf village is a community of ninja, and Naruto had great difficulty just passing his entrance exams to qualify as a lowly Genin. Even when he did manage to get his certification, he was assigned to undergo training by the demanding Kakashi, partnered with his rival Sasuke and Sakura, the girl on whom he has a crush. What makes things difficult is that few see him as Naruto, instead of the dreadful fox demon that was sealed inside him.


We're in the filler zone, which means that the story is on hold until the manga catches up to the anime, and the episodes here don't advance the overall story or develop the characters. Sasuke has joined Orochimaru, and Naruto needs to complete his training before he can try to redeem him once more. None of that will happen until the filler is past. Each filler story will get a quick description and the listing of episodes.

Continuing the story from the previous set, Naruto's all healed up, ready to begin his training, only Jiraiya is leaving on a mission, and he doesn't want Naruto tagging along. When Naruto happens to overhear Hokage Tsunade discussing the Maximum Security Prison, his attention shifts. Way back before he became a Genin, he was duped by a ninja named Mizuki who persuaded him to steal a secret scroll. Now it turns out that Mizuki himself was working for Orochimaru. Before he can be questioned, there is a mass prison break. The Hidden Leaf Village ninjas' attention turns to recapturing the prisoners, but for Iruka and Naruto, it looks like there will be a rematch with Mizuki. Only Mizuki has a couple of relentless stupid brothers named Fuujin and Raijin to help him this time.

144. A New Squad! Two People and a Dog?!
145. A New Formation: Ina-Shika-Cho!
146. Orochimaru's Shadow!
147. A Clash of Fate: You Can't Bring Me Down!


Naruto's still out of sorts, butting heads with Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, trying to get permission to find Sasuke. The trouble is that there are no clues, no hint of where Sasuke and Orochimaru have vanished to. Hinata's seeing Naruto's stress, and wishes to help him, but it's her teammate Shino who offers Naruto a chance. It is a last chance too, as Tsunade makes a deal with him, either find Sasuke this time, or give it up and concentrate on his training. The chance lies in a rare beetle, the Bikochu, which spawns very rarely, and whose larvae have a unique ability to track scents, far beyond what the most sensitive hound dog can manage. If they can find a Bikochu beetle, if they time it right so that it lays an egg, if they offer the hatching beetle up an article of Sasuke's clothing, then it will relentlessly track him down, wherever he may be hidden. That's a lot of ifs, and it won't be helped by the Kamizuru clan, rival insect masters to Shino's clan who are now on hard times, and want to regain their prominence at all costs, and who are also looking for the elusive Bikochu.

148. The Search for the Rare Bikochu Beetle
149. What's the Difference? Don't All Insects Look Alike?
150. A Battle of Bugs! The Deceivers and the Deceived!
151. Blaze Away Byakugan! This Is My Ninja Way!


When Naruto rescues three men from the river where he was training, it signals the start of another mission. Much as he'd like to pine after Sasuke and keep trying to find him, Tsunade reminds him that as a Genin, he has a responsibility to follow orders. This time it's Guy's team who are assigned to the mission, and as Guy has a mission of his own to complete, Naruto will join Lee, Neji and Tenten to make up the numbers. The three men have escaped from the Katabami gold mine, where the previous owners were displaced by the Kurosuki family, who are running the mine as brutal overseers led by one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen Raiga. Raiga like funerals, and has a habit of burying alive anyone who offends him. This time the four ninja are ordered to eliminate the Kurosuki family and free the people of the gold mine.

152. Funeral March for the Living
153. A Lesson Leaned! The Iron Fist of Love!
154. The Enemy of the Byakugan
155. The Dark Creeping Clouds
156. Raiga's Counterattack

Picture

Naruto gets a 4:3 regular transfer that is clear and sharp throughout. There are some minor compression artefacts that are only really noticeable during freeze frame. As you would expect from such a long running animation, it's best not to tire the animators out. Naruto is certainly less sophisticated than most anime released today, the character designs are simpler, and backgrounds not excessively defined. Yet in terms of quality, the animation is very effective, and certainly goes a step beyond older long running shows like Dragonball Z or Sailor Moon. However, with the advent of the filler, the quality of animation slips, and you can see it in some hideous character designs, and some lacklustre action sequences. There are times in this set where it looks like a completely different animation.

Sound

The DD 2.0 English and Japanese stereo is more than adequate in recreating the original experience, and given a little Prologic magic does offer a pleasant ambience and some discrete action. More new themes at the end of season 5, and as always they are memorable and suit the story well, while the incidental music is a little more generic, but definitely gives Naruto its own musical identity. I sampled the English dub and found it acceptable if unspectacular. It certainly isn't the worst I have heard, but some of the actors don't seem particularly suited to the characters.

Extras

Wheeling out the same menus again, the only extras you'll find are the trailers on disc 1, Bleach, Buso Renkin, Death Note, MAR, and Naruto the Movie.

Conclusion

Apparently it gets worse than this. I may be on suicide watch by the time this filler comes to a close. This is only the first full collection of filler episodes, and already I'm thinking back fondly to the main storyline, and dreading just how much more there is to suffer of this. It was already clear that the story wasn't going to advance, and neither were the characters, but what I didn't realise was that the quality of the writing would take such a dip, that the animation would drop in quality to the point that it would be laughable, and that the stories would simply be rehashes of themes already covered in earlier episodes.


Fortunately, there is some degree of redemption, and a reason why watching is more than just a chore. Up till now, Naruto mostly concerned the central trio of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, and while other teams and ninja were encountered in passing, we never lingered with them for long, except in how it related to the main story. With this filler, the team has been broken up, Sasuke has vanished, Naruto's trying to find him, while Sakura fans will be disappointed that all they get are a few scenes of her practicing her medical ninja skills on a poorly rabbit or some such. What we do get is a much greater focus on the other teams and characters, and it's nice to see their relationships and abilities explored, even if Naruto tags along as a guest ninja. It certainly makes for more variety.


The first story is the conclusion of the Mizuki escape that began in the previous volume. And what looked so promising in the first few episodes really fizzles out here, partly due to two of the most inept villains we have yet seen in the show, twin lummoxes Foojin and Raijin, who also have some of the most lacklustre character designs we have yet seen. The end of the story is nothing special, and while there is a look at the team of Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, they're actually a team we are well acquainted with from before, so there is little new here. One moment that I really did appreciate here though was with Naruto and Iruka, which mirrored a moment in the first episode where Iruka protected Naruto from Mizuki. This time it is the reverse, although they over-egged it with a flashback sequence just to overemphasise the moment.


The Bikochu beetle story, while it may have a daft premise, actually is the most promising and the most rewarding of the bunch, especially as we get to see more of Hinata, Shino and Kiba. This story actually focuses on Hinata's growth as a ninja from the somewhat tremulous girl from before. She had her issues with Neji that were resolved during the Chunin exam, while she still has to battle her father's lack of confidence in her. She's still got a crippling crush on Naruto, but here she takes charge when she hears of a chance to find Sasuke, and her desire to help Naruto rescue him impels her into a leadership role, even if it is a hesitant and introverted one. But she's training, she wants to be stronger, and it's such a joy to see her actually stand up and save the day that I was on the verge of rating this story and the set more highly than I eventually wound up doing. It's just that the end of the story is one that made my TV grateful that I had nothing more substantial than a cushion to throw at hand. Still, fanboys may be sure to whimper at the Hinata training in a waterfall scene. The animation also takes a hit here, with Hinata's big moment not being as dynamic and fluid as it could have been. Worse is to come though.


The final story that begins, but isn't concluded on this set, sees Naruto teamed with Neji, Tenten and Lee for a mission even more tenuously linked with Sasuke (apparently the villain went to villain school with someone who once met Sasuke's brother), and a story that once again looks to Zabuza and Haru for inspiration, yet fails to meet even half of that story's poignancy. This time it's Raiga (with a character design almost as bad as the chunky twins from before) who has picked up waif Ranmaru, and together have gone all mafia on a goldmine, commissioning some psychopathic murders in the process. Lee knows the area, has been rescued by a curry shop that makes the ultimate curry, and he now has a wayward curry chef to rescue and redeem. The four ninja have to remove Raiga and the Kurosuki family from power, but once they learn of Ranmaru, they have to redeem him too. The curry shop jokes are lame, the villainous characters are half-baked and the story none too inspiring. But this is where the animation really lets the show down. Lee's trademark is that he is fast, lighting fast, but this time the animation doesn't have the budget, so he looks like he's in slow motion just like everyone else. Neji's also another dynamic hand to hand combat master, but his action sequences almost look like a slideshow. What's worse are the elementary animation errors, including one flaw in perspective that just made me burst out laughing. In one scene Raiga intimidates curry chef Karashi to such a degree that he falls down. And he also loses half his height in the process. The decline in standards hurts the story as much as the writing, and I can't wait for this story to end.


As predicted, Naruto's filler is hardly necessary, but a sweet Hinata story almost makes this collection of episodes a worthy purchase. As it is, I'd only recommend this to the most ardent of Naruto fans, who insists on having everything orange ninja related in his inventory.