Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Naruto - 195 - The Third Great Beast, the Ultimate Rival!

Rating: 8/10

This was one of the better fillers I’ve seen in quite awhile, but somehow, I was still left unsatisfied at the end. At least this seems to be a story that goes longer than one episode, finally breaking that god awful trend of one episode filler stories. I’m not saying this is a good story, but there are a few reasons why I like this episode: a) Gai + Lee, b) some funny scenes, and c) more than 1 episode filler.

The episode starts off with a rather stereotypical situation, where Naruto is worried because Tsunade has a concentrated look on her face and Naruto thinks he must be the cause of it. I saw this coming miles away (I’d like to claim I saw it coming last week but I’m not THAT talented). At least Sakura got to see him half naked, and for some reason was all flustered about it.

Lee’s training always amazes me. “Genius of hard wark” eh? I’d sure as hell say so. Look at the huge pool of sweat on the floor! And how could I not mention the fact that he’s on number 2956…In reality, he should be so buff that his green spandex suit wouldn’t fit him anymore, but I guess he’s just special (I suppose chakra has something to do with it as well?).

Tsunade forbide him to use his Reverse Lotus techinque and also won’t allow him to go on missions. You can probably already tell that at some point he’s gonna go on a mission. My fansub didn’t have a preview for next episode, but I predict Lee will run off to save the day or something of the sort.

Here comes some male-bonding, woot:

Then directly after:

God, these guys crack me up (I love his snot). I was laughing so hard when they both started crying. They even set up the perfect atmosphere for such an experience: met in the same place as the flashback, played the flashback, and then showed the present day parallel. It was a classic example of Gai and Lee doing a little male-bonding. I wish they had a pick with them both crying to enhance the experience, but I guess we can use our imagination as to what it would be like to see this happening in real life. Bravo!

They tried to create a little bit of mystery surrounding this new character, but I didn’t really feel it that much. Obviously he’s not just some random kid genius if he was able to beat Lee. Also, the whole “quite something” thing gave me a good chuckle. It felt like I was watching an episode of Seinfeld or something for a few seconds, where everyone talks in order asking questions:

Naruto: “His condition is quite something”

Gai: “What’s something?”

Naruto: “Well it’s quite something, isn’t it?”

Tenten: “It’s probably quite something..”

Gai: “What do you mean by quite something!?!?!”

After they showed this, I was like WTF??? I knew they were doing a parody but still, wtf? So weird. Seeing Tenten and Neji in those uniforms was just too much. At least it gave me a good chuckle afterwards. Funny how serious her and Neji were about being thankful that Lee was there to take the suit. I think it’d be hilarious if Gai’s whole squad had green suits. It’d be a riot.

Ah, the token smile-spark. Gotta love Gai for his overly energetic personality and his ability to always enjoy whatever he’s doing. He always brings a huge smile to my face whenever he’s on the screen because he’s either goofy looking, saying something goofy, or just being goofy in general (obviously he’s goofy). His little fight at the end was kinda cool, but I wish it were cooler. I would have enjoyed it more if Gai was moving faster and showing more of his power, but I guess he was still having too much fun.

This episode reminded me of the earlier days, when Naruto didn’t suck AS much (still sucks pretty bad), but was leaning towards sucking. Nothing they do now can match the Zabuza arc or the Chuunin exam, but at least they’re kind of trying. I just hope they don’t pull some stupid crap and make this little filler series worthless and a waste of time. I have yet to figure out what the moral of this filler will be, but I’m guessing it’ll be something along the lines of “Work hard to acheive your goals” or “Believe in yourself.” I’ll cross my fingers and pray for something amazing, maybe we’ll finally get a non-useless story (doubt it). They should also start creating some new comedy because the same old thing is getting really old. At least when I watch the Simpsons or Family Guy, I get new material every day, but Naruto feels like I’m watching the same damn show every time. Spice it up! *pray*

-Retsgip