Review: Naruto Shippuden “Attack of the Gedo Statue!”
It’s been a while since Madara did something meaningful. Unfortunately for the Ninja Alliance members on that beach head, shit is about to take a turn towards serious.
It just suits Madara to show up, whenever he wants, and just explode an entire battlefield. After Ginkaku and Kinkaku, Dan, Hiashi, Kakuzu, and the almost 50,000 White Zetsus, you would think that the army would get some time to regroup. Yeah, that didn’t happen, because Madara summoned his Gedo Statue to wreak havoc on the beach head.
This reset button of sorts came right before evening. I am guessing that ninja wars follow the same rules as wars in revolutionary America? I thought it was odd when it happened in the manga, and I didn’t get anything out of it during “Attack of the Gedo Statue!” That leads me into more things that were cut from this fight in Chapters 530 through 537. I was expecting more from Hiashi and Hizashi, Kakuzu, and Dan fighting. They were all featured more heavily in the manga, yet were barely noticed in the anime version. Also, did the writers just decide to forget about the Feudal Lords at the beginning of the episode? What the hell? This Ninja War arc went from fantastic storytelling from
There were a few other things that didn’t happen in the manga, like Kabuto had his reanimation army retreat for the night. The cuts that were made to the manga doesn’t really make sense to how the story flowed. People actually like the Hyuga clan, even though they have little to no character development, and were made to be completely outclassed by the outpouring of Uchihas that seem to be coming out of the wood works. So, throw the fans a bone, and let them see the Hyuga brothers fight. You gave us Gaara’s fan girls, and if anything, that is something that could have been cut. I don’t remember that in the manga either, but hey, my memory is apparently fuzzy in my old age.
Gripes aside, I did like “Attack of the Gedo Statue,” because it finally advanced the story to the second part of the battle. Naruto is away from the Island, night fell on the war, and people are resting. Day one, night one, and day two all felt like distinct parts of the war, and the show is doing a good job transitioning from part to part.
Another thing I want to hit on is how well the animation is when Black Zetsu starts fighting the Feudal Lord protection squad. All of the tree tentacles looked well done, as did the ninjas trying to fight it. Chojuro finally coming around to do something with Hiramekarei, and cutting the shit out of the tree tentacles. He is definitely a different person from when we first saw him at the Five Kage Summit. However, soon after Chojuro and Mei start fighting, the scene transitions to the beach.
Storywise, you don’t know where “Attack of the Gedo Statue!” is going to go, because it hops a lot in the beginning and the end of the episode. Even Gaara and the desert team is touched on, when they were forgotten about a few episodes ago. Not a lot of the story they are trying to tell makes a lot of sense. There are times where the story veers slightly from the manga. Yet, there are times where it sticks to the manga panel by panel, and it doesn’t make sense in an animation forum. Don’t get me wrong. When the story settled down and focused on the Gedo Statue attack, it was a pretty good story. Unfortunately, the Game of Thrones style of storytelling is lost for now, but that’s when Naruto Shippuden is at its greatest. For the show to come back around, the story needs to focus more. Otherwise, the show may falter hard.
