English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “Battle in Paradise! The Odd Beast vs. the Monster!”

Glad to finally see Gai do something other than have excess energy. Go, Gai!

 

 

Like I said before the jump, Gai finally gets some action. He’s one of the many who get very little screen time, even though you know that he can kick some serious ass. He’s one of a very few who can fight Kakashi one on one, and survive. Let’s see how well the show translates from the manga.

Spoilers Below! You have been warned!

So, we get Kushina’s chakra dissipating again, and Naruto tells her that he ended up doing all of the things she wanted him to. Well, he sucked at school, but he had friends, ate right, and ended up learning a lot from Jiraiya. He also reaffirms his plans to be Hokage.

Naruto finally wakes up with a huge celebration. Bee and Naruto pound fists, and Bee understands everything. Poor Yamato, however. He knows nothing of what’s going on. Gai finds out about the training Naruto is going, but Aoba has to apologize for Gai’s over zealousness. Back at the temple, Naruto is trying to figure out a plan on how to effectively use the chakra, so he doesn’t overruse it. He uses the Nine-Tails’s chakra, and gets a new power. The chakra is so full of life, that it effects Yamato’s wood style jutsu. In this mode, he sense the negativity inside Samehada, and that draws out Kisame. Bee is wondering how he survived the Double Lariat attack of Bee and A, and it was a clone from White Zetsu.

Kisame is able to open the door to get out, but Naruto teleports in to attack before Kisame was able to get out. He kicks Kisame so hard, his foot is stuck in the wall. Bee heads out after Kisame with Naruto inside. Outside, Gai is trying to get inside to the temple, but Aoba goads him into going through the waterfall test anyway. After Aoba says Gai is afraid, Gai goes in. When Gai goes to meditate, Kisame flies out. Gai starts to fight Kisame, thinking it was his true self. For the second time, Kisame is hit hard. Gai, however, has no recollection who Kisame is. Bee finally tells the group that he’s Kisame. Aoba finally realizes it after Samehada gets Kisame out of him. Kisame, still emaciated from being in Samehada, flops into the water. He grabs Samehada’s handle, and uses Samehada to suck out some of Bee’s chakra.

Bee just lets it continue, losing a lot of chakra. Aoba uses an ability to drain chakra, but that doesn’t work really well, since it just drains Aoba’s chakra. Kisame makes a break for it, but Gai uses the 8 Inner Gates technique, and opens 6 of them. Bee uses some of Eight-Tails’s chakra to enlarge his arm, and throw Gai. In the temple, Naruto twisted his ankle, and Yamato is able to immobilize it. Outside, Gai summons Ningame, who Gai uses to launch himself closer to Kisame. Kisame is close to the barrier, so he summons a shark to send his information to. Gai finally shows up, but is attacked by a thousand sharks, camouflaging the shark with the scroll. Gai opens the Seventh Gate, and Kisame is impressed with Gai’s taijutsu. Gai readies Hirudora, which is one of Gai’s most powerful attacks. Kisame uses Super Shark Bomb, which drains chakra. Kisame is confused, because he doesn’t realize that Gai’s attacks don’t use chakra. Kisame gets wrecked by Hirudora as the episode draws to a close.

I love Gai as a character. I guess it’s because you almost never see him cut loose like he does in this episode. I’m hoping that he breaks out the Eighth Gate during this war, because if it’s as much of a power differential as it was from six to seven, I can only say holy shit. We need more Gai, but in some less comedic roles like this.

The episode was rather faithful to the manga, which is always a good thing. Sure, the battles are more detailed in the show, but there is only so much you can do with still images in about 18 pages per week. Everything was short and concise with this episode, which is a stark contrast to Kushina telling us about Madara. There was a lot of stuff going on in that story, so it is a slightly different situation. It seems like it’s back to normal for Naruto Shippuden, and onward to war!

Dub / Sub Comparison

The majority of the dubbed version for this episode was rather on point when comparing the English subtitles to the dubbed version with the exception being the scene when Kisame emerges from Samechada inside the temple. However, even in these rare occurrences, the meaning behind the scene stays intact, and even better, uncensored.

There was nothing cut either. All of Kisame’s blood is in tact from both Naruto’s and Gai’s attacks, so we really get the uncut episodes. Also, both versions have the same music, which shouldn’t come as much of a shock. So if you haven’t watched the episodes yet, you can just watch the dubs, and have it on in the background while you do something else. If you can deal with the high pitched shrill that is Naruto’s Japanese voice, you can deal with English Naruto. The only gripe I have with the subs for Naruto is that they’re of such terrible quality as it was like I was watching Dragon Ball Z subtitles from 1999.

Catch Episode 250 right here!