English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “User of the Scorch Style: Pakura of the Sand!”

In a microcosm to what gives a good  filler episode charm, “User of the Scorch Style: Pakura of the Sand!” takes a character that no one cares about, and gives them an episode’s worth of back story. This week, is no different. Maki, a sealing expert from the Sand Village, gets an entire episode devoted to her backstory. And in it, just so happens to be the namesake of the episode, Pakura of the Sand.

While I am glad that the writers decide to go deep on these filler episodes, I am left to wonder if they are really worth going this deep over. I mean, we saw Pakura very briefly at the onset of the war, and never heard from again. When reading the manga, I just thought it was because she wasn’t important. However, the backstory adds a deeper level to Pakura, while giving a ninja that no one gave a second thought some depth as well.

Pakura was sent to the Mist Village as a deal.  She was killed to keep the peace between the two. So, when she came back to life, she hates everyone. That’s all well and good, except Maki spent entirely way too much time with Naruto at the beginning of Shippuden, because Maki has gotten Talk no Jutsu as her top technique. Couple that with a simple use of a sealing jutsu, and Pakura keeps Gari at bay long enough for the team to escape.

“User of the Scorch Style: Pakura of the Sand!” wasn’t a bad episode by any stretch of the means. I was just left wondering “why” during much of the episode. I’m not sure why Maki was a good choice to be the focus of the episode, or giving Pakura the limelight the entire time, just to take her consciousness away. And what was the deal with starting the episode with the fight between random ninja and Fuguki Suikazan? I can see how this discussion went in the writer’s room. “Sure, let’s get this in early, and not show anything else. Instead, what we’re going to do is defeat one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist off screen, like he was as nameless as the ninja fighting him.”

Okay, let me get back on track here. While enjoyable, “User of the Scorch Style: Pakura of the Sand” is a very flawed episode. Don’t get me wrong here. It was very entertaining, and the story made sense in a narrative way. I was just stuck thinking “Why Maki?” almost throughout the entire episode. I guess when you only see her when the rest of the Sand Village is in an episode, you’re stuck thinking she isn’t getting any major time on screen. In the words of Kevin Spacey, “WRONG!”