Crappy episode, and a bad way to continue a story that was pretty well set up the previous two episodes. The fights were ridiculous and frustrating. It once again proves the fault of "ensemble casts". 75% of the participants don't do anything or just look dumb. I really liked how Shikamaru's genin team (Ino and Chouji) are made to look so useless. I guess Asuma is a poor teacher.

The super ultimate bad-guy technique was laughable. They have to form a 1/4-mile sized triangle with the target dead center in the middle. That's amazing.

I agree with Mr. Roboto, they could have milked this arc for a few more episodes of fighting action. Instead, they finished off the bad guys too easily after struggling with them most of the episode. The bloody deaths were cool though.

Episode rating: C-