i thought it was a good episode, although it seemed shorter than usual. the switching from one fight to another was kind of annoying. i think it would have been better to focus on one fight at a time but that's just a preference. it's a shame that the rasengan fansub didn't include the preview. i guess that's part of the trade off for speed.

i liked how they did a flashback to the training with jiraiya to show how naruto learned how to deal with genjutsu. i wonder if they are going to use that throughout the series to show how naruto progressed during the time skip. it was very interesting that itachi said that he couldn't use mangekyou sharingan at the moment. this must have been what kakashi was talking about in the last episode, obviously he knows something that itachi didn't think he would have known.

it was such a tease to see gai release the gates and then have the fight in this episode end with him chasing kisame up those water spouts. i guess it was inevitable that gai would have to use that technique since kisame is really strong opponent. he's lucky that neji broke out of the water prison and released everyone else. at least they will be able to help him when crashes from the over exertion from releasing the gates.