Naruto Shippuuden Episode 117

[Abdula]

This wasn't actually a bad episode. The beginning was quite slow with all the standing still and talking and the fights were the most pitiful ever until Juugo's turn. Those nameless dudes did nothing but stand still and wait to get cut. How exactly does that make Sasuke and the water guy strong? Konohamaru could have beaten them if they did nothing but stand and stare.

I just finished watching the last few episodes that aired after the last filler arc ended and it surprised me just how bad they were. Now I remember why I stopped watching, it wasn't just because of all the filler in every episode. The overall quality of shippuden is terrible. It's hard to believe that this is still Naruto.

It also amazes me that the directors seem to have forgotten how to properly animate a fight scene. The fights in this episode were terrible and they even managed to mess up the Sasuke vs Orochimaru scene. Which was a very simple fight scene in the manga that took no more than a few pages.

This really bothers me as some of the absolute best fight scenes in all of Naruto are coming up soon and not only does the animation quality suck but the directors have no idea how to do a proper fight scene and if they continue to inject as much filler in each episode as they are currently doing then they will do an even worse job with the upcoming battles than they did during the Hidan and Kakuzu arc.

I'm sure the filler must bother even some of the die hard anime fans. I mean seriously what was with the seagull constantly flying over Sasuke in the last episode. Anyway I'm not going to point out every single terrible filler scene they have added since Shippuden has started.

One other thing that I should mention that has really been bothering me is the dialogue in these episodes. I don't know who to blame for that, I don't know if the studio is just being lazy or if the translators are just doing a terrible job but the dialogue is the thing that annoyed me the most about these episodes. I might be making too much of this but the way they presented Juugo was rather inaccurate.
http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/349/05/
http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/349/06/
http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/349/07/
http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/349/08/
http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/349/09/

Oh and speaking of Konohamaru I was looking forward to seeing him again but I see they decided to skip over that as aswell.

Surprisingly enough I enjoyed the scene showing how easily distracted Naruto and Ero-Sennin are. Although that was the only Naruto scene I liked in this ep.

The scene was okay but I really didn't like it. It was kinda unnecessary and they seem to be trying to beat it into our heads that Jiraiya is just an older idiotic white haired version of Naruto, he isn't by the way, and if this keeps up it's going to make it really hard to take him seriously later. Anyway.......

-It's a real pain when the browser refuses to let me edit my posts

[arondruiz]

Oh and speaking of Konohamaru I was looking forward to seeing him again but I see they decided to skip over that as aswell.

They actually didn't skip that, they showed it a long time ago in one of the filler episodes for some reason. But they cut out the Sasuke/Sai part of it. Apparently 2 lesbians are ok, but not 2 men.

As for the animation, you're right it's terrible right now. But I'd be willing to bet money the upcoming fight is going to be animated very well, similar to how good episodes 85-88 were.

[Abdula]

They actually didn't skip that, they showed it a long time ago in one of the filler episodes for some reason. But they cut out the Sasuke/Sai part of it. Apparently 2 lesbians are ok, but not 2 men.

Oh really that is just weird, and how could they leave out the Sasuke X Sai part. The whole point of that scene was just to show that Sakura is as much as a pervert as the rest of them.

I don't think they've forgotten how to do a proper fight scene at all, they just only do it for important canon fights. Shikamaru vs. Akatsuke looked amazing. Sasuke vs. Oro looked like shit, but then, very little actually happened in that fight. There's hasn't been a real important battle since then.

I'm not going to hold my breath. I wasn't all that impressed by the overall quality in that arc because it really lacked consistency. In the beginning when Asuma was fighting Hidan, the quality was average at best then it gradually got better but it peaked right before the real action started. That episode when Shikamaru and the others were gearing up to avenge Asuma was by far the best episode, quality-wise, in that entire arc. Then by the time Naruto showed up the quality was little better than it is right now.

In my opinion the last really good fight scene there was in Shippuuden was back when Gaara fought Deidara and that was a long time ago.

[DarthEnderX]

I'm not going to hold my breath. I wasn't all that impressed by the overall quality in that arc because it really lacked consistency. In the beginning when Asuma was fighting Hidan, the quality was average at best then it gradually got better but it peaked right before the real action started. That episode when Shikamaru and the others were gearing up to avenge Asuma was by far the best episode, quality-wise, in that entire arc. Then by the time Naruto showed up the quality was little better than it is right now.

We'll just have to agree to disagree then because I felt that the second battle between Shikamaru and Akatsuki was easily in the top 3 of all of Naruto in terms of quality.

[poopdeville]

We'll just have to agree to disagree then because I felt that the second battle between Shikamaru and Akatsuki was easily in the top 3 of all of Naruto in terms of quality.

This is just a difference of opinion, but what about Orochimaru/Sarutobi, Sasuke/Naruto, Gaara/Rock Lee? (Actually not a personal favorite, but it was pretty cool and well liked) Lee/Kimimarou? I even liked the Sakura/Sasori and Naruto/Orochimaru fights better.

I didn't think the art was so great during Hidan + Kakauzu (pt 2). As far as I remember, the art during the Shikamaru/Hidan fight was the same old animation they regularly use (basically cell shaded stills with joints). The art in the Kakashi/Kakuzu fight was different at times, but I didn't like the direction they went in. Sakura/Sasori did this sometimes too: Sakura and Kakashi looked/moved like the Guren Lagann -- using a particular Gainax-like style of deformation and motion blur to denote "speed".

[DarthEnderX]

Yeah, it's the same animation style they used during Sasuke vs. Orochimaru(Chuunin exam), Oro vs. the 3rd, and Naruto vs. Sasuke 2, two of those you listed as your favorites.

That's basically their "go to" animator for their most badass fights. The thing is, they rarely use him for entire fights. He usually just does one entire episode, and since fights like that are rarely ever one episode long, he usually just does the most action intensive episode of the fight.

For the record, I'd say my favorite fights are:

5. Sakura & Chiyo vs. Sasori
4. Lee vs. Kimimaru
3. Team Shikamaru vs. Hidan & Kakuzu
2. Naruto vs. Sasuke 2
1. Lee vs. Gaara

[antiravage]

For the record, I'd say my favorite fights are:

5. Sakura & Chiyo vs. Sasori
4. Lee vs. Kimimaru
3. Team Shikamaru vs. Hidan & Kakuzu
2. Naruto vs. Sasuke 2
1. Lee vs. Gaara

That's a pretty good list, I would put Gaara Vs Kimimaro instead of Lee Vs Kimimaru, children shouldn't drink. Talking about the upcoming fights, they better use their best animators, I wouldn't stand another Gaara Vs Deidara, the pace was too slow and the animation was bad.

[DarthEnderX]

This really bothers me as some of the absolute best fight scenes in all of Naruto are coming up soon and not only does the animation quality suck but the directors have no idea how to do a proper fight scene and if they continue to inject as much filler in each episode as they are currently doing then they will do an even worse job with the upcoming battles than they did during the Hidan and Kakuzu arc.

I don't think they've forgotten how to do a proper fight scene at all, they just only do it for important canon fights. Shikamaru vs. Akatsuke looked amazing. Sasuke vs. Oro looked like shit, but then, very little actually happened in that fight. There's hasn't been a real important battle since then.

I totally agree that the filler content jammed into canon episodes has pretty much ruined this series though. I've already made up my mind that I'm not going to buy Shippuuden when it starts coming out on DVD. It's just too hard at this point to separate the good parts from the crap.