You people are totally retarded. This episode owned. And the people complaining about it are the obvious usual groups of elitists who go into it thinking every filler episode has to suck, and force themselves to think it sucked even when it was great.

If this episode hadn't been filler right now everyone would be talking about how sweet that giant whirlpool move was, and how it was a perfect example of Naruto using his techniques in surprising ways. There were TWO battles in this episode, Idate's backstory is slightly less one-dimentional than before, there was some sweet remixed Garaa battle music, and Sakura is already stating to play squad medic. It was also cool how the rain ninjas breathed underwater. Explains what those masks were for beyond simply giving them distinctive appearances.

The new opening was cool. Animation was great. Though, prefer earlier songs. Ending was, meh.