English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “An Old Nemesis Returns”

Spoilers Below

After last week’s snore-fest, I was hoping to get something to get me excited again for the upcoming battle between Zombie Haku and Zombie Zabuza. And what I got in return was a fantastic episode filled with redemption for Zabuza. However, poor Haku kept getting the shit end of this stick.

As I said, there was plenty of excellent flowing throughout the episode. The reanimation of the Kekkei Genkai team felt formidable for a minute. But after the novelty of Haku and Zabuza coming back wears off, you’re left with a level of power that has been entirely over-matched by the Jinchuriki amongst others. One can argue that neither should have been an issue, considering how advanced all of the living ninja are, so I am glad Kishimoto decided to make them more formidable for this latest battle.

As for the catch-up, it was different to see Zabuza in a light where he seemed appreciative to have met up with Kakashi and Sakura, to at least get an update on Naruto. I think this was as well written for the anime as it was in the manga, and the translation was handled flawlessly. There was an added sense of emotion that came from watching Zabuza and Haku talk to Kakashi and Sakura, and I wished there was more because it was a great interaction. For once, I also thought that Kabuto turning them into mindless killing machines was a great touch, because this could be straining as well on Kakashi. This was about 23 minutes of a fun experience. The ending, actually, put things over the top.

However, as much as I loved the episode, something hit my brain like a cheese grater. The animators drastically changed Haku to sound more female, even though it was explicitly stated that Haku was a guy. It doesn’t matter if he was androgynous, there is no need to change Haku. Take a look from “An Old Nemesis Returns.” What did the fuck happen? Not only did they change Haku into a more feminine face style, but Haku looks like a botched plastic surgery case.

This is what he looked like from “Battle on the Bridge! Zabuza Returns!!” Yeah, I would say there was a HUGE difference.

What the literal fuck just happened? On top of the visual fuckups, when you watch the video, they changed the voice to make Haku female! Did Haku go from androgynous male to full-blown ugly bitch when he was reanimated? I knew you can fuck around with power levels, but I didn’t know you can straight up go full trans-gender. (Before we continue: no, I have no problems with transgender people. They’re actually mad cool. It’s just production and animated changes that happen for no reason that drives me up a wall.) I don’t understand what decisions are made to drastically change a character, let alone a character in a flashback. Not for nothing, but you can just be cheap, upscale the original animation from Naruto, and put it into Shippuden. Fuck this shit.

Ugly Bitch Haku aside, “An Old Nemesis Returns” was a well-written episode, and most of the translations were great. Yeah, I know I have problems with Haku. But in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t the worst thing ever to get screwed up in Naruto. The ending more than made up for Ugly Bitch Haku, and my excitement to see next week’s episode has me in a borderline fervor already.