English Review: Naruto Shippuden “Meeting”

Spoilers Below

Just like the New Year’s episode of Bleach, “Meeting” takes one of the most engaging arcs in Naruto, and stops the momentum the season had dead in its tracks. “Assemble! Allied Shinobi Forces” stopped right before both armies rode to war, and I can’t speak for anyone else, but I wanted to see what was going to happen so bad! Unfortunately, we get “Meeting instead.”  Trust me when I say this, it’s a completely unnecessary flashback to the first series of Naruto, to events that never happened in the manga. Maybe it won’t be so bad?

The premise behind “Meeting” is to elaborate on the dynamic between Naruto and Sasuke, by bringing the story back to the beginning. The writers for Shippuden took the Naruto / Sasuke sparring scene from manga chapter 538, and created an interwoven filler that goes in and out the story up to Zabuza’s attack in the Land of Waves. The sad thing about this filler arc is that there are three more episodes following this, going all the way to Naruto and Sasuke fighting in the Valley of the End.

I cannot help but feel that these episodes are all unwarranted. We know that Sasuke and Naruto are rivals. That’s nothing new here. We also know that the basis of the entirety of Naruto is the rivalry that comes between them. Going by what I saw in “Meeting,” this four episode filler arc does absolutely nothing to give us something meaningful, even by filler episode standards. Sure, Naruto’s pranks, Sasuke’s early dominance over Naruto, and Sasuke’s drive to kill Itachi are elaborated. I was just left with a feeling that these were just to delay the war for another month. These were all things we knew each character did or wanted to do. There was something that drove me nuts, and it’s very odd. Sakura, of all characters, was more of a space waster than normal, because she was used as decoration. She was integral in the ongoing rivalry between Sasuke and Naruto, yet, even the writers minimalized her to near nothing. They redo the bell test, and literally copy and paste it from the first series, right down to Squad 7 getting their picture taken.

I know filler episodes are accepted as low quality, but the writers getting carte blanche to do what they want need to stop. Here’s an idea for networks: instead of making Naruto air every week, without fail, take time off so the manga can get ahead. We don’t need subpar quality episodes that have no bearing on what the canon is doing. We can deal with getting 26 episodes, then getting time off. American television does that, and then some. We even get split seasons. American viewers want quality over quantity. We will wait 10 months for a show to come back, especially if the show is worth the wait.

I’m pretty sure I don’t need to bring up the terrible 80 plus episodes of filler the first series is notorious for, because that was one of the best times to just wait. These filler episodes do nothing to advance story, and halt any momentum the current arc has. Terrible filler episodes have to stop, and quickly. I cannot say this enough.

As for this, “Meeting” is a return to the beginning of Naruto. However, it was so meaningless, and even made one of the three main characters of the series into a meaningless dredge. Next week, we get to see if Sakura is rendered completely useless during the Zabuza fight and the Chunin Exams, or maybe she gets restored just a little bit. This week, I am just disgusted by “Meeting.” At least Hulu put it up on the site, and I was able to watch it seamlessly. Those are good things, right?