English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “Rivals”

Are we sure that this isn’t the first series of Naruto?

Yes, Kakashi, I feel the same way. “Rivals” recaps the story, going from after the Zabuza fight, through the Forest of Death, into the preliminary fights of the Chunin Exam. Let me get this out of the way now: if you watched the first series, read the manga, or just talked to someone who told you the story of the first series, you can skip “Rivals.” It glosses over a lot of the story, and just cuts out a lot.

For instance, the fight with Zabuza was the foundation of the mutual respect between Naruto and Sasuke. That fight was also the start of Sasuke resenting Naruto for defeating a powerful opponent.  Sasuke laid down his life for Naruto, and Naruto protected him, with Naruto defeating Haku. They skipped out on that for a long ass retelling of the Forest of Death, and they didn’t really need to go that deep into it. I mean, if you’re going to go deep, show Orochimaru giving Sasuke the Curse Mark. That drove the rest of the first series, and most of Shippuden. Yet, the writers decided to omit that from the story. They also eliminate the entirety of the actual fights from the preliminary rounds. I am just floored.

However, there is a new scene, but it’s very brief. Sasuke finds Kakashi out in the desert somewhere, and begs him for help. Yep. That was it. The episode cuts just as Sasuke, in his emo onesie, finally makes it to the Chunin exam finals. What we got this week, was about 23 minutes of a resounding “meh.” You probably would probably be spending your time more wisely if you decided to watch preview videos of the new Naruto game, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, coming out on the 16th. In fact, go do that now, and skip “Rivals.” And if next week’s episode is anything like the last two weeks, I’m sure you will have a bit of time on your hands again.

“Rivals” is just another episode that breaks the momentum that this season’s story had. Anyone who is watching Shippuden doesn’t really care about re-watching a badly chopped up recap of the first part of the series. Again, we get it. Naruto and Sasuke are eternal rivals, and have been since they were little children. None of this matters in the grand scheme of the series, because when the canon kicks back in, these episodes never happened. I don’t see a point in doing a gap of filler episodes literally right before the start of the biggest arc in the series’s run. Then again, this is my sentiment when any anime runs fillers. I got nothing else for ya, kids. “Rivals” was meh, just like “Meeting.” I can’t help but feel like how Kakashi  feels in this picture. Poor Kakashi, it’ll get better, I promise.

If you have about 30 minutes to spend, you can catch “Rivals” on Hulu.