English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “Sai and Shin”

This week on Naruto Shippuden, you get a look into how not to raise a child for Spec Ops. Apparently, it’s bad and child abuse to have two kids live with each other and care for one another, just to have one kill the other. Not for nothing,but that’s some messed up shit. I knew Danzo was an asshole, but god damn, this is fucked.

The good  news, however, is that we get to finally peer into the backstory of Sai. Sai really cared for Shin, especially during the time they grew up. Shin had some sort of an illness, which makes him completely debilitated during this final battle with Sai. Unfortunately, Sai and Shin never had that final battle they were supposed to have. Shin gives up his life, because it’s close to ever anyway. He kills himself so Sai can live for the both of them. This is a pretty heart wrenching scene, and gives a lot of insight into why Sai was a complete asshole when he first appeared.  For some reason, Kishimoto decided to have a loophole in the Edo Tensei where if they felt whole or some stupid shit, their soul is released from the world, and the husk disintegrates. I felt this was retarded when I read it in the manga, and I still feel the same.

After a flashback to the Chiyo / Sasori fight, Kankuro uses this same method to release Sasori. This is bullshit, to the highest level. Sasori passes his Mother and Father puppets onto Kankuro, and asks him to pass them on to the next puppet master. After a bunch of “I don’t know” from Kankuro’s squad, the scene shifts to Kabuto and Madara and their next ploy. Madara finally makes it to the battlefield, and the war gets interesting.

This episode is full of bullshit, I can’t even muster the words. On one hand, I understand that there’s only a limited time for each squad to get in the manga. But when you take the lazy way out and say that you can release the Edo Tensei by using the emotions of that returned ninja, it just screams out laziness, and a bullshit way to get over a problem. I would have given the pass to Sai and Shin, because they were really brothers. Sasori, on the other hand, that asshole tried to kill Kankuro at the onset of Shippuden. Now he wants to be his comrade and hand over his best puppets? Get the fuck out of here. It’s this type of out of nowhere twists that drive me insane.

But yet, people eat it up. I guess some people will just eat up whatever was given to them like sheeple. Me, on the other hand, I go borderline meta when it comes to these plot devices. It’s a simple way to get out of a jam, and thankfully Kishimoto figured out a way to not use that bullshit again. Unfortunately, I still have to give a score for this, and this Care Bear moment ruined what could have been a powerful meeting between two former brothers. Thanks, Kishimoto.