English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “Battleground!”

Watching this week’s Naruto Shippuden is a lot like eating at Subway. You come away wishing there was more to what you just got.

 Spoilers Below

Don’t get me wrong, Eating Subway can be tasty from time to time, but you have to order like quadruple meat to feel like you ate a meal. “Battlegrounds” had a smattering of fighting, but not enough to make you feel like you watched a fulfilling episode. Most of the episode centered around the protection detail for the five feudal lords, and more of the calm before the fight on the coast. You only see the feudal lords three times in the entirety of Naruto, so I don’t know what the big deal is having to protect them for this war. I guess they just needed a reason to get Mei involved in this season? I was just hoping for some real fighting.

You get really teased too. You see Darui’s black lightning, which he forms into some sort of cat. When Skikamaru was educating some ninja on the kekkai tota (more time wasting), they even use Darui’s gale style as an example of a very powerful kekkai genkai. What I don’t understand, is why has nothing ever been said about a kekkai tota in the five hundred episodes prior? I would think this is somewhat of a big deal. On a side note, I love the person the people got to voice Darui. He sounds like a smooth badass, especially when he has his tease of a showdown with Ginkaku and Kinkaku.

I did appreciate that the fighting did start, though. The Zetsus made landfall, as did Dan, Asuma, Kakuzu, and Hizashi Hyuga. Asuma and Dan found Choza, Hizashi found his brother Hiashi, but the interactions were short. This is this is the problem with “Battlegrounds!”. For an episode named that, you would expect something with a little more punch and kick. However, this is making me pretty curious to see how well the upcoming fights will be, because they plot was great in the manga. The fight with Ginkaku and Kinkaku has me the most excited. Unfortunately, the episode ended before any of this can begin. There wasn’t much to review, because not a lot happened.

So, like the episode, this review is as much of a tease as that Subway sandwich I was talking about before. The writers get you to a point where you think a full on battle is going to occur, but we’re stuck with nothing. It’s kind of irritating, to be honest. I am sure that the die hards will enjoy the episode, but the rest of us will probably want more fighting. If you’re watching Naruto for the logistics protecting the feudal lords, then maybe this is right up your alley. Now, if you excuse me, I just made myself hungry and I am going to go eat.