English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “War Begins!”

Everyone profits from a war, especially when it’s the viewers of Naruto Shippuden!

War has finally broken out in the world of Naruto, and it came just in time. After months of build up, a month of flashback filler, and one of the best speeches made in the series, Naruto Shippuden finally moved to war. In what will be most definitely a theme, we get a rematch of the first major fight of Shippuden, with Sasori and Deidara encountering Kankuro, If you read the manga, you will know that this is going to be an ongoing theme thanks to Kabuto’s battlefield manipulation. He plays the opposite side’s feelings against them by sending his reanimated ninja in against the people who have vested interest in those ninja. It’s actually very smart.

It seems to have the desired effect because Sai is frozen when he realizes that Kabuto sent in Sai’s brother, Shin, against this party. However, this only motivates Kankuro, who still wants revenge for getting his ass handed to him by Sasori. The episode cuts out just as Kankuro breaks out his newest puppet, Sasori. The kill count is rather low,with only a couple nameless alliance ninja, and Muta Aburame. Yeah, I know, it’s only the onset of the war.

With Kabuto’s plan  being put out there within the first five minutes of “War Begins!,” you know that there are going to be some surprises, and some debuts that have to happen. Of course, if you haven’t read the manga, that won’t be spoiled, yet. What bugged me about “War Begins!” was that there was a lot of talking and exposition, that led to nowhere. It was just people saying “I’m better.” “No, I’m better. I can’t die.” It’s pretty disheartening, because I was expecting more action. But, like I said before, it’s only the first episode of a very long arc. But that doesn’t leave me with a lot of anything to say. It was a good start, but I hope that it gets better, because I am getting pretty upset that I don’t have a lot to work with.

You can catch Naruto Shippuden’s “War Begins!” right here!