With all preparations complete, Madara Uchiha has emerged with his dread army of White Zetsu, poised to cast down the ninja world that opposes him. His uneasy alliance with Kabuto has bought him the service of history’s greatest Ninja, saints and monsters enslaved alike. Elsewhere, the Five Great Nations have gathered, but their alliance is uneasy in light of the constant strife between them. The Great Ninja War is about to start—will Naruto and his allies be ready in time?

Doomed to Repeat

The first three episodes continue the flashback from the previous DVD set, reviewing the gradual arc that led Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura to the places they are now. The story returns to the present following Sasuke’s defection from Hidden Leaf, leaving us with a grim reminder: hatred, however justified, invariably dooms the future. Of course, Sasuke isn’t the only one who can’t let the past go–despite teamwork being even more important than it ever was before, the Ninja nation is full grudges. It takes Gaara giving a speech worthy of William Wallace to get the armies of the Five Nations to even consider cooperation. We can only hope that the peace truly lasts.

Plants Vs. Zombies Vs. Ninja

Not that Madara and Kabuto have to worry about strife in their own ranks. Madara’s White Zetsu army has no capacity for rebellion, and Kabuto’s mentally restrained any of members of his dead army that would refuse to serve. The two distrust each other–entirely correctly–yet they’re willing to collaborate for now. While Madara departs to send the Zetsus on their own conquest, Kabuto sics his own troops on the Shinobi allied forces, bringing dead heroes and villains to the fray.

The Shuriken Felt Around The World

Episodes leading up to the actual confrontations admittedly feature a lot of talking, but once things heat up, they stay hot for the rest of the set. For starters, there’s an awesome fight with Sasori, Deidara, Shin, Sai, and Kankuro. As a big fan of Puppet Masters, I was pretty stoked for the first Puppet Master battle since Sasori’s death. We also get to see more of how Sasori and Deidara work together. Their abilities complement each other horrifyingly well; in hindsight, Sakura and Chiyo probably only beat Sasori because he’d fought alone.

Then two of my other favorite characters make a comeback: Zabuza and Haku! And they’re not alone–Kabuto was kind enough to bring back six of the best previous members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist throughout the ages. According to Suigetsu, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen faded into memory years ago, and most of their hereditary weapons have been scattered by time and multiple defections. Yet Kabuto’s retrieved them all, leading to a pretty sweet clash between our heroes and these silent killers from days gone by.

Yet another battle begins elsewhere when a massive division of White Zetsu attacks the coastline, led by the gold and silver brothers, Kinkaku and Ginkaku. These guys are…not nice. As two of the most powerful criminals of the Hidden Cloud to ever live, they had gained massive amounts of Chakra when the Nine Tails had swallowed them years ago. For the two weeks it took for the Nine Tails to spit them back up, Ginkaku and Kinkaku had survived by carving up giant fox’s stomach lining, thereby imbibing a portion of its Chakra into itself. (Being distant relations of the Uzumaki clan probably helped; their trademark Uzumaki whiskers might’ve been a giveaway…) Newly resurrected, these two utilize their massive Chakra stores to wield the Sage of Six Paths’ otherwise-unusable Chakra-draining weapons. With a rope, sword and gourd that can absorb you for using your favorite word… well, perhaps the less mentioned the better. This battle gets a surprising number of twists before it’s over–as per usual, the silliest-looking villains are still the most powerful, so don’t underestimate what gold or silver can do!

This is actually the most focused set of Naruto episodes I’ve seen in a while. The only anime originals were the flashbacks, and even those helped tie the earlier story arcs in with the current cycle of hatred motif. The pacing could get a bit drawn out, but even that helped give weight to the Great Ninja War’s immensity, not to mention resolving several plot arcs. The battles also help establish the massive scale, driving home just how incredibly BIG it all really is. Truly, no one is going gently into the night this time...

English & Japanese 2.0 Audio/English Subtitles
Episodes: 258-270
Special Features: Clean Opening, Clean Ending

Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 21 is available now at VIZ.com!

©2002 MASASHI KISHIMOTO / 2007 SHIPPUDEN All Rights Reserved.

by Chris Turner