So in case you missed the events of the last DVD set (and shame on you if you did!) then here's what happened. MADARA. UCHIHA. As in, the guy who dropped a giant meteor on his enemies then dropped a second one on them when that didn't work, then created an entire wood-style forest jungle when they survived that too. And when some of them still survived, he barely rolls his eyes! That's not the biggest thing, though–this Madara's reanimated, meaning that that masked guy who first called himself Tobi wasn't really Madara after all! So just who in the heck IS he anyway?!

Just when we thought that the war might end in the Five Nations' favor, after all, this new revelation (and the nuclear threat-level foe behind it) has moved the goalposts off the field and into outer space! The amount of power Madara's throwing around takes the five living Kage working together just to keep in check. (Even Tsunade's willing to risk a transportation jutsu that might leave her atomized to get to the line in time!)

Meanwhile, the non-Shadow Clone Naruto and Killer B are fighting the non-Madara mask-guy (a party whom shall hereafter be referred to as “Tobi” because eh, it's easier). Tobi's got his own posse of reanimated jinchuriki, who he's united with their (still-shackled and angry-as-all-get-out) Tailed Beasts to maximize their offensive potential.

Most of the fun comes from the inter-cutting between the two fights from here on out: Naruto and B against Tobi and his crew in the forests while elsewhere the Kage fight the real Madara (who's basically an army in his own right.)

That said, one of the sweetest points comes after the Four-Tails eats Naruto. (Because leave it to Naruto to still not give up!) Inside the beast's physical belly, his mind enters a different plane. Give Naruto credit, he wastes no time working his turn-anyone-into-a-friend magic, starting with the Four-Tails itself.

And what follows is one of the mores sobering moments in the series. From the beginning, their history seems to be a cycle of various ninja villages sealing them, using them as weapons of mass destruction and then re-sealing them once they escape since, as beings made of pure Chakra, there's no way to kill them off forever. They've even caused misery when sealed since the jinchuriki's lives become a nightmare of isolation thereafter. Heck, The Hidden Leaf was almost destroyed by the Nine-Tails shortly after Naruto's birth, and Naruto's parents were both casualties (in their own ways) of its escape.

But...why are they so hostile to begin with?

As the Four-Tails explains to Naruto, they hate humans because humans have been using them as weapons since the beginning, and the problems just a more direct version of the cycle of hatred that Naruto's been fighting this whole time. A cycle that will only truly end once everyone's let go of their hatred.

It's a sobering reminder that the ninja–even the nicer ones from the Hidden Leaf–share a rather dirty history. And we've seen waaaaaaay too many examples already where humans went kinda loopy because they were drawn into that cycle, humans otherwise capable of doing far greater and nobler things. (Sasuke or Gaara, anyone?) And considering how surprised they all are when Naruto expresses genuine interest in being friends in the first place...

Well, darn! THAT'S a pretty depressing view of what their lives were like beforehand. Naruto's simply choosing to learn their names is a step towards human-Tailed Beast diplomacy that hasn't been seen since the days of the Sage himself! Good thing he's in range for the psychic equivalent of a conference call with the rest of the sealed beasts!

This gets a pretty dark counterpoint when Naruto asks "Tobi" who the heck he really is and the masked villain refuses to comment. Unlike the Tailed Beasts, he doesn't care about things like names. He's so fixated on getting the Project Tsuki no Me, er, off the ground that he's lost track of anything else binding him to the rest of the world. Well, Naruto's going to have to show him a small reminder. A few fists to the face and boots to the keister might be a good place to start!

There's also some trouble a-brewing even behind enemy lines. Sasuke, ever the wild-card, returns to the field in the latter half of the set, eventually setting his sights on Kabuto. Yeah, the snake man's been sitting on the sidelines playing puppet master for WAY too long, and Sasuke's just aching to show off some of the new powers that Madara's cooked up for him. But Kabuto's no simple “man-behind-the-curtain.” Even without his undead pawns, he's a force in his own right!

The plot's racing along full-tilt now, and only time will tell if Naruto's ploy to break the cycle will out. Still, no one's done yet, and something tells me that the most powerful players are only just getting started...

You can try and figure out who the man behind the mask is by picking up DVD Set 26 available here! 

English & Japanese 2.0 Audio / English Subtitles
Episodes 323-335
Special Features: Storyboards, Art Gallery, Clean Opening/Ending, English Credits

by Chris Turner