What I did like is how to at least not have us stuck watching the bell test for 20 minutes, they panned on and off to the scenes of Deidara blowing up the Sunagakure. Oh man I love Deidara’s voice. It’s so hot and it makes him feel so much manlier. I remember when the manga came out, the Narutofan forums had like 20 threads about whether Deidara was a man or a woman. This at least gives him some manliness. I can’t wait to hear Sasori’s real voice. I bet he’ll be all bishounenish haha. Anyway my fav line of course was “Art is a bang!” (芸術は爆発！)

Anyway after about half way through the show the bell test was “creatively” extended by the animation team. They even threw in a stupid “illusion” technique Kakashi used in the form of young Sasuke. I mean even if Sakura didn’t know it was an illusion, isn’t it obvious that in like 2.5 years Sasuke still looks like he’s 12?? ^^; I also just hate how they gotta throw in Sasuke at every moment they can and still make it seem like Sakura is still obsessed with him as much as she was before the time skip. Along with this, it kinda irritated me when she called Naruto an “idiot” when he didn’t manage to get the bells from Kakashi the first time around. It makes it seem as if Naruto is still stupid and immature and that nothing has changed between them.

Anyway eventually, after Deidara blows up some sand Anbu’s faces, he runs into Gaara. The whole time I kept thinking back to my flash movie “Let’s get it on bitch!” I should just take the audio from that, and then use the actual animated clips from eps 1-3 of Shippuden and put it together. It would actually be in the proper order AND make sense. (Too bad I removed Premiere from my computer cause it was old and crappy.) Anyway looking forward to next week’s episode. Oh yea so during the bell test Naruto once again tried to do the 1000 years of pain crap. Why must the animation team always resort to these stupid toilet jokes? I’m getting flashbacks of the Konoha Sports Festival.

Upcoming Attractions: Well I could spoil it all but based on the preview I just hope they finally finish the bell test.

There’s a few flashbacks to the fight between Naruto & Sasuke and Naruto yells out “Why didn’t you kill me then?” Sasuke basically said that he didn’t want to be like his brother, and so Naruto was just saved “by chance.” And then he jumps down and grabs Naruto in a yaoi-fangirlgasmic kind of way and goes “And now I think I’ll kill you!” Of course they didn’t show what happened afterwards with the fight betwee Sasuke and the others.

In fact they jumped right into the scene where they showed inside of Naruto and how Sasuke was able to see the Kyuubi. I really think they shoulda showed the part where Yamato basically saves Naruto’s ass from being turned into sliced bologna. But other than that the scene was pretty accurate. I’m also very impressed at the quality of the animation. It looks like the real Naruto animation team is back so no more filler uglies.

So anyway inside the Kyuubi Sasuke basically has a little chat with it. The Kyuubi goes oh yea so you’re one of the Uchihas. Of course the moment he compares Sasuke to Itatchi, it his Sasuke’s little nerve and he blows the Kyuubi to smitherines. I never got that part, even in the manga because when we saw “outside”, Naruto’s eyes were all Kyuubi like so I’m not sure what went on in there.

Following this is the opening theme by a group I like called “nobodyknows+”. (One of their famous songs is Kokoro Odoru.) It’s pretty catchy and shows most of the characters in their time skip uniforms. What I don’t recall seeing is much of Akatsuki or Orochimaru or anyone else. Perhaps by the time they actually reach this arc properly, they’ll have to make a new opening. We still got a huge major Gaara arc to go through.

After the op/commercial it seems the show is back on the 4:3 aspect ratio rather than widescreen. And the first thing that we see is filler. WHRYYY! Why can’t you people just stick to the story line that you’ve made us wait for like 2 years!! Ahhh. Okay it’s a stupid filler about Konohamaru & his team mates doing the SAME mission Naruto did ages ago about catching that fat lady’s cat. It’s like total de ja vu of Naruto in his early days and how they get scolded by Iruka. Gahh whyyyyy!!

The fillerage continues but I found this to be kinda funny. Konohamaru’s group run into Sakura and then Sakura & them go to the gate guys who tell them something interesting has come back to town. Yes Naruto has finally returned. Really they wasted like 5 minutes on this. Then they show some sort of mini filler (which was actually a recent chapter cover) of Naruto little and Naruto big. Naruto little’s all like “WHOA THE FUTURE ME IS SO COOL!” and then the new Naruto’s all like “Whoa was I this stupid?” Then they give some kind of a keyword “Shi” which I think is for some kind of contest that is running throughout this special. *sigh*

I was really disappointed with the NaruSaku reunion scene. It was supposed to be like a surprise and stuff that Naruto gets to see her. But at least the whole “Did I become more feminine” part was kept in hehe. And of course Naruto replies with “DONT WORRY YOU HAVENT CHANGED A BIT!” LMao .

By the way where was Tsunade damnit. She was supposed to be with them the whole time instead of them going up to her office. Anyway right before Kakashi shows up they have ANOTHER stupid filler this time comparing the grown up Sakura. They then showed a bunch of goofy training Sakura had to go through. I honestly don’t think she had to go through this kind of training in the manga. ^^; The last of that is the 2nd keyword (sigh) and hey for those Miko fans we get to see Sakura in a miko outfit. 2nd keyword is “ttsu” which would totally make a “しっ” at this point.

Ok next they for some reason showed Shikamaru & Temari who they were supposed to meet AFTER the bell test in town. WTf . Alrighty then. And to add to more of my WTF for some reason Naruto doesn’t remember who Temari is. He was supposed to be all like “Hey are you two on a date!” Gosh even my Naruto southpark/timeskip crossover is more accurate than this episode. Ok anyway after that finally Naruto runs into Kakashi, which was actually the 2nd person he was supposed to run into way before Sakura. LOL the scene of Kakashi opening the book had me rolling.

Omg lame. So right when they’re about to have the bell test. What does Kakashi do? Acts like a filler and disappears to go read his porn. WTf? In other news, Paku Romi’s Temari is starting to sound SOOO much like Nana. I feel like I’m watching Nana again or something. Anyway after Naruto asks if they’re on a date, Shikamaru explains that he’s showing Temari around for the Chuunin exams. He also makes a point that Naruto is the only one still technically a genin. Even Sakura is a Chuunin now and Temari, Kankurou and Neji are all jounins. He also points out that Gaara is now Kazekage.

Next they show Gaara at his Kazekage meeting. They start discussing the Chuunin exams and say that there’s a rumor going around that Akatsuki has been hanging around the Sand village lately. Before we can get some REAL story going, we’re back to another mini filler this time with Jiraiya talking about his Icha Icha Tactics book and with Kakashi drooling and reading it. Anyway the next keyword is PU making me think the stupid keyword is probably “Shippuden” to begin with.

Anyway the Kazekage meeting continues in simultaneous with a conversation between Jiraiya and Kakashi. They say that they don’t know Akatsuki’s mission (I do so if you’d like to know just comment.) They just mention how Itachi and Kisame are in it as well as one of the guys who killed one of the Kazekage….Orochimaru. Jiraiya also mentions that they are after Naruto’s Kyuubi. The sand people talk about how they got news from Jiraiya and they have now setup their anbu troops to patrol the Sand village and be on the lookout for Akatsuki. After the meeting we see one of the guys has a headache but basically he is under Sasori’s jutsu..who we see walking through the desert with Sasori. Both are Akatsuki members.

Finally Kakashi shows up for the bell test but the scene of Sakura/Naruto being sad about Sasuke was soooo dramatic. And then they had to go and show that stupid scene of Sakura and Sasuke when he leaves. Blah. I really liked the “Zu~N” part though, that was in the manga and it was really funny ahaha. Oh come on guys get over the Michael Jackson fanboy already. And so begins the bell test. Kakashi even puts his book away and takes out his Sharingan saying “I have a feeling I might need it this time.”

At this point Deidara & Sasori have arrived in sand. Thanks to the guy they used he pretty much killed both squad leaders so the other Anbu guys have no idea what’s going on below. OH I forgot to mention the jutsu Yuura was under, was the same jutus Sasori once used on Kabuto…that Orochimaru managed to dispell. Anyway we get back to the bell test. But once again, it’s interrupted by ANOTHER chunk of filler where Tsunade & Shizune discuss the outcome of the bell test. Gahhh they really coulda made this a 30 min episode if it if it wasnt for all the fillerage E_E. Then they argue about who will win and who will bet on who. The last keyword is “u” making the whole word “Shippu”.

Wow okay so the episode ended there O_o. The ending song is “Shooting Star” by Home Made Kazoku. Hey I actually like this band too! Lmao all these random R&B/Rap bands are doing Naruto Op/eds . The ending animation is like a crappy animation of chibi Naruto & chibi Sasuke duking it out and Naruto getting left behind while all the girls swoon over Sasuke. Really could they just get over the NaruSasu thing? This anime isnt about NARUTO AND SASUKE. It’s about like NARUTO fighting AKATSUKI. That’s preeetty much the whole of season 2. I’m sure there will be another time where they duke it out but so far it’s just been Konoha vs Akatsuki so making this kind of intro and ending is kinda irritating. (Although NaruSasu fangirls would care to disagree.)

Upcoming Attractions: Finally the bell test. Not a 1 hour special so no dumb filler crap. Also appears Deidara finally makes his way into the Sand village.