Did You Guys Miss These?
No, you probably didn't. But that's not the point. The point is...SHIPPUUDEN'S BACK IN CANON, AND THAT MEANS THERE IS SASUKE TO BE HAD! ON TO EPISODE REACTIONS!
We start off with...a weasel? Is it? IS THERE SYMBOLISM? Oh, wait, it's a squirrel. Maybe. It's a very ambiguous animal, but I'm pretty sure it's just an ugly squirrel. Dammit. We then move on to watching Orochimaru cough and hack and retch laboriously into his hand. Soooo fascinating. Kabuto shows off his Ninja Info Cards, and we get a flashback allllll the waaaaaay back to, like, episode 27 or so! Of the first anime! AWW, LOOK AT SASUKE BACK WHEN HE HAD A SOUL, D'AAAAAAW~ He's retching with fear and paralysis--lol, everybody's retching in this episode. It's kind of funny. And then a quality animation shot of Genin!Sasuke with really skinny legs. Like, eat-a-goddamn-sandwich skinny. Nagato's-jealous skinny. Oh, animation, how we love you.
Kabuto says something to the effect of, "aww, look, three years since he was a stupid kid and now we're gonna insert your horrible snakey glory into his soon-to-be-empty husk, it's kind of nostalgic~" Orochimaru, meanwhile, attempts to recreate Sasuke's glorious smirk from episode 90, and doesn't do that bad a job, honestly. The two of them reminisce about their lovely little firebrand, aww this would be so cute if they weren't planning to commit all sorts of Body Horror on him, lol. And OMG HEY LOOK IT'S ANKO! ANKO! :DDDDDDD FORGET SASUKE, ANKO TIME! Anko time lasted about seven seconds, but it's Anko. Flashbacks of Yoroi, geez, are they going to recap every Sasuke-centric moment of Part 1? I wouldn't be too put out by that, but it's delaying Team Hawk, come on. Kabuto, meanwhile, is like, "uh-huh, yep, Sasuke's so cute, yeah, mmhmm," making tea while Orochimaru fangirls. Seriously, this is starting to look like a visual representation of my phone calls to jaderhade.
We alternate between some very good and some laughably bad animation here, and I'm wondering, didn't the filler give them long enough to big-budget this? Eh, maybe all the good stuff is during the actual fight. We're still only about four and a half minutes in.
Opening sequence, and finally god they seem to be getting close to starting this thing. Oi.
A thought about the opening and ending sequences: they seem to make a lot of excuses to draw Sasuke without any clothes on. I'm not complaining, no, but it seems to go beyond fanservice into visual symbolism here; perhaps using nakedness as the primal symbol for insecurity, weakness, vulnerability? Strange, because Sasuke doesn't see himself that way at all (consciously--subconsciously, yeah, he's a neurotic mess, but not consciously). Maybe we're supposed to be scared for him, as viewers, because we know what he's about to face? Just thoughts. Or maybe it's all fanservice, whatever. *watches very closely for, uh, research*
Tsunade: NOW THAT THE OP IS OVER, ALLOW ME TO TIE UP THE LOOSE ENDS OF THAT LAST FILLER ARC VERY LOUDLY AND OBVIOUSLY. SHIZUNE, GO FETCH ME SOMETHING CANONICAL TO DO.
Me: *snrk*
OOH OOOOH OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH ITACHI FLASHBACK ITACHI FLASHBACK ITACHI FLASHBACK YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!! It'll go something like:
Orochimaru: "You are so pretty, Itachi-kun, allow me to creepily proposition you for your body even though you are like fourteen or fifteen years old right now."
Itachi: "Get back in the kitchen and try making me a sandwich with ONE ARM, bitch." -/_\-
Orochimaru: *s-sob* "MEANIE-HEAD!" *runs away like a little girl*
Present!Orochimaru: "Hmm, I thought I'd successfully repressed that."
Except omg, it's even creepier, because Orochimaru like freaking stalks him and tries to sneak attack him with a snake. This memory is apparently so traumatic that Oro-chan has to start coughing again. I am lolling so hard.
Kabuto excuses himself so that he can be conveniently absent while Sasuke slices and dices his master up. Orochimaru treats us to some maniacal laughter that I'm sure we will miss once he's dead and gone. Oh my god, lol, actual line from Kabuto: "This is why I cannot leave Orochimaru-sama's side," as he's leaving to go get medicine, omglolrofl. Poor guy.
dshjfdhsjfk MOAR SYMBOLISM as a moth flies past a candle where Sasuke's meditating, zomg look at how sexy he is, guh. And MOAR ITACHI FLASHBACKERY aaauuuhhhh I am so happy with this episode even if it does contain ludicrous amounts of flashback. And gaaaaaaah dsjkaldjsakdlaj he's doing the upside-down shuriken thing that Itachi does zomg zomg the symbolism is being beaten into us with a two-by-four and it is awesome. Except then Sasuke adds his own flair by doing Chidori Nagashi for no reason except that it looks sooooo prettyyyyyyyyy~ And then a five-second shot of nothing but his duckbutt I am not even kidding you guys, it's just the back of his head sticking up for ever, ahahahahahffffffffff~~~ And then MOAR MOTH IMAGERY and the GHOST OF HAMLET'S DAD ITACHI STANDING THERE ALL GLOWY AND MENACING, and please just get the Orochmaru-stabby over with, I want Suigestu now.
And then he opens the doors to leave and the moth flies into the candle and the symbolism is obvious, lalala.
Tsunade: "BLAH BLAH BLAH FILLER BLAH I AM GOING TO CRY BECAUSE OF ALL THIS FILLER WRAP-UP, SOB."
Shizune: "HANG IN THERE, MA'AM, IT'LL BE OVER SOON."
We see the mutant squirrel again, except now I am totally convinced that it is a weasel, because it catches and kills a mouse, and squirrels don't do that, and now my symbolism senses are tingling. This episode, for not being in an Itachi arc, is so Itachi-heavy, lalala~ and I am a happy Random. And AWWW IT HAS WEASEL-BABIES-- whoa. Um. ...Not touching that with a ten-foot pole, moving on... EXCEPT THEN THERE IS A SNAKE THAT IS HUNGRY AND WANTS TO EAT THE WEASEL BABIES, OMFG OMFG SYMBOLISM *DIES*
Sasuke: *doorstab*
Random: "GOD FINALLY, IT'S ONLY WHAT, THIRTEEN MINUTES IN? THE EPISODE IS EXACTLY HALF-OVER, GEEZ."
ffffffffffffffffffff they're playing, like, this knock-off Western cowboy staredown music, I am trying not to laugh like an idiot.
Noriaki Sugiyama: "I HAVE LINES! FINALLY! FEAR MY GLORIOUS AND AWESOME POWER!"
Random: *melts into puddle of goop*
And Sasuke says his "I can be heartless to you" line, but it isn't as effective without the juxtaposition of the scene before it, with all the people and Orochimaru chastising him for being a pansy and not killign them, so in order to counteract this, they have to flash back to it to remind us that it's ironic. Sigh.
and oooohhhhhhhh goooood I think i'm having an orgasm from the sexy oh my god kdfjksljklfjskaljskaljksl noriaki sugiyama, i will have your babies.
I'm noticing Sasuke's using a pretty rude form of you in addressing Orochimaru: "anta." Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it's ruder or less rude than "omae." Damn me and my lack of knowledge, sob. (which shall be rectified come college time! *fistpumps*)
And then Sasuke decides everybody else has been having flashbacks without him and he wants in on the fun, sigh. If this were in real-time, Kabuto'd long be back by now. Blah blah blah, the Uchiha are haxxorz, blah...
Sasuke's anger at Orochimaru's methods is interesting. The manga made it sound like he was just disgusted in general with Orochimaru, but the anime is giving a sort of impression that Orochimaru's bad human rights record has partifularly pissed Sasuke off. I wonder if his contact with Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo prior to this is an influence? Bonds? Aww, that's kind of cute. *wibbles over Hawk, sklsjfdksl* Or maybe it's just because he remembers Itachi's, um, totally callous reason for killing the family. "Uh, testing my strength? Uh, yeah, that. That was it, Yeah." *wibbles even harder over Itachi* guuuuuh Itachi's seiyuu guuuuuuuuuuuh~~~
AND FINALLY THE BATTLEZORZ STARTS YAAAAAY~ And the music is pretty awesome, too! *dances* This fight sequence is gorgeous. Gorrrrrrgeouuuuuuuus~~~~~~
Sasuke: "Excuse me please, I need to strip." omnomnomnomnomn this was worth waiting a million years for~~
And then the snake jumped after the weasel babies only to be speared by a hungry hawk, and now they're mixing symbols and the effect is slightly ruined.
AND THEN ENDING THEME NOOOOOOOOOOO
Next time: Kabuto is clueless in a hallway, and Random is the only person who thinks that CS2 is the sexiest thing to fly on handwings. Meanwhile, mini-Orochimaru is startlingly adorable, and Sasuke is attacked by Cthulthu. Yaaay.