155. The Creeping Dark Clouds

Worth watching as a manga-standard episode? This is getting dragged out to sad proportions now.
Worth watching for the lulz? Raiga's still posing under a pile of rocks, but that lulz has been and gone.

In some ways, this episode had the chance of being considered to be the best thing ever, and others, to suck sweaty Gai balls after climbing three mountains, beating Lee twice in a display of loving sensei pwnage and one heartbreaking rock-paper-scissors match against Kakashi. I started watching it eating a Mars Bar Rice Krispie square I crafted myself, which was made of deliciousness and the tears of angels. How could anything fail to be enhanced to maximum amazingness? But I also started it after watching the Supernatural series 2 finale (I came late to the party) and let's face it – the Naruto fillers on a good day aren't fit to lick Jensen's studly boots even when he's having an off day demon hunting. So, conflicting powers of light and dark inside my heart (and stomach) aside, let us move on to the review.


Naruto has gained yet another fanboy, whose traumatized face can serve to illustrate the proper reaction for anyone who's touched in the head or has been watching this arc with their eyes closed and fingers in their ears (actually isn't that how everyone is watching these eps?) because, gasp, Karashi's sudden change of heart was too sudden even for filler! He has a dastardly plan against our young heroes: ninja are stupid so throw rocks at them.

Sttttttttttttrike! What's your prize? Twenty more minutes. This is a villain sponsored bowlorama, you know.

Why Karashi is being shown to be one of the bad guys I don't know, considering Lee is trying to force him to live a life of curry for god's sake. The forecast is slightly cloudy, likelihood of a big ninja tornado. Because that's how you make Wolverine more powerful: you spin him.



Surprisingly this doesn't work and Naruto and co beat the henchmen up. The villagers want to get a piece of Karashi because his attempt to pass his treason off as a 'joke' doesn't deserve to go unpunished, but Lee steps in and asks they beat him up instead. I don't have a problem with this because he then has another go with his speech on the importance of curry in one's daily life.

THE MORAL OF THIS ARC, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT.

Karashi reluctantly agrees and they go to get Ranmaru out of the shed. Tenten gets some much needed characterisation here as she states he should just be left since he can't do anything for himself – shame it reveals she's some kind of disabled person hater?

Tenten burns not only every one of these she finds, but the people in them too.

WHO then sponsors Ranmaru's flashback. The villagers shunned him because he had an ability that he called Shining Shinning because he doesn't want to get sued. Raiga may have been using him to fuck shit up, but Ranmaru doesn't care as he has no morals, like Sarah Palin. Naruto's solution to him beginning a new life is not medicine or physiotherapy, but goddamn curry. Giving Raiga's corpse a quick check, Ranmaru notices something that makes him happy, leading us back to my earlier point of the wonders of taking a leaf out of Sam and Dean's book. Some salt and lighter fluid could have solved this mess in an instant. They go back to the Curry of Life shop and the old woman proves that if they're not talking about curry, then it's snot. She serves Karashi 'punishment curry' for trying to join an evil dictator – did someone dare the writers they couldn't stretch this questionable use of spicy food to the brink of madness or is Uncle Ben simply paying them for each mention? – and the shinobi prepare for Ranmaru to live there and become a good guy. Except they leave him alone with Karashi, who amazingly, when faced with the choice of a life of curry or lording it over villagers while working on his evil laugh, chooses the latter. He carries Ranmaru to find Raiga, who he sensed was not dead, and the Haku-fanboy gives Raiga his chakra (I presume eBay was all out of Zabuza cosplay swords) so the arc can have another two episodes.

Team members: Naruto, Lee, Neji and Tenten
Number of kage bunshin no jutsus: 2
Number of rasengans: 0!
Next week: Thinking about it, the Winchesters would have kyuubi running away with his tail between his legs in one episode... ok, ok, next week no more Supernatural references.