Summary
The crew take a slight detour and stop at an uninhabited island. There, they run into Sakura, Ino and Chouji who are collecting herbs on a mission. Though the island is supposed to be plentiful in herbs, ninja from a place called Benisu have been looting the herbs for themselves, then selling them for money.
Impression
I have to admit it’s a pretty good excuse transition, with Gai and the whole crew getting seasick at the start, leading them to end up on a random island. Sakura, Ino and Chouji being there as well was far too coincidental though, and Naruto “helping” them with their mission only served as time spent to fill out waiting for Gai to get better again.
What would have been 20mins or so of ninjas collecting plants was disturbed by ninjas wearing dodgy headbands from this place called Benisu, however these ninja are looting the herbs to make money off the other nations, since Benisu is almost non-existent in the social status food chain and they apparently “have” to survive off selling herbs. It’s obvious they still remain somewhat money-obsessed pricks after being saved by Naruto (since every good Naruto filler ends with him using Rasengan on something) but the Konoha team achieve their objective in the end or it wouldn’t be a filler would it?
Maybe I’m thinking into this too deep, but the need to send medic specialists such as Sakura or Ino to fetch herbs foreshadows the impact that this war will have. Probably even more so, knowing that the main opponents are Uchiha Madara and the resurrected Akatsuki compared to the other nations they fought in past wars. There have only been three other wars in the Naruto world, and each of them impacted the world in its own way, killing off a few Kages and strong shinobi in the process.
Though it’s in no way preferable to the original storyline, single-episode fillers tend to be more interesting overall for a long running show like this compared to whole filler arcs, which tend to be unique, then get boring extremely quick cough Bleach cough Next week’s filler is about a ghost ship come on, you HAD to see that coming which “guides souls to the land of the dead through a journey by sea”, detouring Naruto and the crew even more. Now, where do I recognize that phrase from?
…I’m going to find it hard to write about this series these next few weeks.