I guess it was too much to expect an increase in episode quality after that delay last week, but hey, these are Naruto fillers we’re talking about.
Summary
Tenten trains with Lee as he tries to unlock the next of the Eight Gates, and in the process, flashbacks about her genin days when she still idolized Lady Tsunade.
Impression
This is the thing with flashback eps in a show like Naruto – the ongoing manga prevents any new material being added in through filler, in case what Studio Pierrot does with the ep differs from what Kishimoto eventually builds on Team Gai’s story. So all that the studio have to work with is what we already know about Tenten and her admiration for Tsunade. And, as said, they can’t build too much on everything we already know. Essentially, we’ve hit a roadblock.
Again, similar to the Shino filler I felt that this would have been better off in the Konoha History arc, though I guess there wasn’t even any mention of ships this time round xD And we basically had Team Gai learning about the specialities they would eventually go into. For Tenten, that would have been to follow Tsunade in whatever she does, and she tries out all sorts of dodgy stuff from medical ninjutsu to trying to enter a bar. Maybe she would have even went and had a boob job if she wanted to emulate Tsunade that much. She’s not even that great compared to others…all she does these days is drink sake and work as an insanely strong medic. Actually she was in that coma until recently wasn’t she? flashbacks
Daimyo: Okay, so I appoint Hatake Kakashi the new Ho-
Shizune: WAIT, NO STOP! SHE’S WOKEN UP, IT’S ALL FINE NOW trollface
Anyway, it was kinda obvious, even without hindsight that she’d specialize in weaponry, as her various attempts at summoning turned out to be just various random weapons. Though it was obvious she knew next to nothing about summoning and how rare it is, it’s not like you can just walk into a bar and ask for a contract.
The other focus was mainly Lee, while he was still normal thank god. Er, yeah it was mostly him getting pwned over and over by Neji, who was still stuck-up back then and bullying his poor cousin. How could you Neji? Once again, Studio Pierrot had nothing apart from Lee’s operation and the Sasuke Retrieval after that to base stuff on, so a few extra flashbacks were thrown in -_- On a side note, I really pity Gaara for having to stand there awkwardly and watch Gai and Lee do their creepy manly thing. Eww.
That was more or less it I think…uh, THE END!
Okay fine. Next week we’ve got a filler on Sai, and I swear I’d better not get him just going round Konoha, reading his misguided books and pissing off everyone still in the village. Yeah I just jinxed it didn’t I.