Naruto Shippuden Review: Episodes 166-170

I was a pretty big fan of these episodes. They (with the exception of 170) were incredibly intense, and I loved every second of it.

I particularly loved that we got to see Hinata confess her feelings for Naruto, and in addition to that, we got a flashback to them when they were younger. I thought that was adorable. From Hinata being told multiple times that she shouldn't associate with Naruto to Naruto saving Hinata from the bullies. It was all just so sweet, and it made me feel really happy about how things have gone for Naruto sense then.

Naruto's reaction to it all was probably the best part. For a while Naruto was just staring with this look of blank shock or something, as if he had no idea how to take all of this in. I'm pretty sure it's the only time something has actually caused Naruto to be that speechless, and that was overwhelmingly emotional for me. You can tell how much it affected him too because the Nine-Tails came out.

I thought the combination of the Nine-Tails and the Sage Mode was interesting, and I enjoyed seeing both used within the same story. It kind of emphasized again for me how powerful Naruto is, and that was even more obvious once he learns that his father was the Fourth Hokage. I've been waiting to finally get to the point in the story where Naruto learns that, so I was really excited to get to that episode. I have to say, I was really happy with how it was done. The crying and getting angry definitely seemed like a realistic reaction, and I can't even imagine how Naruto was feeling after all of the Hinata stuff and then that.

I also don't have much to say on this topic, but I wanted to briefly mention that I liked a lot of the interaction between all of the characters in these episodes. I don't know what it was, just the heightened emotions I suppose, that made almost every exchange in these episodes a great one for me.

Naruto, being the awesome and increasingly powerful person that he is, manages to find out where the real Pain is, and he goes to confront him. We haven't gotten too far into that yet, so I don't have much to say other than that I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

I'm not so sure how I feel about the little "break" that is episodes 170 and 171. (I have watched 171, but I'll save specific talk of it until next review.) Maybe it's a good thing they put a break in between all the tension of the other episodes, but personally I'm not a huge fan. Still, that didn't stop be from feeling a bit nostalgic over how young they all are, and I thought it was a cute, if mostly pointless, episode. The only thing is that I kind of wish Sasuke had interacted with the others more. As the episode stood, it just kind of seemed like the showed him for a few seconds to try and get people excited, but then nothing really comes of it.

Overall, I loved this group of episodes, and I'm really excited to keep watching and see how the story goes!