Naruto: Shippuden Season 2 (2007)
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Naruto: Shippuden Season 2 Review
The second season of Naruto: Shippuden is a big step down from the previous season in terms of the quality, but it’s still a solid one with its fair share of strengths.
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“I have a bond of hatred with my brother“
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So in this season we see one smaller arc where Naruto and Sakura get a new captain and a new teammate and go to finally find and bring back Sasuke back to the village. They succeed at finding him, but he leaves them without any fighting previously. So the end result is one very anti-climactic season and arc which obviously needed to have been like this when you think about it as this was the most realistic and believable outcome that could have happened, but still I ended up being seriously underwhelmed as the build-up was definitely too big for the battle that never came.
Let’s discuss the season character by character which is easier for me then to go by it in terms of the plot points. I don’t know how to feel about Sai just yet. On the one hand, he’s fun and intriguing in a way, but on the other hand, he’s already changed sides way too much and his backstory is overly similar to Sasuke’s and I disliked it quite a bit. Though I did love that book of his and his art technique is so cool and authentic.
Sakura is already sidelined and once again she did not get enough action scenes which came as a big disappointment after her great action-heavy role in the previous arc. As for Naruto, I don’t know how to feel about him. He’s continuing to lag behind Sasuke in terms of his powers which is problematic for the show, but I still really liked his determination to not use the fox anymore and fight Sasuke himself.
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Speaking of Sasuke, him being shirtless was so obviously a decision done to appeal to teenage girls watching the show, but I really liked the scenes that we got with him here and he was cool for sure. Yamato himself is quite forgettable, but Kabuto is reliably memorable and of course Orochimaru steals the show whenever he’s on screen.
Overall, I liked this season quite a bit, but I didn’t love it because it’s overly anti-climactic and some characters are seriously sidelined. But still the fights are solid and the introduction of Sai is mostly a positive development. In the end, it’s mostly just a transitional season.
Worst Episode: Formation, New Team Kakashi and An Unnecessary Addition.
Best Episodes: Reunion and The Power of Uchiha.
