Wednesday, 2024-05-08, 4:14 AM
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"Creativity"

Episode 61 Review (Ultimate Defense: Zero Blind Spot!)

Episode sixty-one continues the fight with Naruto, but not a lot of it is fighting. The entire episode is almost dedicated to Neji’s character. At this point Neji was still pretty cool, but after this episode he becomes much more fleshed out. First after some fighting we learn of his abilities, like palm rotation that has a even better defense than Gaara’s sand armor. Then his gentle fist technique where he goes from two hits to four hit, to eventually sixty-four hits. When your taking out chakra points, that’s a lot. But after that is the big reveal of why Neji despises the main branch. He takes off his headband to reveal a mark, which he describes as keeping a bird in its cage. The purpose of the mark is to keep the side branch at bay. The main branch is suppose to keep the secrets of the Byakugan, and the side branch must protect them no questions asked. To keep the side branch in check, the main branch places marks on the side branch that will allow them to basically kill them anytime they want to. Then there is a back-story on just why Neji is so mad. It goes back to when Neji was a kid, and he was actually very nice (notice how many flashbacks go to when they were nice little kids in Naruto?) He was like, "Sure I’ll give my life for Hinata and put on a big smile even though I’m like five!” But then someone tried to kidnap Hinata, so her dad killed the guy. The man had been a person who just signed a peace treat with the leaf (they were trying to kidnap Hinata to steal the Byakugan) and acted like the man was murdered. To place the treaty back into check, someone had to die in Hinata’s dad’s place. That person was Neji’s father, his twin brother. Yeah, that kind of explains everything. Anyway this episode turned Neji from just the really strong and smart guy into a much more developed thing. At this point you care about the character, while also you want Naruto to win, but wouldn’t mind if Neji wins instead. It’s a full episode almost completely dedicated to an opponent, which I think is always a good thing. At this point you could easily justify Neji becoming a good guy, and one day getting along with Naruto.