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Episode 64 Review (Zero Motivation: The Guy With Cloud Envy!)

Episode 64 Review (Zero Motivation: The Guy With Cloud Envy!)

The beginning of this episode represents any hardcore fan of this series that makes fun of Shikamaru. They are throwing garbage at Shikamaru cause they don’t want to see him, they want to see Sasuke. And Shikamaru wonders why he should do something for them. I’ve mentioned before Shikamaru and Kakashi are my favorite characters. But that’s mostly due to the manga, which had a little more focus around Shikamaru, and while wondering which characters were my favorite, those two just stuck with me. Is Shikamaru flawed? Yes, that’s the whole point. Eventually when the Naruto series reviews are said and done I’ll get around to doing some character reviews on it’s characters, and I’ll get more in depth with Shikamaru. But anyway this match is just straight up. It isn’t slow, it doesn’t take up multiple episodes, and there isn’t minutes worth of footage getting everyone reactions, even though the reactions tell a lot in the fights. With Naruto everyone doubted him, with Shikamaru everyone thinks he’ll give up and is a slacking loser, which he is. He can win, and he can with effort easily win this match, but he doesn’t. That is represented by Ino and Choji. Ino thought Shikamaru was so great and powerful and he could easily win, but Choji thought he was to lazy and he’d give up. In the end Choji was right, and Shikamaru quit. The episode is all about strategy, which to me is just as fun, if not more than watching the most epic of fights. These characters had no hype going in, no personal grudges, nothing. And Shikamaru turned that to be one of the best fights in the series so far. Shikamaru won his first match without even really trying, and this match he was a hundred steps ahead the whole time. It was even revealed to us his I.Q. is over two hundred. That’s more than twice the current IQ of the U.S. so I say that’s pretty damn good. Anyway, even though Temari wins this match, it’s all about Shikamaru. I’ve been waiting for this since reviewing episode one, so you can see why I was so excited for this. And it does Shikamaru justice and shocks everyone by just what he can do, and by what he doesn’t do. But Shikamaru isn’t Mr. perfect like Sasuke and Naruto, he never tries to be. His flaw is actually a plus, whereas characters like Naruto and Sasuke, their flaws can be incredibly annoying, and also actual flaws while looking at the big picture. Sasuke is unemotional and a dick to the people he likes, and shows no motivation, and is completely selfish. Naruto’s goals are also selfish, and he’ll probably argue saying their not. He is constantly hyper, then has massive mood swings, gives corny lines, and sometimes needs to shut the fuck up. I love them both, you can see the past number of episodes I’ve talked about them, but Shikamaru accomplishes just about all of what they do in one episode, but I’m not saying he should have more. (He even though he kinda does) Shikamaru is a side character, and any main character unless perfect probably has a big hole in them. So Shikamaru should stay a side character, and hopefully continue to be what he is. He does bad ass things, but he’s not a bad ass. The whole point is he’s not. He’s the guy who’ll spend a whole fight to get to the point he is about to win, and then quit. And that’s why he’s up there with my favorites. The purpose of this episode was to cover the fight between Shikamaru and Temari, and that’s what it does without being slow or to quick. It’s fleshed out, and does its job so well, I’m even throwing it into the hall of fame.