I have to say this right from the start, for anyone who was excited about episode 254 after seeing Kabuto and Deidara in the preview, prepare to be disappointed, as this was unfortunately not as good as it may have looked.
While some would think that the mere fact we see Kabuto and one of his Edo Tensei get to work would be enough to make any episode good, this is certainly not the case here, as instead of seeing much of that, we instead get given some absolutely awful Naruto filler instead.
We all knew that Naruto was on the island for his own protection, and so to stop him from getting suspicious the guys on the island with him cooked up a scheme where they tell him that he has been given a secret S-Rank mission by Tsunade to document the animals on the island. Being the idiot he is, Naruto believes the ridiculous story and gets all excited about being given such a mission, much to the relief of the Jonin with him. Unfortunately however, the Anime team decided that this would be a perfect chance to add in some filler, and thus proceeds some of the worst stuff I have seen in Naruto for a long time.
The dreaded Ostrich from the earlier filler episodes makes a return and acts as a translator for Naruto who is trying to talk with all the strongest animals on the island. I can’t even be bothered going over it to be honest as it was so painful to watch, needless to say it was some of the usual ridiculous filler crap they like to throw in to the series, and as a result it just served to bog down the rest of the episode. I couldn’t enjoy this episode at all, as even though the non filler parts were ok, the filler was just so bad I couldn’t wait for the episode to just end.
I have taken to skipping Naruto filler for a while now as I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I am not happy that they stuck this bunch of crap in the middle of a canon episode. I’m sorry, but if you’re going to add some filler, please at least make it worthwhile and not some lame attempt at comedy that consistently falls flat on its face.
That awful filler aside, the episode was ok. We see Onoki volunteer to head to the island to intercept the enemy since they know the island’s location was given away by Kisame’s intel, and he meets Kabuto and Edo Deidara. Onoki lands a punch that goes straight through Kabuto’s chest, but it’s revealed to be one of Deidara’s clay clones. The real Deidara then sends another clone, this time of himself, crashing in to Onoki and then proceeds to blow it up. The episode ended with that, so what Onoki’s fate is will be unknown until the next episode comes around. Even though I don’t really like Deidara, it was still pretty cool to see him again since it has been so long, and it did also reveal that whatever tag Kabuto uses to control his Edo Tensei is different to the one Orochimaru used. Oh, and Tobi / Madara also revealed the Gedo Mazo statue tied up under his lair, as well as some kind of Hashirama clone and 100,000 thousand Zetsu.
The Kabuto, Deidara and Tobi parts were all fine, and the Hashirama and Zetsu thing was pretty awesome. I am looking forward to seeing more of that, as well as seeing just what Edo Deidara and Kabuto are able to really do. My advice is to skip the random filler involving Naruto and the animals, and you will have a pretty decent episode. If you choose to watch the filler though, prepare to be bored and / or annoyed for quite a while in the episode.
Tokyo Gazette 