After seeing the episode, it's still holds my interest, thanks to the original characters (OCs). I never thought I would say that in Naruto but there you have it. Ok. the beginning was fun to watch, especially Rock Lee and Gai having their shining moment. It's like how in movies always bring them up for the sake of fans and shining moments. It was fun. I did like the demonstration of the Kyuubi beating down and the blast attack that actually reach to the point where Yamato and Sai were at, which that's pretty deep. Sadly, the action didn't last long, so I guess it was there for fanservice, which is ok. I do believe it could be a bit overkill with all K11 and senseis, so it would be hard to focus. Hopefully, OCs don't take a backseat because of fanservice for these guys.
Now then, why would I actually care about the OCs? For once, I actually find Dokku and Shiseru appealing because they really do portrayed the life in the ninja world as normal beings. Usually, you just get weak gennin or normal ninja as OC, but this time, they are just human and Dokku tried so hard to work things out, but sadly, it's been against him. I really like the interaction between Dokku and Shiseru because of the kids starting a family and the fact that they are really beyond friendship to the point they are ready to start a new chapter in their life. Sadly, Dokku still regrets everything in the past and Shiseru would be fine with being brother-sister relationship, even though they seem ready for love. I can't believe I am saying this, but please, don't rush the ending for this one. I like how they still have Naruto and Sakura talking to them since they know them enough to understand.
Overall, this episode is more of a buildup to the climax, which will start next week. That said I really hope there is a good conclusion to these OCs because I do hope Dokku can finally move on and start a new chapter with Shiseru and the kids. It was a good buildup episode. I hope that the situation doesn't get out of hand and cause the studio to forget about the story. It was going well and so far, it's intact. I hope they know that, but we'll see. Next post will be my thoughts on the situation that you guys were discussing.
I have to admit, the Shiseru/Dokku stuff was well written, I also didn't expect it to be pretty dark, with Shiseru's injuries so grave that she'll have to live with the fact that she will never be able to bear a child. I thought Dokku beating himself up about that incident was silly, but it makes sense now.
A happy ending for them would either be adopting the kids and start a new life. Or adopting
and
have children of their own with the help of Tsunade and Sakura. I wouldn't be surprised if from the start Sakura knew about Shiseru's condition just by looking at her wounds. She might even have sent Tsunade a letter about it, aside from the regular reports.
BTW, someone on NF speculated Mina's actually an Uzumaki Clan member/descendant. It makes sense. Red hair, and the unique ability to force out the Kyuubi clone somehow. Which means she poured chakra into Naruto's seal and tampered with it without her knowing.