Naruto Anime Analysis

Season 3: Episode 115

Source: Wikipedia
"Your opponent is me!"

"When the retrieval team catches up with the Sound Four, they are quickly caught in Kidomaru's webs. As Kidomaru is about to finish off Naruto, Neji frees himself from the webbing and saves the rest of the team. Because only his Gentle Fist style can break Kidomaru's chakra-infused webbing, Neji decides to deal with him himself, instructs the others to go on without him, and begins to fight Kidomaru. Kidomaru finds out how Neji can cut his webbing. Although Kidomaru soon believes himself to have the advantage, Neji readies his Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to prove him wrong."

Analysis

When the retrieval team catches up with the Sound Four, they are quickly caught in Kidomaru's webs. The story begins in the forest, and the Sound Four Ninjas are being pursued by Team Shikamaru. Along the way, Neji checked for traps with his byakugan and noted that it was strange they hadn't come across any traps yet. In response, Shikamaru noted that the Sound Four are cocky because they thought that they were dead. Therefore, it shows the Sound Four's perception of Team Shikamaru because they concluded that Team Shikamaru is weak since they are genin. Though Neji takes offence to the Sound Four's perception of them, he knows that this is their chance to catch the Sound Four by surprise.

Meanwhile, the scene focuses on the Sound Four. As they are travelling, they notice that Jirobo catches up to them. However, dramatic music plays in the background as they realize that it is not Jirobo. Instead, it is Shikamaru, hence compelling one of the members, Kidomaru, to step up. For instance, he trapped Shikamaru, Naruto, Kiba, and Neji with his spider webs. As a result, dramatic music plays in the background with a loud guitar, which represents the defeat of Shikamaru's team. 

Kidomaru wraps Neji in a cocoon so that he will not find a way to escape. Moreover, Naruto tries to break free, but it does not work; hence, dramatic music continues to play in the background. While they were trapped, Neji said something significant in his mind about Kidomaru's technique. First, he said, "No matter what I do, this thread keeps sticking to me." Second, he said, "This must come from combining his chakra with some sort of fluid, and the strength is unreal. Even after he releases the thread, his chakra is still flowing through it, giving it power." Therefore, thanks to Neji's assessment of his abilities, one has a clear idea about Kidomaru's strength as a shinobi. In other words, Neji's analytic skills make him a great asset to the team, as he had an idea of how they could escape.

As Kidomaru is about to finish off Naruto, Neji frees himself from the webbing and saves the rest of the team. Before Neji saved Naruto, Kidomaru turned his spider webs into deadly spikes. For instance, he used the spikes to defeat Naruto's shadow clones one by one. Afterwards, he thought he had defeated the real Naruto, only to realize that the last one was a shadow clone as well, which left Kidomaru surprised and wondering where Naruto was. In response,  Naruto surprises the enemy from behind. At that moment, it seems Naruto let his clones get caught on the spider web on purpose so that he could catch Kidomaru off guard. Therefore, Naruto has evolved into a more clever and sophisticated character. It demonstrates his commitment to becoming a ninja; hence, he is a dynamic character who continues to grow as a ninja. Furthermore, exhilarating Japanese music with a flute plays in the background to signify that Neji arrived to save Naruto.

Creepy music plays in the background. For instance, Akamaru senses that Kidomaru is way stronger than Jirobo, as mentioned by Kiba. 

Moreover, Neji mentioned that not only are they saving Sasuke, but they are also on this mission to protect a fellow Shinobi. He said, "At the third Hokage's funeral, when Iruka spoke, do you remember his words?" Sad music with a Japanese flute plays in the background, as there is now a flashback technique about the funeral when Iruka says, "When someone passes away, it's the end. His past and future All the dreams he once had disappeared along with him. This is true even if he dies honourably in battle, as so many did as Hiruzen did. All the ties that bind him to the living are surveyed. All but one, the most important of all, are people. Parents, siblings, friends, and lovers—the people who were important to him—and these people—the ones left behind—are joined to get together in a great circle of their shared memories of him—a circle of friendship, trust, and sacrifice that grows larger and stronger as time passes. It's hard to explain it. We remain in a circle together; we have no choice. It is important to us." The flashback ends as it highlights why the third Hokage died. He died for the sake of the village, because the people were important to him. Therefore, in this episode, Team Shikamaru is risking their lives to save Sasuke because he is important to them. After all, he is a member of the Hidden Leaf Village. As Iruka puts it, it is a circle of friendship, trust, and sacrifice that grows larger and stronger as time passes. This scene was very emotional yet enlightening for the audience to understand the seriousness of their mission to save Sasuke.

Because only his Gentle Fist style can break Kidomaru's chakra-infused webbing, Neji decides to deal with him himself, instructs the others to go on without him, and begins to fight Kidomaru. Kidomaru finds out how Neji can cut his webbing. Although Kidomaru soon believes himself to have the advantage, Neji readies his Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to prove him wrong. In this episode, sounds such as drums, a Japanese flute, and an electric guitar made it interesting to signify that Neji has the upper hand in the battle. However, will he win? This leaves the scene in suspense until the next episode.

The lesson from this episode is that one should never underestimate anyone. The Sound Four had their perceptions about Team Shikamaru because they thought that the genin was weak. If the Sound Four had just continued using the traps, they would have left the forest faster with Sasuke.