Naruto Anime Analysis (Season 5)

Season 5: Episode 185

Source: Wikipedia

"A Legend from the Hidden Leaf: The Onbaa!"

"A legendary creature, the Onbaa, is the central focus of this episode, attaching to Naruto's back and causing havoc wherever Naruto goes. Despite Naruto's efforts, it remains firmly attached to Naruto's back. Tsunade mentions that Jiraiya once fought the Onbaa, although Tsunade paid him no heed at the time, believing him to be a fool. The Onbaa continues to increase, eventually becoming larger than Naruto himself. However, during a mission, it aids Naruto, causing Naruto to reconsider their relationship, but Onbaa's mother appears, driving Naruto off and claiming her offspring. The child manages to calm the mother, and Naruto is worn off and sleeps. After a while, Naruto awakes and feels something furry where he is lying, getting the feeling of being piggybacked. Naruto wakes up at the front of Konoha and looks behind him, seeing Ombu leaving with his mother and eventually saying goodbye. When Naruto returns to Tsunade, he laughs out loud. She asks how to get the Onbaa off from their backs. Naruto teased by saying he wrestled with them just like Jiraya did. She still doesn't believe him since the Onbaa has been proven to not be a legend. Everyone is found to have an Onbaa on their backs and Naruto leaves laughing."

Analysis

The episode was lighthearted, as it mainly focused on Naruto's caring nature with the Onbaa offspring, even though he grew rapidly. The following analysis will reveal more details about the legendary creature.

How the Onbaa ended up on Naruto's back

At the beginning of the episode, the Onbaa was in its nest in the woods when suddenly an eagle took him away and flew off. When the mother of the Onbaa saw what happened, she was frustrated. Meanwhile, while Naruto was training in the woods, he accidentally tossed a kunai at the eagle, which caused it to drop the onbaa offspring on Naruto's back. Since it was still small, Naruto didn't notice it was on its back until he arrived at the leaf village.

Kiba and Sakura notice the strange creature on Naruto's back.

Comic music plays in the background when Naruto arrives at the village, and everyone notices the onbaa offspring on Naruto's back. Along the way, he met Kiba, Akamaru, and Sakura, and while Naruto was conversing with Sakura, the onbaa offspring touched her chest, which made Sakura angry. She thought that Naruto was a pervert, so she kicked him in the face, which caused him to get tossed on the ground. When she got close to Naruto, she noticed the hands of the onbaa offspring, which looked so cute. When Naruto realized that it was on his back, Kiba tried to get it off his back but the onbaa offspring was reluctant to let go of Naruto. After the failed attempt, they all went to the Hokage headquarters.

A legendary creature, the Onbaa, is the central focus of this episode, attaching to Naruto's back and causing havoc wherever Naruto goes. Despite Naruto's efforts, it remains firmly attached to Naruto's back. Tsunade mentions that Jiraiya once fought the Onbaa, although Tsunade paid him no heed at the time, believing him to be a fool. When Naruto, Kiba, and Sakura arrived at the Hokage's office, Tsunade told them about the tale of the legendary Onbaa. She said that the onbaa is a dangerous bearlike creature that lives in the mountains near their village. Moreover, she said that when she, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru were kids, Jiraiya made plans to spend his summer break studying the creatures in the woods. She admitted that she didn't believe it was real, yet Orochimaru, on the other hand, believed it was real. Furthermore, when Jiraiya came back from the woods, he had a notebook that had a drawing of the onbaa. The notebook also had some notes that read, "Onbaa big about nine feet tall. When these frightening beasts get angry, no one can match them, but I beat one at wrestling. Onbaa children are carried piggyback; this is how they are raised." Lastly, Tsunade said to Naruto, "According to legend, the onbaa's offspring consider the first thing they see as their mother and will cling to that creature's back exclusively. They supposedly ride around in this unusual fashion until they reach full maturity, but before that faithful day arrives, the two are never separated." So, there is nothing Naruto can do but wait for it to mature. He must bear the burden alone since everyone is keeping his distance from him.

The Onbaa continues to increase, eventually becoming larger than Naruto himself. When Tsunade realized that the Onbaa was growing at an alarming rate, she took measures to get rid of it before it could harm the village. So, she gave Naruto a solo mission to get rid of the mountain bandits at the Yamabuki pass, where she hoped that the Onbaa would find its mother.

However, during a mission, it aids Naruto, causing Naruto to reconsider their relationship, but Onbaa's mother appears, driving Naruto off and claiming her offspring. Naruto, accompanied by the Onbaa offspring on his back, made plans to go to the Yamabuki Pass. After walking in the stormy woods and ordering food at a certain place to eat, they reached their destination. The Onbaa was already larger than Naruto himself. Moreover, when Naruto came across a gate, the mountain bandits opened it and prepared to attack Naruto, so he took measures to defeat them. 

First, he activated his multi-shadow clones, but the bandit defeated each of them. Second, Naruto defeated the bandits with his taijutsu skills. However, one bandit jumped in the air with his sword and was about to kill Naruto. Luckily, the Onbaa offspring stopped the sword with his hands and used the sword to knock out the bandit. Onbaa saving Naruto shows that he cares about Naruto's well-being.

To further solidify the closeness of their friendship, Naruto said while they were in the woods, "Ombu, I don't care what anyone says. There is no way you're a threat to the hidden leaf. You and I will be like Kiba and Akamaru, the Naruto-Ombu duo joined to the hip." Naruto already got attached to him, yet their friendship didn't last long when Onbaa's mother, who looked like a monster, chased after them and punched Naruto off the cliff. While Naruto fell off the cliff, Ombu already changed, looking like a monster.

The child manages to calm the mother, and Naruto is worn off and sleeps. When Naruto climbed back to the woods, he came across Ombu and his mother chasing him. When he reached a dead end, Naruto tried to convince Ombu who he was. After some persistence by showing a symbol on his back about the fish cakes Naruto used to feed him, Ombu gradually came back to his senses and stopped his mother from harming Naruto. Afterwards, emotional music plays in the background when Naruto makes eye contact with Ombu, who smiles back. After some time, Naruto is worn off and sleeps.

After a while, Naruto awakes and feels something furry where he is lying, getting the feeling of being piggybacked. Naruto wakes up at the front of Konoha and looks behind him, seeing Ombu leaving with his mother and eventually saying goodbye. Ombu was the one carrying Naruto on his back, and he was accompanied by his mother to escort Naruto back to the leaf village. In the end, Ombu also cares about Naruto and is grateful that Naruto took care of him since it is evident when he helps Naruto go back to the leaf village.

When Naruto returns to Tsunade, he laughs out loud. She asks how to get the Onbaa off their backs. Naruto teased them by saying he wrestled with them just like Jiraya did. She still doesn't believe him since the Onbaa has been proven to not be a legend. Everyone is found to have an Onbaa on their backs, and Naruto leaves laughing. When Naruto laughed out loud, it sort of gave him satisfaction since, when he had the Onbaa on his back, everyone was keeping their distance. In other words, it is a tit-for-tat situation since he was sent on a solo mission to tackle this issue on his own. So, when Naruto was tackling his issue, the eagles were making a habit of scooping the Onbaa offspring from their nests and dropping them at the leaf village. The episode ends with a hint of comedy, where everyone in the village has the onbaa on their backs while Naruto leaves laughing.