Naruto Anime Analysis (Season 5)

Season 5: Episode 196

Source: Wikipedia

"Hot-Blooded Confrontation: Student vs. Sensei"

"Guy is trapped inside a pagoda made from kung fu training dummies while Naruto, Neji, Tenten, and a recently arrived Lee fight off the dummies outside. It is revealed that the impostor student and his two brothers want revenge for Guy defeating their father and badly wounding him, causing him to be unable to train or take missions and eventually die. Lee enters and is trapped in a technique that causes him and Guy to mistake the other for a hostile training dummy. The two see through the technique and simultaneously use the Hidden Lotus to destroy the dummies without harming each other, wrecking the pagoda. Guy then tells the brothers that their father respected him and wanted them to fight Guy, not for revenge but to learn from him, and that he wanted them to fight him fairly, allowing them to understand their father's dying wish."

Before looking at the analysis, it is crucial to learn these techniques from the three brothers.

Wooden Puppet Manipulation Technique

As stated by the Narutopedia website, "By placing a charm on the puppet beforehand, this technique allows the user to control its movements through will alone. Alternatively, the puppets can attack the opponent on their own, though their ability to react to their opponent's movements is limited. If the tag is removed, then the technique can then be disabled."

Wooden Dummy Possession Transfer Repossess Jutsu

As stated by the Narutopedia Website, "This technique forces two opponents to fight each other through wooden training dummies, with the intent of tricking them into fighting each other until all but one of them is defeated. The only way to break the technique is to have fast and strong taijutsu by utilising speed so extreme that the wooden training dummies are unable to keep up and thus break apart, effectively breaking the technique. If the victims are familiar enough with one another, they will be able to tell who their opponent is. They can also communicate through non-verbal means such as Morse code."

Now that you know the techniques, let's get back to the analysis:

Analysis

The episode reinforces the close bond between Might Guy and Rock Lee. Their teacher-student relationship runs deep in their veins, as we will see in the analysis.

There is the use of exposition to understand the background information on events necessary to understand the plot. For instance, the episode starts by showing a flashback to when, in the past, Might Guy had a battle with the father of the three brothers, Agira Ryūdōin, who also possessed the wooden dummy ninja technique. As he is about to attack the wooden dummies, the scene shifts back to the present. The external conflict depicted between the two characters helps to understand the storyline; hence, it is a foreshadowing of what is going to happen later in the plot.

Guy is trapped inside a pagoda made from kung fu training dummies while Naruto, Neji, Tenten, and a recently arrived Lee fight off the dummies outside. As the scene shifts back to the present, Might Guy punches the barrier, but it's impenetrable because this is no ordinary barrier. In other words, the wood is infused and reinforced with chakra. Therefore, this presents a threatening atmosphere, and to add to the injury, Yagara is outside the barrier and tells Might Guy his real identity. Yagara is one of the eldest brothers named Genshō Ryūdōin and is accompanied by his other brothers: Rokkaku Ryūdōin, the second brother, and the youngest brother, Jakō Ryūdōin. When they reveal their identities, it brings a sense of resolution in the sense that all the mysteries of the plot are unravelled.