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Rating: C

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Naruto 77

April 2, 2004

Title: Light and Darkness! The Name 'Gaara'
Fansubbed by: BakaSan

This episode starts out with a flashback to the death of Gaara's friend Yashamaru. Gaara asks Yashamaru why he tried to kill him, and Yashamaru responds that he always hated Gaara, since his sister (i.e. Gaara's mother) was sacrificed for Gaara's life.

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Meanwhile, deep in the Konoha forest, Naruto is trying to fight Gaara, but is totally outclassed by Gaara's sheer power. While recovering from one of Gaara's blows, Naruto suddenly realizes that both Gaara and himself have been alienated from society because of their sealed demons, but, unlike Gaara, Naruto had his teammates and mentors to dispel the loneliness.

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While this is happening, Gaara is getting increasingly angry, and, in his rage, transforms into his full raccoon-demon form. After taunting Naruto about his inability to save his friends,

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Gaara flies at Naruto, intent on finishing him off. The End.

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RATING: C

Well, here's *another* episode that fully emphasizes that Gaara has been isolated and deprived as a child. If it wasn't clear enough in the last episode, it's definitely clear now.

So, we've got a paradox here -- on one hand, we've got this immensely powerful raccoon-demon, and, on the other hand, we've got this hurt and lonely child.

Keeping this in mind, it's quite interesting to compare how Sasuke and Naruto fought against Gaara. In Sasuke's battle, Sasuke saw Gaara only as a hideous raccoon-demon, and tried to use brute force to take him down. However, in Naruto's battle, we see that Naruto empathizes with Gaara's loneliness, and truly feels for his plight.

This is weird, since it seems that empathy is the best way to defeat Gaara. After all, Gaara's raccoon-form is impervious to Sasuke's uber-powerful "Chidori" move, and it would seem that attacking Gaara's fragile ego would be easier than attacking his monstrous physical self.

So, traditionally, you would expect Naruto to do a quaint song-and-dance number, and give Gaara a hug. However, judging from the next-episode previews, it seems that Naruto is going to summon a huge frog and beat the crap out of Gaara.

I'm totally confused -- this psychoanalysis is getting me nowhere.

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