I have never cried so hard in my life like this. Yes, Yota was annoying but when I realized how sad this scene was all that was going through my mind is if I had a friend like that, and I lost him the same way I would've been hurt. Also how he erased their memory, that's probably what hit me hard, how Naruto had to restart from the bottom.
So it turns out Naruto was friends with some of the other 9 before the story actually began. Oh but of course mind erase and *poof*.
Fking filler...but that sad music at the end always gets to me. Not the worst filler ever, but the next ones look a bit more promising.
Yota is sweet!:x3: The end was really sad, I almost cried! :T_T: The next episode is promising, we'll see Chiyo and Torune...
Ep. made me cry. One of the saddest fillers I've ever seen. :T_T:
That was a very emotional filler.
As TheVermin observed, the only reason the episode tugged at your heartstrings was due to the strategically placed soundtracks. Without the well chosen music selection, you probably would've thought that the dialogue and Yota's character development were both cliche' and cheesy as hell. During the river crossing, I thought that the soundtrack "A Crisis After Another" was a bit over-the-top for the situation at hand. It just didn't fit in comparison with the several examples of when this soundtrack was used in canon during many scenes involving Gaara.
The sad soundtrack at the end, "Man of the World" is similarly one of my favorite sad soundtracks utilized in canon, so it does indeed provoke the intended emotional output even when there's not a whole lot of cathexis associated with the character(s) involved.
Overall, I gave this filler episode a 3/5 for a few reasons. Firstly, it's the end of the Yota filler arc. I know this is a dumb reason to like an episode, but it's like finishing your last mile in an exhausting marathon... that last mile is perceived as the most enjoyable. Even though I didn't think the filler material was worthy of the epic soundtracks chosen, the soundtracks were still very well placed. The other reason that this episode receives its third and final star is this: we got to see more exposure to the Sakura and Ino relationship back in the day when they were still close friends. We haven't seen that since the Chunnin Exams!
Thumbs up for seeing that Shikimaru wasn't a douche to Naruto even back in his youth.
Thumbs down for seeing the Kagemane no Jutsu used improperly. When Shikimaru moves, so should the individuals he attaches himself to with his shadow. When he ran forward and the ANBU members weren't moving, I thought,
You must be registered for see images
so those two points concerning Shikamaru cancel out and neither retract a star nor provide one.