i mean look at this.

What a masterful showcase of effects. The roughness of the animation only adds to the absolute chaos that was occuring during this fight.

The amount of talent here in 1min and 15 seconds alone...

I'm not saying I condone the hellish working conditions in the Japanese animation industry but... it almost feels like the animators' madness is infused into the work itself.

I love the sense of uncontrollable speed when Mahoraga is sent flying. The way he devolves into blobs when he enters the pool looks amazing and doesn't detract from readability at all.

Madness. But it also shows the potential of what humans are capable of. When I did game development, I always thought the unfun part of development is the price pay. A couple dozen people's pain for thousands' enjoyment.

Maybe this is that taken to the extreme.

A highly underrated fight scene imo.

The entire episode is directed MASTERFULLY. It uses the background really inventively and the colours and lighting create an intense atmosphere as the episode progresses.

It was also preceded by comparatively bland animation the previous few episodes. I highly recommend watching this on Netflix if you can with sound (episode 37 "Red Scale"). The audio design in this scene in particular stands out to me the most.

If Sukuna vs Mahoraga evokes absolute chaos, this episode instead evokes impeccable control.

Unfortunately only 60fps slop versions exist on YouTube :(

My absolute favourite fight in Shippuden. The animation is fantasic and I love how they weaved the present and the past together.

It's also a brilliant return to a more "grounded" battle in Naruto. They use their jutsus and techniques in inventive ways like how Obito uses Kakashi's hand to form hand signs, the kunai with the cloak trick and Kakashi setting up a lightning clone while behind the wall.

A personal favourite of mine in OG Naruto. I always preferred the art style in OG Naruto when it comes to sakuga sequences at least. Animation wise, hand-to-hand combat has always been one of Naruto's forte imo.

I love how Sasuke doesn't blow fire in a controlled stream but just BLASTS it out. I also love scenes where Sharingan users are observing their opponents as they prepare to attack.

It's also the birthplace of the infamous broken head Sasuke meme.

Another showcase of inventive jutsu and tool usage. At this point of the show, Team 7 was completely outclassed by Orochimaru. Sasuke had just shaken off his fear and uses every trick in the book he knows to try to beat Orochimaru.

Early Naruto was also like a horror/thriller half the time lol. The ninja world was terrifying and many opponents were ruthless killers. The expression on Orochimaru's face is also extremely disturbing here.

They did not pull their punches with the final fight between Naruto and Sasuke. The choreography when Sasuke is fighting off the shadow clones, the effect work when Naruto's clone bridge is engulfed in flames, it's all brilliant.

Looking back, Sasuke got all the good sakuga moments huh?

My favourite ending credits of any anime I've seen.

Beautiful rotoscoping and character acting all around. It perfectly recreates how it feels when class ends in secondary school where everyone is packing up and talking to their own cliques.

The ending song, Koshaberibiyori by FantasicYouth is beautiful and also carries a tinge of melancholy that compliments the scene really well.