The forest scenes are also good because they introduce Cell 10's combat style and because of Kabuto. And Sakura's hair-cutting. But mostly I liked them because the movement and action and intensity were really well-handled. The threat felt real and their reactions felt genuine in how it was animated. That's also where we get a ton of character development and plot dumped on us at once: Orochimaru's sudden arrival, Naruto's burgeoning talents, Sakura's crisis of purpose. And Sasuke... oh, Sasuke. I felt for him most in the fights in the forest, particularly with the sound genin and then Orochimaru, because we see Sasuke literally change as a person before our eyes. He gets the cursed seal, and he goes as far as to break the other genin's arms (ouch! OMG ouch) in an almost torture-like fashion, and he has an internal struggle about whether or not to give up the scroll that will help them win the competition (which pisses Naruto off royally.) It also has my favorite animated scene--- where Naruto stops the giant snake while activating his Nine Tails power. That episode, that fight... you can see Sasuke's thoughts change as he realizes that "dead last" Naruto is on the verge of surpassing him, and that Orochimaru wants whatever's inside Naruto more than he wants Sasuke (at the time, anyway), and there's jealousy and aggression and then there's the fact that it almost overwhelms him, and you think, "Oh my god, he's only a 12 year old boy. He's just a little boy." The forest is where Sasuke loses the last of his innocence, and by the time he goes to the fight in the run-offs, after he activates the seal, he's already started the path that will take him to Orochimaru. The trust in the team is gone, the willingness to lean on others is gone, and the obsession with power and dominating the enemy has completely overtaken his thoughts and goals.

I know most if not all of this was in the manga, but it was very nicely animated in the show. I just checked some of my old reviews, and #29-33 seem to be the really important ones. #29 in particular, though you may care to start with 28 for the proper lead-in. My reviews of 29 and 33 were very enthusiastic: here (search CNTL+F "naruto") (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=rashaka&keyword=anime+reviews&filter=all), though I'm nostalgic about it now that so many things I predicted have finally occurred.


For the dual fights of Gaara vs. Naruto and Sarutobi vs. Orochimaru, #77-80 are the best. #81 is the funeral. The Gaara/Naruto fight has some nice symbolic animation taken from the manga and adapted well.