Konoha Crush
A complete Naruto re-watch podcast, hosted by Velvet and Gwen. 720 episodes, 11 movies, and a commitment to the beautiful idea that all of it is worth our time.
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Episodes
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Our excursion into the wide world(s) of isekai (and isekai adjacent anime) begins now, and what better way to start than tackling one of the most prominent and successful shows of our age: the first season of Sword Art Online! It’s… well let’s not mince words. It’s not a very good show. But when taken as material for discussion and a baseline to begin to approach our feelings about the genre? I’d like to think it makes for a pretty good podcast.
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
One fight between kids is clearly not enough for this crowd, as the audience’s building excitement for Sasuke’s fight against Gaara is our biggest throughline this week. That doesn’t mean there’s not a lot else to dig into here though, come along as the show tries to put a neat little bow on the whole Neji situation, attempts to convince us that Shikamaru is cool, and prepares to wow us with the long awaited return of everybody’s favorite special boy, Sasuke Uchiha himself.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 63-65
Sunday Jul 03, 2022
Sunday Jul 03, 2022
The audience may be sated by the long awaited arrival of Sasuke’s fight with Gaara, and we'll kill time with our own commentary, but we’re still waiting for the start of the real show: the destruction of the Village Hidden in the Leaves! This is going to go really well for us, I think. That Orochimaru guy seems really strong.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 66-68
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
It's a big week here on Konoha Crush: after an uncommonly long first segment, we shake off the distractions and continue our assault on the Hidden Leaf! Or at least continue commentating over it. We've got discussions about fighting your dad, getting rescued by your dad, and Atsushi Wakabayashi's continued efforts in redefining what action in Naruto looks like! (This last point's not really about dads. Sorry if you were expecting it to be.)
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 69-71
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
The battle in the hidden leaf rages on! The Third Hokage makes his move to defeat Orochimaru, Sasuke gets ever closer to his confrontation with Gaara, and Shino catches up to the action in the forest! We're not really doing a blow for blow action recaps kinda show though, so instead we talk about what it means to be the nice guy with child soldiers and take it upon ourselves to stand in as Chunin Exam proctors and rules committee members while the guys who actually have those jobs are indisposed.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 72-74
Sunday Jul 24, 2022
Sunday Jul 24, 2022
25 episodes! We ring in this meager milestone by talking about Gaara, and then talking about Gaara, and then talking about Gaara some more. Its a real banner week for that sad, sad boy who loves to murder.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 75-77
Sunday Jul 31, 2022
Sunday Jul 31, 2022
61 episodes of Naruto later, we're out on the other side of the longest arc we'll see for quite some time. A conclusion of this scale means that the show is swinging as hard as it can to get us to feel as much as it can about everything that happens in these episodes. Success is another matter entirely. Join us as we put a bow on this one and talk about sentimentality laden lectures, sad anime boys talking to each other, and mourn the passing of a dear friend: the soul of Orochimaru's arms.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 78-80
Sunday Aug 07, 2022
Sunday Aug 07, 2022
The aftermath of a big fight reveals that there are two kinds of people in this world: guys who can be normal about it and guys who can't be normal about it at all. We check in on the main boys of the show to learn which they are, but ultimately we're just glad everybody can get a bit of downtime to- ah fuck. We've just received word that a cooler and more badass evil guy than anybody has ever seen before has entered the village.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 81-83
Sunday Aug 14, 2022
Sunday Aug 14, 2022
The stakes start off high this week in a hallway where Sasuke is about to have the second worst day of his life and Jiraiya is about to use his first worst jutsu, before we unwind in our much lighter third episode. Even when nobody else is having fun, we have plenty to talk about as we try to figure out what we're supposed to make of Itachi, welcome back a significant director after a 40 episode absence, and contemplate comedy mean guy behavior.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 84-86
Sunday Aug 21, 2022
Sunday Aug 21, 2022
By taking on a lighter, 2 episode load this week, we're able to bring you what is basically a normal length episode of the podcast. Join us for a wide ranging discussion mostly about these episodes as we talk about ninja education (again), Tsunade's reputation, and exploiting dad-based weaknesses.
Covered this week: Naruto episodes 87 and 88