The new opening was brilliant, containing good music from one of the original series' bands and nice upcoming scenes from the arc to go along with it. As far as the special's graphical representation goes, the artwork was fantastic in the first episode, decent in the second, and the animation itself was also good throughout. For somewhat standard animation teams, I thought the visuals in general were nailed. Props to Pierrot.

For transition episodes, there's a lot of interesting stuff in the plot here. The origins of Amegakure's civil strife and the Akatsuki leaders give a lot of character to an otherwise rather unengaging country in the series. I thought it was also pretty appealing to hear Jiraiya's suspicion regarding the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha years previously, the way in which the scene was handled provides a sinister and eerie touch to better simulate Jiraiya's premonition. It was equally as intriguing to witness Jiraiya's confrontation with Pain and Konan, nice summoning action at the end. In addition, around 85 pages were covered. That's some nice pacing.

Overall, the special was good. I wouldn't say it was thoroughly captivating but the interest level and information provided throughout both episodes managed to engage me. 7/10, though if I were to factor the new OP in I'd give it an 8.

If anyone's seen the previews, next week's episode looks amazing.

after a certain fight seen in the opening.