| “ | Finally...Sensei. | ” |
—Obito Uchiha | ||
Naruto 640 - Finally
So, this is the first of the chapters where I will only review Naruto because Kubo is currently on break to plan for the epic next chapter of BLEACH. I'm doing this review now since I won't be online until later tomorrow. Anyway, let's begin.
So, is it difficult to believe I didn't totally hate this chapter? While I may despise Obito and will only stop when I decide to go to college (so, never), the chapter itself could have been much worse than it was. We begin where we left off, the near imminent death of Naruto and Sasuke (who probably still deserves it actually, he is still a jerkass, and not the nice jerkass from Part I and early Part II either, just an ass). If I have this right, Minato used his chakra arms to pull Sasuke and Naruto to safety. Though, honestly, Naruto might have pulled Sasuke, it's really vague, I can't even tell.
I will give Kishi credit for nailing the body horror. He's been good at that, and, Obito's Jinchūriki transformations really do sell it. He releases....I'm not even sure what to call it, so I'm going to go with "Dust Release", and, instead of attacking his opponents, he uses it on himself, presumably to destroy the part of his body that is going out of control. Minato assumes Obito cannot control the power,and decides to make an opening with his own techniques. However, Obito continues to slowly lose is sanity quicker than he already has been (and that's saying something folks), as he is slowly losing his memories to the point where he cannot even remember Minato himself.
However, as he begins to lose himself, the one thing that lets him hang on is his refusal to lose sight of Rin. It must be impossible to even talk about this girl now int he fanbase without spoiling everything. Seriously. One girl dies and everything goes straight to Hell. Many women would chop off their arms to be this important to a man (or chop off his arm, and that is the difference between winding up in the newspaper as a tragic love story or on I.D. as the next murder story on Deadly Women). And then this happens:
I suppose if anyone takes the image of the Sage of the Six Paths it'd be impressive. When Naruto does it it's impressive, and I suppose Obito isn't much of a slouch in this department. The really funny thing is I had told Ten earlier that one of the only things that'd make this chapter worth my time is if the Sage appeared. Oh Kishi, you sick bastard. Though...mustn't it be painful to have your skin hanging like a bloody coat? He then proceeds to show that he has now very much regained his sanity by ripping off Minato's arm ("Has anyone seen my arm!? You can't miss it, it's glowing yellow!")
Now, without further ado, let's bring in the scoreboard.
Score[]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Category | Rating |
| Art | 10/10 |
| Story | 3/10 |
| Fight | 8/10 |
| Overall Chapter | Alright |
Kishimoto, contrary to what some people I know say, does have decent art people. And hell, scenery. But what really set the bar this week was the body horror. I have to tip the proverbial cap to Kishi for that, and if I could go over the 10 mark, I would. Either way, 10/10. The story was about 3/10. We didn't really progress outside the battle again, but we're moving, steadily. The fight however, was pretty good. 8/10, I did enjoy, to a small extent, Obito's prowess post-Sage mode. Overall, it was 'Alright. Not as bad as the previous, not as good as it could have been.
NARUTO are all done for today, but it'll be back next week. According to sources Sei found like a week or so ago, Kubo should be providing spoilers for the upcoming arc, and I will naturally blog them as soon as I can find them. I'll see you all next week, assuming anyone shows up to the blog today.