What They Say:
Pressed by Naruto, Obito remembers the time he, Kakashi, and Rin teamed up for the Chunin Exam and when he promised Rin that he would become Hokage.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s an odd feeling about watching Naruto now that the manga has ended as you always felt like it could just be a part of things for years more to come. Knowing now that there’s an end to one aspect of it, you have this feeling that’s more real that this is going to end sooner rather than later. Well, all things considered. The show is one that will still play with flashbacks and likely more filler to come as well with original anime episodes as it fleshes things out and keeps the production running, but knowing there will be an end gives it a very different feeling as we move through this particular fight and, for those of us that are spoiled to parts of the end of the manga, have an idea of what’s yet to come.
Going back to the past here to humanize Obito more, we see how he and others have been given the nod to take the chunin exam and move forward in their skills and life from there. They’re all excited, in different ways of course, and the rivalry aspect is there between Obito and Kakashi too. Obito in particular is really struggling with the exam, especially in comparison to Kakashi who ends early and heads out. But what helps Obito is knowing that Rin is there and she’s always watching out for him and over him. That’s the kind of encouragement in a simple way that can sooth someone. Obito kind of skates by on part of the test, being given a spot through a bit of luck when you get down to it, but that’s just the start of his troubles. With the next phase, they have to work together in teams and that puts Rin as the peacemaker between the two that are constantly sparring with each other verbally.
There’s a lot of testing time that goes on here, and spots of jealousy as well that creeps into it as Obito watches how Rin cheers on Kakashi, and it helps to cement a bit more the difficult relationship that the trio have had for years, particularly for Obito. The show works in a good bit of action in the form of training and testing and that keeps things moving nicely, especially since some of the training has an element of danger about it as well. Humanizing Obito certainly isn’t a bad thing, but I continue to wish pieces of this were done years ago in order to establish it all as back story, allowing the present arc to just work through it rather than giving us the traditional and expect mixture of past and present. It’s what most anime and manga works do, I know, but with the length and scale of the series, and the heavy flashback use, it’s just getting onerous.
In Summary:
Expanding on Obito is a given and having Naruto be the one to talk things out with him works as the two certainly have some shared pasts in a lot of ways with how they feel and operate. Particularly when it comes to rivals and potential romantic interests. Giving us a look at how Naruto might have turned out certainly is interesting, but again, it’s just so spread out that even when you marathon huge swathes of the show it can feel like a chore to get through all the back story. What we get here is certainly good, but it’s the thing of giving us about a minute in the present and the other twenty in the past. That can enthuse audiences only so long, myself included.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
