The Uchiha Brothers unite!
Creative Staff
Story: Masashi Kishimoto
Art: Masashi Kishimoto
Translation/Adaptation: Mari Morimoto/Joel Enos
What They Say
As Madara uses his dominating power to fend off the Five Kage, Sasuke is reunited with his brother Itachi. Can the brothers put aside their differences and help each other out? When they come face to face with Kabuto, the man who revived Itachi from the dead, they’ll have to team up if they have any hope of survival!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As Sasuke is returning to exact his revenge on Konoha, he comes across his thought to be dead brother, Itachi. Chasing him down, Sasuke finally catches up to him as Itachi is ready to confront Kabuto, the man who brought Itachi back to life. Itachi sees this confrontation as his way of attempting to atone for the sins he created while still living; Sasuke still does not trust his brother, but understands that teaming up with him is the only way to get the answers he has long been searching for. The only problem is that somehow, they have to come up with a way to defeat Kabuto without actually killing him, as Kabuto must be alive for them to be able to undo the damage his jutsu have caused.
While we have come to somewhat of a crescendo with Naruto’s storyline in the previous volume, the focus has shifted now for a bit to Sasuke and his desire for revenge. What is interesting is that as the last volume ended, there was a very definite sense that Sasuke was being setup to be an antagonist for at least the next little while. However, by the end of this volume, that feeling has muted some. This entire volume is basically taken up with providing Sasuke—and us—with background information regarding Itachi. Sasuke learns more of the truth about who his brother was and why he was ultimately killed, and it seems that it might be blunting some of Sasuke’s more murderous feelings, though we don’t really know for sure at this point. It has added a lot of depth to his character, though, as well as giving us more reasons to be interested for what I am sure is still his inevitable confrontation with Naruto.
In Summary
While there isn’t a whole lot of forward momentum in this volume, there is a lot of background truths that are starting to be revealed that are helping to flesh out some of the issues that have been building for a while to this point. We still don’t know everything just yet, but between this and Naruto’s successes in the last volume, we seem to be building towards some form of climax at this point. Granted, it might still be 20 volumes until we get there, but the picture is starting to come into focus. Recommended.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: May 7th, 2013
MSRP: $9.99
