What They Say:
After the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, Obito finds himself inside the hidden lair of Madara Uchiha, who saved the young shinobi’s life. There, Obito works to rehabilitate his injured body in the hopes of being reunited with Kakashi and Rin. But when Obito learns that they are in danger, he leaves Madara’s hideout to go help his friends and is forced to witness something he does not wish to see…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The past is naturally strong at this point in the series as we see more and more of Obito’s past after being rescued, if you could call it that, by Madara. With Madara being a legend of sorts, we see quickly how Obitio was essentially brought in and quickly became a kept man because of his condition and how few options there were. It was good to see that he really did want to get back to the Leaf village right away and Kakashi in particular, but it also didn’t take long considering his overall condition to see that he could be nudged and pushed into the direction that Madara wanted. Especially when half your body is all screwed up and all you have is more and more weird stuff told to you by people that just don’t make any sense as some weird form of white zetsu.
While he’s intent on returning to the life he had, and we see a lot of flashbacks within the flashback showing him in the village having a good life, things become more and more difficult as time goes on in thinking that way. Partially because his new arm starts growing in and he begins spending his time building up its muscles, training it and attempting to get back to having the kind of skills he had before the incident that caused this. All while under the seemingly watchful eye of Madara. It’s not filled with a lot of time spent trying to convince him that this way is the right way now but rather it leaves him to his own devices as he befriends the others that are there in a sort of boy-ish way that slowly but surely builds acceptance as time goes on.
This makes for an interesting first half as we see him go through the motions, which of course leads into the second half as he finds himself in a far different place now, so much so that while he does want to head back for so much of it, it all goes awry when he’s out into the wilds and he sees a fight that Kakashi is in that ends up having him attack and kill Rin. That turns him in a horrible way as everything within him bursts out and you can see that the twisting was just waiting for the right catalyst to become complete. It’s a brutal sequence in its own way and while you can completely understand why Obito ended up the way he did, it’s a completely sympathetic situation that makes you cringe because of how deep it can strike.
In Summary:
While we’re getting a lot of good background material on Obito and how he came to be the tool that he is for Madara at this point, I’ll still easily admit that I’m not finding it hugely engaging. I didn’t expect the man behind the mask to be someone really shocking considering how long he’s been a presence in the show, but it’s proven to be a character and a twist for Kakashi more than anything else and it’s nicely done. It’s just not really engaging or interesting to me. I know they could wrap all the background up easily in an episode or two at best but that they’ll spread it out like this to maximize the effectiveness of it and hook in the viewers more, but it’s just not clicking for me. It’s well done and I have no issues with it, but nothing has made me truly care about Obito at this point and I don’t see that changing in the near future either.
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.
A “B”?! What does it take to impress this guy!? I don’t think I have ever seen an “A” rating…
We had a lot of A ratings back during the Pain arc. Right now, this is all flashback with Obito and it just doesn’t do much for me. It’s nicely done, but it’s not terribly interesting overall.
I agree with Chris, so much has happened since the masked man, or Obito as he’s revealed, that the thought of me feeling sympathetic towards him is in the water. Maybe its the timing of him being introduced so late in the storyline here that I can’t think of the masked man and Obito as two separate entities that once was good because gosh darn it, look at how much bad he’s done. At least with Kabuto, I can empathize with him more for some reason. It boils down to the character.