This weeks Naruto was fairly dour, and the majority of it was a little needless. After a character is dead and their part in the story has been fulfilled to all intents and purposes, why do we need a flashback to a rather pointless event in their childhood? It was a nice bit of fan service, but did we learn anything? Not really. Anyway on with the show
Madara has reclaimed his rinnegen we see. Now, last chapter Madara said he gave Nagato his rinnegen, Madara is a known liar, but its unlikely that he would lie about something like this to someone who was about to die. This, if true then opens up a myriad of questions, and Madara’s further revelation that Nagato was an Uzumaki will inevitably open up discussions as to whether Naruto will awaken the Rinnegen, as well as what Madara intends to do with it himself.
After this we see him disappear with Konan and Nagato’s bodies leaving them in his crazy tetris box world.
The rest of the chapter is a rather tedious account of their times with Jiraiya and the 3 childhood friends looking out for each other as well as a few glances of the earlier incarnations of Akatsuki, which apparently Madara pushed Yahiko into forming, again a few questions over this. Why not wrap up these loose ends rather than giving us pointless Jiraiya fan service? He was a great character but parading him around in a frog service isn’t improving my memories of him Kishi.
This is a fairly fitting panel and afterwards we see their promises and dreams disintegrate much like their childhood homes, and to be fair there is an element of poeticism here. Their innocent hopes and dreams were subverted unfortunately by Madara, the all knowing, all seeing eternal man, more on this point later.
What to make of Tobi’s new mask? Well the first thing that strikes me is its remarkable similarity to the eye of the Rikudo Sage and the Juubi, and as Madara comes to the final stages of his master plan he adopts this, perhaps prophetic symbol as his face to the world. This mask is also interesting as there is no eye hole like in its previous incarnations, what does this mean?
With the arrival of the fruits of Kisame’s sacrifice we also see this approach end game territory.
Now this final panel is interesting, as we see Madara take out the same strange weapon he wielded during his fight against the first Hokage, apparently its a war fan. He has also cast of his Akatsuki robes for an all black ensemble. Yet it is what he says which intrigues me. Itachi said that the nine tails had to be captured last, if it was not sealed in Gedo Mazo last it would unbalance it and cause it to break, this seems to make sense given the strength of its Chakra, so why go after Naruto before they take out Killer Bee? Killer Bee’s role seems to be over after teaching Naruto how to control the Kyuubi anyway, and perhaps that’s what will happen, he may end up sacrificed.
There are also a few points that provide food for thought.
1) With Naruto being from this incredible Uzumaki clan, which has the Rinnegen, if there’s a chance of him getting it this seems ridiculous. He’s supposed to be this loveable loser, and although I’ve enjoyed seeing him grow, this is one step too far. Although Madara does allege to have planted the eyes so it may not be a clan issue
2) This brings me onto my next point, with Madara planning everything and everything going to his brilliant plan isn’t he turning a bit Aizen? And given the pitfalls of Aizen I don’t want Madara to go the same way, the only thing that puts my mind at ease is that Sasuke is in the background as a final fight, but still, his hand in everything that’s happened over the last hundred years or so seems a bit too much
3) And finally what direction will Naruto take? In my view it can go for the one on one fights approach we saw in the Karakura town arc, or an all out war such as Marineford in One Piece. Personally I’m praying for the latter, and I think it will go that way because the past ninja have been portrayed as huge battles rather than one on one skirmishes, and given how much better Marineford was than the abject awfulness of Karakura town it seems to be a clear choice as to which would be preferable, but lets see what happens.
And I’m out, as you can see from the last pic, no Naruto next week, but there is the long awaited Chapter 598 of One Piece, 5 weeks in the making, can’t wait!
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