Welcome all to my reviews of Naruto 582 Nothing and Naruto 583 What is This?. 582 wasn't a bad chapter by any means but also one that didn't hold any major revelations, choosing instead to do some basic table setting for the climatic fight between the three figures most trapped within a world of deception: Kabuto, Itachi, and Sasuke. 583 was similarly good but not great as it dished out the requisite backstory to flesh out Kabuto before this arc finally concludes. So without further ado...
Naruto 582 Nothing
The images in this review are credited to
Mangapanda.
As Nothing begins, Kabuto prevents Itachi from utilizing the technique he told Sasuke of last chapter: Izanami. Sadly, we don't get any further hints as to what that technique entails nor what it costs to use it. Instead, Kabuto further showcases his skills with Dragon Sage jutsu. Using an Inorganic Transformation technique, Kabuto causes transforms the stalagmites and stalactites of his cavernous hideout into lethal, piercing tentacles. The technique is fast enough to catch Itachi off-guard, who only has time enough to protect Sasuke from the attack with Susanoo. While Itachi is impaled by the jutsu, Kabuto gloats about his attack, explaining to them and to us that rather than controlling the earth by injecting it with chakra (energy), he is controlling the inorganic by imbuing it with life itself.
Kabuto rushes towards Itachi, utilizing the opportunity to once more overwrite Itachi's mind. This time, Sasuke protects his brother by encircling them in a ring of Amaterasu's black flames, whose heat seems to return the terrain back to normal. It's unclear if the flame exhausts the life energy within the earth or if heat is a natural weakness of that technique. Regardless, Kabuto in his hubris still can't imagine losing to either of the Uchiha. With his new power, he can create imbue life into places where it never existed and control the world. Coupled with Orochimaru's meticulously cultivated library of knowledge, Kabuto claims to have ascended to a rare place in ninjadom, above even the Uchiha who have the latent ability to awaken the Rinnegan. He is living being closest to achieving the Sage of the Six Paths ability.
Itachi, though, admonishes Kabuto, pointing out that hubris leads inevitably to demise. Once Itachi believed only in his only abilities and so it's a lesson he knows only too well. Kabuto may be a central force in the world with tremendous sway, but he lacks sight of himself. Perhaps it's because he's spent the majority of his life living in deception that he is unable to accurately gauge what his limits are. And as Itachi once told an arrogant group of Uchiha police, how can Kabuto gauge Itachi's limitations without being able to accurately gauge his own. The two expert shinobi are both right to a degree. As Kabuto points out, those are the words of a loser. History is written by the bold, unconcerned or unfettered by limitation. Yet Itachi is also right. Forgiving yourself for your weaknesses opens up the path to relying on your comrades and thus bolstering your own strength.
There is one chief problem with that advice: Kabuto has no comrades. He has always been alone. The closest he came was with Orochimaru, but without a doubt, Orochimaru never saw Kabuto as an equal. Just an interesting flower he happened to spot and felt like plucking from the Earth. As Kabuto explains in flashback, he never had anyone to believe in. He was always trying to find himself. As a kid, he was rescued by some villagers alone in the world, without a memory of who he was or where he came from. The people (one of whom suspiciously knows medical ninjutsu) who heal him take Kabuto in as one of their own and acclimate him to their ways. After all, they live in wartime and strict schedules must be followed. All but one of the adults is too caught up in other business to show Kabuto the slightest affection. However, the woman who healed him shows him kindness, names him, and gives him her own glasses when she realizes that he has bad vision. The child, newly named Kabuto (the japanese word for helmet after the helmet he wore at the time) happily holds onto those glasses as a token of affection. Back in the present, the adult Kabuto views those glasses only as a necessary tool. As the chapter ends, we're left wondering just what could have happened to so transform that boy.
Naruto 583 Who Is This?
The images in this review are credited to
Mangastream who seem to be back from the dead. I'm glad to see them back in business
who Is This? continues the flashback of Kabuto's childhood, now three years after he was taken in at an orphanage. He helps his adoptive mother and the other adults from his home treat shinobi injured in the war. Kabuto attends to Orochimaru who compliments his skill with medical ninjutsu and encourages him to become a shinobi. Later, Kabuto overhears Danzo, accompanied by Orochimaru and another Root ANBU, coerce Nono, a former Root ANBU member herself, into exiting her retirement to take up a lengthy spy mission for the Hidden Leaf. Though the village and the Third Hokage have already guaranteed the safety of her orphanage, Danzou not-so-subtly implies that he will send Root after it if she doesn't agree to help. After all, she was the only person he could trust with such a mission.
Nono accepts the mission, but Danzo has one other request: a child from the orphanage to train as a replacement for a lost Root agent. Kabuto takes this responsibility on himself and volunteers to be trained. It's obvious to us that his heart is in the right place, but he doesn't properly communicate his reason for leaving to his makeshift family. Five years pass and Kabuto becomes a capable ninja, spying on each of the other four great nations.
At the end of those five years, Kabuto finds himself surrounded in the Hidden Stone village, worrying that he'll be caught and never see Nono again. He's attacked in the middle of his reflections. He counters and critically wounds his pursuer only to discover it was adoptive mother, still on her long-term intelligence gathering mission. Kabuto futilely attempts to revive her with his medical ninjutsu. In the last moments of her life, Nono is unable to recognize Kabuto.
Kabuto flees the rest of his pursuers, but Nono's death has him questioning his identity and purpose. With her dead, he wonders what purpose his spying and sacrifice served? Since she gave him the only things he truly possessed, his names and glasses, does his true identity vanish with her? If only his false existences are known to the world, does his real identity cease to exist? Searching for answers in his reflection in a pool of water, he is unexpectedly answered by Orochimaru.
{I]582[/I]'s art was pretty solid. Props go to Kishimoto for some well illustrated action and environs. The sights of shifting cave terrain or Itachi impaled were very impressive. Yet the most impressive aspect of this chapter was no where near as flashy as those sights. It was the superb character design work. What could have been rote pattern at this point (hero points something out to villain, villain has a flashback that induces an epiphany) was given pathos by evocative, subtle facial expressions. Just look at Kabuto's face when he counters Itachi's claim that he doesn't know truly know himself. There is a slight, but visible pain in that expression. A smile that isn't carefree enough to be believable. His wary eyes wince slightly, betraying the casual air of indifference he tries to keep up. And that last panel in the chapter... the lines of his face make it appear as though he's smiling when he's not, further adding to the sense of melancholy.
Likewise, the art was solid in Naruto 583. There were two scenes that caught my eye. The first was the textless depiction of Kabuto growing and spying in different countries over the course of a page. That scene does an excellent job of establishing the passage of time. The other scene of note is near the end right before Orochimaru lunges out of the water. In that panel, Orochimaru's face can faintly be seen from below the water's surface and his visage mixes with Kabuto's reflection to foreshadow what Kabuto would become. The only quibble I have is that the key climatic scene where Kabuto kills Nono is a hard to follow, but that frenzied action also suits Kabuto's the desperate situation fairly well.
Naruto 582
I wasn't quite sure how I felt when I first read this chapter. There weren't any big revelations and though I was glad to see more of Kabuto's sage jutsu, I was also disappointed that we didn't see any of Izanami*, though I'll talk more about that later. What surprised me on rereading this chapter, though, was how invested I was in Kabuto's character and how genuinely tragic he seems. He's an odd mix of characters. Not knowing where he came from, he's similar to Naruto. A war orphan like Orochimaru, he shares the same ideals as his late mentor. And the path he ended up walking was very similar to Itachi's. That's a winning combination for drama. But can that flashback be trusted.
*Consider Kabuto until now. When has he ever shown genuine emotion? Not curiousity. Not amusement. Not vengeance. But regret and longing as we briefly glimpse here. It might be that Itachi's already using Izanami and we just don't know it yet. I was inclined to believe his entreaty to Kabuto, but if his goal is to end Edo Tensei and he is unsure of how to end the technique (and further unsure of whether ending the technique through genjutsu is possible), then the safest course of action would be to use genjutsu to instill within Kabuto the desire to end the technique himself. He was willing to do so with Sasuke. That was the purpose of Shisui's eye. Might he then use a genjutsu that determines someone's fate by affecting their memories of the past. Against someone lost in a sea of deception like Kabuto, such a technique would be a tragic and dark turn.
All in all, I find myself like the chapter far more upon rereading it than I did initially, and now the question of how reliable a narrator Kabuto is has wormed its way into my thoughts. Naruto 582 wasn't spectacular but it's improving the more I think about it, which is why it gets a...
4 out of 5.
Naruto 583 Who Is This?
For the most part, I thought Who is this? successfully shone a sympathetic light upon Kabuto. The dialogue was solid and the flashback moved speedily along. The character interactions were well handled with Nono being put in an uncomfortable position and Danzo unflinchingly wielding the full force of his authority in coercing a retired shinobi back into service. And while I would have liked Kishimoto to spend more time on Kabuto growing into his duties and putting more focus on the nature of espionage, as I mentioned above, I thought it was artfully handled. The highlight of the chapter was Orochimaru who appeared thrice. From these appearances, it's obvious he subscribes to Danzo's school of thought and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, but he still seems invested in the village's well being at this point in time. More interesting is the potential he sees in a kid who only knows medical ninjutsu, enough to remember his name five years later. Overall, Naruto 583 was another solid chapter, which is why it gets a ...
4 out of 5.
Predictions
The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that Kabuto is already under the effects of Izanami. That's it for the review. See you after next week, allied shinobi...
Stray Observations
- Kabuto got all the best lines in 582.
- "I think you still don't understand who I am."
- "I'm not going to hurt you, though. You're my guinea pig."
- "I'm sorry for you, but I'll win this one ... I really can't imagine myself losing."
- "My name is a code...my glasses are a tool...I've been alone from the start. From the very start, I had nothing."
- "Why don't you become a shinobi...you'd be a great one."
- "It's because you could never fully kill your heart that you turned out this way."
- "Who is...this?"
- "I remember you...Kabuto."
One Line Reviews
- Bleach 488 is sets the table for the Thousand Year Blood War to differing results. The Soul Society segments were intriguing but right now I'm most worried about the implications of a technique that can reduce or seal Bankai. Bleach 489 doubles down on the SS intrigue and finally draws me into the arc with promises of SS splitting along moral lines (Mayuri kills a lot of people to maintain the flawed system of balance that must exist in Bleach) and arguing over past aggressions (hinting at the contentious history between quincy and reaper)
- As fun as One Piece 633/634 always are (and the body swapping is very funny), I think the most recent chapter suffer from having too much going on at the same time. The latest arc could do with less zaniness and a little more clarity which seems to be on the way...
- Tower of God S02 Ch10 featured the characters connecting with each other in the conclusion of the Bath just before the next test began and was explained in S02 Ch11. Though Baam/Viole had a badass moment or two, the chapters functioned mainly to setup conflicts to come.
- Air Gear 352 features another change of fortune in the Ikki vs Sora fight and Oh! Great promises to that the fight (and perhaps manga itself) will end in 5 chapters!
- I wasn't blown away by any one title in the last two weeks except for D.Gray-Man 213 which delivered an excellent chapter focusing on Link's mysterious reappearance and the motives of inspector Lvellie.
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, a lot of guys are hating these chapters,whereas I'm not so satisfied,to be honest...
Originally Posted by mattiaildivino
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) ,there are some contraddictions (sasuke unable to use susanoo; itachi who can cover sasuke but can't cover himself,whereas in chapter 576 he could do that ecc.),the flashback itself isn't so good,I expected it to be better (with sasori involved from the very beginning ecc.). and what about the fact kishi mentioned izanami (which was expected since izanagi was introduced,but is another uchiha weapon) but isn't showing it?
Re: Blackjack612's Review of Naruto 582 and Naruto 583
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) and then the fight never happend, and maybe creating a butterfly effect. I don't know if it will just make the fight stop and not kill Kabuto or kill Kabuto and make the fight stop that way will have to wait for that.
BTW I can't believe noone took this username 
Re: Blackjack612's Review of Naruto 582 and Naruto 583
