AniFriday Issue #7 (December 20th 2013)

This has been a tiring and hectic week for me, but it has also been a week with one of the best moments of my life.  Sunday my sister graduated from the UNC Chapel Hill!  I don’t know what her major is, I think it has something to do with some holistic medicine, witch doctor mumbo-jumbo.  But that doesn’t matter right now.  I’m intensely proud (and a bit jealous) of her.  And if she gets to read this (because I didn’t really talk that much that day), I wish her all the happiness in the world, and a good job, too.

Now then, onto the anime and manga commentary.  Here’s what I’ll be covering this week, in order.

• Tokyo Ravens ep11
• Ms. MONOCHROME ep12
• Valvrave ep22
• Coppelion ep12
• One Piece ch732
• Naruto ch659
• Bleach ch562
• Team Medical Dragon ch90
• The World God Only Knows

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the change in titling for these posts from being named parts to issues; I’m attempting to go with the magazine theme I love so much.  I know this is a blog, but humour me.  This is a hobby after all, I’m gonna f*ck around and experiment any chance I get.

Naruto ch655: a nice ending to Naruto for the year. So many good, sad moments – and regret.

So this is the last chapter for the year.  And it was a heavy one.  Obito is pretty much finished.  Kakashi finally makes his way out of the void to seal the deal, something Sasuke wasn’t hesitant to try and do himself, but it’s Minato himself that stops his students from killing themselves.  And perhaps it makes a lot of sense.  In a way, Minato wasn’t just the leader of the team, or the mentor, he was their protector and dad.  And even with his anointment as the 4th Hokage, he still has a lot of regrets.  Kakashi being the only member of the group to survive in a sense being one of them. His Uchiha student practically dies and comes back as the enemy of the world.  And it seems the whole team falls apart in the death of poor Rin. It’s an interesting situation in that it’s an incredible and eerie parrallel to Kakashi’s own Team 7. They’re pretty much the prequels to the original Star Wars movies, in that they perfectly illustrate how things can go incredibly wrong when you make decisions based on emotion.

It sucks that in essence, when Obito questions Kakashi about how Naruto has been so much more successful in his path, Kakashi basically
tells him that his will is stronger, and that it wins more support. I can’t imagine how it must feel to literally get a second chance at life and to fail in your efforts and convictions right before the finish line. Obito is fading away just enough to see the world move on without him. Though it’s not exactly over at the moment, he’s still alive, Madara is still haunting the battlegrounds and the evil god tree is still standing.

The story continues, though it looks like Obito is done. And I’m a little bit sad. He’s actually shown himself to be a pretty good and memorable character.  He’s been Naruto’s “Shadow Link” the entire series. For all the complaints about certain mangaka seemingly pulling plot twists out of their butts. I thought Obito was very well integrated throughout the entire story, enough so that I think it adds to the depth and integrity of Part I, which despite my praise now is still by far Naruto at its best.

I’m very much still glad that I’m following this series. And I think this has been a worthwhile year of the series. Until next year fellow
Naruto fans.

Manga scans47.jpg

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