Episode 362 Impression
Canon’s back at last, and so am I! Many apologies for the delay, by the way – I had no idea they’d finished Kakashi’s filler arc until a couple of weeks on, and after that I had some real-life commitments to attend to. At least I came back though, right?
I think we’re continuing where we left off – Obito’s identity and backstory have been exposed, and the real undead Madara has turned up to join the fray, with every intention of doing what Obito’s been trying (and failing) to do. This has left Madara and a now-revived Juubi against Naruto and Bee, while Kakashi and Gai are left to deal with the unmasked Obito. I’m feeling that Obito has suddenly been nerfed now that his identity has been revealed – Tobi displayed incredible strength during the war (enough to fool the entire alliance that he genuinely was Madara, at least) and that sort of power doesn’t seem like something Kakashi and Gai can go up against, strong though they are. Throw in the fact that his voice has now become a lot raspier and it feels like Naruto is up against a whole new antagonist – though I suppose he is, in many ways. Of course, it could just be because he’s tired and doesn’t have as much chakra to spare any more – the same could have been said of Kakashi until Kurama kindly lent him some. And the element of mystery played a big part too. It’s understandable that the alliance would be a lot more cautious without knowing the secret behind Obito’s space-time ninjutsu – Kakashi and Naruto easily got a few hits in while armed with the knowledge that it was basically a beefed-up Kamui.
As I haven’t watched the recent filler episodes, I can’t say for certain what Kakashi was like in the years after Obito and Rin’s death – but I can guess that he wasn’t doing too good. He spent the first half of this episode wallowing in self-pity again, which is something I think he was doing even before the filler break. Obito summed up my thoughts pretty well while sticking a big shuriken though him: “how about shutting up already?” The episode was fairly slow-paced, partly due to the anime’s tendency to stick in repeated flashbacks – by this point, I’m sure I can recite a good chunk of Kakashi Gaiden and I’ve only ever seen it once. I trust it’ll be rising up to the challenge soon, though. As the manga is (supposedly) rapidly approaching its end, hopefully this means we’ll be ploughing ahead through lots of canon-based episodes. It gives Studio Pierrot less of an incentive to stick in another filler arc, at least.
Finally, I thought it was a pretty dumb idea to fire two massive Bijuudama’s at the barrier keeping the Juubi restrained – yes, the barrier, not the Juubi itself. I doubt it’d have worked either way, but surely it’s better to wait for the Juubi to finish breaking out first?