NARUTO Ch. 687 Review

Sorry. Still don't feel anything.

Obito's time has finally run out. As his body slowly crumbles to dust, he has a few parting words for Naruto.

The Good

It's all drawn really nice. Other than that, you're basically just watching a man give a death bed speech while Sasuke is doing action elsewhere.

The Bad

I'd think an apology would be more appropriate.

One of my favorite moments in ONE PIECE has to be the time Luffy just clobbers Bellamy. I would occasionally go back and just watch that scene and take such pleasure in seeing him crushed. However, the current arc of that series has me more sympathetic to Bellamy. I was just as surprised as anyone to be cheering him on right along with Luffy. So, why is it that I can accept that turn, but Kishimoto's attempt at redeeming Obito is falling completely flat with me?

I believe the primary factor is screen time. Oda didn't spend eight-plus years building Bellamy as this big villain. He really just appears and vanishes until the Dressrosa Arc. On the other hand, Kishimoto has been conditioning us for years to hate Obito. We've watched him manipulate or murder characters we cared about over and over again. When it was time for Obito to no longer be a bad guy, Madara was brought in and Kaguya after him -- I only wish I had the time to discuss my concerns with her in this issue.

Luffy may have turned on Bellamy, but I don't even think he'd call him "...nothing but awesome to me!!", as Naruto does for Obito at the end of this chapter. He does remember that this is the man who got his parents killed, right? It would have been at least nice if Obito had taken some of his final moments to express some level of regret about that to Naruto directly. Going just by his words, the only thing he seems to regret is not becoming hokage.

Verdict 1/5

Other than the well illustrated art, this chapter is little more than an overly dramatic death scene for a character we've been told to hate for years. Yet the creator seems to want us to feel bad about it. If that was the intent behind this week's chapter, Kishimoto failed to do that with me. Even if you felt the tiniest bit of remorse here, you can't deny all the other problems with this chapter. Kaguya is once more just standing around letting the heroes chat instead of attacking, and when she does shift the dimensions -- an action she's suppose to be careful about due to the power drain. It's to a passive realm that doesn't put our heroes into any additional danger. Did she forget the acid ocean that nearly melted Sakura before?

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About the Author

Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek. Follow for news updates: @AnimeVicers/@FoxxFireArt / http://ift.tt/1hmMpg1

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