Naruto 656 review

Hello everyone and welcome back to Naruto after it's short hiatus, the wording on the conclusion of chapter 655 was really confusing but I'm guessing it was just a one week break and Naruto will resume normally from now on.

So let's talk about the latest chapter, as we all expected Obito is pondering all the words everyone has told him when he sees Naruto's giant rasenshuriken, I like how they made it resemble a falling star, that was clever. Also after a few chapters of no development from Madara we finally find out why as Hashirama had him bound with his wood dragon which prevented him from using ninjutsu or moving.

I do find it strange though that if Madara was unable to move or use Ninjutsu why they needed to throw the rasenshuriken at him to begin with, was there really a point to that? I suppose maybe to buy time for them to seal him while he reforms his body or something but again if he can't move or fight back, why blow him up?

I did not expect to see Gaara at all this chapter but it was a pleasant surprise to see him and Shukaku have a conversation, the One-Tail is quite aggressive and it's fun to see how Gaara manages to manipulate him, first by telling him that it's just a request and then by mentioning Kurama who we all know Shukaku hates. The other tailed beasts chip in to help but I doubt anybody is surprised by That development.

But that's all we see of the Bijuus as the scene goes back to Madara and we find out that surprise surprise, Naruto's technique couldn't defeat him, did they expect it to? he is an Edo Tensei anyway.

I wondered what would happen when the Juubi gets removed from Obito and it seems the Juubi itself is gone, split into the other tailed beasts but the Gedo Mazou is still inside him and that's keeping him alive. Weird though since I don't think we've ever seen anything sealed aside from Bijuus into people, so can you seal anything into a person?

Obito while not quite dead (yet) is apparently useless now after having 9 beasts worth of chakra extracted from him, Kakashi mentions something interesting when he tells him that he wanted Obito to atone but since he can't move he will just leave him where he is, guess Kakashi wold have liked to team up with his former best friend but alas it didn't happen.

There's been a lot of talk on how Obito will be punished at the end of this war, some say he should be killed as an international criminal while others say he should be imprisoned to avoid another cycle of hatred. Personally I always felt that people should have a right to pass judgement on whoever hurts them, revenge is a major theme in Naruto and sometimes we're told revenge is a bad thing (Sasuke) or that it brings closure (Shikimaru) or we should forgive others (Naruto) we never really get a consistent idea of what Kishi wants to say about revenge since every character has gotten a different result from it.

Villains however always do atone for their crime in Naruto and that makes the idea of revenge seem like a bad thing, why punish someone when they have changed? same thing here with Obito who decides to use his life to bring back the shinobi who died in this war.

Any mention of Jiraya = automatic awesome

Did anyone else like how Kakashi told Obito he could live and compensate for what he has done? the guy has killed thousands so how exactly can he make up for all he did in his life? Obito saying that's too easy was very appropriate.

Black Zetsu has been missing for such a long time now, the last time we saw him he had been pinned down by Choujorou and while I wonder if this Zetsu is the same as that one it's nice to see him, he's the only remaining member of the original Akatsuki now and the most mysterious, although his appearance isn't a total surprise since Madara controlled Obito once before he became a Jinichuriki so it was somewhat obvious that he would do the same after the Juubi got extracted.

By controlling his former apprentice Madara is able to use him to achieve his goal of getting a real body as well as a new rape face.

Predictions

1- Somehow I don't think Obito is dead yet, even using this resseruction move might not kill him because Madara was sort of revived a bit earlier, he's not a full ET zombie because when he originally forced Obito to resseruct him we saw some of the cracks on his face disappear and like how Chiyo was able to heal Sakura without dying I think the same applies here with Obito.

2- Quite a few characters were absent this chapter, the main one I was looking for was Sasuke, last we saw him he was going with Naruto to take down Madara but he's a complete no show this chapter.

3- Since he has a real body, will Madara became the next host of the Juubi? I feel like that would be the same as the fans getting infinite Tsukiyom from Kishi so I hope it doesn't happen.

Rating

I gotta start by mentioning that the art in this chapter was quite grim in the first half, with a lot of shadows and blurry characters which I found to be a bit of a letdown, once we are done with the Bijuu conversation though it improves significantly. Storywise this was.... hard to describe actually, I liked it even though I can't put my finger on why I liked this chapter, is it because of Shukaku and Gaara? or how Obito mentioned Jiraya? the plot finally moving forward and resurrecting Madara? overall this was a solid chapter and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, hope you guys did too. Naruto 656 gets a 4 out of 5 from me, what do you think about it?

Quotes

"after all the bullshit that has been happening i don't think anyone would get startled even if flying cows with lasers appeared in the battlefield. "
-roggie

"I think the best part of this chapter was the break announcement, hopefully Kishi decides to make it a permanent thing before he ruins his story even more than he already has with this arc."
-Tonix

"This is lame. At this point I just want Madara to truly fuck everyone and everything up. Edo Tensei Rin, bang her in front of Obito, then Tengai Shinsei the entire world."

-Babyshaker88