10 Second Anime - Naruto Shippuuden - Episode 425



Madara retrieves his other eye, and at full power, enacts the Infinite Dream.

Episode 425 - "The Infinite Dream"

Heh.

I'm starting to feel really sad watching this show. Not because it's bad, but because it's almost over. Finishing up the manga last year was hard enough, but now to see it and hear it with its effective musical score... I'm going to miss these guys.

 

Kakashi was doing a little reminiscing on his own after Naruto Jesus gave him back his eye.

Aw poor Sakura. Still pining after Sasuke after all these years. Don't worry, though. Sasuke just has trouble expressing himself. Apparently. We wouldn't have had three quarters of the overall Naruto story if that guy knew how to talk instead of brood in his emo way.

 

One thing about Naruto that's different than Sasuke is that he has no fear of failure when he learns some new technique or power. Sasuke is more deliberate. Notice the difference in reactions to taking out multiple Planetary Devastations.

Naruto knows Shadow Clones and Rasengan. That's pretty much it. But the variety of his imagination! Adding in Sage jutsu with the most destructive tailed beast bomb chakra is so Naruto! Sasuke better step it up. Cutting up stuff with his Susano'o is so last year.

Hmm.

One thing I was never a big fan of in long running serials is the ret-con, short for retroactive continuation. In titles like Naruto, it's tolerable because the author actually makes sure the revelations fit what was told before. In this episode, we were given a double dose.

 

First, Madara figured out why Obito didn't do stuff according to his original plan. In the contemporaneous telling of the story, it appeared that he was impatient and had to change some things around because of Kabuto's presence. But in the ret-con, dealing with Naruto had already started him down the path of finding a different way, which is why he chose a reanimated Madara to appear instead of the full resurrection. He needed to control Madara. When Obito got hit by Kakashi, we now have a fuller reason for why Madara took over the battle instead of just sitting around. Obito intended for Kakashi to destroy a seal that placed Obito under the total control of Madara. Unfortunately for Obito, Madara still had the black Zetsu in him to control him, and since he was still a reanimation and couldn't become the 10-Tail Jinchuuriki himself, he just made Obito do it.

 

This revelation mitigated the idea that Madara only psychologically manipulated Obito into following his plan, but it also made sense from what we knew of Madara's personality - plans within plans, wheels within wheels, contingency within contingency. That Madara had also manipulated the Hidden Mist to plant the 3-Tailed Beast into Rin, just so Obito could witness Rin turning into a monster fit as well. Rin saved her village by having Kakashi kill her, but her actions still fit inside Madara's plans to turn Obito to despair. I guess Madara had one of his Zetsus plant that seal on Rin, since he was stuck to the tree.

 

This all shows that Madara was opportunistic, but not that opportunistic. Obito falling into his lair was his game-changer and that's all he needed to start a 20 year plan to plunge the world into the Infinite Dream.

 

Symmetry between circumstances is another thing Naruto loves dwelling on. The ret-cons we saw this episode depended on that symmetry for emotional impact and also to show how linked Obito and Rin always were in having Kakashi pierce both their hearts to stop a coming calamity. That symmetry is going to come around again when we learn that Madara isn't the puppet master he thought he was. There's always somebody better out there.