Kakashi Hatake Lives

Image by Namh

I posted in May how intensely I felt the death of Kakashi Hatake, a fictional character that is part of the Naruto series. I could not believe that Kakashi died. I literally felt all the emotions one would feel when you suddenly hear of the death of a real person you know.


I'm not the only one. Of all the posts on my blog the one on Kakashi's death is the most popular. By itself it has had over 7000 views! It usually gets 60-some views per day. The strange thing is that it is not a particularly great post. It's merely my personal musings over the shock I felt when this character died. I guess other people share my love for the Naruto characters, hence the many views of this page.

I'm happy to announce that Kakashi came back to life. Again, I hope I'm not spoiling it to anybody. I'm sure the avid Naruto fans all know this already as the anime episode "Hero of the Hidden Leaf" in which it happened aired on August 26 already. (I don't watch the episodes weekly. They are usually so intense that I cannot handle waiting for the next episode, so instead I skip a number of weeks so that I can watch a lot of episodes in a row.) Yes, our dear Kakashi lives and what is more, in this episode Naruto's years of struggling to get acknowledgement from the village is finally realised. Remember those first episodes where the other villages ignored him, shunned him, ostracised him? Naruto has come such a long way since then and the villages, like so many of his enemies, and all us readers of the manga and viewers of the anime have fallen in love with his cheerful character and indomitable spirit.

I cannot count the many times I've cried watching this anime. Often not tears of sadness, but tears of joy and feeling a tremendous sense of pride and caring for this little mischievous outcast. The author of this manga series is Masashi Kishimoto, a truly masterful storyteller. Time and time again he changes the most flat characters into such rounded people you cannot help but feel a strong sense of empathy for them. Surprisingly, it is Naruto, the main character, which is probably one of the most flat characters. But it is this, his consistent, hard-headed, personal "way of the ninja" -- never to give up -- that is so enduring.

I'm just happy that Kakashi is back again. I guess this is a foretaste of how it must feel when the dead are resurrected.