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Why Kakashi?
In the Beginning
Well before I get into why Kakashi, how about I start off from the very beginning. I first discovered Naruto through a forum
that I can't even remember the name of. I read some people's posts and, since my obsession with ninjas started with Flame of
Recca, I decided 'hey, I gave Recca a chance, let's give another ninja series a try.' So I made the stupid choice of buying
the first volume of an edited version of the Naruto dub. Even though it was edited, I liked it. I was immediately drawn to
Sasuke Uchiha, hated Naruto, and found Sakura very annoying. Not a great start huh? After finishing the DVD, Which ended
on a cliffhanger with episode 4, I cast the series aside because the Flame of Recca DVD's were much more important to
me than finding out what would happen next.
A Second Chance
In 2007 I had finally completed my Flame of Recca anime collection with the tenth DVD. I was at borders with the final DVD in
my hands, very excited to see how much changed between anime and manga, when I decided to walk through the rest of the anime
section. That was when I saw the Naruto Uncut Volume 1 boxed set. I remembered the cliffhanger at that moment and that
I had some borders bucks and a coupon so I decided 'what the heck' and bought it too.
One Cool Jounin
First off, I immediately noticed the parts cut out of the earlier DVD I bought. Second, I still didn't like Naruto all that much
and still found Sakura annoying. The only character I liked was Sasuke, he was the reason I wanted to find out what happened next.
Well, my reactions were exactly the same after watching the first four episodes as they were with the old DVD. I then watched
episode five and by the end finally took notice of the silver haired Jounin, Kakashi Hatake. I never really thought about him
at first until I saw that episode. His quote after passing Team 7 really hit me. You see, I'm one of those people that thinks
very highly of friends and friendship, so when Kakashi said: "Those who break the rules are garbage, that's true. But, those
who abandon their friends are worse than garbage," I had to agree with Naruto, he was kind of cool.
Discovering a New Favorite
It was during the Zabuza arc that I REALLY took notice of the Copy Ninja. Sure, the Sharingan was cool and all, but it was his
protectiveness towards his students that stood out most to me. I don't know exactly when during that arc or what truly
sparked it, but by the end of the arc Kakashi had kicked Sasuke out of the number one spot on my favorite characters list.
The Reasons He Rules
It's kind of hard to pinpoint the EXACT reason for my obsession with Kakashi. Maybe it's his voice, always calm and soothing,
both English and Japanese ones. Maybe it's his protectiveness for those around him, or the mysterious person his is, always
keeping himself hidden from others. Or maybe it's the subtle sarcasm and his goofy way of doing things. I love everything about
Kakashi, all the things already said, plus his past is so sad, yet so interesting, (yes I'm obsessed with Kakashi Gaiden too).
I also love that he doesn't go around bragging about who he is or what he's accomplished. He was the youngest Genin in the
history of the Naruto universe for crying out loud! Yet he never says anything, talk about a modest person. Now that I think
about it, maybe it has most to do with Kakashi's past. I remember feeling sorry for Sasuke, but when he started using his past
as an excuse to act the way he does I started to get really annoyed. Kakashi's past is just as tragic as Sasuke's, if not more.
Sasuke lost his family, but he has his team and countless others. Kakashi on the other hand, not only lost his family but also
his second family, his teammates. But you don't see Kakashi using that as excuse, you don't see him throwing that in another's
face to get a point across, except when Sasuke treatened to kill everyone he loved that is. So yeah, I can't point out the
main thing that makes him number one to me, but I've given a good amount of reasons that do.
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