countdown to Karin's bd; day 7
My favorite Karin moment from the Chasing Itachi arc and from the Killerbee Fight
→ a) Chasing Itachi arc: Karin has outsmarten Konoha [365]
There are a few, including moments I’m emotionally attached to out of both, nostalgia and what they meant to me as Karin shaped up to be my favorite female character in PII - notably, this one right here. But if I leave all that aside, this one has to take the cake for me:
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I love how Karin goes from entertaining the thought of making a move on Sasuke and being excited about it, too 100% focused on the mission in a heartbeat. Plus, this was the very first instance where we got to see Karin’s train-of-thought while she used her Kagura Shingan to such a degree, which shed a lot of light not only on the workings of her ability but also on its sheer sharpness (she could tell there was a dog) and its reach (Konoha wasn’t even anywhere near the village at the time).
She is an extremely (and that adjective falls short, IMO - I’d say that feats-wise, to me at least, Karin is arguably the best sensor we’ve seen in the manga to date, and that’s including people like Tobirama - but I digress) proficient and gifted sensor and it’s amazing.
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But - and following what Kakashi just mentioned in the panel above - what truly makes this moment my favorite is what brought an already note-worthy package of efficacy into the fantastic territory:
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It isn’t only that Karin has an “outstanding gift of perception”, as the databook puts it. It’s the way her sharp mind and analytic skills help her exploit it; it’s how she takes her sensing to the next level by transforming it into a tool that more than just letting her know that a group of people is coming after them, gives her the means to deduce just how they are tracking them and in turn, come up with a plan to throw them off and get them off their track.
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I adore how Karin single-handedly comes up with the plan that helps Hebi “win the battle of the investigators” (to quote the databook, again). It is literally thanks to her quick-mindedness that Hebi gets the upper-hand without having to break a sweat because If it had been up to Sasuke, he wouldn’t have bothered; but Karin has got more foresight than he does, and that’s one thing that makes her a fantastic and essential addition to the team. Because she literally balances Sasuke (and Suigetsu, too) out in that regard.
Another thing that she gets to display in this chapter - and that only adds to how competent she is - is her extensive knowledge. We see her show it in different instances, like when she is talking about the Curse Seal, or Juugo’s condition, and even later down the line when she explains what a Bijuu is; but in this case, Karin demonstrates that she has a very good grasp of the techniques employed by other village’s search parties. Which ties in with what I mentioned before about Karin having great foresight; she is the type to devise plans to avoid useless and troublesome confrontations, and has made sure she’s got the means to accomplish that.
In other words: Karin has made sure that she’s able to play to her strengths to compensate for her weaknesses, and I couldn’t possibly love that more than I already do. This is a girl who knows what she can do; and what she cannot do she also knows, and so she prepares in advance to be able to either avoid or come out on top in unfavorable situations, too.
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Seriously. Just look at how cunning and resourceful she is. She assessed the resources she had at hand, came up with a plan, and incorporated said resources into her scheme in record time.
And the cherry on top was she having Sasuke’s shirt, lol
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Her hobby is collecting perfumes, so I think it’s safe to assume she was planning to keep it precisely because it was “drenched in his sweat”; in other words, it smelled (reeked, probably lol) of Sasuke. It’s easy to see why she would find it worth-keeping. But the important thing here is that despite that, she doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice that shirt for the sake of the mission. Whatever her personal desires might be, when it comes down to it, Karin always prioritizes the mission.
Which is pretty much how the chapter started, at that. So basically, in this chapter alone Karin showcased over and over again the things that make her such a great, multifaceted character: her eccentricities, which never distract her from the mission at hand, her resourcefulness, quick-mindedness, and cunning mind, and her sheer talent and proficiency.
Plus, she is just too cute when she’s being tsundere, haha.
→ b) Killerbee fight
It’s frankly a tie between this single panel from 414:
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Because it goes to highlight something that Kishi skilfully evidenced throughout the previous chapters of the fight: No matter how worried Karin might be (be it about Sasuke, the team, or the situation in general) she never loses her clear mind and her we’ve-got-business-to-take-care-of attitude. Her assertiveness in handling the situations she gets thrown in remains intact, always triumphing over any emotional distress.
I really love that about her; in fact, it is one of my favorite traits and I consider it one of her greatest strengths, so it’s a shame that it doesn't get celebrated nearly enough (IMO). Especially considering it is one of the most important traits every competent ninja should have.
In retrospect, Karin seriously spent the whole fight is the one to get Taka’s asses (though to be fair: mostly Sasuke’s) into gear and remind them of the situation they were in.
The second is (predictably) Karin saving Taka’s lives in 415, for fairly self-explanatory reasons:
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There is nothing better than Taka saving each other’s asses, and this panel is particularly beautiful to me because it goes to show how much Karin’s opinion and regard for Suigetsu and Juugo had developed by that point. She went from wishing them gone to saving their lives at the risk of her own without a second thought. By then, she had already begun to appreciate Taka as a team of its own right rather than just as a means to be close to Sasuke.
Plus, I find that her physical strength is worth commenting on, too; I mean, she hoisted up two-and-a-half guys, one of which is about twice her size. And she did so with quite the feeble hold: by pulling on their hoodies. I mean, this girl may not be able to smash boulders or have some impressive taijutsu, but if you ask me, she can pack quite the punch and kick nonetheless (at least, by normal standards). I don’t think she would’ve been able to stay as the jailer of the Sothern Base if she wasn’t at least capable of defending herself when worst came to worst.
ns 15.158.61.43da2
