This year the anime of Naruto turns 20. The great work of Masashi Kishimoto is celebrated in many different ways, from fan art to luxury brand collaborations like the one between Naruto and Montblanc.
Today, however, we’re going back in time, to the years before Naruto ended and the identity of Tobi, a mysterious member of the Alba Club, was still in hiding. In Kishimoto’s work, he is initially portrayed as a great prankster, the funniest villain of all, at least until defeat Pains, after which Tobi begins to adopt increasingly serious and severe behaviors. The most frequently asked question on the internet in those years was: What is Tobi’s true identity?
In the forums of the time, fans asked this question countless times, which led to many theories. The most quoted answer was that he was hiding behind Tobi’s mask Madara Uchiha, because a few Alba members had addressed him by that name: after all, they hadn’t gone that far. However, there are far more imaginative theories.
In fact, according to other forums, behind Tobi’s mask could be theEnd of the six paths. The Chakra Father was considered a very powerful character that too little was known about and many saw him as contrasted with the demon Ten-Tails in the Naruto finale. Others had instead hypothesized that Tobi was the one eldest son of the hermitwho turned evil to get revenge on his father, who had chosen his brother to be his successor.
Another hypothesis saw behind Alba’s orange mask Izuna Uchiha, Madara’s younger brother. In the past, he developed the hypnotic Sharingan, which was later stolen from him by his brother during the war between the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan. A final theory on Tobi’s identity sees the protagonist instead Shisui Uchihaa member of the clan who is very close to Itachi who decided to commit suicide by jumping out of a fissure in the Naka River from which the body was never found.
Finally, Tobi turns out to be Obito Uchiha, Kakashi’s former teammate in his youth who had been the subject of fan theories anyway. The anger and disappointment that Obito felt for the world and the war and his encounter with Madara made him so cynical and ruthless that he was guilty of truly reprehensible acts.
These were the most popular theories about Tobi’s identity. And you, do you remember others? We leave you to the 10 strongest ninjas of Naruto.
