Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-26403664-20160228225013/@comment-26773508-20160418042607

Ninja Of War wrote: Finally some proof that YM is not omni-directional and cannot reflect any attack. Ch392, pg 10, you can see one of the snakes from Orochimaru's eight branches technique bypassing the YM (Meaning the YM is not adapting to the snake's attack). Anime further proves this, in episode 138 of part 2, multiple snakes bypassed YM and even constricted Itachi's Susanoo with the YM in tow. Checkmate YM fans. Hmmm.....a more accurate description would be that the Yata Mirror didn't change its size to accommodate all the eight snakes. But a Yata fanatic might just say that the Yata Mirror had no necessity to change size as the few snakes that did bypass the shield posed little to no threat to Itachi's Susanoo. The Yata Mirror really sucks as a storytelling element.

And personally, I'm not at all convinced that the Yata Mirror changed its size during the battle at all. Personally, I think the difference in relative sizes of the Mirror in different manga panels is more due to artistic imprecision or artistic choice. And by artistic choice, I mean that it's possible Kishi deliberately made the Yata Mirror look bigger in some panels, and smaller in others. The intention behind that could be that in some panels, the Yata Mirror looked more visible and aesthetically pleasing when drawn in a smaller size, while in others it was more convenient to draw it slightly larger in order to better depict the action. Just my thoughts though.