Naruto Shippuden Episode 31

[Yukimura]

I think what the most practical aspect of the ability the turn off an eye techniques is surprise. An enemy can look at a person and easily identify them as a byakugan user by their lack of pupils even if they aren't actively using the technique. For sharingan users however, their inactive eyes look just like people with no doujutsu ability at all so you wouldn't be able to tell if someone had the sharingan or not unless they were using it.

This is a benefit since you could lure over confident ninja into engaging you in a fight and then spring sharingan on them, see through their technique, and kick their ass. For the byakugan if the enemy saw it they might recognize it and be inclined to just run like hell and making it that much more difficult (or at least more time consuming) for a user to kill them.

@Abdula there have only been two eye techniques revealed so it doesn't make much sense to say sharingan seems to be the only one you can turn off, until we see a third both are equally likely to be the 'different' one.

[Abdula]

I

@Abdula there have only been two eye techniques revealed so it doesn't make much sense to say sharingan seems to be the only one you can turn off, until we see a third both are equally likely to be the 'different' one.

Choose you're words more carefully. Manga prophets are not well liked.
-Assassin

[Yukimura]

Removed

I know what you were getting at, the reason I edited my post was because I initially responded as if this was the manga board since you laid down such heavy innuendo. However I changed it because there is not supposed to be any mention or reference to things from the manga on the anime board.

@Assertn: Of course from a storyline perspective it's unlikely any significant enemy will ever be surprised or uninformed about a sharingan user, but from a general Narutoverse perspective there is obviously a tactical advantage to being able to conceal one's abilities until a time of one's own choosing.

[Assertn]

This is a benefit since you could lure over confident ninja into engaging you in a fight and then spring sharingan on them, see through their technique, and kick their ass. For the byakugan if the enemy saw it they might recognize it and be inclined to just run like hell and making it that much more difficult (or at least more time consuming) for a user to kill them.

In theory, yes. However since there's only like....3 people left with sharingan, they're all pretty well known and recognizable at this point.

[RasenDori]

In theory, yes. However since there's only like....3 people left with sharingan, they're all pretty well known and recognizable at this point.

and even before they were wiped out, they were all senseless enough to brand themselves with the uchiha logo