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「火影の息子…!!」 (Hokage no Musuko…!!)
“The Hokage’s Son!!”
Growing from a stubborn young boy who vowed to become Hokage and save his friend, Naruto overcame all the odds and made his seemingly impossible dreams come true. It’s funny how I took for granted, that after becoming Hokage, Naruto would automatically receive all the recognition and respect he yearned for all his life. But seeing it actually happening with kids in Boruto’s class admiring Naruto really made me realise how I am truly proud for him.
Having witnessed Naruto’s own journey to becoming Hokage, it’s easy to assume that the new generation of ninjas are spoilt and unnecessarily edgy. Nevertheless, this conclusion leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as it parallels various unwarranted criticisms often directed towards the millennials. Every generation has their own struggles, even in times of peace. For example, the rise in mental health issues that came with the age of social media is no trivial matter, even if those suffering have not lived through poverty or war.
Anyway, that’s enough going off on tangents. Let’s get on with talking about the episode!
Episode Impressions
Following two weeks of suspension, Boruto finally attends ninja academy with his ninja pals. And of course, Hinata made sure those two weeks were productive. But his school debut was not particularly smooth. Accusations of riding off Naruto’s coattails are thrown at him and he gets into trouble with Iwabe, who is the strongest member of his class.
So it goes without saying that we are then treated to a ninjutsu showdown harking back to the baby days of Naruto. While I love huge epic battles just like anyone else, some nostalgia goes a long way too. The action choreography was on point, though there were certainly moments that wouldn’t seem out of place in a dancing routine. I have to say there was one thing that left me deeply disappointed. What the heck is this? Where did my old school ninja run go to? Minor dissatisfaction aside, I was pleased that the action was not fighting for the sake of fighting. Boruto was standing up for Denki and showed that victory could be attained, through cunning battle tactics defeating raw strength.
Had it not been forbidden by the rules of the fight, I think that Iwabe (Hamazoe Shinya) would have easily wiped the floor with Boruto using his Earth Release, but Inojin intervenes before those rules are broken. Speaking of Inojin (Abe Atushi), am I the only person who thought he was a girl based on the previews?!? His mannerism leaves a lot to be desired, as it seemed to be an unpleasant mix between Ino’s haughtiness and Sai’s social awkwardness. Although I can’t say I approve of his attitude, especially when he slapped away Boruto’s attempted handshake with that goddamn smirk on his face, at least he redeemed himself towards the end of the episode.
Concluding Thoughts
Boruto is more like his father than he realises: Catchphrase no Jutsu (Dattebasa), Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, Talk no Jutsu, Power of Friendship no Jutsu, etc. Presumably we will see the list continue extending in later episodes, which looks promising so far. However, I hope the similarities don’t go too far – otherwise the story will become one where Boruto beats Bain, then becomes the Bokage of Bonoha village.
Iwabe’s dislike of peace is still a mystery to me. There are many possible explanations, ranging from misplaced fury at Konoha’s education system itself, to possibly having lost important people in the Fourth Shinobi War. But I look forwards to seeing when the anime will try to cover this. Although this may seem too obvious, I was also left wondering if Iwabe was the same person as Kawaki. It would be interesting to see how Iwabe falls from his Hokage aspirations, while Boruto goes from rejecting the ninja path to accepting it.
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is incredibly fun and I want to continue writing posts for it. However, my real-life term time schedule would make this so difficult to keep up with in terms of punctual releases. By next week, after writing the third post for this series, I will have made my decision. Regardless of the outcome, it is my hope that you will understand and accept my choice without feeling too disappointed.
Credits:
Meru-sempai for the Bokage of Bonoha line
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Dreamy Johnny」by The Peggies
Preview
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There’s a word for Inojin’s personality.
It’s called shady.
And I am 100,000% here for that shady little boy, he is a gem LOL
The only shades I’m getting from Inojin, are shades of negative qualities inherited from Ino and Sai.
But I think he will eventually grow on me. Once upon a time I quite disliked Neji, before he received massive character development and changed his ways.
I like this element to his character. He’s shamelessly blunt with good reason. I hope they don’t dilute that aspect of his for the sake of character development though. That’d be boring.
Well, naturally, I can understand why Iwabe is upset. In real life, there are many subjects that students would find to be useless for their dream jobs. However, naturally a current peaceful era doesn’t want muscle headed “Spartan” Ninjas who only know how to fight, a peaceful era would naturally want ninjas who can find a smart way to use Ninjutsu for things other than war.
https://randomc.net/image/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
And Boruto, please do tell, just what part of your mother is scary? She’s practically angelic as a goddess. It’s a damn shame that Kushina Uzumaki isn’t around, she would have been one SCARY grandmother who can effectively give Boruto an idea of how scary women can be.
https://randomc.net/image/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
Who is this new girl? The Class Rep girl seems to be heroine material. Was she the child of just “mob ninjas” or is she the daughter of a character we know?
https://randomc.net/image/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
On the side note, I feel REALLY sorry for all the Anko Mitarashi fans; it’s no wonder so many Naruto fans are in complete denial of the Epilogue. Anko was HOT back in the good old days. Now, Jesus, someone give her diet ramen.
Inojin=Sai’s mouth
As for Hinata, she probably has developed a quiet scary side that resides under her angelic persona, at least when it comes to Boruto. Because Bortuto acts so rebellious, she would almost have to haved developed that just to keep him in line.
While Kushina wore her emotions on her sleeve, Hinata tends to just let it bubble under the surface. It’s not the loud women you should be concerned about, it’s the ones that get really quiet when they are mad (personal experience).
Also, if Boruto has that eye from the first episode, can we conclude that this was after the Boruto movie? If so, shouldn’t he be able to use the Rasangen, if for nothing more than a scare tactic?
The current events in Boruto take place before the Boruto movie. You can tell because the teams haven’t even formed, and as we have seen previously in Naruto, ninja academy is the first step before the genin exam and missions. Boruto and Co aren’t even genins yet, let alone ready to take the Chuunin Exam like in the movie.
Therefore, it also confirms Boruto’s special eye was possibly through kekkei genkei rather than being given to him by Momoshiki.
” It’s not the loud women you should be concerned about, it’s the ones that get really quiet when they are mad (personal experience).”
Really sir? Personal experience?! Do you have a mother that resembles Hinata? That’s something.
Of course, then again, if we imagine Himawari then I can understand Boruto’s idea of “gentle looking woman being scary.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbi54W6WMeM
I think Anko is fine the way she is now, if not a bit more thicc
I can’t tell if she’s supposed to be fat or just pregnant.
*Sees Sumire–realizes she’s like Boruto’s mom–remembers Freud*
*grabs popcorn*
LET THE SHIPPING WARS COMMENCE!
We shall see. Quite a few people ship Boruto with Sarada, so my popcorn will be reserved for the inevitable war between these opposing ships.
The animation was HORRIBLE on this episode.
Unfortunately there was definitely a substantial drop in animation quality. Some of the characters looked misshapen from a distance, and it’s been confirmed that this episode was outsourced by Pierrot. However, I like to think it pulled through where it counted.
I think that’s to be expected of these types of shonen shows. They’re not being made with disc sales in mind, but more to sell the manga. So they won’t be high budget. Boruto probably needs to prove its worth to get that treatment. It reminded me of the laughably bad animation that followed the first episode of the 2014 Fairy Tail series(Though that didn’t last for long admittedly). It was like someone took 60-70 percent of the budget away.
More importantly, Boruto is supposed to be a long-running show. And that means that you can’t afford to spend as much money on every episode as 1-cour or 2-cour shows can.
Really? Thought it was better than usual, we got to see Boruto do some realistic running rather than that “ninja run”
Rock Lee’s Son was there, but how come he is not one of the fastest sprinter?
I’m also really surprised he didn’t come first in the physical training exercise. I really hope that’s because he was using the old school weights to give himself a handicap.
There’s plenty of time for that. Maybe they don’t want him to be an exact copy of his dad in terms of ability so early?
In the ED theme, Metal Lee can be seen surging far ahead of everyone in a sprint, so I definitely think he’s really strong and really fast.
@lyfe and Zaiden
Or when he feels like it, he can use his real power, aka fast sprinter.. But it is nit granted that kids are an 100% copy of their Parents or 50%/50%
Well, perhaps in an World where Bloodlines can produce very strong Ninjas (remember the first episodes of Naruto and their Enemies)
Even Kakashi could not copy “bloodlines” Ninjas
well the series is somehow fine untill now. Boruto is the same as naruto. You can know the parents by looking at their children :-p However the purple haired class representative girl may be Anko`s daughter? and why the hell I think she is the new Hinata?!! Sarada has a crush on Boruto but she just doesn`t show it!
Where the hell are our old characters? and I really hope that Lee married Ten Ten 🙂
Don’t think Lee and Tenten married. Kishimoto has stated he has yet to draw Lee’s wife. In Naruto Chapter 700, you can also see that Tenten is by herself. I blame Neji for this one ;_;
Well, this was a fairly lame episode. I can give a free pass to children being carbon copies of their parents, even though I think that’s *really* stupid, if only because in Naruto parents were carbon copies of their children.
But the conflict here is just stupid. Iwabe has got to be among the dumbest characters I’ve ever seen in fiction. I kept expecting them to do something moderately interesting with him… like, just based on the Genin arc of Naruto, maybe his hat would fall off an reveal a forehead protector and, twist, turns out everything was a test.
But nope, they played it completely straight. Boring.
To be fair, Boruto was always going to be a kid’s show and that means it has to be fairly straightforward for now. Unfortunately, most kids aren’t going to understand Iwabe having an intelligent/edgy reason, which is why the conflict seemed stupid and simple.
With this character we also had Boruto fight someone stronger than him so we can really establish the idea that strength doesn’t equal victory which is important for this series.
Also this episode was removing his edge, are we really gonna complain about a character who has strong ideals for one episode? Heck, I could understand where he was coming from. It was quite a logical albeit flawed stance in all fairness.
I don’t think that’s “being fair” at all. Naruto has always been a “kids show,” So expecting a similar level of depth in Boruto is *exactly* fair. The early episodes of Naruto were all about seeing *beyond* the superficial, so it’s a bit disconcerting (in a bad way) for the sequel to be so unsubtle.
Lol, Baruto remind me of Hayato from Yahari, popular and perfect etc etc.
I think that’s pretty unfair on Boruto. In these two episodes, he’s done way more than Hayato has done over two seasons in my opinion. Boruto was initially hated by his class, and worked hard to earn their respect by standing up for what was right. Hayato’s popularity is essentially god given with his good looks and charming smile.
I, for one, liked Inojin’s depiction. Not Inojin as a person, but as a character. He was rude and haughty, but his words hurt because he was right. There was a cover up of the train incident (although it was to protect Denki, rather than Boruto), just because their parents were friends it doesn’t mean they have to be friends too, Iwabe did promise he wouldn’t use his weapon and no one else but Boruto tried to defend Denki. Inojin is a walking “Jerkass has a point” trope.
Perhaps both at the same time? Still, the first reason would be enough to see no mystery here. Older repeaters who feel they are being unfairly treated by the system and thus skip class, boss around and get in trouble are a type I have seen with my own eyes.
And Iwabe does raise some good points. Society has changed. In the past he could have been a respected warrior. Could Naruto have passed the current exams, I wonder?
Hey Mistic! I agree that Inojin’s character is pretty good. And the mystery was more or less as to what the reason was, rather than the validity of possible reasons.
And Iwabe did raise a good point, which I felt the series could have done more to examine, by having him ask that really good question you raised himself.
the new girl totally gives a hinata aura, well she’s probably boruto’s future girlfriend.
https://randomc.net/image/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
it was great episode.