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“Memories From The Day of Snow”
Ryogi’s Past
This week, we received some insight on Ryogi’s humble origins, cluing us in on his fervent loyalty to the Byakuya Gang. From the child’s perspective, his parents died before his very eyes, apparently murdered by someone who objected to the Byakuya Gang’s practices. I can understand how this event influenced him to join the Byakuya Gang, but something doesn’t add up here.
I don’t trust Gekko one bit, and reckon he played a hand in causing the death of Ryogi’s parents. Are you telling me that a gang of merry men couldn’t fend off a single interloper? My bet would be hedged on Gekko wanting to consolidate all power within the organisation, thus arranging the death of Ryogi’s parents. As for Ryogi, he must have been left alive for his ice kekkei genkai, and so that the boy could be manipulated to do the Byakuya Gang’s bidding. After all, Gekko gave that whole speech about how easy it was to manipulate people, using the negative emotions in their hearts. He’s practically a self-confessed demagogue. And judging by the flashback, he successfully convinced Ryogi with choice words, and a seemingly selective retelling of the incident. But you have to start asking the question, what exactly is his objective? I doubt that it would be money, since he gave a good portion of the wealth back to villagers. Whatever he’s done would suggest a long con, and I’m curious to see what the Crest of Night strategy entails.
A Song of Ice
It seems ironic that Ryogi brought a lamp to his rendez-vous with Shikadai, in the hopes of furthering their genuine friendship, by extending the time they could spend together. Instead, the lamp served as a ca(pi)talyst for bringing it all down. Shikadai uses the lamp to play a clever trick on Ryogi, causing him to inadvertently reveal his affiliation with the Byakuya Gang.
I loved the artistic direction of their clash, and the beauty of their confrontation stems from the fact that neither are wrong per se. Ryogi wants to change a failing system, but his methods are questionable. Meanwhile, Shikadai states that stealing is wrong, yet thinks that they are too powerless to change the system. Practically speaking, how are a bunch of kids going to fix the flaws of a capitalist system? But I don’t think there’s any harm or shame in trying. Capitalism possesses distinct shortcomings, and outside of third parties like the Byakuya Gang, little is being done to address any failings.
Having forcefully parted ways, are these friends fated to fight each other on the battlefield? Somehow, I doubt that Shikadai is a person who gets himself tangled up in these messes. However, now is the time where I expect him to go all out, attempting to make Ryogi see reason.
Concluding Thoughts
Though the Kaminarimon corporation hold a positive record, having helped out the struggling game designer from earlier on, I couldn’t help but feel skeptical when Denki’s father claimed ‘We haven’t done anything wrong’. I don’t buy into the mantra that mega corporations of a significant size can be completely free of moral culpability. It becomes impossible to oversee every single aspect of how its run, making it impossible to catch out every potential infraction against vulnerable workers. That said, it’s wholly possible that they’re receiving unfair criticism, as a result of the Byakuya Gang fanning the flames.
From a certain standpoint, I’m absolutely intrigued by Gekko’s notion that his manipulation counts as a powerful ninjutsu in its own right. While it’s been implied that he might be able to manipulate people, through using tattoos he places upon others, I’m actually referring to how his words can prey upon the discontent. In fact, I would draw comparisons with Kaguya’s Infinite Tsukiyomi, and it even succeeds where she falls flat. Being far less intrusive, while mobilising the masses onto your side, I’d say there’s greater potential. How are Naruto and Co meant to deal with the enemy, when they’re actually up against disillusioned civilians? Ironically, I’d coin this as being a larger scale and more malicious variant of Talk no Jutsu – frequently attributed by fans as Naruto’s ultimate technique. For me, this would lend credence to the idea that ninjutsu is slowly losing its relevance in a modernising world. Science, technology, and now advanced politics are slowly surpassing what a ninja might be capable of, and going by recent records, the shinobi are both complacent and unprepared for such a transition.
Preview
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some “old veteran” are recruiting Child Soldiers…
In his defense, he seems to only have one child soldier. In comparison, Konoha has hundreds of them.
As Nayrael said, literally everyone has been using child ninja soldiers since the Hidden Villages became a thing. Naruto’s generation and Boruto’s generation all started off with being child soldiers.
and that is its weak spot, they focus so much on their children, that they forgotten about the adults, that should protect them… Well in the War arc, Kakashi was also on the battlefield. But will we see here some similar? Sakura reactive her Battlefield Medic skills and so on..
Well lets see
In Naruto’s world the adults where at War or most of them died because of it, or where all busy doing their Missions
But is not in Boruto’s world the War over and in peace? Where are the adults? Busy at Work? at Missions? Where are they?
This arc –even if it’s a filler arc– peaks my interest because the focus shifts from Boruto to Shikadai. Now, Shikamaru has always been one of my fav characters because due to his intelligence and his view on life and his character development (and look at him now as Naruto’s advisor!). Temari is my favorite female character because she is a strong female character who is also a strategist. So you can say I’m excited to see how their child stands in this new world.
(It would also be cool if Shikadai also inherits wind powers from his mother– just like now Inojin inherited both of his parent’s jutsus.)
Ryogi and Shikadai are playing off each other really well, in terms of developing one another as characters, and I think it would be a shame if Ryogi’s appearance would be limited to this arc. I’m hoping that the manga will eventually make him canon, much like it did with Kagura.
Shikadai has been one of my favourite characters in the newer generation, an opinion I frequently stated in my earlier posts. Shikamaru x Temari was probably the ship that I supported for the longest time in the franchise, and one of very few relationships that didn’t come off as a convenient pairing. You could say that there’s a cause for positive bias here. Both parents are awesome, so it makes sense that their kid takes genes from both, and combines all that awesome into a lazy but sassy genius. As for inheriting Wind Release, we’ll wait and see.
Exactly. 🙂 *fangirling inside*
I thought of the same thing. Not to mention that the definion of ‘wrong’ may vary. I’m reminded of several responses after scandals such as the Panama Papers, when the people in question tried to defend themselves by claiming that they hadn’t done anything illegal. Which was true in many cases, but if anything the very legality of it made the situation more intolerable for others (“ah, so not only they don’t contribute to society as they should, but they can’t even be prosecuted for it?!”). Also, let’s not forget that Mr. Kaminarimon wasn’t precisely painted in a good light in episode 1 of the series.
And I like the idea of Gekko as practitioner of an evil “Talk no Jutsu”. Personally, I think he’ll fall when it’s discovered he had something to do with the death of Ryogi’s parents. Because at this point it would be the only way to undermine his power.
Think about it, what if he was innocent of murder? What if he was just a power-hungry manipulator that uses theft as a political tool? He can’t win in a 1 to 1 match against Naruto or a similarly strong ninja. He could be caught and sent to prison. And then what? Some clever words from him or his supporters could cause riots. Ninjas could always use ninjutsu to subdue disgruntled citizens, but that would open a rift in Konoha.
Shikimaru needs to talk to the people making this series. The villians have a huge head start on the kids and are running nonstop but the kids get there before them? Guess they found a shortcut.
I like the story but I wish the uncle isn’t too obvious. I mean he clearly is the bad guy.
https://randomc.net/image/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations/Boruto%20Naruto%20Next%20Generations%20-%2045%20-%20Large%2022.jpg