Boruto Episode 111

Boruto Episode 111

The Steam Ninja Scrolls

I’m sorry for anyone who was expecting a Fruits Basket episode review today, but I think I’m going to remove that series from my weekly review lineup. However, I’ll still be watching it so you can look forward to a review at the end of the season.

With that said, Boruto is finally back. Well, sort of. I haven’t had Boruto included in my weekly review lineup for about a month and a half now because, let’s face it, there isn’t much to discuss when it comes to filler episodes. But I really wanted to talk about this episode in particular, so here we are.

For the remainder of the Spring season, and into the Summer season, I’ll typically only be reviewing Boruto episodes which follow the main story (i.e. not filler). Any week in which the Boruto is filler that I don’t think has enough interesting content to discuss will have a miscellaneous series review instead (because I have a backlog of those).

Now that you know why I’ve brought Boruto back, and how I’ll be dealing with it in the future, it’s time to set the stage for today’s episode review. The Steam Ninja Scrolls is a six-part arc which follows Mirai Sarutobi as she escorts Kakashi and Guy around the Land of Steam.

Today’s episode, “Mirai’s King!” is the final part of the arc. And while I think this arc could have been executed a lot better, such as by replacing the first four episodes with meaningful content, it had a good conclusion which made it worthwhile.

Mirai’s King!

So in episode 110 it’s revealed that there’s a sect of Jashin worshipers who are behind the rumors of a hot spring which lets people speak to the dead. If you aren’t familiar with Jashin, don’t worry, I’ll explain all that in the next section. For now all you need to know is that Mirai’s father, Asuma, was killed by a follower of Jashin.

It’s unclear at exactly what moment Mirai realizes that the person promising to allow her to see her father is a Jashin follower, but she notices something isn’t quite right early on. Ryuki, the leader of the cult, mentions that he’s perfected a version of the reanimation jutsu, which is a red flag.

He then has all the girls who want to speak to their dead loved ones enter a cloud of steam which casts a mind control genjutsu on them. Luckily for Mirai, she’s a genjutsu specialist thanks to her mother, Kurenai, and so is unaffected by it.

Mirai then confirms her suspicions by tricking Ryuki into claiming that he knows fake information that she planted. So now that she knows his claim that he can bring back the dead, or even speak to them, is a lie, it’s time to defeat him and rescue the other girls.

Also during this arc Mirai learns that the “king” all shinobi must protect is the future, or mirai (未来). This is because shinobi must protect the future of the younger generations. Asuma also named his daughter Mirai so that his students, Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino, would always remember to protect her.

The Way of Jashin

I understand that there may be some people who watch Boruto that haven’t actually seen the original Naruto series or Shippūden. If that’s you then high highly suggest you go back and watch those for two reasons. The first is that they’re simply better than Boruto. The second is that it will help you understand Boruto a lot more.

So let me just explain who Jashin is, why there’s a cult following him, and why this matters for Mirai. Jashin is a god of death who we never actually see throughout the entire franchise. In fact, before this cult appears during this arc of Boruto, there has only ever been one other known follower of Jashin.

That man’s name was Hidan, he was a member of the terrorist organization Akatsuki, and he was the one who killed Mirai’s father. This latter part is the reason Ryuki wants to kill Mirai, so that he can be similar to Hidan, whom he reveres.

Tatsumi under the Body Possession Blood jutsu from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Tatsumi under the Body Possession Blood jutsu

But Hidan is much more interesting than Ryuki because Ryuki is a fraud while Hidan is the real deal. Even now, Hidan is still the only known true follower of the Way of Jashin, which is what makes him so much fun to discuss.

Hidan formed a pact with the god Jashin by sacrificing countless humans in his name. In return, Jashin granted Hidan immortality, making him the only true immortal in the entire franchise. Hidan also has access to a curse ability which Ryuki attempts to recreate via jutsu.

What’s so interesting about Hidan’s curse, however, is that as far as we know it’s not a jutsu. This is actually a power granted to Hidan by the god Jashin. If Hidan ingests the blood of his opponent, he can begin a human sacrifice ritual to Jashin.

When this happens, his skin turns black and he gains white markings which resemble bones all over his body. He then creates a diagram out of blood on the ground, and whatever damage he receives while within this diagram is reflected onto the person whose blood he consumed.

For example, when he killed Asuma he stabbed himself through the chest with his scythe, thus stabbing Asuma through the chest as well. But thanks to Hidan’s immortality, his wound isn’t fatal while Asuma’s is. To this day Hidan is still technically alive, though his body has been dismembered and placed in a pit which has been filled in.

Ryuki

Ryuki’s policy seems to be “fake it ’til you make it.” He isn’t really a follower of the Way of Jashin, and instead simply uses it as an excuse to cause mayhem. I mean, Hidan caused a lot more mayhem, but technically he was doing it as part of his offerings to Jashin.

That said, Ryuki wishes to be a follower of the Way of Jashin for his own selfish gain. He wants immortality and believes that sacrificing humans to the god of death will grant him this power. Ryuki wants to sacrifice people to gain immortality, while Hidan was granted immortality so that he could sacrifice people.

Also the fact that Ryuki claims Mirai counts as a sacrifice of 100 because she’s Asuma’s daughter further proves that his faith is false. By saying that, he’s trying to cheat the system and gain immortality quicker, which is something a true follower probably wouldn’t do.

Mirai vs. Ryuki from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Mirai vs. Ryuki

It should also be noted that the jutsu Ryuki comes up with doesn’t even work the same way as Hidan’s curse. Hidan’s own body becomes tied to the body of his opponent so that they take the same damage. Ryuki on the other hand ties a doll to the body of his opponents so any damage the doll receives, the enemy does too.

Further, the markings which would normally appear on Hidan instead appear on the victim of Ryuki’s jutsu. What I’m trying to say here is that although Ryuki tried his best to recreate Hidan’s curse, the jutsu he developed is inherently different.

In the end Mirai defeats Ryuki by tricking him with one of her genjutsu and then punching him with her chakra blades.

Conclusion

This arc actually opened up an interesting question for me. This is the second arc in Boruto which has an antagonist who attempts to follow in the footsteps of one of the Akatsuki members. First we had Shin Uchiha who was attempting to revive the Akatsuki for Itachi, and now we have Ryuki following Hidan.

Does this mean we’ll have more antagonists later on in Boruto who follow in the footsteps of other Akatsuki members? Oh, also I guess Kisame’s son technically counts as well, so there’s a third.

So what did you think of this arc in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations? It wasn’t an anime original filler arc, but it was a light novel arc separate from the main plot, which is filler as far as I’m concerned. However, it ended up being pretty decent all things considered.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any upcoming posts or schedule changes. I should be tweeting out my Summer review schedule within the next two weeks, so look forward to that.

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My next Boruto: Naruto Next Generations review is for episode 123.

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