Boruto Episode 126

Boruto Episode 126

Shukaku’s Trick

Today’s episode of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was obviously filler, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t an important episode. In fact, this episode seems to be the first in a group of filler episodes which server to briefly explain the events of Naruto and Shippūden to those who haven’t seen them.

If you’ve already seen Naruto and Shippūden, then this episode is mostly recap. And even if you’ve only seen Boruto, this episode is also party recap. The only new information comes at the end and is focused on Himawari. I’ll get to discussing that at the end of this review.

For the majority of the review, however, I’ll be doing things a bit differently from usual. Since this episode serves to really introduce the tailed beasts into Boruto, and since I haven’t written explicitly about them before, I’ll be taking this time to dive into everything you need to know about them.

If you’ve only watched Boruto, then let this review serve to catch you up (somewhat) on the events of Shippūden. And if you’ve seen it all, then treat this review as an in-depth discussion of the tailed beasts, their jinchūriki, and the role they play currently in the series.

Tailed Beasts

In this episode, Boruto fills the role of viewers who haven’t seen the previous parts of the franchise. He knows that the nine-tails is inside his father, but other than that he doesn’t really have an understanding of the tailed beasts. In fact, Shukaku is the first one he’s met as he’s never even met Kurama.

Anyway, now that Shukaku is staying with Naruto and his family for a few days, Naruto decides to call all the tailed beasts together to have a meeting. Shukaku opts not to join in, but he can still hear what the other tailed beasts — or at least Kurama — are saying.

Three of the tailed beasts, Matatabi, Kokuō, and Chōmei, the two, five, and seven-tails respectively, also don’t attend the meeting. That just leaves Isobu, Son Gokū, Saiken, Gyūki, and Kurama, the three, four, six, eight, and nine-tails there.

Naruto, Kurama, Isobu, Son Gokū, Saiken, and Gyūki from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Naruto, Kurama, Isobu, Son Gokū, Saiken, and Gyūki

And while I’m not actually going to discuss all the jinchūriki individually when I get to them, here’s an ED from Shippūden which will teach you the names and a little bit about each of the tailed beasts and their respective jinchūriki. I honestly think this was one of the better EDs of the series just because it served a purpose.

Anyway, the tailed beasts were created by Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki when he divided up the power of the ten-tails, also known as the God Tree. Since then, the various hidden villages have been fighting over control of the tailed beasts due to their immense power.

Also, the tailed beasts aren’t only numbered by their tails, but also by their relative strength. Kurama is the strongest of the tailed beasts while Shukaku is the weakest. However, that doesn’t mean Shukaku is weak by any means.

Jinchūriki

As for the jinchūriki, this is also a concept Naruto has to explain to Boruto because there aren’t actually many jinchūriki around today. In fact, the only two we know of are Naruto and Killer B (the eight-tails jinchūriki). However, Naruto also mentions other former jinchūriki Boruto would be familiar with.

Boruto should be familiar with Killer B. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen the two meet off the top of my head, but Naruto mentions him so we can assume Boruto knows who he is. Naruto also mentions Gaara was the jinchūriki of the one-tail and Kagura’s grandfather (the Fourth Mizukage) was the three-tail jinchūriki.

Yagura (Kagura’s grandfather) is long dead by the events of Boruto, as are the other jinchūriki besides Naruto, Gaara, and B. Because of this, we actually don’t know exactly how many jinchūriki there are. But I’d say only the two we know of currently.

Naruto using his sage mode and nine-tails cloak from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Naruto using his sage mode and nine-tails cloak

We know Shukaku no longer has a jinchūriki. We also see Matatabi, Kokuō, and Chōmei roaming freely, so we can assume they have no jinchūriki either right now. It’s possible that Isobu, Son Gokū, and Saiken have new jinchūriki, but if they did they probably would have been present at the meeting we saw.

And, each jinchūriki gains the special ability of their respective tailed beast. For some of them, like Shukaku, this takes the form of a kekkei genkai (Magnet Release). Others, like Kurama, have different abilities. Kurama’s ability is actually why Naruto has the infamous talk-no-jutsu.

I plan to have a full article on all the past and present jinchūriki eventually, so if you want more details on each of them just hang tight. Today’s post was mainly about the tailed beasts since they’re relevant to the episode.

Himawari Uzumaki

If you have more questions about the tailed beasts, put them down in the comments and I’ll answer them there. With that said, it’s time to talk a bit about Himawari because we do learn a bit about her as well. I’m not sure exactly if this information counts as canon, but let’s assume it does.

So, we already know that Himawari is the most powerful character in the Naruto franchise. After all, she took down Naruto, the previously strongest character, with just one punch. And while this information isn’t exactly new, it was reaffirmed that there’s something not quite right about Himawari.

I mean, obviously the first thing that isn’t right is that she has blue eyes, not the pale eyes of the Byakugan. However, this is actually due to a mistake that the creator just decided to run with. No, the real issue with Himawari is that she has an explosive amount of power, but can’t recall ever using it afterwards.

And if you’re thinking this is exactly like Zenitsu from Demon Slayer, that’s because it is.

Himawari using her Byakugan from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Himawari using her Byakugan

For whatever reason, the strain of activating her Byakugan is too much for her to handle and she essentially blacks out. However, she also gains extraordinary power she shouldn’t have access to. This is really the new piece of information.

When Himawari took down Naruto, it was implied that she happened to hit one of his major chakra points (or below the belt). But this time around we see her smash large pieces of scrap metal into the air with one punch. She shouldn’t have that kind of power at this stage.

Also what was that whole “locked on” thing about?

Conclusion

Anyway, I guess that’s it for this week’s Boruto: Naruto Next Generations episode 126 review. Next week’s episode is going to be about Boruto learning who Jiraiya is, so expect a discussion of Jiraiya here and not a real review of the episode.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

2 Replies to “Boruto Episode 126”

  1. i disagree with your review about jinchuuriki’s would show up in the tailed beast plane dimension if summoned because if it is then bee would be there too. so in conclusion it’s optional to the jinchuuriki to show up so there’s a possiblities that other tailed beast have a host it just they didn’t showed up at that time.

    1. That’s a good point. Since Bee wasn’t there, Isobu, Son Gokū, and Saiken could also have new jinchūriki of their own. However, we still know Shukaku doesn’t, and from what we’re shown neither do Matatabi, Kokuō, and Chōmei.

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