Boruto Episode 136

Crossing Time!

Going into this final episode of the 20th anniversary arc, I wasn’t expecting anything good. However, what I found was pleasantly surprising. Boruto episode 136 was genuinely a good episode, even if there wasn’t a single fight. It was a good conclusion to the arc.

And this episode solved some of the major issues which can arise due to time travel being introduced into a series. First, Sasuke erases the memories of everyone he and Boruto came into contact with. Second, the time traveling turtle, Karatsuki, went off on his own journey through time so he can’t be used again.

This second point is something that Sasuke appears to think about for a brief moment. What if he kept Karatsuki for himself, and the Leaf Village? Think of all the things he could stop from happening if he had the ability to go back in time.

Obviously he could stop a lot of people from dying, such as Neji, Asuma, Jiraiya, etc. However, I don’t think he was thinking about any of them. I’m pretty sure Sasuke was taking a moment to think about whether or not he should save his clan from being massacred. And if that wasn’t the case, he was probably thinking about Itachi alone.

But, here’s the thing. While Neji might be grateful to be saved by Sasuke going back in time, I’m not sure the others would be. Asuma might too because he had a daughter on the way, but Jiraiya and Itachi both knowingly sacrificed themselves and wouldn’t want to alter the future.

Jiraiya’s Biggest Fans

I know this part was silly, and there are a lot of people who probably didn’t enjoy it because of that, but I liked when Jiraiya claimed Sasuke and Boruto were his biggest fans. Yes, there were a bunch of other explanations which could have been given to appease Sakura, but this one was classic Jiraiya.

And what makes it even better is that out of everyone in the Leaf Village, Sasuke is the one person least likely to be Jiraiya’s biggest fan. He knows what the Make-Out series is, and it’s not for him. I’d say that even Sakura is probably a bigger fan of Jiraiya’s work than Sasuke is.

Also, the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura is one you have to keep in mind for this scene. The Make-Out series is an eroge novel series — and Sakura knows this. So even though Sakura doesn’t know who Sasuke is right now, this is a traumatic event for Sasuke.

Jiraiya is telling Sasuke’s future wife that Sasuke is a huge fan of his eroge series.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought this was a funny scene. A funny scene that was actually meant to be funny, unlike another scene later on which also made me laugh. When Boruto is running through the Leaf Village and gets stopped by Denki, just watch his legs as he backtracks and runs in place. That was funny because of how bad it was.

Erasing the Past

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t even thinking that Sasuke erasing the memories of everyone they came in contact with in the past was a possibility. Now that it’s happened, it was obviously the go-to solution. I guess I always just think of Sasuke as having the Rinnegan now, and tend to forget he has a whole bunch of Sharingan jutsu too.

What I really liked about this scene were the reactions from both Naruto and Jiraiya to seeing Sasuke activate his Sharingan. And keep in mind, he activates his standard, three tomoe Sharingan here, not his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan — Naruto wouldn’t really know what that is yet.

When this happens, it doesn’t seem like Naruto really pieces together who Sasuke is. But the fact that he reveals he has the Sharingan comes as a shock. Naruto only knows of two Uchiha at this point, Sasuke and Itachi, so to see someone else with a Sharingan (other than Kakashi) is a big deal. He probably has a lot of questions.

Jiraiya, on the other hand, just smirks, because seeing the Sharingan activate proves to him that he was right about Sasuke’s identity all along.

Then, when Sasuke and Boruto get back to the present time, Sasuke tells Naruto all about their time traveling adventure. At this point, I expected Naruto to ask for his memories to be restored, but we don’t see that happen. Is this because he’s fine with without his memories? Or, is this because the memories are actually erased, not simply sealed?

Jiraiya’s Grave

The final thing I want to discuss is Jiraiya’s grave. I believe this is the first time we see Jiraiya’s grave in the entire series. But, it’s also possible we saw it at some point after Pain was defeated and the Leaf Village was rebuilt. I just don’t remember seeing it before.

This grave does have some significance though due to the circumstances of Jiraiya’s death.

Jiraiya died in the Hidden Rain Village and his body was never recovered — it sank to the bottom of the ocean/lake. This was something he did to himself on purpose so that his body couldn’t be reanimated and used for evil. So, this grave we see Naruto paying his respects to is empty.

The first clue of this is the fact that the grave is situated outside the Leaf Village. There’s definitely a proper grave for Jiraiya somewhere withing the Leaf Village, but this isn’t it. This is a memorial set up by Naruto for him to remember Jiraiya as his master, not as a hero of the village.

The second clue is the “name” on the grave stone. It says 師 (Shi) which translates to teacher or master. An official grave for Jiraiya would have his name on it, not the title of his relationship to Naruto.

But, yeah, I just wanted to clear up the fact that this isn’t Jiraiya’s actual grave for anyone who wasn’t aware. Jiraiya definitely has an official grave within the Leaf Village aside from this one. However, neither of them are actually the final resting place of his body. His body is underwater in the Hidden Rain Village.

Conclusion

What did you think of the conclusion to the 20th anniversary arc? Are you wondering what became of Urashiki? I know I’d like that to actually be answered. Did you find Sasuke being Jiraiya’s biggest fan to be funny? And, is there anything else you would have liked to see during this arc which we didn’t? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server so you can discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN and CaptainRainbowPizza for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Sensei tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.