Boruto Episode 139

Boruto Episode 139

The Terror! Enko Onikuma

It’s time for another filler episode, but this time we’re following Team 40. The members of Team 40 are Enko Onikuma, Dōshu Goetsu, and Tsuru Itoi. Their current team leader is Ibiki Morino, however, they had an unknown team leader before this.

I’ll get to Ibiki shortly, but for now let’s focus on the genin members of the team. Team 40 is interesting in that they specialize in sealing techniques, but likely not for use against enemies.

Dōshu is said to be fairly competent at sealing techniques, but we mainly see him use some sort of weapon which restrains his opponent. Tsuru, on the other hand, actually uses a sealing technique which involves capturing opponents with her hair.

But then we have Enko, who is likely the reason Dōshu and Tsuru were placed on the same team. Sure, having a team which specializes in sealing is a good idea — we’ve previously seen this during the Fourth Great Shinobi War arc. However, it really seems that Dōshu and Tsuru are there to seal Enko if needed.

Enko is possessed by a demon — something I’ll get to later on — and has a tendency to lose control of her powers. When this happens, the demon possessing her needs to be temporarily sealed to stop her rampage.

Also, as a fun fact, Enko’s last name is one of those anime names which describes the character. Oni is the Japanese word for demon, and kuma is the word for bear. This applies to Enko because she has demon arms which she covers with gloves which resemble bear paws.

And, this is likely why they defeat a bear at the end of the episode. It represents Enko overcoming her loneliness.

Ibiki Morino

Ibiki Morino has been around in the Naruto franchise since the very beginning. And it doesn’t look like he’s aged a day despite something like 21 years (or more) passing since he was first introduced. I mean, just look at how much Anko changed in that time.

If you didn’t already know who Ibiki was before this episode — which you should have because he’s been in Boruto before — then he was actually introduced fairly well. He’s the head interrogator for the Hidden Leaf Village and specializes in making even the most hardened criminals crack.

Ibiki Morino from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Ibiki Morino

Unfortunately, I don’t think this episode really did Ibiki justice. He’s one of the most feared jonin of the Leaf, and yet he got beat up by a little girl with demon arms. Sure, Ibiki isn’t exactly one of the strongest shinobi the village has to offer, but he’s still been a jonin for over 20 years.

This man fought against Pain’s Animal Path during the assault on the Leaf Village — there’s no way Enko, even in her possessed form, should be an issue.

But, I think the real reason Ibiki got beat up by Enko was because he wasn’t exactly fighting back. If he really wanted to, he could have easily killed Enko with something like his Iron Maiden summoning technique. However, that’s not what his job is at the time; he’s the new team leader.

With that said, I do think it was pretty dumb that he wasn’t shown to fight back at all. I get that killing, or even severely injuring Enko isn’t what Ibiki wants to do, but he still needs to stop her. To me, it looked like he wasn’t even really trying to do that. He didn’t even land a punch.

Possession-Type Summoning

So, let’s talk about the demon in the room, Enko Onikuma. It’s unfortunate that we don’t get more information on her family and their signature jutsu, because it’s quite interesting and unique — although I think it looks stupid.

We’re told that the Onikuma clan’s signature jutsu is a “possession-type summoning,” which isn’t something we’ve seen before that I can think of. We previously knew of weapon-type summoning and pact-type summoning, but this is completely different.

It’s not as if the Onikuma clan are creating a pact with demons and then summoning those demons to fight alongside them. Instead, they’re summoning a demon once, and then allowing it to possess their own body indefinitely.

Enko Onikuma possessed from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Enko Onikuma possessed

Most of the time, the Onikuma clan are in charge of their bodies — so you could really refer to it as a partial possession. They gain the strength of the demons, but they’re still the ones in control. The problem with Enko is that she isn’t entirely in control of the demon possessing her just yet.

I should also mention that another way this differs from the pact-type summoning is that the demons don’t really appear to benefit. They don’t even get complete control over the bodies they possess. So based on this, I’d say that the Onikuma clan and demons aren’t exactly on good terms.

It’s more likely that the Onikuma clan are capturing demons against their will and then forcibly using their powers.

And, I’d also like to point out the similarities between this possession-type summoning and the curse mark. Do these demons have something to do with the nature energy harnessed by the curse marks and Jugo’s clan? They seem to be fairly similar.

Conclusion

Knowing this is a filler episode, did you watch it? Or did you opt to skip this week’s episode? And for those of you who did watch Boruto episode 139, what were your thoughts? Specifically, how do you think the Onikuma clan’s possession-type summoning works?

And what did you think of the new version of OP 6 and the new ED? Personally, I really like the visual changes which were made to this (third?) version of OP 6. As for the new ED, I think the song will grow on me over time, but again, I really liked the visuals this time around. That may be the most visually appealing Boruto ED so far.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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