Boruto Episode 59

Introduction

This week’s Boruto episode was #59 and titled “Boruto vs. Shikadai.” After this episode, I’m expecting there to be at least two more episodes in this arc before we get to the next arc from Boruto: Naruto the Movie.

It seems that along with the plot from Boruto: Naruto the Movie, the Boruto series will also be redoing the arcs covered by another one of the Naruto movies I haven’t seen (I think it’s The Last: Naruto the Movie). While I know the general plot of that movie, I don’t know the specifics so it will be interesting to see.

Summary

Although this episode is named after the fight between Boruto and Shikadai, I felt that the more important fight of the episode was the final match in round one of the tournament between Shinki and Chocho. We already saw Boruto vs. Shikadai in the movie version of this arc, but we didn’t get to see this first fight.

While I had already assumed that Shinki’s jutsu was the iron sand jutsu wielded by the third Kazekage simply based on its appearance, we got a verbal confirmation of this from Gaara this episode. We also saw a scene of when Gaara decided to take Shinki in as his son.

However, it’s still unclear how Shinki came to be in possession of this jutsu. While it’s possible that he was born with it naturally, I think it’s more likely that he’s the result of some sort of experiment.

Remember, the third Kazekage was the only shinobi known to possess this jutsu until Shinki came along. This is just like how the first Hokage was the only one with the wood style until Yamato was made into an experiment by Orochimaru and Danzo.

As I predicted last week, Shinki was able to defeat Chocho. There was never any doubt of this in my mind because it would be strange for a primary rival for Boruto to be defeated by a supporting character like Chocho.

The next fight was the main fight of the episode featuring Boruto and Shikadai as I mentioned previously. Because I had seen the Boruto movie, I knew that Boruto ends up winning this fight due to using his Scientific Ninja Tool to cheat.

However, and I might be wrong here, I was pretty sure that in the movie it’s after this fight that Boruto gets caught cheating and subsequently disqualified from the exams by Naruto. This isn’t the case in the series, as Boruto appears to be moving on to the next round.

When or if Boruto gets caught cheating during the exams may seem like a trivial detail at first, but it’s actually extremely important to his growth as a character. Without being caught, he would continue to rely on cheating for the rest of his life, which would only hurt him in the long run.

Similarly, it’s important that he gets caught by Naruto because this shows that Naruto doesn’t care if it’s his own son, he’ll disqualify any cheater. This may seem harsh at first, but remember that Boruto doesn’t want to be treated simply as the son of the Hokage.

I think ultimately the decision to postpone when Boruto gets caught cheating was simply made so that we can see more of the other characters before going into the main arc from the movie, which doesn’t really involve any of the other Boruto series cast.

Next Episode

The next episode will cover the second and third semi-final fights. The first one will be between Sarada of the Leaf and Araya of the Sand. Fight number two will be between Mitsuki of the Leaf and Shinki of the Sand.

Both of these fights should be more entertaining than the fights in this week’s episode. Sarada is an Uchiha who possesses the sharingan, so we know she’s a skilled fighter. Her opponent also appears to be a skilled fighter, but his jutsu is currently an unknown.

I’m expecting Araya’s jutsu will be revealed in this fight and it will be something which takes Sarada by surprise. However, I still believe that Sarada is going to win the match and move on to the final with Boruto. This prediction is as much based on this fight as it is the one that follows.

The last match of the semi-finals between Mitsuki and Shinki is bound to be an entertaining on, and might not even finish in the next episode. Honestly, I was thinking originally that it was difficult to choose a winner between these two, but I believe it will be Shinki in the end.

While I think Shinki will win, I do believe that Mitsuki is the superior shinobi. The first problem that would arise if Mitsuki wins is that the final is a three-way fight and so it would end up with all three members of team 7 as competitors. This would be too convenient.

On the other hand, if both Sarada and Mitsuki lose, then it would be Boruto vs. two Sand shinobi who he probably can’t even beat one on one (without cheating that is). I find this scenario to also be too convenient because it makes cheating the obvious choice for Boruto.

Mitsuki and Boruto teaming up in the final against Araya would be interesting due to how Mitsuki will follow Boruto to the end, but Araya isn’t the primary rival for Boruto, Shinki is. Because of this, Shinki would need to be the one in the finals, not Araya.

So, by all of this reasoning, Sarada will beat Araya and Shinki will beat Mitsuki. This will mean Boruto would likely team up with Sarada to take on Shinki, and then plan to fight one on one afterwards.

However, my guess is Shinki will be able to take them both on at the same time and leave Boruto with no other choice but to use his Scientific Ninja Tool. At this point, he will be disqualified and the exams will be interrupted before we get a real winner.

But going back to next episode, and not whatever comes after, if I think Mitsuki is the better shinobi, then how is he going to lose to Shinki?

It’s simple, really. Mitsuki is Orochimaru’s son and appears to be on a mission while training in the Leaf Village. We also know that he has some powerful jutsu that he almost used in the first round of the tournament, but remembered it wasn’t time for it yet.

He’ll likely use this jutsu in his fight against Shinki, thus backing Shinki into a position where he has to use some hidden jutsu of his own. In the end they’ll probably be fairly evenly matched, but Mitsuki will likely forfeit the match because he’s already gathered the information he wanted.

Remember, I’m assuming that Shinki is some sort of experiment meant to emulate the third Kazekage’s jutsu. Based on this, who do we know that likes human experimentation? Orochimaru.

Either he was the one who created Shinki and is now using Mitsuki to test his growth, or he wants to learn more about this ninja who he believes was created by someone with a similar mind to his own.

While we likely won’t get to see if all of my predictions come true next episode, I believe we’ll get to see enough to infer whether or not I’m on the right track.

My review of the next episode is available here.