Boruto Episode 80

Boruto Episode 80

Mitsuki’s Friend

I understand that some of you may have found this week’s Boruto episode to be boring due to a lack of action, but I found it boring for a different reason. While we learn a bit about Kurotsuchi and Ku, most of the episode focuses on Mitsuki and Sekiei, and we don’t learn anything about them.

Now, maybe at this point you’re thinking to yourself, “but we learned about why Mitsuki left the Hidden Leaf, as well as Sekiei’s motives for wanting Mitsuki to join them!” Well, you’re not wrong, but you’re not right either.

We didn’t really get any definitive answers about either of these characters, but what we did get was more evidence pointing towards the predictions I had already made. And, that’s what made this episode so boring to me.

I’m all for learning about characters and what they’re thinking, but when the majority of the episode is simply reinforcing what I already thought was obvious, there’s not much left for me to be interested in. So, instead of going through the first half of the episode in summary, I’ll just run through what we know about Mitsuki and Sekiei.

As expected, Sekiei and his comrades are interested in Mitsuki because he’s a more perfected homunulus than they are. The Hidden Stone homunculi are incomplete and must continuously undergo maintenance to keep themselves alive.

On the other hand, Mitsuki agreed to go with the Hidden Stone homunculi because he’s searching for answers regarding if his will is really his own. He doesn’t seem to think that they can answer his questions for him, but believes their creator can.

I should also note that we learn from Kokuyou that the homunculi plan to start some sort of war for peace by using their golems. This is essentially the same plot that’s been used by every main antagonist in the series ever since the Akatsuki became the primary antagonists.

Pain wanted peace, Obito wanted peace, Madara wanted peace, even Kaguya wanted peace. The only primary antagonists who didn’t care about peace so far were Orochimaru and the more recent Ōtsutsuki clan members, so the fact that these Hidden Stone terrorists “want peace” isn’t too shocking.

I’ll also point out that we don’t really know what Shin Uchiha wanted. He claimed to be reviving the Akatsuki because it was Itachi’s will, but since the Akatsuki technically wanted peace, that could mean Shin Uchiha wanted the same thing.

So, yeah, we didn’t actually learn much new information for the majority of this week’s episode despite it focusing on dialogue between two characters.

Secret

But, despite most of the episode being a waste of time, there was still some new information, regarding Mitsuki and Sekiei, which came in the form of the secret the two of them share. While Kokuyou goes to get help for the wounded Sekiei, Sekiei and Mitsuki talk about humans and themselves.

From this conversation we learn that Sekiei was aware that Mituki faked the death of one of the Hidden Leaf guards and that he had sent a snake with a message to Boruto. Despite this, he had been vouching for Mitsuki’s trustworthiness to Kokuyou during their trip.

When Kokuyou returns with help and medicine for Sekiei, he and the other two homunculi are about to capture Mitsuki, when Sekiei again tells them that he’s someone they can trust. At first it may appear that Sekiei is doing this because he truly sees Mitsuki as a friend, but I don’t believe that to be the case.

Sekiei and Mitsuki from the anime Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Sekiei and Mitsuki

Instead, I think Sekiei finds Mitsuki interesting because he sees him as the midway point between true homunculi and humans. Since Sekiei is so fascinated by humans, it only makes sense for him to be fascinated by Mitsuki as well since he’s the closest to a human any homunculi has gotten.

While Sekiei tells Mitsuki that he won’t allow him to ruin their plans no matter what, I think in the end he’ll allow Mitsuki to escape solely because he’s interested in seeing what he decides to do next, much like why Mitsuki follows Boruto.

If you’ve seen the anime Angels of Death which just aired during the Summer and into the beginning of the Fall season, you may recognize this relationship as being the same one Zack and the Father share at the end. Speaking of that, I’ll be reviewing it later this week.

Kurotsuchi and Ku

The best part of this week’s episode was also the shortest and involved the Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi. At first she and her subordinates are attacked by Ku and one of the homunculi, and all of her subordinates are taken out without a chance to fight back.

Ku then tells Kurotsuchi that he’s going to force her to step down as the Tsuchikage, probably so that he can assume the title himself. Kurotsuchi then briefly fights against Ku, but he’s able to counter all of her attacks, which is no small feat considering she’s a kage-level shinobi.

However, although she’s a kage, it’s not as if she was actually going all out against him. If she had been, I find it likely that Ku would have been easily defeated. Remember, Kurotsuchi was able to match Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki in taijutsu, and she has the Lava release kekkei genkai.

It’s likely that she planned to capture Ku instead of killing him, which is why she wasn’t going all out. But, before she can do so, she gets a better look at his face and recognizes him. At this point, the fight appears to be over, hinting that Ku is someone Kurotsuchi doesn’t wish to fight.

At the end of the episode, we see Kurotsuchi imprisoned and sealed within a cage.

So just who is Ku and how is he related to Kurotsuchi? My instant thought was that our boy Deidara was back, but I’m pretty sure that’s impossible. If I remember correctly, he was sealed after being reanimated during the Fourth Shinobi War, which would effectively make it impossible for him to be reanimated again.

Could this be a family member? A former friend? A former comrade? For now, at least, we have no way of knowing, but their mere presence was enough to make her stand down, so it must be someone she respects in some way.

And now, for my prediction, because what’s the fun in all of this speculation if I can’t be proven right or wrong later? I’m assuming that Ku is Kurotsuchi and Deidara’s former mentor.

We know that Kurotsuchi referred to Deidara as her older brother, but it’s unknown if they were actually related. This means that at the very least, Kurotsuchi respected Deidara. Further, Sekiei, who seems to be Ku’s lead homunculi, knows the Clay Detonation jutsu, which may imply some connection to Deidara.

Finally, since Kurotsuchi respected Deidara, and Ku appears to have some connection to Deidara, I’m going to predict that Ku was the mentor of both of them at one point. His alleged death is then likely what made Deidara decide to go rogue, while Kurotsuchi took a different path.

If you can’t tell, I just really want Deidara to be tied into this somehow.

Conclusion

So what did you think of this week’s Boruto: Naruto Next Generations episode? Did you find it mostly uninteresting like I did, or did you enjoy it? Also, who do you think Ku is in relation to Kurotsuchi? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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