Boruto Episode 130

Boruto Episode 130

Genin, Assemble!

Based on the preview at the end of the previous episode, I thought we were about to begin the Sasuke recovery mission in this flashback arc. However, it now doesn’t actually seem like we’re going to get that at all. The title, “Genin, Assemble!” is referring to them assembling for a very different reason.

That reason, of course, is a bathhouse cleaning mission. At the start of this arc I mentioned that it’s probably going to be all filler episodes, and so I don’t know why I got my hopes up. But either way, this was a good way for Boruto to meet all the other genin, as I’ll discuss later on.

Konohamaru and Boruto from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Konohamaru and Boruto

Boruto also gets to meet Konohamaru as a child, which may have been the most shocking thing for him so far. Looking at the genin, Boruto can see how they’ve grown into the jonin he’s familiar with. However, Konohamaru acts so differently because he’s younger that there’s barely any resemblance to his jonin counterpart.

This is definitely something Boruto is going to bring up to Konohamaru once he returns to the present.

It’s too bad Boruto didn’t get to see the true skill of Konohamaru though. Keep in mind that around two or three years after this point, Konohamaru would go on to defeat one of the Six Paths of Pain. Sure, Boruto helped defeat Momoshiki, but Konohamaru defeated a body of Pain single-handedly at a younger age.

The Gang’s All Here (and Tenten)

Did you notice that Tenten was the only genin (aside from Sasuke, of course) who wasn’t introduced in this episode? Because I did. She was there with everyone else — we see her towards the end of the episode, but she wasn’t introduced along with the others.

Skipping over Naruto and Sakura because they were already introduced, Boruto now meets the Ino-Shika-Cho trio; Hinata, Kiba, and Shino; and even Rock Lee and Neji. But not Tenten. I wonder if Boruto would even remember who Tenten is. I think he met her once during the chunin exams.

As for what Boruto thinks about the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, he mentions that none of them are very different from their adult forms. And he also mentions that Shikamaru looks exactly like his son, Shikadai. I remember when the Boruto series first started a lot of people were mad about this fact.

Hinata, Kiba, and Shino were the ones Boruto was a bit off-put by, and I have to agree with Boruto. This team was always my least favorite considering I don’t particularly like any of those three. Kurenai is pretty neat though, so it’s a shame this was her team.

Boruto thinks watching Hinata and Naruto is embarrassing, he learns that Kiba has always lied to him about how great he is, and Shino insults himself without even knowing it. All of that just reinforces how I feel about Team 8.

The final two, Rock Lee and Neji, we don’t actually get much content for. Boruto mentions that Rock Lee looks just like Metal, and he doesn’t really have any thoughts about Neji. Neji may be his uncle, but keep in mind that Boruto has never met him before.

Where’s Sasuke?

It’s in this episode that Boruto finally learns a bit about Sasuke’s past. He doesn’t yet know any details about why Sasuke deserted the Leaf Village, but he knows that it happened. And I can see two possible outcomes from this, neither of which will really effect the main plot.

The first option is that Boruto learns all about Sasuke’s past — at least as far as the events of the original Naruto series are concerned. But even if he does learn about this dark past, I don’t think it will change how Boruto views his master. After all, Sasuke is a different person now who has learned from his past.

Naruto Uzumaki from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Naruto Uzumaki

The second option has the same outcome, which is that Boruto and Sasuke’s relationship remains unchanged. However, how we arrive at this outcome is a bit different. It’s very possible that Boruto will never learn the true extent of Sasuke’s crimes and will instead decide for himself that they don’t matter.

Again, this relies on the fact that Boruto will understand the Sasuke of the past and the Sasuke of the present are very different. It doesn’t matter who Sasuke was 15 years ago to Boruto. All that matters is who he is now.

I’d honestly be fine with either of these options, but I do think those are the only two viable options. Because this is a filler arc, the relationship between Boruto and Sasuke can’t be fundamentally changed by anything Boruto learns right now.

Urashiki Time

At the end of the episode we have the appearance of Urashiki. Nothing has really happened yet, but I do want to discuss the implications of this for a bit. After all, Urashiki appears right in front of Naruto and from the next episode preview we see Naruto is involved in the fight against him.

So, what does this mean for the original series and Naruto: Shippūden? Doesn’t this mean that Naruto will have canonically fought an Ōtsutsuki clan member long before he ever encountered Kaguya? That’s a pretty major event, so how can this be explained away?

One idea I believe I posed in a previous review is that the events of this arc never actually happened. This would mean that the entire arc took place in a dream world of some sort. However, that doesn’t exactly make sense, because then the tailed beast chakra Urashiki is going after would also be fake.

So what if Naruto loses his memories of these events? That would be one way of solving the problem. I’m not sure exactly how this would happen, but I’m sure Urashiki or Sasuke has a way of doing this thanks to their dōjutsu.

Also it looks like Naruto is going to go into his tailed beast cloak during this fight. And we know that when he was a child, he couldn’t control this very well. He tended not to remember what he did while in that state, so that could be one way of making him forget these events.

Another option is for Boruto and Sasuke to somehow convince Naruto that none of these events actually ever happened. This may be a viable option considering some of the things we know about Naruto during this time period — such as the fact that he’s extremely gullible.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts on Boruto: Naruto Next Generations episode 130? Do you think Tenten deserved to be introduced along with everyone else? Do you think Sasuke’s past will end up mattering to Boruto? And, how do you think the events of this arc will be explained in the canon of the series? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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