Boruto Episode 191

Stray Dog

As was known going into this week’s episode, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 91 is effectively just a filler episode. I won’t say that it’s entirely filler just because of the end. I’m pretty sure that the ending scene is important.

What about next week, though? Is that a filler episode too? Well, it’s hard to say. If you’re simply basing your guess on the next episode preview, then it would be pretty easy to say that it will be. After all, we really weren’t shown anything and it just talked about Kawaki’s past.

Kawaki’s past is certainly important. But just because there’s an episode about his past doesn’t mean that the content of that episode is ever actually going to be relevant again in the story.

However, there are some other clues that tell us that next week’s episode is going to be big. The first of these is, surprisingly, the lack of anything being shown in the preview. Episode 189 was probably the biggest episode of the series so far, but the preview didn’t make it look special.

Also, this next episode is going to be done in-house rather than being outsourced. That’s a good indicator of how important the episode actually is.

While I don’t know what’s going to take place in next week’s episode, I’m fairly confident that it will be much more important than Kawaki identifying with an injured, stray dog. If I had to guess, it will involve some sort of exhibition match between Naruto and Kawaki as I predicted last week.

Naruto isn’t going to have a real fight against a child, but I think he might agree to an exhibition match against Kawaki to gain his trust. Or maybe Boruto will have the match against Kawaki in Naruto’s place.

Sumire Performs the Talk-no-Jutsu

Sumire Kakei is one of my least favorite characters in the Boruto series. She’s not an interesting character, she doesn’t have cool jutsu, and her character design is boring. I genuinely prefer her anime-only teammates Wasabi and Namida more than Sumire herself (who’s from the manga).

At this point, I’m not even sure if I can refer to Sumire as a character. She’s more like a walking plot device than anything else. Not only does she represent the scientific ninja tool side of things, but also serves as a pseudo-foil to Kawaki because they were both turned into human weapons.

The only reason I see for Sumire to be around is to show other characters that tools aren’t inherently bad. Boruto thought scientific ninja tools were bad, but Sumire creates tools to help people. And Kawaki has a lot of hatred because he was made into a tool, but Sumire has made the most of her similar past.

When Sumire “Talk-no-Jutsu’d” Kawaki while they were helping the injured dog, my initial thought was that this was a flaw in Sumire’s character. The fact that she’s taking what Boruto did to her and applying it to Kawaki felt cheesy.

But thinking about it more, it’s probably more of a flaw with Kawaki’s character — at least in my eyes. Kawaki being pacified that easily by Sumire saying that she understands how he feels felt cheap. It reduced his character down to just another half-baked antagonist that’s going to be defeated by words at the end of the day.

Obviously, that’s the kind of thing that always happens in this series. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think Boruto will talk Kawaki into being a good guy by the end of the series. But I don’t want to see that kind of thing happening this early into Kawaki’s introduction.

Naruto Wants a New Son

The only part of the episode that really mattered to me was when Naruto showed up at the end. This isn’t because I love Naruto as a character or anything, though. In fact, I think his orange, glowing form that he uses all the time now is pretty stupid.

But, this scene was important because Naruto told Kawaki that he’s going to personally look after him. We know that Naruto believes in giving children healthy environments in which to grow rather than punishing them for their wrongdoings.

So, what environment could be healthier for Kawaki than being watched over by the Hokage himself? There’s a lot he can learn from Naruto, and he won’t have to worry too much about Jigen recapturing him.

Speaking of the protection Naruto provides, this is actually something that I know I’m going to take issue with later on in the series. Obviously, something bad happens to Naruto (and probably Sasuke). But honestly, those two are so overpowered that anything bad happening to them won’t feel right.

If every member of Kara attacked the Leaf Village at once, I think Naruto and Sasuke could defeat them. That’s how insanely overpowered those two are. Sure, they couldn’t defeat Madara in the past, but they’ve grown since then.

What kind of stupidly strong jutsu would someone have to have in order to take down Naruto and Sasuke at this point? Naruto is the ten-tails jinchūriki and Sasuke can warp space and time. You can’t beat them. Momoshiki only stood a chance because he could basically do the same things as them.

Conclusion

What do you think of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 191? Do you like this kind of filler? Did this episode make you think better or worse of Kawaki? And what do you think Kawaki being looked after by Naruto is going to entail? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Boruto Episode 192 is available.