Boruto Episode 192

The Past

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 192 was the latest “big” in-house episode of the series. And I have to say, it’s not at all what I expected it would be. I knew we were getting Kawaki backstory, but I didn’t think the entire episode would be Kawaki backstory.

After watching the whole thing, I can’t say I know any more about Kawaki’s backstory than I did from watching the preview at the end of last week’s episode. There really wasn’t any reason to have an entire episode dedicated to this content that had previously been covered in 30 seconds.

And, I’m not sure why it was determined that this episode needed to be done in-house. I get that it’s an important episode for Kawaki’s character so having the right director was important. But there wasn’t a need for high-quality animation.

Another issue I have with this episode is the art. Now, if you look at the image above, you’ll see some nice art. I don’t have any issue with that art. But this episode swapped between three different art styles throughout its run time.

The art pictured above is what I’ll call the detailed art. The second picture in this review (below) is what I’ll call the overly shaded art and is the one I dislike. And the third picture in this review (way below) is the standard flat art the Boruto series is known for.

Maybe it’s just me, but the overly shaded art style looks splotchy and, frankly, bad. That’s the style I would expect from some colored manga. I don’t particularly think it translates to anime all that well. It can look alright if used in a single shot for effect, but that’s not what happened in this episode.

Kawaki’s New Dad

I think we can all agree that Kawaki’s biological father isn’t going to be winning an award for being a good parent any time soon. However, he did teach Kawaki one, very important lesson. And that’s not to talk to strangers.

Kawaki was specifically told by his father that he shouldn’t trust outsiders — people not from their village. And to his father’s credit, the only outsiders Kawaki comes into contact with throughout the episode are unsavory people.

We learned that the traveling goldfish salesman was actually a human trafficker. The guy who wanted to test Kawaki’s blood was apparently working for Kara searching for compatible children. And, of course, Jigen is the leader of Kara.

We’re never given the name of this village, but we do learn that it’s cut off from much of the world and only has a single entrance in the form of a tunnel. This leads me to believe there’s something unique about this village.

After all, why would Delta and Jigen make their way to this small, isolated village if it was normal? If they’re searching for children with some specific characteristics, they’d probably find more in a more populated area. But at the same time, maybe that would attract too much attention to Kara.

I’m also wondering exactly what Kara were looking for with these blood tests. Do they need children with a certain blood type? Kawaki’s jutsu makes use of his blood, so perhaps certain blood characteristics were needed in order for that jutsu to be artificially manifested.

Or, since Kawaki is referred to as the vessel, is he going to be Jigen’s vessel? Perhaps his blood needs to be compatible with Jigen’s for whatever they’re planning to do to him to work.

A Safe Place

One thing I will say this episode did fairly well was to connect Kawaki’s backstory to his current situation. We now know that Kawaki doesn’t trust strangers, and to him, everyone who’s trying to help him in the Leaf Village is a stranger.

And, importantly, Naruto uses the same language when talking to Kawaki now that Jigen used back when Kawaki was younger. Both of them tell Kawaki that there’s nothing to worry about and that he’s now in a safe place.

Normally, this would be a good thing for someone with a traumatic past to hear. But to Kawaki, these words are a lie meant to make him let his guard down. He’s already been tricked by these words once when Jigen said them, so he’s not going to fall for it again.

I’m still not really sure how it’s going to get from the current events of the series to the scene we got back in the first episode. But maybe it’s just an extension of what Kawaki is experiencing now. If he later thinks that Naruto tricked him, perhaps that would cause Kawaki to destroy the Leaf Village.

That certainly seems like an overreaction to me. But I can’t really think of what else would cause Kawaki to do that. I don’t see him joining up with Kara, which means he’s attacking the Leaf Village on his own and for his own reasons.

It could honestly even have something to do with his father. Despite how he was treated by his father, Kawaki still respected him. So maybe he blames the established great nations for the war that caused his father to suffer or something. I could see that happening.

Conclusion

What do you think of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 192? Do you think we needed this entire episode to go over Kawaki’s backstory? Why do you think Kawaki’s blood was important to Kara? And why do you think Kawaki turns on Naruto and the Leaf Village? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 193 is available.