Boruto Episode 218

Boruto Episode 218

The Oldest Trick in the Book

Obviously, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 218 was a great episode. Kawaki had some great character growth, and while some of my predictions ultimately came true, the path leading to those outcomes wasn’t what I expected.

First, let’s talk about Kawaki’s defeat of Isshiki. I really liked seeing Kawaki act like a shinobi in this episode. When he used the Fireball jutsu by forming the hand signs with the disconnected prosthesis, I thought that was cool. That’s the kind of stuff you’d expect from Sasuke.

Then, Isshiki fell for the oldest trick in the book: the Shadow Clone jutsu. As soon as we saw the Karma start to fade from Kawaki’s body, I knew it was a shadow clone. That was a great play by Kawaki and I think it was pulled off well within the episode so it didn’t feel like a cheap victory.

Kawaki's Karma fading away from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Kawaki’s Karma fading away

Of course, this all led up to Isshiki’s death, which means my theory that it’s Isshiki who destroys the Leaf Village in Kawaki’s body in the future is wrong. Now I’m really interested in seeing how Kawaki gets to that point.

Back in Episode 1, he states that the age of shinobi is over, which is a pretty extreme departure from what we saw in this episode. Could it be that his Ōtsutsukification has turned him into a new Ōtsutsuki by that point and so his goals are the same as theirs?

After all, in Episode 1 we do see both Kawaki and Boruto activate their Karma. Kawaki doesn’t have Karma anymore. So my assumption is that it’s his own Karma from the fact that he’s 80% Ōtsutsuki now.

I’m way more invested in the Boruto series now than I’ve ever been.

A Sudden Sasuke Nerf

So I said that Sasuke would have to lose his Rinnegan in order to be nerfed, and would you look at that — it happened. I can’t say I predicted Boruto (Momoshiki) would be the one to do it, though. I figured it would be Isshiki since he was the one they were fighting.

And, I figured that Isshiki would take the Rinnegan. Momoshiki straight up destroyed it by forcing Boruto to plunge a kunai into Sasuke’s eye. However, I do think Sasuke deserves some of the blame for what happened here.

Maybe it’s because Sasuke’s getting older and so his reflexes aren’t what they used to be, but he should have been able to avoid that. He reacted enough to turn and look at Boruto flying toward him. That means he had enough time to evade the attack as well.

The last time we'll see Sasuke's Rinnegan from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
The last time we’ll see Sasuke’s Rinnegan

If you don’t see how Sasuke could have evaded the attack, the answer is his (pre-stabbed) Rinnegan. If he looks at Boruto flying towards him, he can activate his teleportation jutsu to swap positions with Boruto, thereby dodging the attack.

At first, I considered that perhaps Sasuke didn’t have enough remaining chakra at that point to perform the teleportation. But, since he was able to fire off multiple Amaterasu afterward, I think it’s safe to say he could have teleported once.

But, regardless, Sasuke has now been severely nerfed by losing his Rinnegan. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s completely useless, though. Sasuke losing his Rinnegan is a much smaller loss than Naruto losing Kurama (more on that shortly).

Sasuke still has an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. His Rinnegan was a relatively late addition to his arsenal. Meanwhile, basically everything about Naruto’s fighting style relied on Kurama’s chakra.

Sayonara, Kurama

Alright, so we had some great action with Kawaki fighting Boruto (Momoshiki). But, I’d say the best part of the episode was actually when Naruto and Kurama parted ways. Kurama has always been there — for 19 years of the anime.

And if we look at it from Naruto’s perspective, he and Kurama have been together for over 30 years. I don’t know exactly how old Naruto is supposed to be, but I’m pretty sure he’s in his mid-30s or so.

I’d previously stated that Naruto wasn’t going to die here. That was pretty obvious considering he’s Naruto. And when Kurama mentioned that one or both of them would die from using Baryon mode, it was clear the one was going to be Kurama.

Kurama saying goodbye to Naruto from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Kurama saying goodbye to Naruto

I liked that Kurama mentioned that he didn’t lie to Naruto about his own death, though. Technically he was right. He said one or both of them was going to die. He just didn’t specify that he was definitely going to die and Naruto would only die if Isshiki killed them both.

So, with all of that said, let’s take a brief look at how this will affect Naruto’s fighting abilities. He’ll no longer have an effectively limitless pool of chakra — that means no more mass Shadow Clones or other large-scale jutsu.

He also won’t have access to his Nine-tailed Cloak form anymore, which he tended to use by default in combat recently. However, there are some things Naruto won’t lose, because he does still have small portions of the other eight Tailed Beasts within him.

For example, he’ll still be able to use his Lava, Boil, and Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai. Those come from Son Gokū, Kokuō, and Shukaku respectively. But, it’s not like Naruto used those chakra natures very often.

Conclusion

What do you think of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 218? Are you satisfied by the way Isshiki was defeated? How much of a nerf do you think Sasuke losing his Rinnegan is? And how much of a nerf do you think Naruto losing Kurama is? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 219 is available now.

2 Replies to “Boruto Episode 218”

  1. Sasuke’s Eternal MS is also weakened by losing his other eye. The Techniques are not as strong without both.

    1. I’m not sure if that’s the case here. I think the Rinnegan counts as an entirely different type of eye. His Rinnegan didn’t also have EMS abilities.

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