Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 277

Disappearing Lives

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 277 covers the second test of Ouga’s maze. For this test, the 14 remaining competitors must reach the goal before their candle flames go out. There are also some interesting rules surrounding the candles in this test.

For example, a candle belongs to anyone who’s holding it. If Boruto hands his candle to Yatsume, he has 0 candles and she has 2. If either of those 2 candles she has goes out, Boruto dies since he’s the one without a candle. As long as Yatsume is holding a candle with a flame, she’s safe, regardless of which candle it is.

Now, because of these rules, I figured that this test would be more competitive than the first. In the first test, there was no real incentive to harm the others. But, this time around, gathering extra candles can be beneficial.

This second test has 3 stages, or trials. The first involves traveling through a tunnel filled with waist-high water. At this point, Batta (the Cloud kunoichi), the briefcase man, and Rokuro go on ahead. Boruto’s group takes their time going through the tunnel and becomes trapped.

A gate drops from the ceiling of the tunnel and blocks their path. To lift the gate back up, Boruto, Kiseru, and Namua entrust their candles to their allies so they can use both hands. Now, I get that this arc is all about teamwork. But, Boruto could have done this himself.

Did Boruto forget that he can use Shadow Clones? He used one when he saved Shamo at the end of the previous test. So, we know there’s nothing stopping him from using his jutsu. Shadow clones could have been very helpful at multiple points during this test.

Second Trial: Desert of Ash

The second trial of the test involves crossing a desert of ash. That alone isn’t much of an issue. But, there are high winds that cause a dust storm that threatens to blow out the flames. And, this section of the test is so hot that the wax of the candles melts even faster.

Now, the person I want to focus on in this section is Shamo. He’s the young shinobi from the Hidden Stone village. As he states later on in the episode, he’s the weakest of the shinobi participating in the tests.

During the second trial, he creates a mud wall to block the wind. But, it quickly becomes apparent that this wall isn’t going to block much. It crumbles when Boruto touches it and falls apart when the wind ramps up. At first, I thought this was because it was made of ash. However, Shamo’s comments make it seem like that’s not the case.

Shamo really is a weak shinobi. He couldn’t save himself during the first test. He chickened out when asked to help during the first trial of the second test. And now we see that even his jutsu don’t hold up.

On top of all that, the girl in pink uses him for her own gain. She has him carry through the first 2 trials of this test. And when they got to the end of the second trial, she leaves him behind to die.

But, despite all this, I still believe Shamo will survive the tests. Not only is he a named character. I also see no benefit in killing him off. The same can’t be said for some of the other named characters. In particular, I now feel that either Kiseru or Namua won’t survive.

Batta’s Choice

It’s time to talk about the final trial of the second test. And, in particular, I want to talk about the choice Batta made. So, what was the final trial? The remaining competitors got into 2 elevators and had to survive.

Because of the speed of the elevators, they wouldn’t reach the top before the candles burnt out. So, the obvious way to survive is to take a candle from someone else, extinguish it, and save it as a backup for yourself. This is exactly what happened in the first elevator.

The second elevator came up with an alternate solution. Well, Boruto came up with an alternate solution and the rest of them agreed to it. They combined their candles into one, larger candle that wouldn’t burn out quickly. Then, they each held onto the large candle, making it theirs. There was no rule against sharing a candle.

So, what’s the deal with Batta? Well, I first need to establish that Rokuro killed the girl in pink by blowing out her candle. The briefcase man then begs Batta to kill the other 2 civilians in the elevator to take their candles.

Up until this point, Batta hasn’t killed anyone. She didn’t save people. But, she didn’t actively kill anyone. That all changes here. She kills the civilians and takes their candles for herself and her client. Later, we see her right hand is covered in blood. She didn’t just blow their candles out.

However, it’s clear that she didn’t want to kill these people. So, my prediction is that she’ll find out the briefcase man doesn’t actually have money. Whatever’s in his briefcase won’t be worth what she did to protect him. How will she come to terms with this?

Conclusion

What do you think of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 277? Were you surprised by Boruto not using Shadow Clones? Do you think Shamo will survive to the end? And, what do you think is in the briefcase? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 278 is available now.