Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episodes 248 & 249

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episodes 248 & 249

Avenging Kagura

Because I was away last weekend, I wasn’t planning to review Boruto Episode 248. But, It was a good episode. And considering Episode 249 didn’t have too much going on, I figured I’d combine both into this review.

In Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 248, the fight against Funamushi was good. But, we didn’t get the Buntan vs. Funamushi fight that I wanted. And that’s a shame because the setup for that fight was there.

We established that Funamushi turns his body into water when using his jutsu. And Mitsuki even stated Funamushi is weak to Lightning Style in that state. Now, yes, Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki can all use Lightning Style jutsu.

But, it’s Buntan who specializes in Lightning Style thanks to her Kiba blades. Sure, it was still Buntan who delivered the fatal blow to Funamushi. That had nothing to do with the ability of her blades, though.

Buntan killing Funamushi from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 248
Buntan killing Funamushi

I do like that Buntan was the one to kill Funamushi. For a bit, it seemed like Kawaki could be the one to do it. And I didn’t want it to be Kawaki because he doesn’t have much of a connection to Kagura. Someone close to Kagura needed to be the one to avenge him.

Of course, Boruto is another option. But, as I’m pretty sure I mentioned in a previous review, I never expected Boruto to kill Funamushi. He said he wanted to kill Funamushi, but we’ve seen in the past that Boruto is usually against people dying.

I can’t think of anyone Boruto’s killed. But, there must be someone. Deepa is the main one I was thinking of, but I’m pretty sure he died in another way. Didn’t the chakra tree get him in the end? Anyway, as the protagonist, Boruto’s not killing random people.

The Dead and the Lost

Hebiichigo’s death had been coming for a long time. Back in Episode 243, she spoke about what it would take for her to risk her life. And ever since then, it became more and more clear that she wasn’t going to survive the arc.

Since that episode, Hebiichigo got close to Metal and we got to see a different side of her. We even got her backstory. And while I didn’t think it was the greatest backstory, it was very important that we got it before she died.

After a character dies, their backstory doesn’t matter. Well, okay, it can matter. But, it no longer matters in terms of making us care about the character. That all needs to come before their death. And thanks to Hebiichigo’s development leading up to her death, it was a good death scene.

I’d say that Hebiichigo got a better death than Kagura did.

Hebiichigo dying from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 248
Hebiichigo dying

In Episode 248, Funamushi also said that he killed both Denki and Iwabe. Hopefully, you didn’t believe him for a second. There’s no way major supporting characters like them would die like that. If they died at Funamushi’s hand, it would be the biggest surprise of the entire series.

First of all, Funamushi isn’t even the main antagonist of the arc. He’s a subordinate of the Funato clan. And second of all, if he killed them, that would mean two major deaths happened off-screen.

But, I have to admit, I didn’t see why Funamushi wouldn’t kill them at the time. Of course, we find out why he didn’t in Episode 249. It’s because they were helping children when they got captured. In Episode 248, though, we didn’t know Funamushi had a son. Once we learned that, everything made sense (except for what took them so long to reappear).

Kobuna, Funamushi’s Son

Now we’re getting into the Episode 249 content. And while this content was more filler-y than Episode 248, it’s still important. With Episode 249 we get one of the major themes of the arc explicitly stated to us. This is, of course, that revenge only leads to more revenge.

Funamushi killed Kagura as revenge for critically wounding Seiren. Buntan then killed Funamushi as revenge for killing Kagura. And now Kobuna wants to kill Boruto as revenge for killing his father, Funamushi. Oh, also there’s Ikada who may want revenge for Seiren too.

I have a few problems with Kobuna, though. The first is that Boruto sees the mark on Kobuna’s forehead and then recognizes him as Funamushi’s son. The two don’t look anything alike. Every Funato follower has the same mark. Nothing about that should have confirmed to Boruto who Kobuna is.

Funamushi's son Kobuna from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 249
Funamushi’s son Kobuna

The second issue with Kobuna is that he blames Boruto for killing his father. And this isn’t helped by the fact that Boruto also blames himself. In case you need a reminder, scroll up to the first picture of this review. Boruto didn’t kill Funamushi. Buntan was the one who killed him.

Sure, Funamushi was busy taking Boruto hostage when Buntan ran him through. But, that doesn’t mean Boruto’s to blame for his death. And even if he was, Funamushi was a combatant fighting against teenagers. You can’t say that Funamushi was in the right here even if the Funato have a good reason for fighting.

This makes me wonder if Boruto is going to blame himself for Seiren’s injuries too. Now that he knows Ikada is Seiren’s younger brother, does that change things? And will Ikada blame Boruto? He shouldn’t. But, I could see it getting played up for the drama.

Conclusion

What do you think of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episodes 248 & 249? Which episode did you like more? Do you think there will be any more deaths in this arc? And, how do you think Ikada will react to seeing Boruto again? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 250 is available now.

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