English Dub Review: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations “Connected Feelings”

Time to go visit our old friend Orochimaru.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Sakura has been captured by the strange, sharingan covered man named Shin at an unknown location. She is held at shuriken-point by the pale-skinned boys under Shin’s command, who are apparently clones of his DNA. Shin explains how all he cares about is “evolution” and the development of his clones’ genes. As he goes on and on about his backward philosophy of life, he tells Sakura that he plans to revive Akatsuki in order to create more conflict in the world, which will, in turn, lead to the creation of new jutsus.

Naruto and Sasuke, along with Sarada and Chocho, realize they need more information on the kidnapper, so they go to find Orochimaru, who they believe has something to do with Shin. Their hunch is correct, as Orochimaru explains that Shin was a test subject of his who became obsessed with the Uchiha and has grafted a bunch of sharingan eyes on his body. Meanwhile, Sarada wanders off to speak with Sasuke’s old teammate, Suigetsu. She asks him to test her DNA to see who her real mother is. Suigetsu does just that, and determines that Sarada is indeed the daughter of Karin, his ex-teammate.

Sarada is devastated by the news and lashes out at Naruto for lying about her mother. In her rage, she exclaims that she doesn’t want to even bother saving Sakura, since she’s not her real mom. Naruto shares a touching moment with Sarada, and asks her to reflect on her bonds with Sakura and Sasuke. Thinking back, Sarada realizes that even though Sakura may not be her blood mother, she was the one who raised and took care of her. Breaking down into tears, she confesses that she does want to save Sakura, and joins the rest of the team in their mission to find her.

Our Take:

I’m not sure if my eyes can roll back into my head any further.

As Boruto keeps chugging along with its bizarre odyssey of genetic science and mommy issues, it continues to top itself in terms of how much sappy narm it’s able to deliver with each episode. What began as an awkward exploration of an annoying little girl’s obsession with her genetic makeup has spiraled out of control into a story that holds no tension and has a plot comparable to a daytime soap opera. The hamfisted attempt to make the plot more exciting by having Sakura be “kidnapped” (Though she seems to be doing just fine) is only topped in awfulness by the show’s belief that I’m going to care about Sarada’s forced anger about Sakura. This episode ranges from bland to embarrassing, and if the original “Naruto” had this kind of episode quality on a week-to-week basis, it would have been canceled after it’s the first season and quickly forgotten.

So little actually happens in this episode it’s really rather impressive. Naruto, Sarada, and the others go from location to location seemingly instantaneously, regardless of how far Orochimaru’s secret lab might be from the village. Furthermore, Naruto and Sasuke are just okay with bringing along two children on this potentially life-threatening mission to save Sakura from a genetically modified monster man. It’s as if the show is trying to avoid conflict, trying to avoid obstacles, so it can just get it’s plot over and done with without too much fuss. As for what goes on in these places, well, you’ll find it’s more exposition telling the audience things we already knew. I was particularly joyed to see Orochimaru explain what “cloning” was as if it wasn’t already absurd enough that cloning already exists in a world of magical ninjas, even though the audience probably already knows what a clone is.

The only moment in the show that has any value is the flashback sequence Naruto has to moments from the original show. Admittedly, seeing those images played with emotional music laid over them did inspire a sense of nostalgia that made me want to revisit the original “Naruto” once again. But, once it was done, it only made the awfulness of this show that much more noticeable. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this show feels like it was made for babies. Every bit of it holds your hand so tightly it doesn’t leave any room to develop the story. The characters remain unbearable and the plot continues to be ridiculous. Spare your sanity and skip this series.