English Dub Review: Boruto “A Shinobi’s Resolve”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kakashi pins Boruto down and lectures him that, although he has the talent necessary to become a proper ninja, he lacks a crucial element: the resolve to sacrifice themselves for the mission. He and his classmates may be having fun together right now, but they’re all unprepared for how deadly and uncompromising their world can get. It might even be Boruto’s upbeat attitude that could be the cause of this. And Kakashi would rather let none of them pass than let any of them into the job of ninja without proper comprehension of that.

Luckily, Mitsuki arrives to save Boruto and the two get away, meeting up with the rest of their group. Boruto feels the weight of Kakashi’s words and how he might have sabotaged his friends, but Iwabe and Sumire snaps him out of it, reminding him of the good he’s done. Spirits lifted, the group plot their next move, which allows them to realize that their teachers are allowing them multiple chances to succeed in order to test their resolve, meaning they could all pass together after all.

Their plan goes into action as they go to retrieve their comrades that have been captured, taking on Anko and Konahamaru and distracting them in order to land hits on their targets. That just leaves fighting Kakashi, who initially thinks Boruto has learned to master Shadow Clones, but it’s really just the rest of the kids transformed. Though all of that was just a ploy to get him in Denki’s special sealing jutsu, allowing Boruto to get close to reaching the bell…but not close enough to get zapped by Kakashi’s Purple Lightning and run out of time. Still, the kids all vow to never give up, convincing him to let them pass, with their blank headbands transforming into ones with Leaf Village symbols. They’ve officially become Genin.

OUR TAKE

A fan favorite character from the old show really taking Boruto to the task has been a long time coming, which is both a strength and a weakness for this episode. On one hand, I’m always up for a protagonist having their current worldview thrown back at them to force some reevaluation, and Boruto’s Dad’s first proper mentor is a great person to do that. This Genin exam (which I don’t think we ever saw in the original series due to Naruto basically getting his rank by just rescuing his teacher from a defector) acts as sort of an update to Kakashi’s previous way of testing students, that being if they are willing to prioritize protecting their comrades over following the rules. It’s a nice callback and shows a bit more reverence for the source material that I was starting to wonder if we’d ever really see in this series.

On the other hand, it might have come a little too late to really matter. It’s been no secret that Boruto’s slow pacing has been a major turn off for viewers coming in and expecting something like classic Naruto, but I feel like this exam and the development that came with it might have best come to a dozen episodes prior. On top of that, having Boruto’s main flaw to overcome being that he might be too naïve to have resolve only ends showing how shallow his goals and personality really are compared to where his dad was around this time, as well as a general lack of adversity or real rivalries to push him forward or compete with. You could just as easily say that this version of Kakashi’s lesson is just another interesting thing about the previous series that this show is just sanding down the edge of to be accessible to a broader audience.

Still, I’d say that, overall, this was a step in the right direction for this show. Obtaining the rank of Genin IS an established milestone in this universe which these characters have now reached, meaning more of the world should be opening up to them and allowing the threats to become more intense, as well as allowing more development and maturing. At least, ideally, anyway. For all I know, I’m just setting myself up for further disappointment as the series continues to fall well below my expectations for it. But this episode, at least, is worth a bit of praise. It passed, but only barely.