English Dub Review: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations “The Mizukage’s Successor.”

The Blood Mist is over, but it’s impact still remains.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The tour of the Hidden Mist Village continues, with Boruto telling their guide, Kagura, that they ran into some punks from the last episode who picked a fight with them. Kagura explains that people around here aren’t too fond of outsiders and that they should be careful. Soon, they arrive at the office of the Mizukage, Chojuro, where they meet the previous Mizukage as well. Chojuro gives them an inspirational speech about their past as the Blood Mist Village and how he hopes to foster a new era of cooperation between their two villages. As the students leave, Chojuro tells Kagura that he wants to pass on the title of Mizukage to him someday.

Later, the Konoha ninjas go to the Mist Village Academy to see their students train. The Konoha kids are impressed with the sword fighting prowess of the Mist Village students, who spar with each other while using their chakra to walk on water. Boruto asks Kagura for a duel, which he promptly uses compared when Kagura, who is a prospect to become one of the Seven Legendary Swordsmen, disarms Boruto.

Afterward, the tour group takes on a somber tone as they go to pay their respects to a memorial built for those who died during the many bloody practices of the Mist Village. Kagura explains that during their graduation exams, students were expected to kill each other, which earned them their nickname, the “Bloody Mist.” Iwabe reveals then that his grandfather was from the Mist Village, and was killed by the Fourth Mizukage, which is why he despises the Mist Village so much.

This moment is interrupted by some more punks who try to pick a fight with the Konoha kids. Iwabe lays the smackdown on them, however, and they leave with their tails between their legs. They report to a mysterious figure in the ruins of the old academy, who disciplines them for their weakness. Later that evening, Denki gets kidnapped by these same punks, who leave a message in blood on Boruto’s window informing them that they have taken his friend.

Our Take:

Things are progressing about how I expected in this new arc of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. Fairly predictably, we’re going to start taking a dive into the dark past of the Mist Village and the holdouts from that time that serve to haunt the current peaceful generation with their violence. Not a bad idea for an arc, but it’s pretty standard. I think there was probably some more conceptual fun to be had here other than just going the normal route for this kind of story. However, all things considered, this is a pretty decent episode that has some good character conflicts going for it, some interesting perspective on the Mist Village, and an alright action scene. It’s nothing special, but not terrible.

My favorite parts of the episode were the bits about the history of the Mist Village, which has gone largely unexplored in the “Naruto” world. It’s been talked about as this brutal, bloody society in the past, but we’ve never actually seen that before. It’s existed as more of a specter than anything else. Functioning as a rival to Konoha, the Mist Village has a lot of personality to it, and exploring more of this curious land is something I could really enjoy. In fact, I’d say there really isn’t enough of that present here. I’ll admit that Kagura isn’t very interesting to me and is a character that will probably be forgotten once we get out of this arc. However, what was more enjoyable was Iwabe’s history with the Mist Village. I figured there was something to him here, but such a personal attachment to the history of the Hidden Mist makes for a good story.

I would say that the worst part of the episode is that there just aren’t enough turns and conflicts in the episode to keep me interested. This is a consistent problem with this show and nothing I haven’t seen before. Things are so safe and secure in Boruto that one has to wonder what the point of this anime really is. There needs to be more juice, more spice, more fire to keep things moving. After all, we already know that Denki getting kidnapped isn’t going to yield much of consequence except for another couple of fight scenes to get him back. If a show can’t keep up the tension, then it’s not very fun to watch.