English Dub Review: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations “The Mysterious Transfer Student!”

Who doesn’t love learning about ninja mathematics?!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

A new exchange student arrives at the Konoha ninja academy, Mitsuki, a sound village ninja who’s charming, but a bit psychopathic for Konoha’s teaching system. After he gets introduced, Shino tries teaching the kids math but loses their attention quickly. Later, in a spar, Mitsuki almost kills another student until Shino breaks them up.

This gives Shino a crisis of faith into his own teaching abilities, but he consults with Kurina that night over a beer to give him some confidence. The next day, Shino throws a welcoming party for Mitsuki to get the kids on his side, but things go south when all the party decorations turn out to be Shino’s bugs. After the discovery of this breaks up the party, Shino gets discouraged once again, and chakra spirits show up to wreck the day by possessing a construction worker. Boruto and friends deal with the enraged construction ninja, and Mitsuki shows off what he can do.

Yet, this situation plunges Shino into despair, and this allows Shino himself to get possessed by a spirit. With this spirit influencing his thoughts, Shino summons his problem students to the woods for a violent lesson.

Our Take:

Well, now it seems the main cast is all together for this show, so I think we can say that Boruto is out of the “Warming up” phase of things, and has solidified its episode structure on a week by week basis. The narrative here is different here from the original series by, instead of focusing on a larger linear narrative, it’s more of a “Monster of the week” episodic setup about Boruto and his friends. These pee wee ninjas are set up to be the village’s defenders from this unknown chakra spirit threat that is making people hurt others by preying on their weaknesses.

Anyway, this episode introduces Mitsuki into the cast, who reminds me of something like a cross between a baby-fied mix between Zabusa and Orochimaru. Though he’s a lot more clever and charming than those two ever were. His character is alright, but he falls by the wayside because this episode focuses so much on Shino’s difficulty teaching the class.

Shino’s really got his work cut out for him this time around as he tries to wrangle these ninja brats into doing Ninja Mathematics and not killing each other while they’re sparring. His story is somewhat interesting since Shino hasn’t done much in this story so far other than wearing a visor and get annoyed with people. That’s more or less what he does here, too, but the show adds on some pathos by making him into a teacher struggling to reach the hearts of these kids. Honestly, I don’t mind getting a story-line that’s a little more mature, but it manifests as just another excuse for silliness and beating up the villain of the week. Also, there’s something really lame about Shino’s insect manipulation ability being reduced to helping him throw a party for his students.

Again, this episode is too steeped in the idyllic life of being a ninja student to really grab me or keep me interested. I get the feeling that as the series progresses, this won’t change, but its the primary problem that keeps someone who has seen better shows from sticking to this one. In a world where anime is more competitive than ever, a show like Boruto seems to only have one thing to keep you watching: name recognition. These weak stories aren’t going to pull anyone into this show who isn’t just desperate to get as much “Naruto” as they can into their life.