English Dub Review: Boruto “The Quest for Souvenirs”

This is why I try to keep it to key-chains.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Leaf students and teachers get on their boat back to their village, though Boruto is saddened that Kagura couldn’t see them off. They return home with no trouble (aside from their late night fighting being outed by Chojuro and being punished accordingly) though Boruto’s dinner seems to less happy than he hoped. Himawari is strangely disappointed with him, the reason soon became clear when Hinata reminds Boruto that he was supposed to give her a souvenir, but forgot. Instead of admitting he forgot, this leads him to lie that he left it with a friend, so he goes on a frantic chase for Water Cinnamon Sweets.

Naturally, everyone on the trip who actually got some has already eaten them, but Sarada tells him of ONE place that might carry them, though they might not be so willing to sell it. Boruto (and an accompanying Mitsuki) find the shop and the sweets, but the old lady running it won’t give it up without a fight. They make a bet to give the sweets to the winner of a hand of Shinobi Bout, where Boruto is given a golden opportunity to read the old lady’s cards from the reflection of a vase behind her. However, he decides to be honest and admit that he can see them, so the old lady gives them up as a reward for his honesty.

Suigetsu checks in with Orochimaru about how the matters of the arc resolved, with Chojuro covering up the incident to protect both his rule and the peaceful image of the Mist Village that he’s worked to build up. Suigetsu thinks this means Chojuro’s a bad guy, but Orochimaru seems to understand his reasoning. Kagura reflects on the past few days, though Chojuro encourages him by reminding him that honesty can be tough sometimes.

On his way home from getting the sweets, Boruto receives a letter from Kagura apologizing for everything that happened between them and that he’ll be training to be worthy of his sword, so they’ll see each other then. Inspired by this, Boruto then decides to admit to Himawari that he lied.

OUR TAKE

Some interesting timing on the Toonami programming block this week, as this episode of Boruto wrapping up a story involving the Mist Village and focusing on themes of lies and truth aired right next to a Shippuden episode focusing on the death of Kisame Hoshigaki (former Mist Swordsman and member of the Akatsuki) as he reminisced about wanting a world with truth and no lies, including a scene of him speaking with Yagura, the fourth Mizukage, and Kagura’s grandfather. This seems pretty coincidental, but it ended up syncing quite nicely, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

I, unfortunately, can’t say the same about this episode on its own, as it seems we’re headed back to the humdrum, low stakes, slice of life stories this series has been treading water with for a while now. At least this time it’s handling a theme that has some versatility, that being the idea of honesty. Being honest can apply to normal situations like owning up to a mistake or more entangled scenarios like trying to maintain a narrative for political reasons. The former is represented in Boruto’s side of the episode, where has to learn to admit when he’s screwed up when he forgot the souvenir. He’s given multiple chances out to get out of it, but he’s ultimately a good guy and chooses to own up to it.

The latter is shown in what is the more appropriate wrap up to this past arc, with Chojuro and Kagura needing to maintain some of the lies needed to keep their village peaceful, but also Chojuro being honest with Boruto about how he was feeling and why he didn’t see him off. This is the part of the episode that I was a lot more interested in that than the stuff about the snacks, but it’s a considerably smaller part of it. And while the part with Boruto’s hunt for moral munchies keeps with that theme, it also felt a bit too disconnected and indicative of what makes Boruto (the show) feel so toothless compared to its predecessor. I’m hoping this is a sign of improvement, if ever so slight, and not a harbinger of them falling back into old habits. This arc as a whole has been above this show’s average, so it’s not like there isn’t evidence that things can get better.

But if it doesn’t, don’t worry, I’ll be honest with you.