WhatAGoodShow's Blog

Jun 3, 2022 5:38 AM
Anime Relations: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
It has been a while since the anime adaptation of the Kara Arc ended which so far is the best arc of Boruto so far.

Normally the Kara arc is made out of 2 to 3 mini arcs and technically the Kara arc isn't over. What I consider the actual Kara arc is when Kawaki is officially introduced since the Kara Inners are getting directly involved.

If for some reason you read this and haven't watched or dropped Boruto, I guess the term Outer and Inner wouldn't mean much. Inners are the main foes who pull the strings while the Outer basically are appearing in the everyday interacting with normal folks while working for the real bad guys. One of the Outer members who got his own arc is Ao, the former right hand man of the Mizukage and is the only surviver of the Ten Tails bomb.
While I don't think the Ao Arc was bad, it was above what we were getting from Boruto so far minus the movie retelling, it still can't hold up much compared to what we were getting in Naruto.

Prior to the Ao arc, there was an anime exclusive arc revolving one of the Inners... or rather two of them. That filler arc didn't really add a lot except explaining why Sadara (who is the daughter of Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno) got the two Tomoe Sharingan. All the new techniques Boruto learns like the Compressive Rasengan and that other one really won't appear ever again.
There is that one dude who appears who is going to die. A subplot about some brothers that died.
All you should know, it was boring. The highlight was Konohamaru seeing the person who lead to his grandpa's death appearing to safe him, Orochimaru. If you want to see Orochimaru fight a little, I guess that is worth watching that filler arc. There is definitively an underused of established characters in battle with the exception of the current Kage and Sasuke.

Coming to the REAL Kara arc, which many Youtubers hyped up who know what it is about. We see Kashin Koji appearing to clean up after Ao only for Ao trying to die a Ninja's way and protect Boruto and the others.
Kashin Koji has a decent amount of mystery and the reveal of his true identity retro actively speaking made sense even tho I still find it stupid. He can use the Rasengan, summon exploding frogs, summon flames from the eternal mountain and use Sage Mode.
We see Boruto using the Karma, a gift left by Momoshiki, getting activated for the first time allowing Boruto to absorb flames to protect Konohamaru before he got fried by Kashin Koji.
After the enemy retreated, they discovered Kawaki and find out that he is very important to the Kara. So much so that another Inner appeared with the permission of the boss with another Outer.
This Outer is basically fodder to show off what a weakened Kawaki can do, that the Karma can resonate and that he is more experienced with using Karma.
I wasn't impressed much as we don't know how strong that guy was. He could be weaker than Ino for all I care but he could be stronger than the Third Hokage. Sadly we will never find out.

Stuff happens and Kawaki is taken to the Leaf Village where he got introduced to Naruto. Honestly the interaction between Naruto and Kawaki is the best thing about the show so far. It isn't forced and Kawaki naturally opens up. Moreso to Boruto since he thinks that if both Karma users work together, they can get rid of it. Despite the immense power the Karma gives; which isn't limited to absorption but a significant boost in speed, power and battle experience; there is a catch to it since neither Momoshiki nor "Jigen" gave them away out of the goodness in their heart.

Boruto was a pretty annoying character but Kawaki does make him a lot more likeable too, giving a certain Naruto and Sasuke vibe.
Naruto's gestures turn Kawaki who cared only about his own survival to unconditionally care about others, even throwing away his own arm to an attack that prevents regeneration cells from functioning after destroying it.
That leads to Delta, the other Inner mentioned, who was responsible for it.
While we did see how strong an Inner is compared to a Jonin, the fight against Delta is there to show how they match up against Naruto, the strongest current Kage.

After that we get some really great bonding. The scientist of the village are unable to restore Kawaki's arm and they have no means to make artificial arms compatible with Kawaki. So Naruto gives him the prototype that was made for him and used his own chakra giving Kawaki a new limb. Naruto explains how Chakra was meant to be bonds with people and its about sharing making Kawaki wonder if he too has it and if he could become a Ninja. As you can imagine Naruto answered accordingly so far to make Kawaki his own student.
I think that works mainly because Naruto can relate to Kawaki's pain since he went through loneness himself and experienced many foes with similar issues.

Soon however the big bad would actually make his move to take Kawaki back himself. A lot of questions arise who Jigen really is as he is illogically powerful at first glance. He has access to another tentails and absorbed some energy before entering Naruto's home. He also has a Karma giving him incredible power surpassing that of Naruto's current strength. Even with Sasuke appearing they are no match for him. Amaterasu is useless against someone who can absorb Jutsu and the Susanoo's defense is worthless too. Tho Jigen can't handle the power he holds and has to seal Naruto while Sasuke barely escapes.
Animation wise this was beautiful and likely the second best fight in Boruto after the fight against Momoshiki. The animation really did justice to the manga this time.

But this isn't the end, as Boruto, Kawaki, Mitsuki (Orochimaru's child) and Sadara decided to enter the place where Naruto is sealed to save him. There they encounter the third Inner Boro and I have to say that fight was pretty well done too in animation and choreography. We see weaknesses of the Karma, Sadara as a team captain and also get a hint of what the Karma is as something took over Boruto's body and finished Boro off with ease.

With Naruto saved, they go back to the leaf explaining the situation.
From here on I don't want to get into more detail. Through a new reliable source, yeah, lets say that, they find out a lot of stuff what the Karma is and how to stop Jigen. Or rather Isshiki. The guy Kaguya worked for and apparently betrayed. He put a Karma on Kawaki and Jigen as means for his revival. Yeah, the guy who controlled Boruto was Momoshiki.
Due to circumstances, Isshiki had to be awaken earlier in Jigen's body which erases all the other Karma he put on others. Thus he had only 3 days left to put another Karma on Kawaki.
That meant Naruto, Sasuke and Boruto teamed up to stop him from reaching Kawaki.

If you think Jigen was strong... Isshiki is far far stronger and doesn't even need extra fuel to use his power, has a Byakugan and an eye that can teleport objects from other dimension like large cubes and pillars. He can already shink the size of non organic objects and move through dimensions...
Boruto was crutial since him being close to be ready for Momoshiki to awaken, he can be used to be feed to the Tentails instead of Jigen, thus giving immediate access to another Chakra Fruit from the Divine Tree which was the entire goal of Kara.
Eventually things get diecy. Naruto and Sasuke are no match. And the only way to stop Isshiki would be now. So Kurama decided to introduce us to another Ninetails power we didn't hear before. I heard many complain about this and why it wasn't used against Madara or Kaguya, but I feel the circumstances and stakes make it way more reasonable to be introduced now.
Baryon Mode is a temporary power up that drains immense amount of Chakra. It's insanely short. Yeah, Naruto could end even Kaguya, but that would hardly be worth it since it can kill its user. And by user it means Kurama... So Kurama died for a power up that didn't manage to finish off Isshiki... at least if that was the reason it was used. Since Chakra is a means to bond with others, the life force draining apply also to the opponent hit by it. So with each punch, Naruto was draining more and more the already short 3 days Isshiki had to live leaving him with just 5 minutes to get Kawaki and place a Karma on him.

I have to say, the Baryon Mode introduction and fight was the best one in Boruto so far. The anime really did an amazing job even adding some Easter eggs that look lovely from the Sasuke fight. Boruto has also shown a lot of violence and blood in the Kara arc, which makes Dragon Ball Super look like a total joke.

I think I will stop here since I feel I just give a summary of the Kara arc and some may haven't even seen it. The anime adaptation is fine. The beginning was a little slow and Episodes 198 and 199 were a sin, but the Kara arc did live up to the hype IMO.
The problem I had is how Sasuke in general was handled. After getting the Rinnegan, Sasuke should be far more capable of what is shown but we don't get to see a lot. He turned into Boruto's Vegeta. Tho unlike Vegeta he doesn't even get any power ups. Instead he gets weaker... more on that you should watch the rest of the Kara arc till the end.

So yeah, Kara arc, definitively worth watching Boruto for. Just skip some episodes... Not sure if I would recommend the anime adaptation of the Momoshiki arc. It was both better and worse than the movie. The Chuunin Exam is longer and more fleshed out, but the fights there are boring.
Speaking of Chuunin exam, they make another one... its filler so don't expect much. No matter how good the fights will be, if they don't add anything meaningful they will be forgotten like the Tsukage filler arc.
Posted by WhatAGoodShow | Jun 3, 2022 5:38 AM | Add a comment
It’s time to ditch the text file.
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