“Boruto: Naruto Next Generations” 1×133 Review – ‘A Village Without Sasuke’

The latest Boruto anime episode, titled ‘A Village Without Sasuke,’ showed Boruto learning more about the reason behind Sasuke deciding to abandon his village as a kid. With only a couple of episodes left in the current arc, I’m looking forward to seeing how our heroes decide to deal with Urashiki.

The previous episode closed on a very tense cliffhanger. Jiraiya becoming suspicious of Sauke’s identity made sense to me. However, (unfortunately) it seems the writers wrote that particular cliffhanger just to amp up the anime fandom. Jiraiya asking Sasuke about his true identity only to joke about it a second later felt like a cop-out.

Fingers crossed, it was only Jiraiya’s way of trying to mislead Sasuke. Considering how Jiraiya is supposed to be a legendary ninja, I do hope he’s realized that ceratin time-traveling shenanigans are happening.

The scene, from the previous episode, where Sakura found the note Sasuke dropped also didn’t progress in the manner I had expected it to in ‘A Village Without Sasuke’. Sakura decided to talk to Boruto about the note. Of course, Boruto lied to her. With how the writers handled the recent cliffhanger with Jiraiya and Sasuke, I wouldn’t be surprised if they do something similar when Sakura’s able to talk to adult Sasuke in an upcoming episode.

The main plot of ‘A Village Without Sasuke’ dealt with Boruto learning more about the Leaf Village’s dark past. Personally, I liked seeing our young hero becoming aware of how things used to be for ninjas before he was born. Hopefully, the character development Boruto will experience during this arc will stick with him when he returns to his timeline. However, I wouldn’t bet on that happening. I’m not really a fan of writers having Boruto go through certain experiences only to have him display personality traits he should have already outgrown.

The latest episode also revealed Urashiki to be in possession of an unexpected visual power. Apparently, he can see the future. And you know what? I don’t believe that for one second. There has to be some kind of catch to his ability.

At this point, I want Urashiki to be defeated already, and for the time-traveling arc to make some kind of sense as far as the entire Boruto timeline is concerned.

Some thoughts and questions:

• Seriously, how long does it take for ninjas to replenish their chakra? Since the beginning of this series, we have seen Sasuke trying to manage depleted chakra reserves. Having Sasuke be nerfed in such a manner is such a drag. I still don’t know why Sakura didn’t help recharge him before he went on the current (unexpected) mission.
• With how worried Sasuke and Jiraiya are about keeping Naruto safe from Urashiki, watching them both not staying close to the Training Ground came across as blatant plot convenience.
• In a sense, this entire arc has featured a lot of plot conveniences, and not even the kind that makes some type of sense. There! I’ve said it! This arc, when you really think about it, is not well-written.
• Seeing Asuma and his team have dinner with Naruto and Boruto was a nice moment.

What did you think of ‘A Village Without Sasuke’? Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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