Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 1×182 Review – “Ao”

The latest arc in the Boruto anime is about our titular character trying to understand his feelings about Scientific Ninja Tools. “Ao” gave our young ninjas an important lesson about using science during battles.

Compared to the manga, “Ao” added a lot more scenes to make the story better. I have continued to say how I have been enjoying the manga more than the anime. The animation team takes time to properly set scenes and allow characters to have interesting conversations. Context is important when writing a narrative, and we all know that proper context and pacing are sorely missing from the manga. At this point, low manga sales aren’t a surprise. Let’s see if the manga team can course correct.

After being caught cheating during the Chunin Exams, Boruto’s still not over his dislike of Scientific Ninja Tools. “Ao” also had Boruto meet Katasuke after the scientist persuaded Boruto to use a ninja tool during the test all those episodes ago. Boruto’s not happy to see him, but he can’t blame Katasuke. The poor scientist had been put under Genjutsu by an unknown person, during the events of the Chunin Exams, and he was acting against his will.

One of my favorite scenes in “Ao” involved Boruto and Mitsuki. After Naruto gave Team 7 a mission to escort Katasuke to a research facility away from the village, Boruto stormed out of Naruto’s office. It fell on Mitsuki and Salad to help him calm down. Salad made it clear she was going to accept the current mission whether Boruto tagged along or not.

Such a scene allowed Mitsuki to show his growth as a character. We know Mitsuki thinks of Boruto as his sun. Where Boruto goes, Mitsuki follows. I liked how well Mitsuki knew Boruto as a person. As someone who’s figuring out the concept of free will, Mitsuki told Boruto that even if Boruto didn’t accept the mission, Mitsuki would go with Salad because he had to support her as a member of Team 7.

Mitsuki’s emotional bait worked on Boruto. I don’t know if Mitsuki and Boruto are going to be endgame, but I’m loving how the writers have been handling Mitsuki and his feelings for the titular character.

During the train ride to the research facility Team 7 and Katasuke met Lord Ao. He’s revealed to be the person who put Katasuke under Genjutsu to extract intel. He was also ready to kill Katasuke if the scientist had any recollection of Ao putting him under Genjutsu.

I still don’t know why such a character, who was a good guy in the Naruto storyline, would agree to work for the Kara organization. It was poorly explained in the manga. So, maybe the anime will do a better job of sharing his reasoning? We will find out soon enough.

As someone who is a cyborg, Ao’s a great character to teach Boruto about how science can be used to help other people. It’s because of Katasuke’s scientific research Ao’s still alive. Katasuke gave Ao a prosthetic arm, a leg, and a few other parts. Science isn’t inherently bad or good. It’s all about how a person decides to use such knowledge. The upcoming episodes are going to continue offering different perspectives to Boruto for him to form his own opinion.

The current episode also showed Konohamaru and Mugino getting attacked by robots as they examined the blimp’s crash site. Seeing Konohamaru struggling to take Mugino to safety made me think about how every ninja should learn basic Medical Jutsu. Regardless of your feelings for Sakura Haruno, having an expert healer on your team is always a good thing.  

Konohamaru and Mugino’s story thread will soon connect with Boruto, Salad, and Mitsuki. The Kara organization isn’t playing around. Jigen’s getting impatient and he doesn’t care about who needs to be killed in his search for the Vessel. Kashin Koji even presented Ao with a suitcase containing secret equipment. Things are about to get very action-heavy and I can’t wait!

What did you think of “Ao”?

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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