Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 1×175 Review – “Beyond the Limits!”

As expected, “Beyond the Limits!” was a very action-heavy episode of Boruto with some good surprises thrown in.

Before I talk about Boruto and Salad vs Deepa in ‘Beyond the Limits!’, I’ll get Konohamaru and Orochimaru vs Victor out of the way. With Konohamaru having a very tough time while fighting Victor, I liked Orochimaru coming in to lend a hand. Of course, Orochimaru’s main purpose was to retrieve the Hashirama Cell that was stolen from one of his labs.

I think the animation team did a good job keeping everything fast-paced. I liked how quickly Orochimaru’s snakes moved. Orochi’s gotten a lot stronger since his Naruto Shippuden days. Seeing him keep his cool during a serious battle was fun.

While I would have liked to have Orochi defeat Victor, I’m kind of okay with Victor getting trapped by the Divine Tree. Victor’s own creation ended up defeating him. Victor really thought he was some kind of genius and failed to realize that the Divine Tree he created was a poor imitation of the actual thing. His greediness to eat the Divine Fruit got the better of him.

Also, seeing the anime finding ways to nerf Konohamaru is getting ridiculous. There’s no reason he wasn’t able to move his arm after Mugino’s shown moving his entire body in the previous episode.

Coming to Brouto and Salad’s match against Deepa, “Beyond the Limits!” made it clear that those two weren’t going to hurt such a powerful opponent. They needed Mitsuki. And yes, I was quite surprised when Mistuki entered the battlefield. Apparently, his older brother Log gave his organs to help Mitsuki recover.

Personally, I would have liked to see Log helping Boruto and Salad, but oh well. At least having Mitsuki arrive gave us a shippable moment. The way Mitsuki’s arm coiled around Boruto’s arm… Yesssss!

While Boruto’s affection for Mistuki could very well be platonic, I think that Mistuki’s a queer character. He’s surely written as one. And because the Naruto/Boruto franchise continues to have the non-binary Orochimaru around (who is also Mitsuki’s parent), Mitsuki being queer isn’t outside the realm of possibility.

“Beyond the Limits!” had two powerful moments that linked to the episode’s title. Salad finally activated her two-tomoe Sharingan while protecting Boruto and telling Deepa she won’t go down easily. I would have liked for the episode to explain the difference in Salad’s perception while using the two-tomoe Sharingan. Maybe we’ll get that during future episodes?

The second impressive moment involved Mitsuki and Salad giving their chakra to Boruto to strengthen his High Compression Rasengan Jutsu. I don’t know about you, but I think Mitsuki was channeling his Sage Mode chakra into Boruto. That’s what it looked like to me. I could be wrong.

As for Deepa, even his fully-armored form couldn’t withstand Team 7’s final attack. I didn’t like him dying because a piece of debris fell on him, though. Maybe he’s still alive?

Anyway, I appreciate all of the work the anime writers put into a villain like Deepa. He had a very unique personality and played a huge role in making Team 7 realize just how weak they were.

What did you think of “Beyond the Limits!”?

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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