Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 1×245 Review – “Funamushi’s Tenacity”

Boruto anime episode 245, titled ‘Funamushi’s Tenacity’, was about showing how far Funamushi was willing to go to avenge Seiren. The episode took a very serious turn at the end.

‘Funamushi’s Tenacity’ showed our heroes getting to experience failure after failure as none of their plans seemed to be effective against Funamushi’s thirst for revenge. I actually liked Kagura’s strategy to trap the incoming small army in the ravine. If only it had worked. At least we got to see Boruto and his crew put up a good fight at the ravine and then later on inside the small village.

Funamushi’s clearly capable of going to any length to avenge Seiren. He admired her a lot and as far as he was concerned, a rematch with Kagura (who hurt Seiren) was his destiny. Also, I’m a bit unsure about whether or not Seiren’s still alive. From what I can remember, Funamushi stated she wouldn’t be able to walk again. However, I don’t know if he meant that she’s dead or if the injury took away her ability to walk.

After trapping Boruto and the rest in the ravine, Funamushi unleashed a powerful Water-Style Jutsu called the ‘Furious Roaring Tornado’. I think the destruction level of said Jutsu helped make Funamushi a serious threat. Having said that, I would have liked to see Boruto, Mitsuki, Salad, and Buntan at least try to disperse the attack by using some kind of Lightning Jutsu. I would assume a lightning attack would have been conducted through all of the water and hurt Funamushi (who was inside the ‘Furious Roaring Tornado’). Hmmm.

As for the battle at the village, I liked how the writers allowed certain characters to team up. We had Buntan and Salad working together, with Buntan also complimenting how much Salad’s grown the last time they fought. Iwabe and Kyoho pulled a nice little combo while Hebiichigo and Metal covered each other’s backs. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind Hebiichigo and Metal becoming a couple down the line.

Coming to Hebiichigo’s emotions, I mean, I think viewers expected her to come back to help Kagura and the rest fight Funamushi’s little army. Hebiichigo didn’t like being alone. And even though she might die while fighting against the Funato Clan, she decided to return because at least she would still be with friends.

Talking about dying, I’m worried about Kagura’s fate after what happened at the end of the episode. He realized that in order to defeat Funamushi he too would need to give their fight his all. Funamushi was ready to die to avenge Seiren. He even collected the water required for his Jutsu by extracting it from the blood of his subordinates. He meant business. And that’s why Kagura also needed to put his life on the line to protect his friends and the village.

And while Kagura‘s all-out attack (created by feeding chakra to his sword) resulted in the destruction of the ‘Furious Raging Tornado’, Funamushi was quick enough to step away from the impact and then return to grab an exhausted Kagura.

Kudos to the writing team for showcasing that Boruto and his friends were in an actual war. There was no way Funamushi was going to let Kagura go even after Boruto and his crew dropped their weapons. Attacking Kagura was personal for Funamushi and he wasn’t going to rest until the task was done.

Funamushi wanted our heroes to experience the pain of seeing someone they care about being injured and I think the animation team did a nice job of depicting the pain and shock on Boruto and Kagura’s faces when Funamushi jabbed a blade straight through Kagura’s chest.

I really don’t want this to be the end for Kagura. So let’s see if the next episode has someone managing to heal his wound. Also, why the heck didn’t Salad use Genjutsu to make Funamushi think he had attacked Kagura? I really want the writers to do more with Salad’s Genjutsu skills. 

What did you think of ‘Funamushi’s Tenacity’? Do you think Kagura will make it out alive?

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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