Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 1×281 Review – “The Eighth Truth”

Boruto anime episode 281, ‘The Eighth Truth’, served as a very satisfying finale to quite a well-written arc as our main lead got to understand what was actually happening.

With the previous episode sharing a huge reveal that Boruto and the rest of the prisoners were being kept under a very complex Genjutsu, ‘The Eighth Truth’ opened with Boruto trying to figure out how to help the rest of the people trapped in the Genjutsu pods. The moment the episode had Rokuro and Yatsume also escape the Genjutsu and team up with Boruto I knew something was off. If you have been keeping up with my recent reviews, you would know that I didn’t trust Yatsume. And I was right not to.

My suspicions grew as she led Boruto and Rokuro through the facility (resembling the Kara headquarters we have seen before) while she kept holding on to the map she oh so conveniently found near the pod housing the ninja that was revealed to be working for Ouga during the beginning of the experiments. It was a good thing Rokuro realized they were basically going to keep running in circles after he recognized the puddle of water they ran over before.

Boruto helping an injured Yatsume, after Rokuro infected her with one of his mind-controlling insects, made for a nice scene as our lead character refused to leave Yatsume behind. Yatsume knew she was running out of time because she had only managed to paralyze the insect temporarily with her Lightning-Style Jutsu. She wanted Boruto to remain safe instead of risking her losing control and attacking him.

The final major reveal of the arc occurred when a seemingly mind-controlled Yatsume had no choice but to attack Boruto. Due to his leg being slashed by Yatsume’s kunai and then blocking the kunai with his hand during her next attack, Boruto realized that the so-called pain he felt was similar to the pain he experienced from Kiseru’s kunai stab that forced Boruto out of the first Genjutsu. It turned out that he and Yatsume were actually trapped inside another Genjutsu and the real culprit was… drumroll… Yatsume all along! Yatsume was actually Ouga!

I appreciated how the writers took enough time to properly explain Yatsume/Ouga’s true motives. Turns out, she was the eighth Kara Inner member. However, she was a non-combat type, with Amado having enhanced her brain so she could assist with his research. Also, is it just me or do Ouga and Sumire (who is acting as Amado’s current assistant) look similar? Hmmm. I guess Amado’s got a type. 

Ouga sharing that she was helping Amado research the human heart, in my opinion, served as a huge connection to what a particular character has been up to in the manga. If my assumption is correct, the reveal in this episode could be considered the building blocks of a certain power possessed by the character I’m talking about.

Wanting to research Jigen’s heart backfired on Ouga and she had to flee to escape Jigen’s wrath. But Jigen had still managed to put a hole in the side of her skull which caused her to lose an important piece of herself, leading her to lose the will to live. According to Ouga, she had decided to conduct the experiments because she wanted to better understand a person’s true desire after making them face severely dangerous conditions.

While I’m not a fan of Talk-No Jutsu being used in the Naruto/Boruto franchise, I have to say that the writers used it properly during the finale. Boruto was able to understand where Ouga was coming from. Also, I’m here for Talk-No Jutsu being effective on characters that aren’t outright evil. Even though she’s got a bunch of issues, Ouga didn’t really kill anyone during her experiments. Also, she felt bad for what she had done and wanted Boruto to help her release the prisoners. After taking everything into consideration, I think Ouga’s redemption was earned.

With Ouga saying that the only way to end the Genjutsu was by Boruto stabbing her with the kunai, it didn’t come as a surprise when Boruto refused to do so. Stabbing Ouga was different from Boruto getting stabbed because the Genjutsu was linked to her. Stabbing Ouga to release the Genjustu would mean she had to actually die.

Boruto wanted Ouga to reclaim her will to live and escape the Genjutsu by herself. He put a lot of faith into her and fortunately, she kept her word by deactivating the ‘Illusion’ scroll responsible for the Genjutsu in the real world.

After everyone was released, I got answers to a couple of questions I had regarding the fate of certain characters once they were out in the real world. Rokuro was still going to prison to atone for his sins. Namua had found his will to live and was looking forward to carving a new path for himself. Kiseru reunited with his friend. And Batta decided to help Fugou rescue his wife and child from the people blackmailing him. So, yeah, the plot threads were neatly closed.

As for Ouga, she left Boruto a letter about how they will meet again one day after she got to experience the world with her newfound perspective. We didn’t get to find out about the desire that helped her want to live again. But she did promise she will let Boruto know about it when she saw him down the line. So, fingers crossed, the two reunite soon.

Coming to Team 7, I was kind of disappointed to see that Salad, Kawaki, and Mitsuki didn’t really get to do anything to help Boruto. But at least Boruto was able to finally get in contact with them, with Salad telling Boruto to stay put because Team 7 was coming to get him. Also, yes to Mitsuki stealing the communication device from an ANBU member while Salad and Kawaki pleaded in front of the ANBU ninjas to keep looking for Boruto. Mitsuki didn’t have time for all of that nonsense. As far as he was concerned, the ANBU ninjas were free to leave as long as Mitsuki got to keep the communication device to get in contact with Boruto.

Talking about the preview for the next episode, it looks like the Sasuke Retsuden anime adaptation will not be messing up the Boruto timeline. Due to the events in the novel taking place before the Kara stuff, the upcoming anime adaptation will be told via flashback. And I’m okay with that.

What did you think of ‘The Eighth Truth’? Were you suspicious of Yatsume, too?

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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