Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 1×153 Review – ‘Harmony in Gold’

The latest episode of the Boruto anime focused on the young ninja girls in Team 15 figuring out how to work together as a unit. I enjoyed watching ‘Harmony in Gold’ because it gave me an answer to how Team 15 had been performing since Tsubaki joined.

I like Tsubaki as a character. She was introduced in episode 137 to fill up Team 15 once Sumire decided to go and research scientific ninja tools. Having a samurai be surrounded by ninjas makes for some interesting narrative moments. That’s why I’m glad the writers decided to create an anime episode to focus more on Tsubaki (since her introduction all those episodes ago).

While ninjas have a code of conduct as well, Tsubaki (as a samurai) has continued to come across as more serious than her peers. She still has a lot of loosening up to do and ‘Harmony in Gold’ showed she will try to have more fun with her teammates down the road.

The premise of ‘Harmony in Gold’ dealt with Team 15 realizing they haven’t been performing as well as they did when Sumire was part of the team. Even though according to Denki’s research (of Team 15 and Team 5’s individual stats) Tsubaki was ahead of average Genin, her abilities didn’t mean much because her team, as a whole, needed a lot of improvement.

Instead of working on their teamwork, Tsubaki, Namida, and Wasabi thought each member had to polish their specific skills. Now, I get that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and that Wasabi and Namida should work harder to match Tsubaki’s level. However, when operating as a ninja team, every member is going to bring different strengths and weaknesses to the table.

An effective ninja team is one that covers the weaknesses each member has while supporting individual strengths. ‘Harmony in Gold’ showed that Team 5 operated in such a manner. Denki was a pro at quickly analyzing the battlefield (through his gadgets). Iwabe and Metal Lee served as the attackers (following Denki’s orders) while also keeping Denki away from harm.

So, while Denki wasn’t as strong as Iwabe and Metal Lee, he still brought his highly valuable analytical skills to help the team be successful during missions.

That’s the lesson Team 15 learned in this episode. It wasn’t about Wasabi and Namida needing to grow as strong as Tsubaki, the main goal dealt with the young ninjas finally realizing they had to work as one.

The latest episode also explained Tsubaki’s powerful attack. It was revealed it used up a lot of her chakra. So, she had to be very careful when using it. I think making her attack be a double-edged sword for her helped prevent her ability from being overpowered. That’s why I’m happy to see that even though Tsubaki’s quite strong, she still has a lot of training to do. 

Also, I do have to mention that I smiled when Boruto helped Tsubaki understand the importance of teamwork by encouraging her to eat an entire burger meal instead of only eating the fries. Leave it to Boruto to use weird metaphors to connect with others. Like father like son.

What did you think of ‘Harmony in Gold’? Are you a fan of Tsubaki as a character?

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.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary