Testing our patience.
Warning: The following review has spoilers for the episode.
Following the climactic events of the past few episodes, it’s no surprise that Boruto would take a step back and give us an episode or two of filler. This week’s episode features Denki and Iwabe attempting to pass their upcoming exams. Unfortunately for us this story is so dull nothing (not even a cameo from Rock Lee!) can save it.
Denki is a smart student but can’t wall walk. Iwabe can’t study, but is top of the class in jutsu. They should help each other study, deepening their friendship in the process! That is the plot of “Crisis: The Threat of Failing!” in a nutshell, which sees Boruto go back to the slice of life style we saw it experiment with in the first few episodes of the series. Given that the show makes a point to explore the more mundane parts of modern ninja life I have no issue with the idea behind these episodes, but I can’t help but wonder who this specific story is for. Is anyone tuning in to see ninja students struggle with science homework? This story feels like it could be copy and pasted into any school life anime, and doesn’t tell us anything new about the world of Boruto.
Of course the episode does spend a healthy amount of its runtime focused on jutsu, but this long segment on wall walking will feel familiar to any longtime fan. Episode 10 of the original series contains a very similar scene featuring Naruto and Sasuke, which is not only shorter, but does a better job of explaining the chakra use involved. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with revisiting a few plot devices, especially since not everyone will have seen the original series. But so far Boruto has been leaning a little too heavily on the original show’s content, and often referencing it in ways that feel dull rather than meaningful.
Perhaps most disappointing of all is the episode’s obligatory action scene, which sees Denki and Iwabe putting their newfound skills to use to save some children from a burning building. No fighting, no confrontation, and the climactic moment features Iwabe rewiring a broken sprinkler system (really). In a show like Boruto, filler is to be expected. I just wish it came with more interesting storylines than “friendship solves everything”.
At this point being a Boruto fan is a series of highs and lows, and episodes like this make the lows feel worse than ever. Cookie cutter plot, familiar stories, and boring action make it hard to even finish the episode without losing interest. Filler doesn’t have to be this tedious, and I just hope the show can create some compelling stories before I fall off it completely.
The Verdict
Denki and Iwabe’s study session makes for an uninteresting story and ends up being one of the show’s weakest episodes yet. This school life tale does nothing for me, and even the action falls flat, lacking the show’s trademark stylishness.
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