An Uchiha family reunion.
Warning: The following review has full spoilers for the episode.
This week’s episode of Boruto brings us the long-awaited reunion of Sarada and Sasuke, though it doesn’t go quite as swimmingly as she had hoped. Their father-daughter story continues to move at a satisfying pace, featuring some superb characterization in the opening minutes. Pair that with a compelling ending battle, and “Sasuke and Sarada” quickly cements itself as one of Boruto’s best episodes.
Following a quick recap, the episode picks back up with Sasuke threatening the frightened Sarada. Upon realizing his mistake Sasuke’s demeanor doesn’t change, and instead he coldly rebuffs her questions. She angrily storms off, and before Sasuke can attempt to make things right, they are confronted by the mysterious Shin Uchiha. Keeping up with last week’s pace, this episode moves briskly between these key scenes with almost no downtime. The opening scene between Sasuke and Sarada is without a doubt one of the series best so far. The painful subject matter, Sasuke’s indifference, and Sarada’s tearful outburst feels more realistic than anything Boruto or even Sumire’s stories could muster.
But Sarada isn’t the only character getting important screen time. After all the episode is called “Sasuke and Sarada,” so of course it has some things to say about her troubled father as well. We learn that he is partaking in a self-sentenced exile as atonement for his actions against the village of Konoha. This makes sense, since being the distant, lone-wolf character has always been Sasuke’s style, but we get the sense that parenthood has complicated his feelings a bit. He coldly turns Sarada away, but in the next scene we see him obviously regretting his actions, and later tries to make up with it the only way he knows: through battle. It seems that Sasuke is more adept at handling a sword than his feelings, and it will be interesting to see if he manages any better as this arc goes on.
Speaking of swords, it wouldn’t be a Sasuke episode if he didn’t make some use of his. Luckily the episode ends with an exciting battle against the real Shin Uchiha. Sasuke and Shin share a few tense exchanges before Shin reveals the true power of his Sharingan: the ability to manipulate the weapons of others. The ability catches our heroes off guard, but luckily Sakura arrives to save the day just before things take a turn for the worse. The battles in Boruto continue to improve over time, thanks to help from the more compelling villains. Shin, unlike previous enemies, feels like a real threat, catching both Sasuke and Naruto off guard in their battle. Of course these encounters still only last a few minutes each, and I hope that we see the show commit to a longer, more epic battle sometime soon.
The episode ends with Sakura attempting to reconnect with her frightened daughter but ends up getting kidnapped by Shin while protecting her. No doubt we will see our heroes head into enemy territory in the next episode, and just like before, I am already looking forward to it. With or without its main character in tow, Boruto continues to step up its game with every episode and I can feel my Naruto addiction starting to kick in again.
The Verdict
"Sasuke and Sarada" keeps up the strong pace set by the previous episodes, establishing this arc as a cut above anything we've seen up to this point. Sarada's deeply emotional interrogation of Sasuke feels surprisingly genuine, and Sasuke's parenting problems show us a different side of one of our favorite characters.
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