With his standard enthusiasm, Naruto loudly proclaims that he won't lose to anyone, and the rest of the room reacts to his words with equal parts shock and annoyance. Kabuto says that the individuals taking the exams are all most likely elites from their respective villages, a fact that intimidates the rookies. Explaining the exams further, Kabuto uses his Ninja Info Cards to give Sasuke information on Gaara and Rock Lee. Kabuto Yakushi warns them to quiet down as they are seemingly irritating the shinobi around them. Within the hall, the Rookie Nine meet up and have a spirited discussion. He informs them that unless they had all consented to take the exams, none of them would have been permitted to enter. Kakashi meets up with Team 7 before they enter the hall of the Chūnin Exams. Based on his own family history I wouldn’t expect him to be an amazing father, and this final scene sends the message that Sarada understands that too." Genin Takedown! All Nine Rookies Face Off!" ( 蹴散らせライバル!新人9人全員集合, Kechirase Raibaru! Rūkī Nain Zenin Shūgō) is episode 23 of the original Naruto anime. The whole arc makes it obvious he is struggling to figure parenting out, which is fitting. I like that the show doesn’t try to convince us that Sasuke is suddenly a good dad, instead leaving us with a flawed image of him. It’s a cute scene, where Sarada finally learns what Sakura considered “better than a kiss:” receiving one of Itachi’s head pokes from Sasuke before he leaves. Once all of that is out of the way we get one final scene between the Uchiha family as Sasuke once again leaves the village. Shin’s clones are left at Kabuto’s orphanage, ChoCho finds her “real dad”, and Karin quickly confirms Suigetsu goofed on the DNA test. Overdone or not, this turn offers a satisfying conclusion to Shin’s evil, and a nice foil to the Uchiha family’s complicated, but loving, family dynamic.Īfter Shin is defeated it's clean-up time, and the last few minutes are used to quickly wrap up all the hanging story points. Having trained them their whole lives to eliminate weakness, he never realized they would eliminate him as soon as he was vulnerable. As I previously discussed, I think Shin’s shtick about genetic superiority is a little played out, but it does lead to a great scene where his clones turn on him after he is defeated by Sasuke. He reprimands Sasuke for letting the love of his family get in the way of his decision making, while sacrificing his own “sons” in the process.
From this point the battle becomes a mix of action and Shin gloating about his superiority. Not content to let Sakura take all the glory, Sasuke and Sarada come in as the fight is winding down. I was happy to see her fight clad in the same fluid animation style seen during Shippuden’s most epic moments (especially after some of the rough animation seen in the Boruto’s earlier episodes). Their battle is probably the highlight of the episode, not only because it features the oft unappreciated Sakura, but also because it features some beautiful animation. Not the type to let herself be the damsel in distress, Sakura begins a battle with Shin which Sarada and co. The episode opens with our heroes riding Sasuke’s Susanoo to Shin’s hideout where they hope to rescue the kidnapped Sakura.
It doesn’t manage to pull at the heartstrings quite as strong as the past few episodes, but offers a heartfelt conclusion to Sarada’s woes and a strong cap to the series best arc yet. As if to make up for last week’s story dump, this episode is almost all action, with some hurried story resolution packed in at the end. This week’s Boruto brings Sarada’s parental crisis to a close with a bang, featuring a climactic clash between the Uchiha family and Shin’s clone army.