Spoiler Warning: This review contains spoilers so if you haven’t finished the manga or the anime then leave… or don’t I don’t know man.

Now that the second arc of the Boruto’s series has come to a close, it’s time I give my thoughts on an arc, I actually thought was far superior to the first one. The first arc was a complete mess with a cliche villain who was a joke as far as I’m concerned (and posed no threat whatsoever). There was so much potential in that arc and brief character development that made me go “See this is what I want from this series. Not cheesy unfunny bull-kiddy shit”. I heard many making the argument that Boruto is a kid’s show so it “makes sense” but all of us started watching Naruto, that was a mature show, as KIDS. And let’s be honest, kids like action and violence. But that is enough ranting. I would say more but that requires more effort…. and I’d rather not. Back to the review.

So in case you guys don’t know Naruto Gaiden was actually a 10 chapter arc written by Kishimoto after Naruto’s official run was over and now we finally got the anime version of it. And honestly I enjoyed the hell out of this arc. It is by no means flawless and really has the same problems I had with the manga too but I’ll get into that later.

One of the best parts by far (because no shit this had to happen) was the character development of Sarada Uchiha. Her relationship with her mom being challenged and finally coming face to face with her father was actually pretty emotional and I did shed a few tears. And I’m glad the show made you understand where she is coming from. Sarada has never met her father and watching her friends and other kids spend time with their fathers only made her want to know more. Even in the scenes where she was using her heart more than her brain i.e getting very emotional and breaking down, you feel for her character.

Her father didn’t even recognize her when they met for the first time. Something like that would/can be very damaging especially when that father of yours tries to kill you.

You really see the strain within the Uchiha family. A lonely mother whose husband has been gone for so long and has to take care of her daughter as well as use her chakra to heal others and do everything around the house. If I were Sakura, I’d just give Sarada away to an orphanage but that’s just me.

Sometimes what she said was out of line. Ex: After finding out that Sarada has Karin’s DNA she didn’t even know whether to recuse Sakura or not. It was only after having a conversation with Naruto, she realized that just because one is connected by blood doesn’t that person your family. Things like these would make anyone roll their eyes but the way it was done you understand where she is coming from despite her being unreasonable at times.

Another improvement was the animation and the action scenes. Even Sakura haters can’t deny the amazing animated fight she got with Shin. I was beyond baffled to say the least. Hell I really liked Sakura in this arc. She, surprisingly, was not an annoying twat for once. And I know it’s cliche to make fun of Sakura for being very annoying but let’s be honest she is. Now her skills and abilities? That cannot be questioned. It was great to see character moments with Sasuke as well. Because lets be real- he is a shit dad man. Not only was he not there for his daughter but then he doesn’t even recognize her? Not a dad I want. But I was glad he came to his senses and realized his mistakes.

One of the problems I had with this arc was really Shin’s motives. I mean this is, yet another, villain who has misinterpreted the motives of a previous villain. It is redundant at this point since we saw this in literally the previous arc and kinda irritating.

Perhaps my biggest issue with this arc is what they did with Kabuto and Orochimaru(to a certain extend). So you’re telling me that a dude who literally killed thousands of ninjas and essentially started the fourth great ninja war gets to now run an orphanage? “Bruh what?” Look I understand what they meant to do with this character. Through Itachi’s Izanami, Kabuto comes to a self realization and essentially comes to keep Sasuke alive when he’s on the verge of death. But that does not excuse your being responsible for the death of THOUSANDS of people. That’s like if we forgave Hitler for killing the Jews because he was nice for one day.

With Orochimaru I can give it a half pass half “hell no”. Yes he did murder Hiruzen and tried to destroy the Hidden Leaf village but he did in the end aid the ninja alliance and the reanimated hokages in the war. Plus from the looks of it he isn’t killing anyone with his new experiments. So guess he isn’t all bad??? But all of this comes down on Naruto. He is a very kind hearted person and one with strong ideologies that have inspired those around him. And that is perfectly okay with me. What is not okay with me is him letting everything slide. You’re telling me that Sasuke has to serve time in prison (in the anime this did happen) but not Orochimaru and Kabuto? Yes Sasuke attacked the five kage summit and killed Danzo but last time I checked, those two did much worse. So no Naruto is not the best hokage if anyone ever brings that discussion up.

Final Thoughts

Overall I really dug this arc. It had some really good character development and bonding that was sorely lacking in the first arc. There was a major upgrade in the animation side. The action sequences were far superior as well. Chocho was also pretty funny and brought out the humor to ease the serious situation. It does have it’s flaws at the writing end when it comes to what they did with the former villains now turned good guy characters which did weigh it down. But for me personally the good outweighed the bad. If the first arc was a 4/10 then this would probably be a

Verdict- 7.5/10

Again not a perfect arc or even the best arc but it is one with lots of enjoyable moments and I hope the series continues to show this level of improvement. What did you guys think? Enjoyed it? Hated it? Let me know what you guys think.