Boruto Episode 142

A Test of Willpower

I have to admit that this Boruto filler arc is actually better than I first expected. Sure, it’s not the best filler arc — that was probably the Hidden Stone Village one — but it’s not bad. There have actually been a number of twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting, and that’s always a good thing.

So, let’s start off this review by going over the things I predicted incorrectly in last week’s review.

There were two main predictions I made which turned out to be wrong, though thinking back on it I may have only explained one of them. The one I know I mentioned was my theory about Kokuri not actually being attacked by another inmate. Now that we know one of the wooden tags really is missing, it seems more likely he really was attacked.

However, I don’t really want to say that theory is completely wrong just yet. It hasn’t been disproven, but the evidence is mounting against that theory being correct. Still, there’s always the possibility that the missing tag is a plot element to make us believe Kokuri’s story.

After all, the prison doctor remarks on how shallow Kokuri’s wound is. That sounds more like a wound he would inflict on himself, not one from another prisoner trying to assassinate him.

The other big prediction I made does seem to have been disproven. I figured that Benga was working with Tsukiyo to kill Kokuri. But it appears that while Benga is indeed abusing his power in the prison, he’s not allied with Tsukiyo. We see him outright deny Tsukiyo’s proposition.

However, there was another guard present during this conversation. Could he have taken Tsukiyo up on this offer?

Doragu’s Challenge

The “boss” of the prison is a man named Doragu (Drag in English). He may not be the most physically powerful man, and he still has his jutsu sealed like everyone else, but he controls an information network which is where he gets his power from. If you need information within the prison walls, you’ll have to get it from him.

But information doesn’t come cheap. Typically prisoners likely need to pay Doragu for his information, or at least trade something of value for it. However, newbies like Boruto are given a challenge instead — steal the light bulb from the lighthouse located on prison grounds.

The catch is that this is an impossible task, and Doragu knows this. He doesn’t give this challenge out to newbies as an alternative to paying him, he gives it out to them to teach them who’s boss of the prison. After they fail the challenge, theoretically they’ll understand that they need to pay up in order to receive information in the future.

As for the information Boruto is looking to get out of Doragu, that would be Benga’s weakness. Boruto, Mitsuki, and Sarada need some way to remove Benga from the prison, or at least reduce the power he holds over it. And if anyone would have incriminating information on Benga, it would be Doragu.

In the end, Boruto cheats by using his lightning style to blind Benga and the other guards who caught him stealing the light bulb. But since his cheating wasn’t found out, there was no problem and Doragu held up his end of the bargain.

Also we can just ignore the fact that Boruto didn’t electrocute himself. It’s already been established that lightning style users cannot electrocute themselves — just like you can’t burn yourself with your own fire jutsu.

Benga’s Weakness

So what is Benga’s weakness anyway? It’s not something like he’s a wind style user who’s weak against lightning. And it’s not something like the fact that he always has to leave his office to get more alcohol — though that one is true.

Instead, Benga’s weakness is also what makes him so powerful within the prison: the fact that he takes bribes from prisoners in return for favors. If a prisoner wants special treatment, such as having a cell in a premium location, they have to pay Benga for that privilege.

And this is his weakness because if anyone in authority ever found out about this, Benga would lose his standing in the prison.

Also, something which may have not been entirely clear about Benga’s weakness is how exactly the warden of Hozuki Castle learned of this bribery. We saw Sarada snooping around in Benga’s office early on in the episode, but this isn’t actually when his notebook was discovered.

It was never explicitly stated, but the notebook would have been discovered by Sarada later on, after Boruto received information about its existence from Doragu. This could have been explained a bit better, because there’s a significant gap between Boruto completing Doragu’s challenge and the sudden appearance of Benga’s notebook in the hands of the warden.

Who Stole the Wooden Tag?

At the end of the episode we’re left with one big question: who stole the wooden tag lost by one of the medical staff? There are three primary suspects: Boruto and Mitsuki’s three cellmates. I don’t remember their names though, so I’ll be referring to them as Mohawk, Flower Guy, and Red Hair.

So the first thing we need to establish is, which one of these guys has a motive? And the simple answer is that none of them do, but all of them do at the same time. Not actually so simple, I know, but let me explain.

None of these guys seems to have any connection to Kokuri or Tsukiyo, so they seemingly don’t have any reason to be involved. But on the other hand, they’re all criminals who would likely sell their services to Tsukiyo for the right price. So with that in mind, we can’t initially rule out any of them.

I do think we can safely rule out Mohawk though. He simply doesn’t seem to be smart enough to pull something like this off. He’s also clumsy, so I’m doubtful he’d be able to steal the tag without making a scene.

Flower Guy also seems fairly unlikely, but we really know nothing about him. We know he protects the flowers in the yard and doesn’t speak, that’s it. But that also means he’s unlikely to have made any sort of deal with Tsukiyo — or anyone else for that matter.

Red Hair is the most likely. He’s the one who initially befriends Boruto and Mitsuki, which means he’s someone to be wary of. He’s probably good at manipulating other people by making them think he’s their friend. He also seems to be the smartest of the three.

Conclusion

So what do you think after watching Boruto: Naruto Next Generations episode 142? Which of Boruto and Mitsuki’s cellmates do you think is the culprit? Do you think they’re all innocent? Or, could they perhaps all be in on it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.