#boruto chapter 13

The pictures behind Sarada... Papa and Mama? ^_^

I am so sorry anon.

I accidentally deleted a reply to an anon question that asked about the borusara balcony scene. I spent the last hour trying to retrieve it but I was unable to, so I will write down what I remember of the question and my reply to it as well as added modifications. If the anon who asked the question is reading this, I am sorry for the inconvenience. I hope this is sufficient.

~~~

As you said, Ikemoto’s art is not everyone’s cup of tea. That includes me. I think he draws the backgrounds beautifully, is good at pacing the scenes and his usage of ink is neater than that of Kishimoto. But he is terrible at character designs and has a terrible fashion sense.

But most controversially, he has a tendency to be “fanservicey” which I am very uncomfortable with because it seems to be catering to an audience which (over)sexualises girls, especially ones who are barely into their puberty (because let’s not deny all the female fanservice which was given by Kishimoto, at least that didn’t make me uncomfortable because most of them were over 15). 

The biggest victim of Ikemoto’s this tendency has been Sarada who in Gaiden was a tomboy who dressed and behaved more practically than any other kunoichi at her age. Putting her in high heels, uncomfortably tiny skirts with panty shots, glossy pouts, and provocative poses with an over-emphasis on her exposed legs, all of which clearly designed for fanservice rather than normal female behaviour, has driven a lot of people up to the wall. Thus, the moment another scene where Sarada is wearing less than what is considered normal appeared, people took up arms immediately. 

However, I am fond of Kodachi’s writing which is very balanced and articulate and therefore, I interpreted the scene as follows:

Sarada is training in the privacy of her room. What she is wearing is irrelevant because it’s in the privacy of her own room. It didn’t seem that fanservicey to me as other examples. I have seen Sakura in less and didn’t consider it distasteful. Similarly, neither was this (at least in this particular scene). Sarada’s training gear/underwear/whatever-it-is is not being presented as a fanservice but as a very normal thing. People just gave a knee-jerk reaction because, as I said, they have been driven up the wall.

Boruto arrives at her balcony late at night, taps the glass, apologises for the inappropriate timing and asks if she has a second. Sarada is surprised but nevertheless concedes. Now this is something usually mangas capitalise on, usually turning it into a sexual thing. Thankfully, what happened next just emphasised how good of writer Kodachi is.

They talk through the glass frame, the blinds drawn and Boruto facing away from the glass. Whether Boruto is aware of Sarada’s state of dressing is unknown. Nevertheless he has the courtesy to stay turned away because it’s the most appropriate thing to do since he has turned up at a girl’s balcony so late at night. 

Sarada immediately senses something is wrong and asks about it. Boruto looks conflicted but informs her that he is not going to be able to make it to the B-ranked mission. He knows that it will be Sarada who will be most affected by his absence. Her dream is to be Hokage and this mission provides her an opportunity to get closer to her dream. He has promised to support her dream and acting counteractive to that is going to hurt her which in turn is hurting him. It is a testimony to their childhood friendship which had a deep respect and trust embedded into it that Boruto goes straight to Sarada and nobody else. 

Sarada and Boruto both look conflicted and contemplative. Sarada asks whether this is important. Boruto affirms this. Sarada asks whether this something he can’t talk about. Boruto again affirms this. Sarada understands Boruto really well and is able to draw out effortlessly what he is reluctant to talk about.

Sarada looks contemplative but later affirms that she understands and tells Boruto that she and Mitsuki will handle the mission so Boruto can take care of whatever he has to do. Boruto is relieved and encouraged, and thanks Sarada by saying he owes her one. Sarada is supportive of Boruto while Boruto looks for her encouragement. Boruto emotionally and mentally relies on Sarada who understands and encourages him .

This clearly shows that while their bond is one of a childhood friendship with deep mutual respect and trust, there is also a connection underneath which I have noticed in other Naruto couples. It is a parallel to Naruto doubting himself before his match with Neji and Hinata cheering him up, Sasuke letting spill a lot of things with Sakura which he doesn’t do with any other person, Shikamaru trusting Temari and being vulnerable in front of her among many other examples. 

This alone belies any claim that Sarada’s crush on Boruto is superficial. 

I will not deny that it’s a crush. It’s not love yet but it’s certainly not superficial. Moreover, it’s mutual. Right now, it’s still a childhood friendship with deep mutual trust and respect which is peppered with a budding mutual crush and heavy romantic undertones. But the said crush is clearly deepening on both sides with time (and puberty) into something that’s much deeper, stronger and lasting, along the set patterns of earlier canon couples. That something is called love.

Coming back to the scene, Boruto leaves. Sarada takes off her glasses contemplatively and then smirks while saying “he’s really gotten all shannaro”. This is accompanied with Sarada putting the ends of the glasses on her lips/mouth. Now I don’t wear glasses or live in close proximity with people who wear glasses, so I don’t really know what Sarada biting the ends of her glasses means. All I know is that Karin had on several occasions taken of her glasses while she had tried to seduce Sasuke (who told her to back off on all occasions). People immediately drew parallels to that and believed thanks to Ikemoto’s tendencies that this scene was supposed to be sexual.

Now, Sarada in Kodachi’s writing is just becoming aware of how “shannaro” Boruto is, but with Ikemoto’s style of drawing, it seems that his intention was to add some kind of shoujo style borderline sexuality to scene. Unfortunately, at least to my interpretation, it was more sensual (appropriate since they are just hitting puberty and thus becoming “aware” of each other) more than sexual.

To sum up, in my opinion, this was one of the best Borusara scenes. It emphasised on their bond, both platonic and romantic, and that alone overrides whatever complaints I might have for this scene. Personally, I am just waiting for this scene to be animated.