Boruto 122 ❲2026 Edition❳
In the sprawling, high-stakes world of Boruto , where gods and cyborgs now dictate the power ceiling, Episode 122, “The Puppet Battle,” is a curious anomaly. On its surface, it is a filler-lite detour: Team 7 (minus Sarada) arrives in the hidden village of Tanigakure—the "Village of the Meteor Hammer"—to retrieve a stolen scroll and encounters a rogue puppet user named Kankitsu.
This is mature writing for a 12-year-old character. Boruto doesn’t try to convert Kankitsu; he simply exposes the hypocrisy of revenge disguised as grief. And in the end, Kankitsu is arrested, not redeemed. The episode resists the saccharine conclusion that every villain deserves a hug. Some people, it argues, just choose the wrong path. Visually, Episode 122 is not going to appear on any sakuga reels. The character models are stiff, and the backgrounds are sparse. But director Yuki Kinoshita makes a virtue of necessity. The puppet battle is shot in wide, static frames that emphasize positioning and strategy over impact frames. When Boruto’s Shadow Clone feints and he slips behind Kankitsu’s puppet, you feel the tactical geometry of it. boruto 122
– A lean, thoughtful filler episode that respects its lineage without being crushed by it. In the sprawling, high-stakes world of Boruto ,
Furthermore, the emotional weight of Kankitsu’s backstory is rushed. We learn of his master’s death in a single flashback of two shots. Compare that to the layered grief of Zabuza and Haku, and the episode feels thin. Boruto Episode 122 is not a masterpiece. It won’t convert detractors who despise the sequel. But for those still watching, it offers a quiet reassurance: the series understands that its protagonist’s strength should not be raw power, but perspective. Boruto wins not because he is the son of the Hokage or a vessel for a god, but because he sees through the self-deception of revenge. Boruto doesn’t try to convert Kankitsu; he simply
In a franchise increasingly obsessed with scale, “The Puppet Battle” is a humble reminder that the best ninja stories are often the smallest ones. It’s not about saving the world. It’s about knowing when to cut the strings.
On paper, he is a Sasori-lite. In execution, however, the episode cleverly avoids the trap of imitation. Kankitsu’s puppets aren’t humanoid masterpieces; they are rugged, utilitarian, and animalistic (a scorpion tail, a spider-like trap). The choreography is rough, scrappy, and refreshingly low-tier. Unlike Sasori’s hundred puppets or the later Otsutsuki dimensional warping, this fight feels like a ninja fight again. Boruto can’t spam Rasengan or vanishing tricks; he has to think, dodge, and use wire strings of his own. The episode’s true strength lies in its protagonist. Modern Boruto (the manga/anime) often struggles to balance the character’s privilege with his growth. Here, Boruto faces a foe who is essentially a mirror: a talented young shinobi who lost his mentor and blames the entire system.
The best moment is the climactic counter: Boruto uses a wire string to redirect a puppet’s arm into disabling its own core. It’s a callback to Sasori vs. Sakura/Chiyo, but simplified, slowed down, and made readable for a younger audience. In an era of Demon Slayer levels of flash, Boruto 122’s quiet, mechanical fight is almost nostalgic—not for Naruto , but for the pre- Shippuden era when tactics mattered more than explosions. The episode is not flawless. The premise—a stolen scroll containing a “forbidden puppet technique”—is a MacGuffin so generic it hurts. Tanigakure’s worldbuilding consists of exactly one cliff and one house. And Konohamaru, the team’s jonin leader, does absolutely nothing except look worried, continuing the series’ unfortunate trend of sidelining interesting adult characters.