Boruto is back in a funny, light hearted episode tinged in a bit of darkness.  Here are my thoughts on Boruto Episode 3: Metal Lee Goes Wild.

Boruto has been an entertaining and nostalgic ride as we as fans are introduced to the next generation of shinobi with ties to the shinobi we have grown to love.  This episode brought back a fan favorite next gen kid named Metal Lee, son of the quirky and funny Rock Lee.  And Metal Lee is rocking the very recognizable tight green jump suit and thick bushy eyebrows that made Sakura cringe.

This episode doesn’t start with Metal Lee, but starts with a glimpse of a shadowy creature with red eyes and what looks like a snake for a tail.  We do not know where this creature is or what it is and we do not see it again in this episode, but it does come back later on.

The episode then switches to Metal Lee who is doing extremely well at shuriken practice when he is not being watched, but the moment he is watched by Shikadai and Inojin, he messes up.  That is one key difference between Metal Lee and Rock Lee: Metal Lee caves under pressure which is not something Rock Lee often had a problem with.

Metal Lee flubs his throw in front of the other kids.  As he is going to retrieve his shuriken, in runs Boruto with a huge shuriken that Inojin warns is not allowed.  He throws it oblivious to the fact that Metal Lee is in the way of the huge shuriken.  In a classic and funny moment, Metal Lee gets entangled in the shuriken and ends up taking out one of the logs with the weapon.  Though the moment is funny, he could have been seriously hurt which is a point that Shino, their teacher, points out.

Boruto about to throw the large shuriken.

All the kids who were near the accident (Boruto, Inojin, Iwabe, Metal Lee, Shikadai and Sumire) are all in trouble for the stunt Boruto pulled and are sent to do extra work on fixing the Hokage memorial that Boruto destroyed in the first episode.  They work hard on fixing the memorial, but at one point, Shikadai, Boruto, and Inojin start playing games as their part of the clean up is almost done.  The one person who is behind on his part is Metal Lee, who is so nervous to work on the memorial in fear of messing it up.  Shikadai calls him out for this and Metal Lee goes into overdrive. Unfortunately, overdoing something is a trait that Metal Lee inherited from Rock Lee as he hits his chisel too hard into the rock face and creates a crack.  The crack turns into a fissure and soon a huge section Naruto’s stone face falls away.

It is another hilarious moment, but none of the other kids are too amused by this.  They all know it is Metal Lee’s fault, but no one really wants to say it is so. Shikadai, on the other hand, does not hold back on Metal Lee and honestly tells him that sometimes some mistakes can not be overlooked as it makes more work for other people.  Metal Lee is crushed by Shikadai’s reprimand and even Inojin says Shikadai is being too harsh.

Shikadai goes home that night with the idea that maybe he was a bit too harsh on Metal Lee.  At home, we get to see Temari and Shikamaru as well as the Nara family dynamic.  Temari is furious that Shikadai is in trouble again and orders Shikamaru to reprimand Shikadai.  Shikamaru does reprimand his son, though in a much calmer Shikamaru way.  He says that no kid is perfect which really sticks with Shikadai and he realizes that he was too harsh on Metal Lee.  Unfortunately, this is not enough for Temari and both end up going to bed without dinner.  This was a funny reintroduction of Shikamaru and Temari.  I liked how Temari seemed to know exactly what Shikamaru and Shikadai were thinking just by the looks on their faces.

Temari knows!

But the Nara family is not the only family where we as fans got some insight into their family dynamic.  Boruto comes home just as dinner is almost ready.  His adoring sister always wants to play and he looks closely  at his sister’s eyes, which are the same color as Naruto’s.  Boruto wonders about the strange thing he was seeing around Denki and asks his mother about her Byakugan eyes.  There is a touching mention to Neji which made my heart break a little, but then Hinata tells Boruto that her Byakugan can see chakra.  Boruto is now starting to understand a little more about his new ability.

Naruto comes home after another all nighter at work, but skips dinner and goes straight to bed. This really angers Boruto.  I get the feeling that fans are going to see Boruto struggle to deal with a father who is often absent and with the weight of Naruto’s legacy.

The next day at school, Shikadai decides to apologize to Metal Lee, but when Metal Lee arrives something is very wrong with him.  Boruto’s one eyed byakugan is activated and he sees the same snake phantom that was attached to Denki now attached to Metal Lee.  What could this be?  So far, the people affected by this creature are young boys who are vulnerable.  This definitely reminds me of Orochimaru who often targeted vulnerable children.

Metal Lee lures Shikadai away to a secluded area despite Boruto trying to warn Shikadai not to go.  Boruto and Inojin both follow Shikadai.  A very angry Metal Lee starts to attack Shikadai despite Shikadai trying to apologize, and then attacks all three of them when Boruto and Inojin step in to break it up.  Shikadai notices that Metal Lee is not pulling his punches and he is punching and kicking to kill.  The three of them run and hide from this new turbo charged Metal Lee while they come up with a plan to subdue him.

While hiding Shikadai comes up with a plan that will use all three of their techniques to subdue Metal Lee.  They use Boruto’s clone jutsu and transformation jutsu with Inojin’s Beast Scroll jutsu and Shikadai’s Shadow Paralysis Jutsu.  They manage to stop Metal Lee, but even all this doesn’t seem to be enough as Metal Lee almost breaks free of Shikadai’s Shadow Paralysis jutsu.  It causes Metal Lee to be flung into a log where he gets a good knock to the head.  This breaks the hold the snake creature has on him, and he returns to normal though it seems he is not quite sure what he was doing.

Shikadai apologizes and they make up with Metal Lee, but Metal Lee reprimands them, especially Boruto, on their lack of effort in training.  The episode ends with Metal Lee catching them playing video games instead of training and they try to get Metal Lee to play with them.  All seems to be going well as Metal Lee plays with Boruto’s gaming device until pressure is put on Metal Lee to kill the bad guy.  He panics and snaps Boruto’s device.

The episode definitely ended funny and this whole season so far has been more light hearted, but I can see the moments of darkness.  I can tell that there is something wicked coming, but I will just have to keep watching to find out what is going to happen.