Unpopular Opinion:

I miss old Boruto (CH 21-41)

This will be a thread.

Now, as you all know, I am not particularly the biggest Boruto fan, as I have indeed criticized it. So I just wanna leave this disclaimer: Firstly, I don’t hate the Boruto franchise, I don’t “hate” anything about Boruto in fact aside from ChoCho, but that’s a different story.

Before I go over the negatives, I wanna look at the positives of Boruto during the 2.5 year segment (2017-2019) of it being nothing but literal flames.

Boruto used to have this element as to where the pacing was slowed down, and there wasn’t as much fights compared to actual story elements being displayed.

For example,

Kashin Koji’s foreshadowing of being a traitor when he snuck into Konoha undetected by anyone.

There were moments where it showed the character growth of Naruto and Boruto’s father/son dynamic, where they wouldn’t have done so in the Chunin Exam segment of the story.

In Chapter 29, the story took had slower pacing, and took time establishing the new-generation characters in the story and their depth as of so far. For example, Jigen had a very twisted/heartbreaking monologue to Kawaki personally, as to why the Kārma seal is his LIFE.

Before and after Chapter 29 up to a certain point, Boruto did a fantastic job establishing Kawaki as a character, and why we should all have initially feared Jigen as a villain, due to his overarching presence to the story.

And here’s where I think Boruto missed a opportunity.

As the current Naruto vs. Isshiki battle is conducting, I believe Kodachi and Kishimoto missed an opportunity for Naruto and Isshiki to have a small scuffle about what it means to be a father. Kawaki is the person they’re fighting over and yet there seems to be no mention of him-

-during the battle. Isshiki (Jigen), had already established himself that his mindset of being a “father” was to give Kawaki a life through being his personal vessel via Kārma, because he grew up having nothing going for him. Naruto’s ideals of a father is to raise and nurture-

-Kawaki into a good person. Which is shown in the following panels.

(Isshiki’s version of fatherhood VS. Naruto’s)

Boruto spent 4 entire chapters building up Kawaki’s character and his dynamics with Boruto and Team 7, which was MUCH NEEDED.

Good stuff Kishimoto and Kodachi.

Now, there are tons of more great things in the first half of Boruto I can mention, but imma start listing some of my problems with Boruto as of Ch. 42-52.

There have been too many back to back fights in my opinion. Over the past 16 chapters of the Boruto manga, there have been 4 fights alone.

Ch. 36-38 (Naruto & Sasuke vs. Jigen)
Ch. 39-43 (Team 7 vs. Boro)
Ch. 44-48 (KK vs. Jigen)
Ch. 49+ (Naruto & Sasuke vs. Isshiki Rematch)

Over the past year and a half, the fighting in my opinion has gotten repetitive and slightly boring. It does not help at all when Ikemoto is doing the paneling and artwork for these fights, and the same pattern is used every time. Speed lines, too much repetitive taijutsu, etc.

Kashin Koji vs. Jigen was by far Ikemoto’s best fight he’s drawn however, showing strategic moves from Kashin Koji and improvements in the paneling, which is a nice combination of 50/50 DBZ and Naruto....but doesn’t say much when immediately after he goes back to sloppy work.

Now. Onto my second problem.

I feel like Kara was in/out of the story too quickly, and the pacing over the past 11 chapters have been massively rushed. In Chapter 32 for example, we were just learning about Kara and their plans. 20 chapters later, everything has been answered-

-about Kara and the Otsutuski clan, and it feels dragged on with all the repeating fights. Another example, Team 7 vs. Boro. The Boro fight was easily the least enjoyable segment of Boruto in my opinion, aside from displaying “Borushiki” for the first time and Mitsuki’s smarts.

Boro was a uninteresting villain imo that was in/out of the story in 4 chapters, that like every other villain in the series, lost to “overconfidence”. It doesn’t help either that he was implied by Code, another Kara member, to be easily stronger than Delta, who took on Naruto.

But seriously though....4 chapters? Anyone can admit that’s too fast to kill off a villain.

Early Boruto established a fear and also a massive hype train of Kara with how they developed the character of Kawaki, and I’ve kind of been disappointed so far as of late with the final resolution in place of the Kara organization.

I also didn’t like how Amado stated that the rest of the Kara members along with Kashin Koji and Delta were modified cyborgs. It basically killed any type of possibility of backstory for each of the Kara members (that I’ve personally been hoping for), and they felt soulless.

But, I’m done with my thread.

Appreciate anyone who takes the time to read through it.