Boruto is really good...
I am a huge fan of Naruto, it’s my favourite anime/manga series of all time and it’s one of those that moves me so much that I don’t think it’ll ever be replaced as my top series. The series is generally loved and accepted as one of the greats, it did run for 15 years after all. However, its sequel Boruto is a lot more controversial. A lot of people dislike Boruto for reasons that don’t even make sense anymore, such as “Boruto is just a whiney kid that doesn’t realise how privileged he is and how amazing his dad is” when this was literally the case for ONE ARC in the manga and he then proceeded to develop significantly. Other reasons such as the villains and lack of interest shown in the older generations of characters are reasons that I can understand, but I’ve always been a fan. I like Boruto and the new generation of shinobi, I like Naruto’s role as Hokage and I will forever be a fan of, and will never get enough of Naruto and Sasuke running the village as adults. It’s what I wanted from the end of Naruto and It’s so beautiful to see it happen. I will say that even though I love stuff like that, and generally just like seeing the more peaceful and happy stuff in the anime, the way the plot has moved and is moving is exactly what I’d want to see. Part 1 of the manga, which concluded with its 80th chapter back in April, was meant to be the story of Father and son - or parent and child generally - and It’s meant to show the kid who grew up with everything slowly losing it all. Its done very well and characters like Kawaki and Isshiki are really great highlights.
So with me personally being a fan of part 1 of Boruto, yet understanding why a lot of people may just see it as a huge downgrade from Naruto - which is fair - I expected it to remain the exact same with part 2. People are stubborn, after all. However part 2 in my opinion is going to slowly pull everyone in until everyone accepts it as an elite new gen manga, because with the way it’s going I can’t see it happening any other way. The plot twist at the end of part 1 is genuinely amazing and even a lot of people were swayed when that happened, as it just opens up Boruto into essentially a whole new storyline. That obviously leads into a 3 year timeskip and since the reintegration of the manga in August, we’ve started to learn more about what happened during those 3 years. We’re told in chapter 2 that Code had been chasing after Boruto for the first 2 of the 3 years, and they had an altercation near the start of that time which resulted in at least one thing, with it seeming like another majorly significant thing may have happened during that time. The thing that we know for sure is that either Boruto or Sasuke have left Code’s eye badly damaged, with it remaining closed and it having a huge scar through the middle of it. Sarada and Sumire remain the only 2 current residents of the village who aren’t named Kawaki who know the through behind omnipotence since they are immune to the shinjutsu somehow. Everyone elses brains have been completely washed by the shinjutsu to the point that nobody has any doubts, and everybody just accepts that Kawaki is Naruto’s son and Boruto is the kid who bit the hand that fed him. Sarada is starting to get a bit of heat from Shikamaru, who is now the 8th hokage, as she is not backing down and is refusing to give up on Boruto. Boruto is eventually forced to return to Konoha for the first time in 3 years due to Code launching an attack on the village, having his army of claw grimes along with himself flood the streets of Konoha and causing chaos which Sarada and Kawaki are being left to deal with. Code eventually corners Sarada and they are about to fight when Boruto *literally* flies in and saves her. What we have realised since this point is that Boruto needed to seize this opportunity as there is something he must do. Boruto finally fights Code in chapter 3 and absolutely obliterates him with his new Rasengan Uzuhiko jutsu, and during all of the dialogue Boruto reveals that he knows about the claw grimes more than their own creator does. He says that there is an evolution happening to the claw grimes that code can’t control, essentially saying that Code could be at fault for an absolute shit show if Boruto doesn’t do something to fix it. In chapter 4 is where it is revealed why he knows this.
That was a whole lot of buildup to this chapter but it’s really worth it. The chapter opens with KASHIN KOJI’S TOAD telling Boruto that he must get out of Konoha as they’re able to travel to Code, and Boruto uses the FLYING RAIJIN JUTSU to teleport to The Ten Tails location. However, when he arrives there the Ten Tails instantly disappears and there you have it, 4 transformed, evolved, humanly claw grimes surface, and from what we can see, 3 of the 4 of them are very interesting characters. We have Bug, the man who was chilling at the Kara hideout that Ada was at when they got her out, Moegi, Konohamaru’s good friend and former member of the Konohamaru Gang, and devastatingly, a claw grime that looks exactly like our boy Sasuke Uchiha. They seem to be unbelievably strong and Boruto seriously struggles with them, to which Code offers no help even though he is in serious danger himself (what a dick). The one that looks to be the main leader and main villain of the bunch is the one that people aren’t sure about who they’ve been birthed from, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. When that guy looks to attack the toad tells Boruto to get out of there as fast as he can and he uses flying raijin again (still can’t believe it) and teleports to a tree where Kashin Koji is chilling. That is where we see Boruto sitting under the tree with Sasuke sealed inside of it, saying that he’ll have to wait a little longer. It’s quite unbelievable but also brilliant that we’re now in a situation where Sasuke and Naruto are both sealed and are unable to do anything, but it’s quite terrifying that there has been a humanly claw grime with an ego birthed out of Sasuke’s abilities and looks. It reminds me heavily of Hunter x Hunter with the Chimera Ants, they started out as a weird species of insect that couldn’t communicate with the exception of the Queen Ant. When she started eating humans as food, that’s when she started birthing ants with human characteristics and the Ants rapidly evolved from there and eventually became a serious threat to the entire world as we knew it. I could see something like that happening here and happening in a very similar way, as the evolution these claw grimes have shown in such a short amount of time is terrifying. It’s also evident now why Boruto was aware of the trouble these claw grimes could cause, as he probably saw Sasuke turn into a tree when Code fought them a couple of years back. Again, it’s a really great plot being developed by Kishimoto and the stakes just feel so much higher than they were in part 1. It feels like Boruto is on a mission to save Sasuke’s life which may turn into a mission to literally save the entire world. That flashforward that we saw at the start of both the manga and anime will have to wait, because the way it looks right now Konoha could be forced to fight alongside Boruto, which is a great thing despite what they may think. It’s crazy, but the sealing of Naruto and Hinata almost feels like an age ago since this new threat has been revealed. I can’t wait to see what they do with this plot because what we’ve seen of it so far, it could be very special.