Got bored and looked through reddit. Besides the main boruto subgroup no one is impressed by there power levels.
1:"I know hyperbole is often in abundance in any Boruto chapter thread but it truly feels like this series commits every cardinal sin a sequel series can.
It humiliates the OG cast to prop up the newer generation all while dragging them into nearly every situation because it doesn't have the confidence to rely on its own characters instead. Seriously, Naruto appears in almost every chapter now with really no necessity.
It doubles down on the worst parts of its predecessor instead of trying to remediate them. Kaguya, and by extension the Otsutsuki, were horribly received when first revealed, and now we have an entire series about them. And wait, they're even more threatening now!!!
The plot has no flow to it and things just happen at breakneck pacing because Kishimoto and Co. are just making things up on the fly because it seems cool to them. Of course, the monthly release schedule does the series no favors with this either."
2: "Let's count the ways shall we?
We are introduced to Code and we are told, repeatedly, that he is an opponent who Naruto and Sasuke (even if nerfed) would have problem with because of how strong he was. so strong, in fact, that he had limiters he needed to be removed if he wanted to unleash all his strength. This as he is also powered by Isshin.
He is so strong, in fact, that the only reason boruto and Kawaki stood a chance (again, when fighting him with his limiters) was by using Karma. an element so powerful and mysterious that Naruto and Sasuke had to fight together at their absolute strongest to defeat Momoshiki, a master of it.
so then this chapter Code, who we were constantly told is super strong, has his limiters removed, meaning he is at his absolutely strongest, and even is told the one weakness of Daemon's seemingly invincible ability.
And Code still gets completely trashed and has to run away like a loser.
what. was. the. point."
3: "Okay, I will say this one thing:
The idea of splitting up the antagonists because of a power play is fantastic writing. It is a credit to the story that the three most dangerous characters are given legitimate motivations that mean they will butt heads. It changes the way in which the heroes must fight, because now they have to consider this dynamic, and also make inferences about what strategies or weaknesses that exist.
The powercreep will always be this story's second greatest sin, its first being characterization of the prior generation, but at least with regard to how this one chapter is viewed in isolation, it was well set up, well fought, and well concluded.
It's probably the second nice thing I've said about this story, the first being how happy I was to see Shikamaru prove he's the smartest character in the series."
There is quite literally no reason for Eida to have worked with Code, who is Kawaki’s ENEMY and wants to destroy the world, and powered him up (turning him into a huge threat for her later) if she wants to get close to Kawaki. Shikamaru had actually offered her a perfectly logical and valid offer even if Shikamaru was scheming something; working with Konoha would get her close to Kawaki and give her something of a more normal life, considering she was never interested in destroying the world for some pathetic religion.
4: "It was just a contrived reason to power up Code. And even now, Code shouldn’t be able to absorb anything, so ninjutsu, genjutsu, and sealing jutsu should work on him.
It’s so absurd too that the likes of Madara Uchiha, Minato Namikaze, and Hashirama Senju would get clapped by this elementary school kid. His reflection abilities were bs enough but he happens to have god taijutsu and strength?
Also, in ch 59, Daimon definitely did not have to touch anyone to use his reflective abilities.
They‘re just making up stuff and driving this series further and further past its corner."
5: "The more I read this, the less it feels like Naruto or even Boruto. It feels like the author is phasing out any character that’s not his original, just so he can write his own fanfic in the Naruto universe.
Honestly how many chapters has it been since all of Team 7 appeared? 71 chapters in and no one in Team 7 has had any real characterization or a story arc. Even Boruto is slowly getting shafted, first for his Dad, and now for all the new side characters."
6: "If code is the best villain in boruto its a testament to how bad boruto villains have been so far
His goals are atrocious
He’s part of the large group of boruto villains who let the good guys win bc of his arrogance
He’s really hard to get excited about bc he usually shows up just to take the L and build up some other character
He has zero backstory other than that he was also brought to jigens lab as a child and failed to get a proper karma, and also he’s been a kitten since he was a child
His jealousy is directed at a guy who generally has done nothing to him.
Like all I feel for code is cringe"
7: "Most of the villains have too little substance to actually say much about. They were really generic and didnt contribute much to the story and their reasons for doing what they did tended to be rather one note or shallow bc there just wasn’t much to them. As side antagonists thats not a big deal as much but someone like boro who got centerstage against the protagonists for a several chapter fight really should have gotten more of a dive into why he sided with jigen other than “crazy cult man does crazy cult thing”
Isshki i found pretty bad. He has hundreds of years of completely unexplained absence in the story. He mishandled his most valuable asset, kawaki, and it came back to bite him severely when he really had no reason to do so. He put his trust in people that really didn’t deserve it and who he didnt need (like most of kara once he had kawaki) and often his arrogance caused him to waste time or take risks and caused him to lose. His goal was very generic and had no flavor to it, and his methodology of reaching that goal...sucked which is the only reason he lost in the end.
Codes goals are even more boring than isshkis. Isshkis generic goal of restoring his lost power gets passed on to code, who is now told to genocide his own planet in order to acquire a fruit that will make him part of this alien race that he’s only met one member of. And once he’s done that he actually needs to genocide a bunch of other planets so that he can become a god...and then...nothing. The goal ends there, he has no reason to become one nor any plans for when he does.
He also wants revenge against the people that killed isshki and now against everyone in konoha bc he’s jealous of kawaki since kawaki’s abuse at jigens hands came with a death sentence in karma and his karma did not come with a death sentence. Revenge is fine, its generic as kitten, but its not as bad as the other goal which is just an empty dead end.
Code’s arrogance leads him to throw away the win when he has it in his grasp and doesn’t need to. For example he goads boruto into using momoshikis powers and then fails to retrieve kawaki as a result. Earlier in that same fight he also spends time whaling on kawaki instead of just taking kawaki back to the lab and thus gives time for boruto to interrupt them which again leads to him taking the L. he also refuses to let eida talk to amado despite already getting what he wanted from amado and ruins his own alliance with eida.
A primary antagonist who exists just to make poor decisions to further poorly construed goals just to help set up the other characters in the story is not an inherently interesting character himself. What is he gonna realize? Thats the writers are using him like this? Its his own decisions that are causing his failure now.
16 monthly chapters is more than enough time to give the primary antagonist some depth. In Pains first major fight on screen against jiraiya we got like 90% of pains backstory.
Every character doesn’t need a backstory. Primary plot driving characters do though, if esp if they’re not inherently interesting in other ways.
Jealousy against kawaki would be more captivating if what kawaki got was recognized as valuable by the reader. But it was a death sentence and years of abuse. Codes jealousy about eida is more grounded but he threw away his own alliance with eida, so its very hard to be on board with code in anything.
I dont think code is a badass and i also dont think his character work is very good. He’s shallow, irrational, juvenile, and really hard to relate to"
8: "It's a hard to take seriously because by the time the series ended, Naruto and Sasuke were once-in-a-millennia level powers. They had to surpass not only everyone else in the current and previous generations, but ultimately surpass the undisputed GOAT generation (Madara/Hashirama), and get a buff straight from the Ninja-god himself to attain their peak powers.
They were supposed to be the stuff of legends, and the next insurmountable mountain for future generations in their own right. Now every other rando seems to be at similar power levels, which just makes no sense whatsoever.
Now that I think of it, Boruto should have happened 4-6 generations after Naruto. The excessive alien kitten and ridiculous cyborg powers would have felt way less out of place."
9: "Some Boruto fans have been complaining that people have been kittening non-stop about Boruto. I, on the other hand, am confused how anyone can defend everything that's been going on. This manga is doomed from the start, but it's got it's moment. After killing off Kurama and Rinnegan getting stabbed, I can't defend Boruto anymore. It got worse that after killing those two, we have Daemon who's now the most powerful character and Senrigan. There's no reason a cyborg has an ability of the Abrahamic God!
Do they not realize the kitten they're introducing or removing is killing the franchise? The anime and manga have a different case. Anime is very popular in Japan and many kids watch it without ever watching Naruto or Naruto Shippuden. The sales of the manga on the other hand fell off badly (and rightfully so!)"
10: "This manga is getting laughably bad. Its like every plot development is made up on the spot.
Every time Amado says anything it sounds like an asspull. I get they are trying to go for a Light Yagami style "always several steps ahead" character, but the writing is so bad that it feels like he is nothing more than a retcon machine.
We have seen SEVERAL times that Daemon's ability works without physical contact, but I guess the writers just changed their mind for this chapter. How much do you want to bet he'll use his power without touching someone in a future chapter?
Code is incredibly underwhelming. Him getting his limiters removed was hyped up, but then he gets beat up by Daemon (by far the worst designed and most annoying character in the entire series)?
The powerscaling is ridiculous. Its like the writers have no idea how to write a villain beyond "he's WAY stronger than the last one". It gets tiring when Jigen is hyped up to be incredibly powerful, only for Amado to pull even more powerful Androids out of his ass. And again, the original cast is constantly getting kitten on and forced into irrelevancy.
The pacing has been awful. Every chapter is a setup chapter, but it feels like they have no idea what they are even setting up.
Boruto fans always point to a non-existant time skip to hype up the series, but with the way things are developing, I don't think even a timeskip would fix things. You'd need to actually have an interesting conflict to set up a timeskip like that, and so far Boruto's conflict seems like it isn't planned out more than an issue in advance."
Seems like the realization that Moe is now the strongest villain is finally breaking a lot of people.
To be honest, I expect him to be defeated by ending up with the daughter.
Edited by Bail o' Lies, 23 June 2022 - 03:46 AM.