I didn’t even know Boruto was a manga until yesterday. I was caught up on my other manga and felt nostalgic for Naruto (before it completely went off the rails and became a parody of itself) and stumbled upon Boruto during a google search. Still having a bitter taste in my mouth from the train wreck ending that Naruto suffered from, I browsed through Boruto with exceedingly low expectations.
The manga did not disappoint. It was horrific.
Naruto Gaiden was the first time I read solely for the purpose of laughing at characters that I used to adore. The storyline was an infantile soap opera. Sakura and Naruto were absurd caricatures of their former selves. Sakura was reduced to the lowest common denominator of the fan girl that she was in part one. Naruto had transformed into something far worse, and something that his personality would never have allowed him to become. Sasuke was just what he always was; self-absorbed to the point of not even knowing his own daughter by sight. I thought maybe Boruto might reverse this trend of buffoonery but it instead capitalizes and underscores it.
Naruto achieved his dream. He brought a tentative peace to the ninja world and became Hokage. He has a family. His life should be mostly ideal, but an ideal life creates a problem for the character of Boruto. A boy growing up in a caring household as the son of one of the most powerful shinobi in history has no drama to feed off of. There must be a rift somewhere or Boruto can’t have the same defiant and rebellious characteristics that his father did as a child. And lord knows this manga is only capable of repeating the same tired cycles with each coming generation, as illustrated at the beginning of chapter one with Boruto fighting a death match with a one time friend.
Enter the painfully contrived storyline of Naruto as a neglectful father; a man so consumed with governing the village and nullifying threats that he can’t even make time to be with his family on his daughter’s birthday. A man with god-like power who could muster a thousand shadow clones to parcel out his work so he could spend some quality time at home; but instead sends a clone to be with his family. Naruto wouldn’t do this. He isn’t that guy but he has to be in order for the premise of this poorly conceived plot device to “work”.
To add insult to injury, the artwork is abominable. Ikemoto is not a great illustrator, but Kishi’s character design for an older Naruto is appalling and outright criminal. His concentration-camp style haircut is as far removed as humanly possible from the free spirit Naruto possessed throughout most of the original manga. His god-like powers of healing once used on Kakashi and Gai are apparently long gone as he continues to have bandages wrapped around his arm. (Likely a miserable attempt to add a “cool” factor to his character design.) His half length cape just looks half-assed.
Sakura looks like a beast. I’d blame Ikemoto except for the fact that she looked atrocious in Gaiden. I don’t know when all ability was lost to render her in the beautiful manner she was during the early chapters of Naruto part 2, but her destruction is complete. Physically, mentally and emotionally, she has been reduced to something not worth appearing in the manga at all. Rest in peace, Sakura-chan.
Otaku fanboys who worshiped Hinata’s magnificent and curvaceous physique must be deeply mourning the tragic loss of her ample breasts. Perhaps it was due to a lack of attention from Naruto, but the once voluptuous twins have apparently deflated and fled. The formerly proud princess of the Hyuuga clan is now reduced to a flat-chested, stay-at-home mother taking selfies with the kids because absentee father Naruto can’t be bothered to hang around long enough to hold the camera.
Sasuke looks ridiculous. Perhaps the experiments Orochimaru performed on him years ago are finally catching up to him. As in the original manga, Kodachi feels the need to have characters tell the reader how “cool” he is. It’s a crutch. If I must constantly be told he’s “cool”, then he probably isn’t. If he was, I’d know it without being told.
Boruto, Salad and the rest were drawn poorly in Gaiden. Nothing has changed here. Salad’s proclamations of wanting to be Hokage carry no weight. The declaration of wanting to be Hokage lost its charm about the time when a flashback Obito claimed it was his goal in life. Nobody cares any more. If you want it, shut up and earn it. But again, repetitiveness is the hallmark of this manga and Naruto in general.
Will there be a spark between Boruto and Salad? Will Salad be pursuing him as a love interest in a sad and vain attempt to pacify disenfranchised NS fans? It probably doesn’t matter. By the time Sasuke finishes molesting him as his disciple, Boruto won’t have any interest in girls. (You can’t live for years with a pedophile like Orochimaru and not have it negatively affect you or your sexual proclivities.)
By the end of Naruto, Kishi had made me not care about characters that I used to love. As a result I certainly don’t care about their progeny. Multiply that indifference with a weak and contrived storyline and substandard art, and there really is no reason to delve any further into this. Unless, as with Gaiden, it's just for a good laugh.
