Bail o' Lies

An alliance seems way too soon. Also figured faara Gaara would be the one turned into a tree

Well Gaara might be eaten soon so who knows what happens to the Tree People when they do.

They are rushing the story. If I am right about the contract; they only have 25 chapter left to go through the story. That means they have to defeat Punk, the Tree people and deal with Nail. Having Nail be an annoying thorn in the side of the story that just slows down the plot is something they can't afford right now. As they are almost half through part two and they haven't resolved anything yet.

Also I think they realize people didn't like Bolt was the only one that could fight any of the villains. As it was boring and made most of the cast unimportant. So they are giving power ups to the important members of the cast so they can be on Bolt's level. The daughter getting Kurama when he is suppose to be gone. Cups with the sage mode. Salad going to get something. And Nail is going to get an upgrade so he can fight again.

Pretty sure one piece is more of the IP closer to dragon ball rather than naruto

A decade ago. A decade ago. A decade ago, Naruto was the King of International Sales and was some years even second to Dragon Ball. Maybe even better than Dragon Ball since it was largely dormant during Naruto's prime years. That hasn't been the case since the ending. Due to streaming and the Live action adaptation One Piece has finally taken off internationally like it should have 25 years ago, but before that it was largely considered popular only in Japan. Even Oda admitted he thought that in interviews around the time of ending of Naruto.

https://en.wikipedia...t-selling_manga

Now a days its number 6 at 250mil in terms of volume sales. Dragon Ball is 5 with 260mil, Detective Conan 4 with 270mil, Doremon 3 with 300mil, Golgo13 at 2 with 300mil, and One Piece is number 1 with 517mil. Oh Slam Dunk is number 7 with 185mil

https://www.cbr.com/...ime-franchises/

It is the 13th biggest anime franchise with estimated worth of $10 Billion. With One Piece at 7 and Dragon ball at 5. Number One is Naruto's old time slot partner Pokémon. 

Even with those numbers the executives know. Naruto-Boruto is not making the money it should be making.

Sundays are awkward because I rather read the other manga that come out.

Best not to jinx the election by talking about it, this close to the finish. So Dragon Age is finally releasing another game. The last time they did that was around the time Naruto ended ten years ago. All things I been hearing, it seems to be a giant bomb. Honestly Bioware has gone down hill about as bad as Naruto-Boruto has.

Summary Time: Chapter 15. A Vibrant Life...is not something I associate with this manga.

Cover page is the new tree person (Ryu) they been showing for 3 chapters now.

Ah so that's who it is Gaara's son from the movie's chunin exam of...no wonder I didn't recognize him with how little he has appeared. Also for the record. I saw some article months back with the writer thinking that it was Naruto, when Clone Jiraiya showed a vision of him. I did not see anyone go, "oh its Shinki from the movie," due to how he is rarely seen. This is one of the problems with the tree-people and Ikemoto's designs. Part of the drama of the story and emotional feel these should give the readers is the horror of recognizing who has been turned into a monster, but his art style so different from Kishimoto's you instead go, "...Who? Who is that suppose to be?"  Then when you you learn it by that point its more, "oh. It was them. I see." Granted, in this case, the issue is more he used a character rarely seen, but the issue still stands. So a flashback of Gaara fighting the tree people...how did he know the tree people existed. Granted I can't tell how long they have been around. As far as I can tell it could be under an hour with how condense this story is. OK. He was on Bolt's trail and stumbled on the Tree People's base...he was chasing Bolt but ended up finding the location Bolt was desperate to find instead. Either, he is the best tracker in the world or the worst. He was about to send his kids back to the village while he held off Tree-Moegi. She allows Gaara to send them away but the Son breaks free, get trapped, but before he gets trapped he seals Gaara away so he wouldn't die.

Oh by the way Gaara is near death from just fighting Tree-Moegi just to remind you their level on the power scale and Only Bolt can fight them.

Kankuro is here to try to figure out how to release Shinki as only he can release Gaara from his seal...I really wish Kishimoto had explained sealing jutsu like he did every other power in Naruto. So Ikemoto couldn't use it as a convenient excuse for everything. As there are no real rules or restrictions for it, so seals can do whatever the story needs. Sealing is probably the only power stronger than even the new BS Shinjutsu. By asking if the Leaf know anything about the tree people...baring Clone Jiraiya forewarning by Bolt, how the hell would they?! The tree people just came into existence, they would know even less than the Sand does because Gaara was at least at their base!

Ryu can apparently mean "Grain of Sand." Reminder, they have been given themselves meaningful names like Tree-Sasuke's name meaning "left handed." He uses the metal belt clothing he has...sigh. Turns it into metal sand in order to grab Punk through the belts...to show how quickly he became ineffectual when he released a power beyond his control. They surprisingly don't kill him or feed him to a tree seeming to know they own their sentience to him...so they don't know if they would keep it if they get rid of him. He thinks that means he can give them orders and questions why they aren't trying to eat Bolt and Nail. They make it clear they are only humoring him, but the idiot doesn't realize it. He declares that the Chakra Fruit is his but it is clear they want it instead. He tries to assert his authority by slashing Tree-Jenga but Jenga cuts off his arm. Tree-Jenga making clear where Punk stands in the pecking order tell him to hunt down Bolt and his accomplice. Then, as a further show of dominance they seal his stump with their belts so he can't regrow his arm.

Tree-Shinki, I haven't updated the nickname list for the tree people because I am using their actual names and adding tree- Infront of it, already wants to eat Gaara and can release the seal on his own...If I update the nicknames again I'll probably make a new post about everyone and the changes that have occurred in Part Two with the character if any have occurred at all.

Cut to Bolt on the monument. Nail finds him and ask why he didn't tell them the truth...Bro talk if it just that I'm going to skip it. They talk about stuff that was already explained and Bolt tells him to talk to Madoc to adjust his limiters. As at the moment his offensive power is reduce as it is all being poured into defense and regeneration to keep him alive...remember his Karma contains Madoc's daughter's memories that he needs to revive her. Also, ah so this is how they are going to try to justify how lame Nail has been. "His power was reduce by settings Maodc put in place." Madoc is of course listening and realizes Clone Jiraiya is alive. They agree to an alliance to deal with the tree people.

It just goes to show how the pro ending head cases will try to sell you anything to say what they got was successful when the evidence of Borutos failure as well as how its hurt the Naruto franchise as a whole is obvious.

I'm in a better mood today so to be fair. Boruto is likely an above average selling manga that might bring in some money. But the problem is, that's not what the companies wanted. They wanted Naruto numbers which is still one of the biggest manga in the world. So, its a failure, it is at best a disappointment.

The two bits that stood out to me were the digital sales, and we shouldn't compare Naruto-Boruto to Dragon Ball.

So, the guy tried to say that the sales were fine because they really all went to digital and those numbers are good. But didn't show these new numbers just leaving people with the impression they must be good. Just trust the Youtuber, Bro. When it wouldn't be at hard to show them. 30% is physical? Ok that is X. 3X+1/3X=the total*. Which the average being 100,000 is 333,334 or 330,000 to what I rounded it up. Now that's a decent number for a manga, but nowhere near Naruto's numbers in its prime. Also, digital sales percentage has not been 70% throughout Boruto's entire run. As digital sales had reached that level either this or last year. He doesn't go through and try to show how digital rise matches Boruto physical number's decline. Which it doesn't. Boruto just declined till it hit around 100,000 and was around that level for years. If he was right, that wouldn't be the case.

* 30% is the known 70% is missing and we are looking for the total. 70 is 2 30% and then a 10% left over. 10% would be a third of 30%. So 30%+30%+1/3X30%=70 then for total 30%+30%+30%+1/3X30%=100%. Of 3x+1/3X=Y.

10 years ago, Naruto was the closest IP Dragon Ball had to a peer in terms of sales. If someone were to say, 'that in certain years Naruto had even beat Dragon Ball in sales,' most people would find that believable. Now a days, that is consider completely absurd, apparently. What happened in the past ten years that caused such a shift? Well, for Dragon Ball, Toriyama got so embarrassed by Dragon Ball Evolution that he got himself involved in the IP again and revitalized it. For Naruto, a bad ending and a worse sequel. "But, no no no Naruto-Boruto is completely fine apparently." While all its contemporaries' sales have completely eclipse it, when it was once the King of International Sales.

Edit: Also, again overall notion of "its a sequel don't hold it up to the same standard of the original." The companies knew that sequel tend to perform worse than the original. That why when they were selling Boruto to the audience they were making it was to be seen as a continuation of Naruto; its Part Three. Also, they tried to make sure it was seen as continuous by doing such things as keeping the Naruto anime going till they were ready to switch over to Boruto. Having a movie to promote it. Finally releasing the manga about a year after the original ended. 

From what I gathered, it just a rehash of the previous game. And people don't like it.

I was being somewhat rhetorical with that bit. But lets look into it. 

https://steamcharts.com/app/1020790

Connections' overall peak was 1663 players at the same time nearly a year ago. 24 hour peak of 175.

Now that is with some caveats: 1, Played at the same time does not means bought, 2 its steam for PC and Storm games are normally PS games, and 3 its been over a year since it came out.

https://steamcharts.com/app/349040

Storm 4. 8,372 peak. 984 24h Peak.

https://steamcharts.com/app/633230

Strikers. 6,303 peak. 573 24h Peak

That said both Storm 4 and Striker have better numbers than it.

And for Dragon Ball for comparison.

https://steamcharts.com/app/1790600

Sparking Zero. Peak 120,000. 59,928 24h Peak.

https://steamcharts.com/app/851850

Kakarot made by the same company that makes the storm games. 25,715 peak. 1,186 24h peak.

https://steamcharts.com/app/454650

Xenoverse 2 the game that seemed to inspire strikers' creation. 13,570 peak. 1,428 24h peak.

Granted an aggregate take it with a grain of salt. But no wonder they want another dragon ball game if that is just a portion of people playing, and it already sold 3 million. If the percentages of people playing on steam to people buying it is similar to the Naruto games that is not good for them.

Also remember Connections, that SS manga, the...Mira manga, and an anime special that keeps delaying it release were all suppose to check how popular Naruto-Boruto was. Clearly they disappoint the companies.