Boruto Is Finally A Worth Successor to Naruto

Boruto's manga series is finally a worthy successor to Naruto's legacy, thanks to the launch of the latest volume of Boruto's saga: Boruto: Two Blue Vortex. 

If you haven't been keeping tabs: the Boruto anime and manga have gone down two very different paths. The anime for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations drowned in filler material and storylines for too many of the characters in its massive ensemble. The anime quickly outpaced the manga to an insane degree, and created the impression that Boruto was a silly kid-friendly knock-off of the original Naruto anime – and leagues beneath the heights of Naruto: Shippuden. It was clear that a change in focus for the series was greatly needed, and that's exactly what we've gotten. 

When Did Boruto Get Good?!?!

First credit where credit is due: Boruto: Naruto Next Generation's final story arcs were a major step up for the series. We learned that the mysterious Kara Organization's leader Jigen was actually "Isshiki Otsutsuki" the estranged male partner of Shippuden villain Kaguya Otsutsuki. We also learned the true nature and origin of Otsutsuki as alien parasites, and how they resurrected themselves through the Karma seals imprinted on vessels like Boruto and Kawaki, whose contacts with Momoshiki and Isshiki Otsutsuki (respectively) has left both boys transformed almost entirely into Otsutsuki themselves. Boruto and Kawaki managed to fight with Sasuke and Naruto to eventually thwart Isshiki's resurrection – albeit at great cost: Naruto pushed his power past all limits to fight Isshiki (in "Baryon Mode") and Kurama ultimately sacrificed his own life and power to pay that price. 

The final arc of Boruto saw Isshiki's rivals in Kara – cyborgs Code, Ada and Daemon – all awaken and turn their horrific powers loose against Hidden Leaf. Fearing an inevitable tragedy, Kawaki went rogue, using his Otsutsuki powers to shrink and imprison Naruto and his wife Hinata in another dimension 'for safekeeping'. In the culminating battle of the series, Ada awakened a power even the Otsutsuki struggle to unlock: Omnipotence. Through her will alone, Ada rewrote reality so that everyone remembers that Kawaki is Naruto's son, and Boruto is the Otsutsuki vessel who seemingly betrayed and killed Naruto. 

Is Boruto Worth Getting Into Now?!?!

Boruto: Two Blue Vortex hasn't wasted a single chapter building on the good momentum that Next Generations ended with. The time jump in the series has helped it overcome one of the biggest issues with the series, from the start: the character of Boruto. The younger Boruto was plucky and often kind of punk – plus, the fact that he had the privileged life of being Naruto – the Hokage's – son made it hard to root for him as any kind of real hero archetype. Now Boruto has lived the actual hard-knock life experience of an outcast, while his training with Sasuke has made him a truly skilled badass, instead of just a kid with a lot of potential. He's kind of part Naruto, part Sasuke, and it's one of the best character evolutions in recent memory. 

In addition to Boruto getting a glow-up, the world around him has also gotten much more exciting. Friends (Mitsuki) have become enemies; Kawaki is now a primary rival for Boruto; and Hidden Leaf is a hostile place for him, not a home. Within that new context, Two Blue Vortex has also expanded the lore of the entire Naruto Saga into exciting new directions:

The threat of Code and Ada has given way to a new enemy: sentient Ten-Tail Divine Trees that are evolving into humanoid forms, based on those they imprison as living mummies inside of the Trees (ex: Sasuke). The transformation has resulted from Code combining his Claw Mark with Ten-Tails Fission beings, giving them an intelligence they didn't possess before. It's an enemy whose power level goes beyond that of the Otsutsuki, making hard for even Boruto to battle them. Those are real stakes this series didn't have before. 

Finally, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is earning in spot in the Naruto franchise by ironically taking Naruto himself out of the equation – as well as Sasuke. With the two heroes of Naruto truly gone (or at least currently out of commission), Boruto and Co. truly have to stand on their own. And, if and when Naruto and/or Sasuke do return, they've been seriously de-powered to a point where Boruto will have to be the new champion of the Shinobi World – lest it fall.