Title: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Vol. 2
Author: Masahi Kishimoto (Creator), Mikio Ikemoto (Art), Ukyo Kodachi (Story)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Genre: Shonen, Battle
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
The Story
In the second volume of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, the chuunin exams advance to the third round where they will square off in one on one battles with the final battle being a three-way between the winners of blocks A, B and C. Boruto faced off against Yusui from the Hidden Cloud as his first opponent in which he used the scientific ninja tool to win. This placed him in a match with Shikadai in the semi-finals in which he, once again, used the ninja tool to force Shikadai to submit. This caught Naruto’s attention and he exposed Boruto for cheating. In addition to being disqualified, Naruto stripped Boruto of his headband and his right to call himself a shinobi.
Right then and there, the two mysterious beings from the first volume make their appearance. Sasuke announces that they are Kinshiki and Momoshiki Otsutsuki, descendants of the clan the sage of the six paths and Kaguya were a part of. Kurama’s power is what drew their attention and their plan is to extract Kurama from Naruto and turn him into “chakra pills.” They, essentially, use these pills to temporarily gain incredible power. Naruto puts up a fight, but is ultimately captured. Sasuke can still sense his chakra and uses his rinnegan to open a portal to where they are keeping Naruto. Sasuke, Boruto and the remaining four kage enter the portal and begin their rescue mission; however, during the battle, things take an interesting turn when Momoshiki consumes Kinshiki and transforms into an even more powerful entity.
They story only had two parts to it with half of the volume focusing on the chuunin exams and the other half focusing on rescuing Naruto. While the story was pretty straightforward, a lot of the volume spent time on developing Boruto as a character. The story itself was interesting, though and is following the movie quite well with the exception of one little different. Katasuke from the science labs didn’t follow Sasuke into the portal like he did in the movie. Unless that gets revealed in volume three, then I believe that part was taken out of the manga adaptation. It’s fine if it was because I don’t think it really served much of a purpose and you can still accomplish the same end result without him being there.
Characters
Boruto was the only character to get significant development this volume. Sure, the Otsusuki pair did get some of their backstory fleshed out, but that was mainly for story advancement more than it was for their characters. If anything, they painted the two of them in the same light as a couple of drug addicts.
Boruto, on the other hand, begins to realize what his father truly is. After witnessing Naruto enter Kyuubi Sage Mode, he realized just how powerful Naruto truly is. It made him begin to look past how weak he was when he was younger and take a keen interest on just how strong he is now. Rather than trying to prove that he’s not like his father, he begins to desire learning more about Naruto’s past. Sasuke also nudged him in that direction by making it clear that Boruto shouldn’t be focusing on Naruto’s weaknesses and rather that he should pay more attention to who he was in the past. This caused Boruto to have a change of heart and to understand just what it means to be a shinobi.
An interesting touch was the strike through the hidden leaf symbol on Boruto’s headband. In the original series, it was a symbol that a ninja had abandoned their village and could no longer be associated with it. Here, Boruto never abandoned Konoha; however, because of his cheating, he not recognized as a shinobi of Konoha any longer. Whether or not that will stick through the rest of the series remains to be seen, but I felt that was an interesting touch to his character.
Final Thoughts
This was a great edition of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. The chuunin exams felt nostalgic, but the battle with Kinshiki and Momoshiki felt like a new battle from the end of the Naruto series. Boruto continues to do a great job in mixing together old and new to keep that sense of nostalgia going while offering something refreshing at the same time.
I really like how Boruto is developing as a character as he continues to sport similarities to Naruto when he was younger, but at the same time, he’s developing his own personality and quirks as well. I think that’s a great decision because making him drastically different from his father wouldn’t exactly work. There needs to be some similarities, but there is also going to need to be a time where Boruto takes that radical turn into left field and becomes his own character. Given the way we see him in the opening pages of the first volume, it’s inevitable that it will happen.
I feel as if we have a long way to go until we reach that point; however, and I’m looking forward to what this series brings to the table!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
