Boruto Is Beating Naruto With Its Handling of Side Characters

While Boruto: Naruto Next Generations suffered from the same issues plaguing its predecessor, but with a much less confident, thoughtful delivery, its sequel has been picking up steam. It’s hard to imagine the sequel ever truly overtaking the original in hype, especially for something like Naruto. However, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is making up for Naruto’s deficiencies with supporting characters.

Boruto Still Lacks Much of Naruto’s Luster Except in One Key Area

Make no mistake; Naruto is still the dominant series in the eyes of its consumers, with 250 million copies sold compared to Boruto’s combined 10 million sold to date. The former is a thriving franchise, often with the latter rolled into it in video games, and the Naruto anime is legendary in the eyes of its fans, flaws and all.

But past these and other advantages like Kishimoto’s fascinating world being imported into his collaboration with Mikio Ikemoto on Boruto, Two Blue Vortex is shining even when its star isn’t present. Many of the sequel manga’s most exciting moments, like Sarada’s Mangekyo awakening, Inojin’s new mission, and Koji Kashin’s Prescience revelation, incorporate Boruto, but without him as the focus.

While each of these to some extent connect to Boruto, many of the pages of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex space his appearances out compared to its predecessors. Two Blue Vortex chapter #1 only brings Boruto in near the tail-end, while Naruto chapter #245, the start of Shippuden, makes the world almost resume functioning upon Naruto’s return in its first panels.

The series carries on like that for much of its narrative, and this is thanks to multiple factors, from its monthly format, to a more confident presentation of characters outside of Team 10, Kawaki, or legacy favorites. It’s a nice quality that makes each chapter something to look forward to, as it potentially means unearthing dormant shinobi deserving more focus.

Boruto’s Use of Supporting Characters Addresses a Long-Standing Naruto Issue

While not exclusively an issue to Naruto, as it appears in Boruto as well, the answer many fans cite to how the franchise addresses underused characters is inevitably “filler”. As wonderful as some filler in the series can be, or really in any anime — One Piece’s G-8 Arc comes to mind — they’re fundamentally unimportant episodes.

This is especially the case for manga fans who don’t wish for the anime to add time-consuming filler just so they can enjoy their favorites that seem forgotten by Kishimoto or Ikemoto. While there’s still no appearance of characters like Metal Lee, seeing extended interactions with the new Team 10, or expanding on relationships like Moegi and Konohamaru, look promising.

This is certainly not to say Naruto didn’t have its shining moments when it came to giving the spotlight to supporting characters. The Akatsuki Suppression Mission Arc is a great example of excellent Naruto storytelling that’s not filler. The Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission gave spotlight to Sai and Yamato. The final arc, while bloated, features plenty of fascinating character moments.

But when it comes to many characters, like Rock Lee, Tenten, various Jinchuriki, and more, they’re often stuck in filler. Once Naruto stepped into their space, they’d fade into the background, whereas Boruto: Two Blue Vortex incorporates them, such as the sensory unit cooperating and listening in on Boruto like in chapter #7 and beyond.

The Sequel Recognizes Boruto as the Star But Gives Others Star Billing

Custom image by J.R. Waugh

Boruto Uzumaki’s identity and perception by the public of Konoha is drastically altered by the point of Two Blue Vortex, with them seeing him instead as Boruto Otsutsuki. This is to say, Boruto doesn’t get to spend as much time in Konoha, and must stay out of the spotlight in terms of public life, and the narrative benefits from this as well.

The story in Boruto: Two Blue Vortex has a complicated cast, from Shikamaru’s role as Eighth Hokage being a precarious balance of protecting his village while seeing Boruto as an ally, or at least an asset. Sarada is practically alone at first in defending his innocence. Himawari is the new Jinchuriki for Kurama, making her arguably just as important.

As a result, this ensemble gets their story told, broken up into segments of each chapter where readers get a convincing treatment of their unique positions within the story. Sarada and Sumire love Boruto and reconcile their differences to look out for him. Kawaki, despite previously betraying Boruto and his family, is defended by him.

The messy foundation of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations thus begins to pay off in this sequel. Eida’s Clairvoyance makes her an asset and a conduit through which she sees and relays core events of the world. Koji Kashin’s Prescience ability makes him an invaluable seer for the story by chapter #13, allowing him to step out meaningfully from Jiraiya’s shadow.

But there’s one other egregious problem Naruto had, that is apparently getting a reasonable treatment in the Boruto sequel. Beyond featuring individual supporting characters, consistently bringing them into the plot to play unique roles that seemingly can’t be superseded, one hurdle is being cleared. Boruto is starting to handle its female characters better.

Boruto Is Handling Its Female Characters Better Than Naruto

It’s no secret that Masashi Kishimoto didn’t handle the female characters of Naruto well. In fact, despite Sakura Haruno being a member of Team 7 and integral to the plot and its core characters, she’s commonly overlooked as a “side character”.

This is something Boruto struggled with enormously as well. It practically distorted original versions of underexposed Naruto characters like Anko, and it lacked confidence in bigger stars like Sarada. Other prominent female characters like Mei Terumi have their roles naturally fade, while classics like Tsunade are practically nonexistent.

But Boruto: Two Blue Vortex shows promise in the right ways. Sarada and Sumire’s rivalry, instead of being a parallel to Sakura and Ino’s eye-rolling spat over Sasuke, has turned a corner with them preserving their friendship in chapter #25. Sarada’s desire to become Hokage is increasingly persuasive as she allows herself to be vulnerable yet awakening her power.

In fact, the female characters of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex are increasingly empowered in ways that obey its world’s rules. Sarada’s Mangekyo Sharingan is an incredible ability, yet her Uchiha blood and having Sasuke as her father made it inevitable. Himawari even wields a power previously reserved as Naruto’s plot armor. The manga’s coolest “aura” moments belong to the girls.

Ikemoto and Kishimoto Seem Less Afraid to Kill Off Supporting Characters

In their bid to take out the Divine Trees in the Land of Wind, the first major casualty occurred with the death of Yodo of the Sand in chapter #20. This, in terms of side characters, is a mercy-killing instead of keeping her alive and letting fans to hope she shines in the filler episodes.

That’s not to say the manga should commit wholesale massacres of supporting characters once they’ve served their purpose. A consequential appearance from Metal Lee would be great. But this dials up the tension of the series, especially as characters have the potential to return to other locations and raise the stakes of the shinobi world.

With the monthly format and continuously prominent placement among the top five circulating series on Manga Plus, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex shines at its V Jump home. It has struggled for years and fallen behind many other great mainstays in sales numbers. But longtime fans are able to embrace it as it grows its intrigue and handles its characters wonderfully.

Writer

Masashi Kishimoto

Writers

Masashi Kishimoto