“Boruto: Two Blue Vortex” Manga Issue 26 Review: Those Like-Minded

Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 26, titled ‘Those Like-Minded’, continued to address Salad and Sumire’s feelings for Boruto while also prepping certain characters for what’s to come.

Trigger Warning: This review of Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 26 mentions sexual assault.

Similar to the previous chapter, ‘Those Like-Minded’ was also quite dialogue-heavy, with a bunch of characters getting targeted. The issue opened with Inojin gifting Himawari her favorite brand of honey. It’s clear that Inojin harbored romantic feelings for Himawari. However, Kashin Koji really cemented Inojin’s emotions by calling out the young ninja on his way back from the Uzumaki residence. Turns out, Inojin’s required to play a role in protecting Himawari down the line against the Shinju.

I liked Inojin’s interaction with Kashin Koji and Boruto. While a stereotypical reaction from big brother Boruto would be him getting annoyed by Inojin due to him crushing on Himawari, our lead character didn’t have the luxury of time. He knew about Inojin’s role due to Kashin Koji’s predictions, and right now, Boruto just wanted things to proceed ASAP and without unnecessary drama. There’s a lot of tension between Kashin Koji and Boruto, with both fugitives not being fans of the other keeping secrets under the guise of not wasting time in discussing details and technicalities. Yes to them butting heads. Even Inojin felt awkward.

I don’t know how Inojin’s going to manage growing strong enough to face a threat like the Shinju to protect Himawari, but we did get to see him flex his Sensory abilities by secretly connecting Kashin Koji (from inside one of Orochimaru’s hideouts) to Shikamaru (who was all the way in Konoha).

Talking about Shikamaru, his troubles included being called in for a meeting in front of the Konoha Elders to answer for his recent actions concerning Boruto and the Shinju. Apparently, the matter was quite serious, with Lord Kobu (the Feudal Lord’s personal chamberlain) arriving in Konoha to uncover a potential mole in their midst, especially with how easily Boruto managed to escape from Konoha custody.

According to Kobu and the Elders, trying to team up with Boruto to defeat the Shinju was out of the question. Their current agenda was to interrogate anyone who had been in direct contact with Boruto. Even though Shikamaru wasn’t arrested during the meeting, he’s still in hot water. Lord Kobu’s going to get to him sooner or later.

Poor Konohamaru was going to be questioned first. His trying to justify working with Boruto in front of the Elders wasn’t the smartest move. But oh well. Konohamaru’s never been the smartest cookie 24/7. I’m looking forward to seeing Kobu’s line of questioning and how Konohamaru will try to prevent himself from being thrown into prison. Other characters that will be targeted include Mitsuki, Ino, Kawaki, and Salad. Again, I would like to see them being interrogated by Kobu instead of all of it taking place off-panel.

Mitsuki might find himself needing to run away from Konoha. Being Orochimaru’s son doesn’t bode well for him. Also, distancing himself from Konoha will open the door for him to hide out with Boruto and give him the time to make sense of his “feelings” toward our protagonist.

As for Jura, he talked to Hidari and Mamushi about shedding a tear due to learning more about love. He shed a tear after experiencing Matsuri’s bond with Konohamaru, and he shed another tear in the current chapter after reading a novel about human love. Jura wanted to gain even more information about love to figure out how to control it.

Hidari continued to be intrigued by Jura’s feelings. The fandom is waiting to see Hidari’s personality when he gets to interact with Salad (and hopefully Sakura) down the line.

I liked how Mamushi wasn’t into the lovey-dovey stuff. His target was Eida, but it wasn’t because he loved her. Nopes. It was about control. Mamushi wanted to consume Eida because he wanted to make her “perfect” genetic code his. As for the subtext and because Mamushi was casually reading an adult picture magazine during that particular scene, one can infer that Mamushi’s intentions were similar to real-life cases where certain men sexually assaulting women involved the men wanting to exert their power and control over the women instead of the act being solely sexual in nature.

According to Kashin Koji, Mamushi was going to appear in Konoha in about a week. Even though Kashin Koji’s going to tell Shikamaru about Mamushi’s skills and how to deal with such an opponent, I doubt it’s going to be an easy fight.

Daemon’s likely a big player in keeping Eida safe from Mamushi. However, he’s currently busy threatening Salad and Sumire. I knew Eida witnessing Salad and Sumire talk about their feelings for Boruto wasn’t going to end well for the young ninjas. While Eida was interested in the drama that might arise when Salad and Sumire finally confess their feelings to Boruto in person, she wasn’t comfortable with how her Charm Ability didn’t seem to impact Sumire and Salad.

Eida’s likely had her suspicions for a while now. She’s a smart character. I enjoyed how she had Sumire and Salad answer her questions involving Boruto, only to pivot the conversation to her Charm Ability. If Salad and Sumire had been under her influence, the two wouldn’t have been able to chat about harboring romantic feelings for Boruto in such a manner in front of Eida.

While I enjoyed how Eida manipulated the situation, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at Salad and Sumire. Being ninjas with an ongoing mission to stick close to Eida, one would think they would be aware enough to pretend not to talk about loving someone else in front of her. But alas, Salad and Sumire were bad actors. And that’s not a good thing, considering ninjas are supposed to be experts in deception.

There’s no way Daemon’s going to kill Salad and Sumire by crushing their necks, but it did make for an intense cliffhanger. With Salad having activated her MS eyes and seemingly keeping up with Daemon’s speed (even though she wasn’t physically fast enough to react to him in time), I’m interested in seeing if she managed to place some kind of Genjutsu on him.

Regardless, their current predicament will hopefully answer the long-standing question about why Salad and Sumire were immune to Eida’s Charm Ability. I have my fingers crossed that it’s a sensible answer instead of it boiling down to how “loving” an Otsutsuki, even a host like Boruto, was enough to negate the Charm Ability.

While I’m reading Boruto Two Blue Vortex as a fan of the Naruto/Boruto IP, I have to say that the storytelling has been lacking for a while now. Using Kashin Koji to dump information instead of allowing characters to organically figure things out (as ninjas are supposed to) comes across as lazy. Also, the narrative has been making characters react to things due to Kashin Koji having looked into the future instead of them taking a more proactive role.

Unfortunately, Boruto Two Blue Vortex is not a manga I would recommend to others. At least, not yet.

What did you think of Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 26 ‘Those Like-Minded’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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