“Boruto: Two Blue Vortex” Manga Issue 31 Review: Shut Up

Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 31, titled ‘Shut Up’, continued Mamushi’s infiltration of Konoha to search for Eida, while Inojin had to make a difficult decision about Kobu’s life.

Due to one of Kashin Koji’s little toads attacking Mamushi in order for the humanoid Shinju to kill Kobu in the previous chapter, ‘Shut Up’ opened with Inojin having to keep Kobu safe while maintaining his control over Kobu’s body through the Mind Body Transmission Jutsu.

As I had mentioned in my review of the previous issue, there was no way Inojin was simply going to release his grasp over Kobu and allow him to be killed by the angry Mamushi clones. Yes, Kashin Koji wanted Kobu to die. But Inojin wasn’t going to be the one who would play a role in such a thing happening.

Even though Inojin risked being killed if Kobu’s body was fatally injured during the battle, the young ninja did what he could to keep dodging Mamushi’s attacks while moving a non-ninja body. As Inojin put it, even though Kobu was an annoying thorn in their current plans to stop Mamushi, he was still an innocent civilian who didn’t deserve to be thrown toward Mamushi’s clones to die.

I liked how Kashin Koji grew annoyed by Inojin’s reluctance and forcefully had him release Kobu from his Jutsu. As far as Kashin Koji was concerned, Inojin needed to stop playing around in Kobu’s body and return to establishing the telepathic link with Boruto and the rest of the ninjas fighting Mamushi so they could decide what to do next.

As for Eida, even though certain fans had assumed that using her Senrigan would alert Mamushi to her location, it was nice to see that ‘Shut Up’ gave us confirmation of said risk. Eida theorized that Mamsuhi had the special ability to learn information from a person’s mind by locking eyes with them. And as Mamushi had detected Eida’s presence while she was using Senrigan in the recent past, the moment she activated her OP ability again in the present, Mamushi would come running toward her hideout.

Waiting for Eida to use her Senrigan was making Mamushi irritated. He was hoping her curiosity mixed with fear would force her to take a sneak peek. Due to Mamushi’s frustration compounded by how his cognitive levels were decreasing due to the increased number of clones across Konoha, it was only a matter of time before his clones began acting out. The copies had begun behaving like a senseless mob, even attacking each other.

I was expecting that to happen, but then again, I remembered how Kashin Koji mentioned that the animalistic fear of Jura would keep them under control. But hey, I’m not complaining about Kashin Koji’s assumption being wrong because the unruly mob finally made Salad intervene to protect civilians.

Ikemoto did an impressive job of making Salad look extremely cool when she activated her MS and used Orihume to pick up a bunch of Mamushi copies to disintegrate them in one go. She looked so good!

The moment also brought forth the weakness associated with Orihume. Salad could only target people in her line of sight, meaning that a well-timed sneak attack could work against her. And, as expected by fans familiar with MS lore in Naruto, using such a powerful ability was messing with Salad’s eyesight. Our young ninja was at risk of going blind if she continued activating her MS too much.

Delta lent Salad a hand by going after the copies she couldn’t capture with Orihume. It was nice to see Delta showcase the moves the fandom was familiar with because of her fight with Naruto from back in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations chapter 31 (2019).

Coming to other developments, though Shikamaru didn’t offer a whole lot of information about the current mission, Sai was allowed into the loop after he confronted Shikamaru about what he had Inojin doing for him. As Shikamaru put it, they were protectors of Konoha first and parents second. What mattered right now was for Sai to trust Shikamaru that whatever he was doing was to ensure the safety of the Hidden Leaf Village.

Kobu survived being tortured to death because of Boruto, Shikamaru, and Sai arriving in the nick of time atop the Hokage office. Even though Kobu allowed Shikamaru to proceed with his secret mission, he made it clear that the feudal lord was going to take the necessary actions against the current Hokage once the dust settled.

Sigh!

I’m with Kashin Koji on this one. Kobu needs to be killed before he creates more obstacles for everyone involved in stopping Jura and his minions. I didn’t want Inojin to murder the guy, but I would be okay with Kobu being taken off the board by one of the humanoid Shinju.

With Boruto and the rest failing to control the numerous Mamushi clones and running out of Chakra in the process, it was time for Shikamaru to change his strategy. It was time for him to disclose Eida’s location so that every single Mamushi copy would swarm to her hideout, where the Konoha ninjas would be ready to attack and hopefully defeat him for good.

Frankly, that should have been the plan from the get-go. I don’t know why Shikamaru even allowed Boruto and the rest to try to cover various locations to fight Mamushi clones without involving every ninja in the village. Due to Mamushi being capable of creating (basically) unlimited copies of himself, the initial plan was never going to work. Apparantly, there were still 200 Mamushi clones running around.

Having said that, I think the creative team needed an excuse to pad things out and give a bunch of characters to showcase their powers. Hence, the stalling before doing what should have been done out of the gate.

Anyway, with Eida being asked to use her Senrigan to lure Mamushi, I’m looking forward to seeing a very excited Daemon taking on hundreds of Mamushi clones. The two have history, which will likely come up again upon their inevitable encounter. We might even get to see Eida display a hidden ability to keep her or Daemon safe.

Did you read Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 31, ‘Shut Up’? What did you think of it?

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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