“Boruto: Two Blue Vortex” Manga Issue 19 Review: Konohamaru-chan

Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 19, titled ‘Konohamaru-chan’, was all about escalating an already dangerous predicament as our heroes tried to face off against the humanoid Shinju.

With the stage being set for two intense battles in the previous chapter, issue 19 of Boruto Two Blue Vortex spent most of the pages depicting a couple of very different confrontations. There’s also a continuing narrative theme involving the characterization of certain female players in the series that I’ll get to in a bit.

The chapter opened with a flashback explaining the origin of Araya’s blade. It’s revealed Shinki had infused his chakra into the blade to allow Araya to somewhat control the Iron Sand. Shinki agreed to the creation of such a weapon because he’s always interested in finding ways to improve as a ninja to protect his adoptive father Gaara. Even though Araya appreciated Shinki’s devotion to Gaara, he also wanted Shinki to pay a bit more attention to Yodo’s feelings.

I liked how Shinki immediately responded by stating that Araya talked more about Yodo than Shinki did about Gaara. Shinki basically insinuated that Araya might be harboring more feelings for Yodo than he’s letting on. I mean, judging by the dynamics I have seen between Araya and Yodo in the present, I do think Shinki might be on to something there. Yodo might have her eyes on Shinki, but I do think Araya’s the one who actually liked Yodo more than just a teammate. Due to Yodo’s extremely keen sense of hearing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s revealed that she already knew about Araya’s feelings toward her due to the change in his heartbeat around her.

Coming to the current battle, Araya’s sword helped the young ninjas a lot against Ryu. Not only was Araya able to disperse the Iron Sand, but he could also gather it, rendering Ryu’s ability to turn himself into Iron Sand to launch a surprise attack completely useless.

The ninjas worked well together as a team, which was impressive considering they had just met. Sage Mode Mitsuki and Three-Tomoe Sharingan Salad focused on attacking Ryu while Araya stepped in to counter the Iron Sand when needed. Yodo, being a Sensory Ninja, focused on tracking Ryu’s movements. She could even pinpoint his location by registering the friction between the grains of Iron Sand when Ryu was hiding.

Even though things were working in the favor of the ninjas, I knew their fortune wasn’t going to last long. Realizing that the blade was trouble, Ryu decided to teleport out a bunch of Claw Grimes from his body. The sheer number of animalistic foes served as a good distraction. With Araya attacking a Claw Grime who went after Yodo, the blade got stuck in the Claw Grime’s shoulder and Ryu quickly teleported said Claw Grime, including the sword, away.

I have no idea what the ninjas are going to do now after losing a very important weapon and I can’t wait to see who will survive such a confrontation, especially with Kashin Koji stopping Boruto from intervening. Perhaps Kawaki, complete with a new upgrade, will show up in the nick of time to lend a hand? Let’s see.

As for Konohamaru and Matsuri, that particular interaction was more emotionally charged with Matsuri losing it over her eruption of complicated feelings due to seeing Konohamaru in person. Wanting to share a bond with him, she didn’t take too kindly to Konohamaru asking her not to call him Konohamaru-chan the way Moegi did. As far as Matsuri was concerned, consuming Konohamaru was the answer to her not having to experience her current thoughts anymore.

The way Konohamaru just sat there and allowed Matsuri to encase him made no sense to me. I mean, he didn’t even try to get away from her. But I guess it needed to be done to raise the stakes.

Love has been a constant narrative theme in Boruto Two Blue Vortex when it comes to the drive behind the humanoid Shinju wanting to devour certain characters. Jura’s been trying to understand the meaning behind love, but it’s been hard to put into words. According to him, humankind’s need to live in a society had made them come up with the concept of reasoning. However, adhering to reasoning went against their natural instinct. Not only that, but love was capable of overriding reasoning and resulted in accomplished ninjas making rash decisions even when they knew it would bring them harm. Love could be an inconvenience to the humanoid Shinju, too, with Matsuri’s current predicament involving Konohamaru being an example.

Apparently, that’s why Jura felt that intelligent humanoid Shinju like themselves were tasked with overcoming love so they could evolve into better beings compared to mere humans. Basically, they needed to be strong enough to conquer the inconvenience of love.

It’s not the most original drive to give to a bunch of villains but I do appreciate getting someone other than wanting total world domination because… evil.

As for me mentioning the narrative handling certain female characters at the beginning of this review, well, as of right now, I don’t like how Salad, Eida, Sumire, Yodo, and Moegi are being characterized by how they feel about other male characters. Freaking Moegi has been trapped in a tree off-panel due to the Claw Grimes but she keeps being mentioned because of her relationship with Konohamaru, even though her actual on-panel appearances can be counted on one hand. She’s even on the cover!

Sumire kind of went off at Salad during chapter 16 due to her feelings for Boruto and how she didn’t appreciate Salad ignoring her. Eida’s still trying to decide between Boruto and Kawaki in her pursuit of experiencing genuine love that’s not tainted by her Charm ability.

I’m not saying that Boruto/Boruto Two Blue Vortex isn’t a well-written manga. It’s just that when almost every female character’s biggest drive is defined by their “feelings” for a male character, it just makes the narrative a bit shallow for me. Again, the way it seems Kishimoto hasn’t improved as a writer when it comes to handling female characters since Naruto just leaves me baffled.

Anyway, that particular gripe aside, I’m very interested in seeing how the two battles will play out in the next chapter. Many fans have been theorizing about Konohamaru’s death. But I don’t think that will happen. At least, not yet.

What did you think of Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 19 ‘Konohamaru-chan’?

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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