“Boruto: Two Blue Vortex” Manga Issue 2 Review: Tree

While Boruto: Two Blue Vortex manga issue 2, titled ‘Tree’, was action-heavy, it did share some information about certain character relationships and how Code might have bitten off more than he could chew.

The second issue of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex opened right where the previous manga chapter left off. Boruto had appeared in Konoha as Code let his Grimes run around the village. One of the things fans were looking forward to was Boruto and Salad finally getting to interact after the time skip. However, it made sense the two childhood friends couldn’t really talk. Konoha needed to be saved. So, Boruto asked Salad to help the rest of the villagers while he dealt with Code. At this point, all that mattered was to survive.

The change in Boruto’s personality came across as very drastic from his past self. This older version of Boruto was quite serious. I really liked the way he talked to Code. Turns out, Boruto could easily defeat Code if he wanted to. But he was still willing to give Code the chance to set things right.

It’s revealed that there’s more to the army of the Grimes that Code might not be familiar with. Even though the Grimes were under Code’s control right now, said control was at risk of disappearing due to how Code managed to modify his minions while creating them from the Ten-Tails. Apparently, Boruto knew about the horrors that uncontrolled Grimes could lead to. But Code didn’t care. He was okay with the world ending, regardless if he maintained control over the Grimes or not. 

According to Code, the Grimes were all about biting into living beings until they bit into an Otsutsuki to grow the Chakra Fruit. The sheer number of the Grimes and the way they tried to bite people in Konoha reminded me of a zombie horde. And due to the particular Grime that attacked Chocho, Shikadai, Inojin, Himawari, and Kawaki, I think it’s safe to assume that the rest of the Grimes were close to achieving free will. Seeing the Grime (with the Rinnegan eye) being able to say the word ‘Otsutsuki’ to Kawaki really creeped me out.

Talking about the action, we saw Boruto easily cut down a bunch of Grimes with his sword. Inojin, Chocho, Shikadai, and Kawaki were able to take down a few of them, too. Salad got to use a couple of powerful Jutsus to defeat a group of Grimes.

Now, while it was nice to see the cast showcase their skills, the action sequences didn’t feel impactful to me. I say this because we don’t have a baseline for how powerful the Grimes are supposed to be. Chocho did say that the Grimes were easy to defeat. It’s just that there are too many of them and they could use each other to teleport. So, I’m unsure if Chocho found them easy to beat because she has grown a lot more powerful during the time skip or if the Grimes were fodder.

None of the characters, except for Boruto, showcased any new ability in ‘Tree’. So that was also a bit disappointing. Again, I have no idea how much Boruto’s peers have leveled up over the past three years.

Coming back to Boruto, the final page of ‘Tree’ had our young hero reveal a new type of Rasengan. This one’s called the ‘Rasengan Uzuhiko’. We don’t know what it’s supposed to do yet. But it did make Boruto look cool as he slowly walked toward Code.

I’m looking forward to learning more about the weird trees the Grimes created after biting into people. I’m also looking forward to Mitsuki finally getting to meet Boruto. That’s going to be one very interesting confrontation that will be filled with emotions due to how Mitsuki’s supposed to be in love with Boruto and how Eida’s Omnipotence messed that up for him.

Kawaki and Himawari’s relationship felt strained. He outright told her to stop calling him brother. So, Kawaki getting to meet Boruto will be interesting, too, after he swapped lives with him. The same goes for Himawari, especially after the debut chapter told us that she wanted to help Boruto.

As for what happened between Code and Boruto that led to Code losing his left eye two years ago (from my understanding), I hope we get an explanation soon instead of the creative team dragging that particular storyline. Salad needs to ask Boruto about Sasuke.

Many in the fandom have theorized that Sasuke died during his and Boruto’s encounter with Code during the time skip. However, I don’t think so. I think Sasuke’s still alive out there and has been working with Boruto to take Code down.

What did you think of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex issue 2?

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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