“Boruto: Two Blue Vortex” Manga Issue 28 Review: New Powers

Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 28, titled ‘New Powers’, was, as stated, about certain characters getting a much-needed upgrade to their skills to fight Mamushi.

With Kashin Koji teaching Inojin the necessary Jutsu required to turn the tide of the upcoming battle with Mamsuhi in their favor, ‘New Powers’ opened with Inojin demonstrating his latest Jutsu. Apparently, it’s quite a complex Jutsu to master. Even Boruto was impressed with how quickly Inojin was able to perform it due to his exceptional skills (narratively receiving a boost due to Inojin wanting to protect Himawari) or… you know… plot reasons.

I liked the moment where Boruto got all “older brother” to Inojin’s confusion and mentioned how he was going to shave off Inojin’s hair if he ever made Himawari cry. It’s moments like these that remind readers that Boruto’s still a young boy who lost a bunch of important relationships due to the worldwide effects of Omnipotence. Even though Himawari was still in Boruto’s corner (after what Shikadai told Shikamaru about her wanting to help Boruto), her feelings toward our lead weren’t the same as they would have been if Himawari still remembered Boruto was her actual brother.

From what I could understand about Inojin’s new ability, it’s called the Mind Transmission Formation Jutsu. It followed similar principles to his clan’s Transmission Jutsu. However, it came with an upgrade, especially the one where it could detect beings capable of masking their Chakra Signature.

Everything emitted vibrations with a unique frequency. So, the Mind Transmission Formation Jutsu connected people and converted them into “Recievers” to help sense the vibrations of the objects in their vicinity. As long as Inojin was focused enough to keep the Jutsu active, he could detect Mamushi walking around Konoha, given that Mamushi was in range of a Receiver. Such a Jutsu was extremely useful when detecting the location of Mamushi’s numerous clones, who had all masked their Chakra signatures and couldn’t be pinged by Konoha’s Sensory Unit.

The weakness of the Jutsu was Inojin having to maintain focus, which would also mean he was expending Chakra. Also, there were a limited number of people that could be connected through such a Jutsu, compared to the thousands of folks Ino was able to connect during the Great Ninja War by using her Clan’s traditional Jutsu.

Along with Inojin, Boruto also got a power-up in the form of Sasuke’s blade, which he had recently given to Sumire. Following the information pertaining to yet-to-be-discovered tech, Sumire reworked the blade to enhance its sharpness. Not only that, the biggest change was the blade becoming capable of maintaining the Hagoromo technique by consuming a little bit of Boruto’s Chakra without our hero having to focus on keeping it running.

A major surprise was the failsafe Sumire added. Her, Boruto, and Sasuke’s Chakra was registered with the blade. However, if anyone else picked up the sword, they would quickly have a large portion of their Chakra drained. Smart girl!

It’s clear we are going to see the failsafe in action down the line, with Boruto possibly allowing an enemy to pick up the blade to cause some damage right after. Sumire also mentioned adding a special material to the sword. We aren’t told what it is, but I think we will find out soon enough.

Talking about more plot developments, I liked how Inojin flat-out asked Kashin Koji about sharing more information about his future visions. While readers would have assumed Kashin Koji’s reasoning, it was still nice to see an in-story explanation about how relaying information about possible futures could significantly change the course of what’s to come and give rise to even more timelines.

Kashin Koji having told certain characters as little as he had about what might happen was already enough to alter his previous visions. Understandably, all Kashin Koji was willing to tell Inojin right now had to do with preventing a possible future where Eida and Himawari would die.

As for the folks selected to be connected through the Mind Transmission Formation Jutsu, well, they were the usual suspects. The battle with Mamushi was going to involve Boruto, his peers, Konohamaru, and Delta. I get why Shikamaru made such a call. However, I still have my fingers crossed that some of the older characters will also play a role in defending Konoha from Mamushi’s numerous clones, even if they were hostile toward Boruto and were unaware of Shikamaru’s plan.

Frankly, not seeing any of the older characters from the Naruto era lending a hand while Konoha’s in danger would have to be chalked up to Kishimoto deliberately benching said ninjas and thus, poor writing.

We did see two civilians yelling about needing to contact the Konoha Police Force after encountering Mamushi as well as Boruto inside the village. Shikamaru also told Mitsuki to sit tight during the interrogation session and find an opportunity to use the ensuing chaos to his advantage. So, yeah, I’m hoping for the OG ninjas to appear in some capacity.

‘New Powers’ did have some action, with Boruto easily slicing through Mamushi’s clones with his reworked sword. From what was shared in the previous chapter, I thought Mamushi and his clones had to be defeated in one fell swoop. That’s why it kind of felt weird to me when Boruto faced a bunch of the clones solo while there were other copies somewhere around Konoha. Apparently, Inojin had detected eight clones and Shikamaru had ordered certain teams to stick to their respective sectors, with Boruto teleporting between sectors to fight Mamushi clones.

Two clones did recklessly use a Fire Style Jutsu and ended up setting a bunch of buildings on fire. Again, from what was shared in the previous issue, I thought the primal fear of Jura was supposed to be enough to stop the Mamushi clones from damaging Konoha property, no matter how “animalistic” they got? Hmmm.

I don’t know if I didn’t understand Shikamaru’s plan from the preceding installment or if Kishimoto decided to ignore certain aspects of said plan just to force Boruto to use his Karma Seal to absorb the flames spreading across the buildings in the current chapter. With how the narrative in Boruto Two Blue Vortex has progressed, I think you know which of the two options I would bet on.

What did you think of Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 28 ‘New Powers’?

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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