“Boruto: Two Blue Vortex” Manga Issue 32 and Issue 33 Review: “Dancing with the Devil” and “Shattering Futures”

Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 32 and issue 33, titled ‘Dancing with the Devil’ and ‘Shattering Futures’ respectively, finally brought Konoha’s battle with Mamushi to an exciting conclusion.

Issue 32, ‘Dancing with the Devil’, was all about showcasing Daemon’s power and the accompanying weakness. Fans have spent years trying to make sense of how Daemon’s Reflection ability worked. Having the superpower to reflect an opponent’s killing intent toward you does make for an OP character. Pair that up with Daemon’s superhuman strength, and that little android definitely lived up to his name, especially when protecting his sister Eida from a swarm of Mamushi clones.

It’s revealed that for Reflection to work, Daemon had to place both his palms on someone else. It didn’t matter if he was holding onto Eida or touching a Mamushi clone. As long as Daemon’s palms were on a person, Reflection would remain activated. A weakness, from my understanding, would be to make sure Daemon didn’t have anyone to hold onto during battle. Also, there could be an exploitable weakness where you intended to bind or restrict him with an ability instead of trying to cause physical injury.

Due to Bug being used to create Mamushi, the current foe already knew about Daemon’s power levels. However, the Mamushi clones still couldn’t come up with a strategy to counter Daemon because the sheer number of clones had resulted in all of them operating at a lower cognitive rate. Their emotions were focused on consuming Edia, especially with how close they were to accomplishing their goal.

Shikamaru’s plan was to lead every clone to Eida’s location and then let Boruto and the rest of the ninjas unleash their attacks to reduce the horde down to 50 copies. Once done, Salad was supposed to step into the fray at the very end to destroy the remaining (approx. 50) clones together with Ohirume.

I mean, I could tell that things weren’t going to be that easy. However, what I wasn’t expecting was Salad being overconfident and activating her Ohirume even when she was running low on chakra, having recently used Ohirume on the clones. With Salad being the current leader of Team 7 and wanting to become Hokage, I assumed she would have been better at knowing her limitations. Salad should have been honest about her low chakra levels so Shikamaru and the rest would come up with another plan instead of putting it all in jeopardy.

To be fair, Kawaki also overheated and was unable to finish the job after Salad fell unconscious. But then again, Kawaki’s not the leader of Team 7. Nor is he the smartest cookie in the jar.

So, yeah, I was disappointed by how Salad was portrayed during such a crucial mission just for the plot to make room for Inojin to save the day in issue 33, ‘Shattering Futures.’

With Salad and Kawaki unable to fight anymore and the rest of the ninjas nearing exhaustion, things weren’t looking good due to the Mamushi clones reaching more than a thousand in count. Turns out, even someone as OP as Daemon didn’t have infinite stamina. He was worried about beginning to breathe heavily while facing a seemingly unending sea of Mamushi clones.

Due to the plot wanting to make Inojin the MVP, ‘Shattering Futures’ featured panels where Inojin questioned Kashin Koji about the possible futures presented by Prescience. According to Kashin Koji, he was unable to see possible futures on a whim. It had been four days since his last vision. Teaching Inojin the Mind Transfer Formation Jutsu had proved useful, but it also messed with the futures Kashin Koji had already seen. Mamushi had attacked Konoha earlier than anticipated. His attack also coincided with Lord Kobu’s visit. As Kashin Koji put it, knowing the future also meant messing with the future in unexpected ways.

I liked Inojin’s resolve not to accept defeat. While he was safe from the clones while staying inside the hideout with Kashin Koji, his friends were in danger. The last thing Inojin was going to do was stay on the sidelines while his friends fought for their lives.

Realizing that a collective hive mind controlled the Mamushi swarm was inevitable. However, I would have appreciated said realization more if it were Shikamaru who had come to such a conclusion. The narrative’s habit of ignoring how smart Shikamaru’s supposed to be just for other characters to shine still rubs me the wrong way.

Inojin’s surprise arrival at the battlefield via Reverse Summoning Jutsu led to him using this Mind Transfer Jutsu on a clone, allowing him to take full control of the rest of the copies. All he needed to do was destroy the eyes to stop the clones from making more copies. Inojin accomplished that by focusing his killing intent on Daemon. The Reflection ability activated and destroyed the eyes of the clones, including Inojin’s eyes, due to how the Mind Transfer Jutsu worked.

While Inojin deserved his flowers for willingly harming himself to protect everybody, his actions also made me laugh because what he did could have easily been done by any experienced ninja from the Yamanaka Clan, and a lot earlier. But of course, similar to ignoring Shikamaru’s genius intellect, the narrative had to ignore the OG Naruto adults for the younger generation to shine.

I’m somewhat glad that more readers have been sharing their frustration at the lack of OG Naruto characters, especially Sakura, because of how dire the situation was with Mamaushi attacking Konoha. Characters like Sakura, Ino, Rock Lee, Shino, Choji, and more not lending a hand to protect the village makes no sense.

Another gripe was how the narrative treated Himawari as a walking-talking cheat code when it came to healing people. Not only did she heal Salad’s bleeding right eye, but she also used her Jinchuriki chakra to heal Inojin’s eyeballs after Mamshu’s defeat. Characters making sacrifices held no weight with Himawari ready to heal them at a moment’s notice afterwards.

‘Shattering Futurs’ concluded with Boruto procuring Mamushi’s Thorn Bulb and Code having made his way to where Bug was entrapped inside a tree. Amado was also shown to be interested in Prescience and the ability to see possible futures.

Regardless of my criticisms, I’m still excited to see what will happen next. Hopefully, the OG Naruto adults get something to do down the line.

Did you read Boruto Two Blue Vortex manga issue 32 and 33?

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.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary