BTW, where is the review? I was looking forward to it.
I've been a little and busy and under the weather. Honestly this is gonna be a long one.
Ch. 20 Boruto TBV:
This time we open with a cover art of Konohamaru and it blows. It blows hard. Which is a shame, because normally Konohamaru looks pretty good. He's one of the better designed characters in this damn series. I don't know where to start with this one, but I guess let's go with the hair. Why is it black? Konohamaru has brown hair. It has always been brown hair. He very briefly had dark brown hair in Shippuden. Either way, black hair is not a great color for spikey haired characters in a cover art. Ikemoto did all this line work for detail on his hair but because it's black very little is visible. You can't make anything out. I get Ikemoto likes black, but an all black outfit doesn't help either. I can't tell if he's wearing a belt or if they're just the hem of his pants. It all blends together in one big mesh. He's also wearing a V neck with a strange white collar. Also, this is his desert outfit. Why wear black in the desert? But we're way past that I guess. I guess my real problem is with his face. He's doing this scowl like he's pretending to be bad ass but it just comes off as him trying to hold in a fart. It doesn't come off as bad ass. Then his cloak is this green color that I can only describe as diarrhea. Why not just brown or tan cloak? Why a bright green cloak when they're on a stealth mission in the desert? The body pose is a little awkward too. His eyes are going in a different direction than his face is facing. It's not my favorite cover art and I thought it was ugly the first time I looked at it.
Let's do the review proper. Konohamaru is still being strangled by Matsuri. She tells him that while she enjoyed talking to him, she was also scared and confused and those feelings make her defensive instincts tell her to kill Konohamaru. She begins to devour Konohamaru.
Meanwhile, Ryu is fighting Sarada and co. They're trying to hold their own against him but they're simply not able to. Eventually Ryu turns Mitsuki and Araya as his puppets. He claims checkmate. Ryu doesn't want to kill them just yet, because they could still be useful. He demands to know any information they have about Boruto. Mitsuki tries to tell them not to because he's just going to kill them anyway but Ryu denies this and chastises him saying he's not like them and will stick to his word. Yodo tells Sarada to give Ryu any information she has on Boruto. Sarada says no, but upon thinking about, she actually doesn't really know much about Boruto anymore. She remembers Sumire telling her that Boruto is staying away from them to keep them safe. Yodo says she always wondered why Sarada would stick up for a rogue ninja like Boruto. But she understands that he's similar to Shinki in that he's the type of person you want to protect. Yodo tells Ryu they don't have any info on Boruto but offers herself to help Ryu with her sensory abilities in exchange for letting the others go.
We cut back to Matsuri who is strangling Konohamaru, but begins to tear up at his agony. Konohamaru sees his chance and tells her this means she's sad which means she doesn't want to kill him. We get a quick panel of Hidari and Jura observing. Matsuri demands to know what tears are and what's happening to her. Konohamaru tells her to take his hands and that this is how relationships start. Matsuri takes his hand. Konohamaru recalls Shikamaru's words and takes his chance to Rasengan her and break free. Jura says that because of love, Matsuri fell to Konohamaru, but because of the love, Konohamaru also failed to finish the job. Konohamaru pulls back at the last minute and fails to kill Matsuri.
Meanwhile, Ryu pierces Yodo through the stomach with his sand. Yodo falls while everyone is helpless. She chastises how things can't go well for once. She tells Sarada that she's allowed to use "that power" for the one she cherishes. She doesn't know why she's holding back but she can sense that power she's been letting rot. Sarada awakens her Mangekyo Sharingan and uses Kamui to wrap away the Iron Sand.
Let's talk about the good and the bad. The good thing is for the past few chapters, Ikemoto has kind of gotten a pace going as a mangaka. Each chapter has one self contained idea or theme, and he's getting better about bringing these ideas full circle each chapter. So each monthly chapter has its own conveyed motif serving a better narrative. While I'm not arguing for the writing at all, it seems like Ikemoto is starting to hit an ebb and flow to this. He's getting more comfortable with these chapters and getting a feel for a pace he wants to go. That is a good thing. As for the actual content of the chapter, it's about as predictable as I thought it would be. That's not necessarily a bad thing, these are all story beats that need to be hit. These are necessary steps for story making even if it's not the most creative or best thing you could be doing with your screentime. There is a problem though, and that's where we get into the bad.
The problem I have with Boruto TBV in general is they there's a lot of poor narrative decision making. In fact, Ikemoto flat out sucks at making decisions on where to take this story and I believe it's largely to due Kishimoto and fly by your seat writing. He tends to just go with whatever he thinks is cool at the time as opposed to what will make the best story sense. He seems to never really second guess the first idea he gets, so we miss out often on narrative cohesion and good character building for a cool panel or "hype moment". This is why TBV has so many problems. Some of Ikemoto's worst moments come at the end of these fights or mini arcs when he wants conflicts to resolve and he makes baffling decisions.
In the case of this chapter, I don't like where we're going. As far as Konohamaru and Matsuri go, this was a good start to a rivalry. However, that problem is the word start. I can't help but shake the feeling that there is no more and their rivalry won't go on past this point. The next time Konohamaru and Matsuri meet will be when Matsuri finally dies. Assuming that isn't next chapter. I can see Ikemoto making that decision and we simply won't get anything other than this moment. As far as the stuff with Sarada's group goes, why does she have Kamui? I shouldn't say that though, because it's likely not Kamui. It will be a move similar to Kamui that is better than Kakashi's ever was, and she'll be an instantaneous expert at using it. All because the new generation has to be the most OP ever somehow. We can't scale down or sideways. We always have to scale up. Heck, I halfway expect Sarada to open a portal and spew out Himawari because her Kamui are wormholes and she tells her to heal Yodo. Which is another thing, Yodo ain't dying. She ain't dead. I don't even buy this stuff for a second. Ike didn't have the balls to kill a nothing character like Inojin, why kill Yodo? I'm sure there's some dumb reason Sarada won't go blind from Mangekyo either. Ugh...This chapter wasn't the best nor the worst, it was a lot of fighting but I think this is about set up for a lot of really dumb moments and missed opportunities next chapter. Also on a side note, Ryu asking for info on Boruto and Sarada simply having none is just hilarious. Especially since it almost gets them killed.
