With Boruto Uzumaki and his generation at the center of it all, Boruto has proven to be quite an intriguing series with countless incredible moments so far. Yet, it has failed to hit the same heights as Kishimoto’s Naruto series. When the series was initially announced, fans had hoped for it to right the wrongs of the predecessor series in more ways than one, however, Boruto’s writers continue to make the same mistakes and, in some ways, make Naruto’s glaring weaknesses even worse.
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Lack Of Time For Side Characters
As is apparent from the name of the series, Boruto Uzumaki is the protagonist of the story and, expectedly, the most important character. From the very beginning, the fans have been told that Boruto is his story and not his dad’s, which is important to hammer home the fact that Naruto and his generation aren’t there to take over but to nurture. Boruto has certainly done great in this aspect as the young Uzumaki has been a splendid protagonist, even if he falls short in some ways. Along with him, the likes of Kawaki are also focused on quite a lot. Simply put, Kawaki is the Sasuke of the series and is thus at the center of things quite often.
Ever since his introduction, he’s become one of the most important characters in the story and solidified himself as an interesting character, perhaps even more than Boruto Uzumaki in some ways. Both Boruto and Kawaki enjoy quite a lot of panel-time in the story, however, other than those two, the other characters barely get any attention at all. This is quite similar to Naruto, where Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke slowly took over the story and everyone else faded into the background, only worse. With Naruto, this shift was gradual and with Boruto, it’s been there from the very beginning.
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Even Boruto’s very own teammates, such as Mitsuki and Sarada Uchiha, barely get any attention. Fans see the two progressing off-panel all the time and then getting small moments to shine every now and then, however, they simply don’t seem important to the story. Sarada, who wants to become the Hokage, hardly ever got the chance to prove her worth and Mitsuki, a medical marvel, remains as underutilized as ever. Konohamaru Sarutobi, their teacher, has not played the role of a teacher for ages now. In fact, he has had no significant moments in the Boruto manga at all, which is quite the opposite of Kakashi Hatake from Naruto.
Even the other characters from the old generation don’t play as big a role as they should be playing and that’s a glaring failure on the writer’s part. When it comes to other ninja teams, fans have little to no expectations from them as they’ve barely appeared in the story so far. The likes of Shikadai, Inojin, Chocho, and Metal, among others, have not had anything to do in 70 chapters of the series, which just highlights how much wasted potential the series carries right now.
No Focus on The World Around
While Naruto certainly wasn’t the master of focusing on the world around, it certainly did an average job at that which left the fans neither too amazed nor too sad - just satisfied. The opening arc of the story took the fans to the Land of Waves where their culture and people were explored to the fullest. Later on, fans even got to see Sunagakure, their geography, how the people lived there, and how this village compared to Konohagakure when it came to military might.
As evident, Naruto certainly wasn’t too shy to explore the world of ninja and help immerse the fans in an amazing world filled with many characters who ended up becoming fan favorites, such as Gaara, among others. When it comes to Boruto, however, this aspect of the storytelling was completely left out. Although the Boruto anime certainly does make up for it in some ways, such as giving the fans arcs in Sunagakure, Kirigakure, and even Iwagkure, the fact remains that the manga is, ultimately, the actual work of the author.
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In the Boruto manga, fans have been let down time and again by the author’s decision to condense the story around Konohagakure and make Boruto Uzumaki and Kawaki the only two telling characters in the story. Everything, from the side cast to the world-building is a massive weak point of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. In characters like Shinki, Kagura, Shizuma, and many others, the series has a lot of untapped potential that could well make it much more interesting and act as a breath of fresh air.
At the same time, incorporating the ninja world adds a whole new layer of depth to the story, along with adding realism to it. It is rather redundant that everything happens around Konohagakure, and is centered around Boruto Uzumaki and Kawaki. With the story edging closer to its timeskip, fans could see the side characters become more important and, hopefully, play more important roles in the story. At the moment, however, the writers are certainly not living up to the standards and while some aspects of the manga are great, others that have been very apparent over the course of the story need immediate attention.
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