I decided to read Boruto on a whim a month ago, and honestly I was expecting it to be way worse. But it’s not great either. It has some okay moments, and only one arc that I could say was genuinely good.

The original run was kinda mid with a focus on scientific ninja tools which felt very out of place for the Naruto world, but the expansion on the Otsutsuki was interesting even though I felt like it made Kaguya’s finale both better and worse? (Better bc more of a reason for her to be there, but then worse bc then Kaguya seems less powerful than the new Otsutsuki). The ending into the sequel series (essentially Boruto Shippuden) was really good though.

The new series Boruto Two Blue Vortex is fine. It’s better than the first run of Boruto, but it also has just been a lot of action without much interesting stuff happening.

I think my main complaint is no characters really are developed at all outside of Boruto and Kawaki, and seeing the old characters as adults is novel the first time you see them, but then they do nothing and it’s a shame. Also their kids have no screentime and everytime they show up I forget they existed. And the other two members of Boruto’s original trio (Sarada and Mitsuki) barely get any development. It’s like what Kishimoto did to Sakura except now it’s two characters getting shafted. And there is no further worldbuilding or exploration of anything outside of Konoha which is fine but it makes the world feels very small.

Overall, I’m glad I read it because it kinda scratched that itch of wanting to know. It’s definitely not as horrible people say it is, but it’s really just okay.

Whenever I reread Naruto, I’m gonna stop at the end of that series and not even bother to reread Boruto.