Boruto is one of the most dissed franchise. Everyone has heard it, and thinks it is bad. But reading the manga put a whole new spin. I believe you should read the manga as it quite good, and contrasts Naruto quite a bit. Unlike the people who blindly hate on it, I think that it has great potential. The main problem is that everyone has watched the anime which has 5 episodes that are cannon, and all other 130 episodes are filler.

Story 8/10
Now the story is quite unique. Unlike Naruto, the story does not focus on Boruto becoming the Hokage, but starting as a flawed character and finding himself. The story has many mysteries that also drive the plot. It starts off with the movie arc but adds a twist, A mark appears, which is revealed as "karma." The story makes this a huge plot point and slowly unravels mysteries that make you on the edge of your seat. It also utilizes its shortness. Using these short arcs it builds a complex but understandable story for readers to read as well making the experience a short but good one. I won't delve into the story too much as the mysteries make it quite good, but I will say this. It is a master at its storytelling.

The other thing I will talk about is the worldbuilding which is some of the best I have seen. The author seems to realize this is Kishimoto's world and while he doesn't make major changes he certainly adds to it.

After the event of the 4th great shinobi war, the world is at peace. The nations are friends, and there are few enemies. With this, the demand for ninjas has dropped pretty low. There are very few missions to complete and there are very few threats that each village face. Ninja training is no longer mandatory and many people don't consider it a viable job.

There are these things called ninja tools that have also risen in the absence of war. There are now trains, TV's, electricity, and various weapons. People have lost interest in ninja, as people assume a more regular life. Boruto has many subtle pieces of world-building that beautifully mirror the old world of Naruto.

Art 7/10
Now art is a lot of people's problems with the show. The newer generation ninjas look like copies of the Konoha 13 when they were kids. The art also seems very amateurish, creating them with very round faces. They for the most part look VERY childish. Same with the Older characters. These characters seem to have rounder faces, different hair, and a lack of designs. The author seems not to use any shading either. The pages are quite white and that might be a turn-off. To be fair, I disliked the art in the first 4 volumes as the fights also seemed to be quite bland, but none of this was bad enough for me to stop reading.

However hitting the fifth book things start to reel you in, and that also when the plot gets good. The author creates a new group of villains with interesting powers, and unique designs, and while it was too late to change the designs of the previous characters they are fixed in subtle ways to make them more adult-ish. The fights also improve and go to a 9/10. Now, most naruto fights consisted of people lobbing jutsus in the manga. While taijutsu existed, it was rarely utilized. What the anime did however was using this taijutsu in between these moves, creating these cool-looking fights. Kishimoto must have realized that it would take forever to draw taijutsu so he gave up on drawing it. Not in Boruto however.

The author seems to create these amazing taijutsu scenes that feel like they are speedy and the hits have weight. You feel them move and it is pretty cool. Now because of this, the author has to sacrifice some things. He is not a master artist, nowhere on the level as Murata(one Punch man artist) so it takes a while for him to create these fights. This also means that he has to sacrifice the backgrounds. While in some manga you can find stories in the backgrounds, they tend to be quite bland, as the author doesn't have enough time.

Characters 8/10
Now, this is controversial so sit down. I like the characters better than the ones in naruto. Now I have seen naruto and I quite like it but there is a difference between the two. Naruto seemed to give most of its characters these short mini-arcs, which were amazing, but then throw them off and forget about their character arc completely. But in this review, I will be talking about Boruto.

Now Boruto's character could never work without naruto. If you remember, naruto was always striving to be the best and be the Hokage. Naruto was his whole struggle to be there and to be acknowledged. He was hated by his whole village, and he wanted to prove them wrong, becoming the hokage to be accepted. This was the main premise of the story, and was for hundreds of chapters.

Now going into Boruto you might expect the same thing and maybe a generic reason, but you are wrong. Boruto hates his father, a trait that no one likes. Everyone expects him to like him because we saw his story from where he was to the Hokage. However Boruto doesn't know this at the beginning, and just see's a horrible father. Because of this he rebels and uses these ninja tools. His father outs him and he is humiliated by his father in front of half the village. This makes him hate him even more, but as he tries to justify this his father is taken away right in front of him.

It is then when he saves him he learns about his father. He realizes how wrong he was, and knows he likes his dad. And he blames himself, but most importantly the ninja tools. But In the next arc, our and his view of these tools change. He realizes that these tools are not just bad. As he goes to guard the katasuke, the one who made him use the tools, he sees the other side. A dog who was saved by this, tools that saved a ninja's life, and even tools that are good. A quote I like comes from Ao, who says "This tool isn't inherently good or evil, It all depends on how you use it, no matter what." As he starts to see the good side of these tools, his views are again shifted.

He sees Ao turn evil, and use these tools in ways that hurt people. This arc shows him the good and the bad, and makes him decide for himself, are they good. Not only that but he has a fascinating motivation, and doesn't want to be the best. After seeing how Naruto is he ideologies Sasuke aims to be the supporting shadow. He doesn't want to be the Hokage, he wants Sadara too, and be the supporting shadow. The character development is fit in with the arc usually, maturing the three main characters, Boruto, Sadara, and mitsuki. And while there aren’t as many people who develop, the show takes time to develop the right people. Boruto’s character further develops, but the rest of his development his HUGE spoilers. I think that he is an amazing protagonist and has some amazing character development.

I also love what they did with Naruto and Sasuke. I see so many people saying how weak they got and they hate what they did with him, but it really makes sense. They have not seen war in 16 years, and if you go 16 years without any combat, your powers are sure to weaken(even if you have broken eyeballs and a giant demon fox inside of you). They act as both the mentors and the main characters. Despite being the protagonist, Boruto rarely fights the main villian, Naruto and Sasuke doing that. They get a simular amount of screentime as Boruto and defeat more enemies, showing that being the protagonist doesn’t mean you get all the fights. They are both the mentors and something for Boruto to strive for, and I like how even though Boruto is the main character they get more fights then he does.

The cast overall is pretty decent in a 40 chapter manga with heavy focus on the main 3. While it seeks to only develop 2-5 characters, if you focus on the plot and other aspects you are sure to get over the rather weak supporting cast. (And also while the anime does take time to do it, many of those Ideas have been retconned in the manga, leaving you not to trust the anime with anything, especially the whole Karma mark, which can’t sense chakra and was not there all along)

Enjoyment 8/10
I have quite enjoyed this manga and the twist and turns it brings. It is unique and different from the OG naruto and has some amazing mysteries that build upon themselves. With the Mystery of the karma mark, Kara, and Jigen It fully grasps your attention. There are two downfalls, however. First is that the beginning is quite slow, and only builds things up. These arcs are important, and there are some slow parts too. The other one is that it is a monthly manga, meaning only 12 SHORT chapters come out in a year. At this point, I can foresee the manga finishing in the next 20 chapters quite short compared to naruto. And that shortness works in its favor.

Overall 8/10
Overall I would rate this above average. And recommend you READ this. Unlike the anime, it is quite good.