Boruto Chapter 41 – The New Team Seven
Boruto Manga Chapter 41 Summary
After reading this issue I am a bit confused as to how I should feel. Since Salad said Boro wasn’t fast, how slow is he supposed to be? I thought the Inner Kara members were extremely powerful due to the different types of scientific ninja tools they used. But if Salad thinks Boro isn’t fast (enough), does that mean his speed is on par with a typical Chunin? Is Jigen the only powerful villain in the current arc and the rest of the Kara members are fodder for the Chunin and Genin level ninjas to take down?
If it ends up like this, I won’t like it at all unless the manga gives us some proper power scaling for all the characters we see.
“New Team Seven” allowed Lettuce to shine. She didn’t get much screen time in the anime. So I was glad he was leading the charge against Boro in this chapter. I understood Mitsuki’s decision to appoint her as the team leader.
The way she was able to figure out Boro’s ability was great. I also liked that Mitsuki is a little scientist.
The only thing I’m not (still) a fan of when it comes to Salad is her outfit. Not only does it strike me as inappropriate for a 12-year-old, it makes no practical sense for a ninja. Why the hell are they wearing those heels in battle? It’s weird fanservice involving a kid and I don’t want any of it.
We know that Kishimoto took (enough) care when designing the little girls during his Naruto run to give Sakura, Ino, and Hinata clothes that looked cool and were also practical. We also saw that Salad was wearing something practical when she was introduced. But then her outfit changed (somewhere) during the Mujina Bandits manga arc and she ended up looking… not good.
With the Boruto anime covering the Mujina Bandits manga arc in January 2020, I really hope the animators don’t decide to give Salad her current manga outfit. They should at least change it a bit.
Another thing I didn’t like about ‘The New Team Seven’ was a few plot contrivances. Lettuce was supposed to be dead after Boro punched him. Is the manga telling us Boro is slow and physically weak? Shouldn’t we continue to consider Kara members a threat?
Also, the fact that Kawaki forgot Boro’s regenerative ability made me roll my eyes. It was so bad.
The only thing Kawaki was good at in this chapter was explaining what karma can and can’t absorb. It turns out that the Karma brand can only absorb chakra energy. So if the jutsu involves actual physical things (such as water, fire, earth, etc. from around the person) then the karma mark would not be able to absorb it.
We’ll see what happens in the next issue of the manga. Waiting a whole month just for an issue that only contains fight sequences is no fun.
The Boruto manga seems to be underperforming. And you know what? I’m not surprised at all. When you think about it, (many) current fans would prefer the Naruto franchise to continue with a series detailing the adventures of Naruto and his generation in their 20s. And even though their children were introduced, the story was still supposed to be focused on Naruto; much like the Dragon Ball franchise is still about Goku and Vegeta, even though they both have kids.