Summary
Boruto manga issue #53 gave us moments that laid the groundwork for what comes next. Things don’t look good for our heroes.
I don’t know about you, but in my opinion Boruto manga Chapter 53 ‘This is Reality’ really decided to say, “Interesting villain? I do not know her.”
I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. Compared to the villains we got during the Naruto franchise, the ones that appeared in the Boruto timeline were ‘Meh!’ But I gave the story a lot of time. I thought the Kara organization would be fleshed out. But now that we’re 53 chapters in, I think giving us well-written villains isn’t a priority for the Boruto manga. The story is more about who has the higher levels of power. Sigh!
‘This Is Reality’ opened with Kawaki being summoned to the Isshiki battlefield. Of course the only option available was to keep Kawaki as far away from Isshiki as possible. But that’s easier said than done. Even though Isshiki only had five minutes left to live, he knew how to get Kawaki to come to him.
I loved seeing her use Kawaki’s bond with Naruto. The threat of Naruto’s life was enough for Kawaki to stop running from Ishiki. Even though I’m not a fan of Kawaki, I liked how Masashi Kishimoto chose to show Kawaki’s feelings for Naruto. As far as Kawaki was concerned, a world without the Seventh Hokage was not worth living. Naruto is basically a father figure to Kawaki.
If Jigen/Isshiki had been kind to Kawaki, the outcome could have been completely different. But Isshiki only thought of Kawaki as his vessel, which spelled the end of Isshiki’s life (goodbye, you geek icon in pants!).
“That’s the reality” he made Kawaki take revenge. I was actually surprised to see Kawaki jump on Isshiki’s decaying body and turn him to dust. I expected more from such a villain. Some fans really thought that Kishimoto would spend time exploring Isshiki’s backstory and motivations. But no, we have nothing. The Boruto series has a serious problem when it comes to constructing three-dimensional villains.
Even though Isshiki is gone, the other characters still have the possessed Boruto in front of them. Momoshiki using Boruto’s body to damage Sasuke’s Rinnegan was a shocking development. As far as I can tell both Sasuke and Naruto are pretty weakened now. After using baryonic mode, I doubt Naruto can tap into Kurama’s chakra (at least for a very long time). And when Sasuke’s Rinne left (ha!) he lost access to many abilities.