Boruto: Two Blue Vortex Chapter 19 Review

Ikemoto has gifted us with a stunning cover of Moegi and the title of Konohamaru-chan. When the first official sneak peek containing this cover was released, it seemed like a straightforward way of letting us know that chapter 19 was going to focus on Konohamaru's relationship with his former teammate... But, par usual for Ikemoto, the chapter isn't just about their bond, but the complicated emotion of love and its impact on humans and Shinju alike.

Flashback

The chapter opens with a conversation that occurred between Araya and Shinki, explaining how Araya's sword came to control iron sand. Once again, we see the unavoidable parallels between Shinki and Kawaki, both adopted sons of Kage who showed them kindness, the intersection of love and obsession that leads to them to neglect all else.

The difference between Shinki and Kawaki, however, is that Shinki doesn't view those around him or the shinobi system itself as a threat to his father, so he wants his entire team to grow stronger in order to protect Gaara. If we recall the long-ago conversation between Naruto and Kawaki that described chakra as a binding force, we can understand Shinki imbuing Araya's sword with his chakra in order to protect Gaara as him extending the strength of his bond to those around him.

Interestingly enough, the panel that was teased in the second official sneak peek in which Araya chides Shinki to pay more attention to Yodo, too, could have been read as a love triangle out-of-context. But part of what Araya is saying to Shinki is that if he's helping him become more powerful, he shouldn't neglect to help Yodo as well.

The dynamics of Team Shinki are similar to the dynamics of Team Seven when Naruto was abducted by Jigen, everyone working together to save the Hokage. Kawaki and Shinki both acted recklessly, Kawaki putting himself of the vessel containing Naruto and Shinki putting himself in a position to be bitten by a Claw Grime to protect Gaara. We recall Gaara telling Shinki that he was important, they, the children, were important to the future of the village. But Shinki failed to prioritize his own value and the value of his team over the pain of losing his father.

I feel like one point we're going to revisit again and again in Boruto is the idea that love isn't simply a force for good; it causes action, but the result of those actions aren't necessarily good. We recall Koji telling Shikamaru to follow his heart, but we've also seen the choices of others who've followed their heart, such as Kawaki and Shinki, leading to pain and destruction.

But Jura and Hidari are going to give us an opportunity to pontificate more upon the subject of love later...

Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight

We return to the battlefield right after Araya has freed everyone from Ryu's iron sand, a feat that he could only perform because Shinki shared his power. Similar to Shinki who look Araya's powerful as a way to make sparring more competitive, the threat posed to Ryu only serves to hype him up more.

Araya uses his sword to dispel the sand (still waiting to find out what happened to his puppets). Sarada and Mitsuki attack, the latter in Sage Mode (when did he start using it at-will without incurring damage?), and Yodo uses her aural abilities to detect where Ryu is going to appear next as he moves his body, which we learn is made of grains of iron sand, from place to place.

The young shinobi of Team 7 and Team Shinki are putting up a strong fight against Ryu, but it's clear they're in no position to assist Konohamaru, who is still on the...

Worst First Date Ever.

Matsuri has gone from blushing to monstrous as she yells as Konohamaru to let her call him Konohamaru-chan. Her petals, now turned to wood, engulf both their heads, sealing them together. Yet, in the midst of this life-and-death situation, our-not-so-fearless sensei continues to insist that she doesn't use the suffix -chan as they each call the other selfish for their personal feelings.

We get Eida's commentary from afar, that Konohamaru himself doesn't understand his reaction to Matsuri using Moegi's name for him, yet one more character in the long, long, long line of Konoha shinobi who isn't in touch with their feelings enough to understand the context of what's going on around them.

I appreciate the Konohamaru-Matsrui interaction for specifically calling out the idea of selfishness in love, prioritizing your feelings above the feelings of another, which we've seen with Kawaki and Naruto, Shinki and Gaara, and with how Sumire framed Sarada's dynamic with Boruto. If you don't understand the core of your emotions, why you're choosing to act the way you do, you can't respond appropriately to others. Your ruled by the irrationality of your heart instead of acting in the interests of your heart.

Our Titular Character Gets Antsy

Eida is reporting the status of the fight to Koji, who has Boruto by his side. The stakes, as we know, are that if Boruto joins the fight, he'll be out in the open to get destroyed by Jura (who could just appear out of any Shinju or Claw Grime in a moment's notice. And dead Boruto = Dead world. But, of course, what kind of hero would he be if he stays in Orochimaru's abandoned hideout while his teammates and big brother Konohamaru get slaughtered by evil trees? He also expresses explicit concern for Sarada and the others as Boruto stands by, letting Sarada remain in danger after promising Sasuke that he'd take care of her. Our only hint that he might eventually join the fight is that Koji tells him, "Now is not the time."

Jura Examines Human Love

Poor Hidari. He thought he might get a break after Jura bought all those books. But, no, bro just wants to hangout in their hideout and talk about human nature and evolution like a tech bro who dropped out of college before completing a single humanities class yet still feels the audacity to open his mouth on the meaning of love without cracking open Schopenhauer.

Jura first states that living beings should obey their instincts to strive for evolution, but human intelligence holds them back through reasoning. Now, you might ask yourself, did Jura just use reasoning to state why humans should strive for evolution, and I'll reply, yes, he fucking did, and perhaps reasoning isn't the sharpest translation for the word Jura is trying to express. Both logic and reasoning will lead people to say dumb shit like, life forms should obey their instincts and strive towards the goals known as evolution.

I think the restraints that Jura is talking about, linked to the social nature of humans, are more the social contract that exists inside society that demands thing like, don't call someone a name they don't like or don't eat your date's face the first time you meet them. He claims this is a fatal flaw from their intelligence instead of the Shinju's ability to stay true to their instincts.

(Just an aside here, folks, but if you buy into the Shinju as an analogy for AI, then I think Ikemoto, by way of Jura, is laying down some heavy social commentary here, that the pursuit of progress and the perceived advancement of society is inherently destructive when it occurs without taking into account human society and suffering, and that progress for the sake of progress is immoral if it leads to the suffering of others. Advancing just because you can advance isn't justified if the outcome serves the interests of the few.)

From reasoning, Jura moves onto love (with some color commentary from Mamushi, lying on the ground, while Hidari continues to either (a.) be bored as fuck or (b.) internalize Jura's blathering and decide it's better to be a human than to eat your non-tree daughter because evolution told you to do it).

According to Jura, love is the other thing that holds humans back, spoken like so many other men in the history of the world who never had their father's acceptance or enjoyed a romantic partnership with someone they viewed as an equal. Now, what's interesting here is that Jura states that love can even cause the Shinju problems. We flash to Matsuri who has Konohamaru trapped in the violence embrace of her petals, screaming at him that her feelings are driving her crazy.

What's interesting about this moment is Matsrui saying, if I devoured you, I wouldn't ever have to feel this way again. It's slightly reminiscent of Mitsuki thanking Eida for forcing him to feel love because, without her, he might have not ever felt that splendid emotion. We can read Matsuri as expressing angst at how love makes her feel, but that also leaves open the door for her to decide she'd rather continue to feel the emotion of love than have it end. This seems to be what Jura is getting at when he talks about Team 10, Inojin in particular. He says his instinct is screaming at him to understand love and overcome it. Will Matsuri give in to love or give in to her instinct to conquer it.

Going back to early TBV speculation about the Shinju and their targets, I feel as though this confirms the theory that all of the Shinju's progenitors loved their targets, and their goal through evolution is to overcome the emotions felt by their original selves and destroy that love by consuming it. Their instinct is to understand love and overcome it is linked to each of their targets, but this also leaves open the possibility that love could defeat them as well.

Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight (Part 2)

Speaking of love defeating people...

Back in the Sand, Ryu invites a bunch of Claw Grimes to the party, spewing them out the battlefield. There's more Sage Mode, more fire jutsu, and Yodo standing there with a fucking kunai while a Claw Grime goes all Lestat on her.

Freeze frame for a moment here to go back to when Araya told Shinki to pay more attention to Yodo. Was he telling her to be more concerned for her well-being? Or did he want her to be strong, too. Strong enough to defend herself and to protect all of them and Gaara, too? And, are the two things linked? Do people grow strong through their bonds (Naruto & Sasuke) and that helps them become strong enough to protect others.

Anyway, Shinki did none of that, so Yodo is bringing a kunai to a Sage Mode fight and gets the tree chomp from a Claw Grime. Because Araya does care about her, he attacks the Claw Grime and gets his sword caught (maybe something caused by Ryu's sand? Or maybe Claw Grimes are just sticky?). Ryu takes that as an opening to yeet the Claw Grime into another Claw Grime, taking Araya's sword and his ability to counter Ryu's sand along with it... Because he wanted to protect his teammate.

The chapter ends with Ryu pointing out that they're not helpless against his abilities while Matsuri declares her intent to nonconsensually become one with Konohamaru on their first date.

Thoughts

Given Jura's thoughts about love, I feel as though the door has been opened for Matsuri's emotions to stop her from devouring Konohamaru to continue feeling the splendid emotion of love... Though, I think it's likely that that particular event will be held for the next time Hidari and Sarada meet in battle. Still, I'm not quite yet ready to declare victory for #TeamEatKonohamaru.

Given that the Claw Grimes are made of chakra and the Shinju has the goal of devouring chakra and that Naruto, I will again bring up, define chakra as a binding force, I think all this talk about love makes a lot of sense in the context of the Shinju. Without the full context of chakra connecting people, this could feel ham-fisted, but the Shinju are trying to devour connections to make themselves stronger and, in order to do that, need to resist the pull of emotions they might feel. This goes allllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way back to Konohamaru talking about ninja tools in the first chapter of NNG, that a jutsu not tied to one's own chakra can easily go astray.

I fully expect someone to jump into this fight to turn the tide... I'm just not sure if that individual is going to be Boruto or if Koji is holding him back because Kawaki might eventually join the battle with his power up.

I need to digest the chapter a bit more and might share a few more tidbits as a reread it. Thanks, all! We have one whole month to go until the 100th chapter of Boruto releases, and it'll be Boruto's birthday month and a volume-ender!