Boruto: Two Blue Vortex Chapter 32 Review

Cover

We get an absolutely stunning Daemon cover this month with an updated outfit and nails painted to match his eyes. Despite his aggressive pose and cocky smile, the background serves as our first warning that the path ahead may not be as straightforward as it seems. White paint sloppily invades gray space while the series title color scheme lettering exactly matches Sarada's chapter 21 cover background, the spiraling swirls appearing as disrupted chaos.

This chapter cover also made me realize something while I've been thinking about Eida and Daemon over this past month. Just as Daemon's reflective ability mirrors the violent intent of others, so too does Daemon's design mirror that of his siter. If we look at them side-by-side, we can see that Daemon's pink streak appears on the opposite side, as it would if Eida was looking into a mirror. Their clothing bears the same galactic imagery as well, stars and planets, different phases of the moon reflected in their eyes.

For those of you now following me on Bluesky, I've had a bit of a running speculation going (speculation, not theory) that it's possible Daemon could actually be a manifestation of Eida's Omnipotence rather than a true sibling. From Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (NNG), we know she abhors violence and claims she doesn't fight. While we assume Daemon is simply another cyborg with Shibai's DNA, it's worth interrogating why Eida's added Otsutsuki genetics give her the ability to fly while Daemon, whose powers are no less fantastic, is stuck on the ground. In addition to this, Daemon doesn't seem to grow between the end of NNG and the beginning of TBV unlike Himawari, who seems to be very close to his age when he's first introduced. If we're seeking an answer to these inconsistencies, as well as the fact that the siblings never talk about their pasts, it could be possible that Eida wished family into existence, and he's simply reflecting abilities that are actually hers.

It's a wild idea, one that I'm not sure I buy, but I'm keeping it in my back pocket until we finally get lore about Eida and Daemon's background.

The chapter title, Dancing with the Devil, is yet another tricky bit of word play we so often get from this series. Daemon's name is associated with demons, as Boruto warns Mamushi on his way to Eida's location. For the first half of the chapter, we're lead to assume that this dance is just our favorite gremlin child kicking Shinju ass. But the term has another meaning in English: taking a risky, and possibly immoral, bet with the chance of steep negative consequences. And, indeed, that's what Shikamaru's plan to defeat Mamushi by baiting him with Eida turns into throughout this chapter.

Setting the Trap

The chapter opens with Sai commanding the regular shinobi forces to stand down now that he's aware of Shikamaru's secret operation. Boruto appears before a mob of Mamushi, telling him they've been overwhelmed by the invasion and will hand over Eida. All they have to do is follow him.

Now, I want to pause for a second to talk about how bad this looks. We have Sai, in league with Shikamaru, telling the village's armed military to not interfere while the notorious Hokage killer leads a swarm of Shinju to Eida's location. Think of this from the perspective of a villager. You look up and see Boruto leading the monsters that have just caused a riot and started some fires through the sky. If this battle ends poorly, I can't imagine what the consequences will be. Boruto will be blamed for the Shinju consuming the woman who has charmed the entire village, a second beloved figure dead because of him. And, from the ground, it appears that he's in league with them. What's more, Sai tells the other shinobi that they've been ordered to stand down, and we all know there's only one person who can give that order to the head of Konoha's Black Ops—Shikamaru.

As all individuals on the ground and teams report that Mamushi's many bodies are now following Boruto, we finally get a page to justify why Sumire and Amado were included in the operation—to extrapolate that the Mamushi either share audio and visual information with each other or can think independently while sharing a group consciousness. Thus just in, folks: Mamushi is the ugliest, perviest version of the Borg collective.

Boruto attempts to engage in subterfuge with the Mamushi, telling them how strong Daemon is and that they should target him first before going after Eida—no doubt a ploy to force them to think about killing him and thus get killed by his reflective ability. Unfortunately for Boruto, the Mamushi "instinctually accesses" Bug's memories to recall the specifics of Daemon's abilities (though now we know what happened to Bug's teeth—impromptu oral surgery performed by gremlin child).

Boruto lets the team know that Mamushi is aware of Daemon's abilities, the first crack in Shikamaru's master plan already showing. Kawaki is sure everything is fine, and he'll kick enough ass for everyone, which echoes his famous words below in chapter two of TBV, spoken before he was made to eat water tower by Hidari. Lest boys be the only ones who overestimate their abilities, when Shikamaru asks Sarada how many Shinju she can take out with Orihume, she replies, "Probably... 30... No... I think I can do 50!" increasing the number well beyond the ones she killed earlier in the village.

With Sarada's input and Inojin's intel, Shikamaru devises a plan for Daemon and the rest of the ops team to whittle down Mamushi's numbers to below 50, then have Sarada finish them off all at once.

Let's see how that goes...

Springing the Trap

Once Eida is in sight, the chase is on. The swarm of Mamushi follows her as she flees to the skies. We get some of the most dynamic panels of the series during this fight, Daemon both using his reflective abilities and monstrous strength to protect his sister from the swimsuit-wearing neckbeard Shinju.

Daemon quickly rushes to the top of the Mamushi Kills leader board, taking out a hundred (admittedly dim) Shinju in under a minute. Everyone else springs into action, whittling down the enemies' numbers. Boruto slashes. Mitsuki sage modes. Kawaki blasts. Himawari gives them a taste of the infamous Uzumaki foot-to-face jutsu. Then, it's show time for Sarada.

Our heroine activates her Mangekyo Sharingan, rising high into the sky like the sun goddess she is. Black orbs surround her as the remaining 50ish Mamushi rise as well, drawn toward a swirling black void. The aura farming farms hard... And then...

Trapped in the Trap

Sarada's head jerks back as if recoiling from a gun shot, blood shooting from her face. The swirling voids dissipate as she falls, unconscious, from the sky into Boruto's arms. He screams her name, both her body and their plans limply crashing to the ground.

Cue, the Shikamaru's genius trap going tits up.

Kawaki displays a moment of concern with a "Hey, what's going on?" as he watches from below. As Boruto fails to wake her up, the remaining Mamushi quickly increase their numbers while depleting their intelligence to Bevis and Butthead levels.

Shikamaru soon learns that being called away from the battlefield came at a cost—he was unaware that Sarada had used her MS before that day before demanding that she use it again, and Delta wasn't informed enough on the cost of its use to speak up. Shikamaru's ignorance of what the younger generation has been getting up to continues when Mr. Give-Me-More-Power-Uzumaki tries to quell the growing Mamushi swarm by blasting them even more after having blasted them already, causing his modified body to overheat like it did when he was first introduced to the series. (This is a plot point I've been waiting to return to in the series; I was unaware it'd happen in such a spectacular manner.) The panel of his Karma fading as he falls to the ground is masterful.

"Get out of there now!" Amado demands of Kawaki, seeing his daughter's precious Karma and Kawaki's face trapped in Mamushi's wooden grasp. Hima dashes away from Team 10, shouting for her "big bro" as Kawaki spits up blood. Our first panel of the original new Team 7 all together again is Boruto placing an unconscious and blood-spattered Sarada behind Mitsuki as Konohamaru runs up to check on her. Mamushi's forces, which numbered 200 at the beginning of this encounter, are now at a thousand. And Koji, who has freaked out before every other time plans went wrong, sits silently behind Inojin, his eyes hidden and lips remaining closed.

All the Questions in the World

Herein, we engage in some wild-ass speculation.

• When Koji predicted Hima's death, is this how it happens? The young, overpowered by inexperienced girl running from her team members to save her older brother? There's shades of the end of the Kawaki arc here, a young man bravely putting himself in danger to save the father-figure he's come to love... Only now it's Hima rushing to his rescue against a formidable foe. Are we on the verge of tragedy?
• Similarly, Boruto is replaying some moments from NNG here, cradling Sarada's head in his lap (in midair) as Sasuke did after Naruto appeared to die after losing Kurama. A second similar feeling is seeing the battle rage while he focuses on her wellbeing, very much like Naruto fixated on his dead son while Shikamaru shouted at him to join Kawaki in defeating Code.
• Why is Koji so cool? I can assume this is part of a future he saw, a future that still has what he considers a positive ending—but we're aware he's not as concerned about the cost as other characters in the story. One possibility is that he needed Mamushi to divide to such extreme numbers. Even at 200, they were turning upon each other. Now, facing Eida and driven by their individual desire to consume her, will they turn on each other in a feeding frenzy similar to the children's book Millions of Cats that haunted my childhood? This seems like a legitimately bad turn of events for team Mamushi as well... unless 1000 of them are so dumb, they lack killing intent when coming after Daemon.
• Uh... How bad is Sarada's eye? Does it still exist or are we going to finally get a prominent female character cyclops to go with all the other one-eyed boys? I have to say, I do love the visual of it popping from pressure, the effect of using it mimicking the gravitational force she possesses. Going back to cool Koji, he said her awakening her MS was key to ensuring a good future... Was he talking about whatever ability she'll gain in her other eye?
• Is it going to be possible to get Daemon away from Eida? 100 in one minute means he should be able to clear the battlefield in 10 minutes, but Ikemoto also teased us by showing him letting go of her momentarily, leaving her unprotected to fight. Could this be predicting what leads to tragedy?
• Am I ever going to get my Kara Kids and Bug backstory drop?
• My kid's first reaction to the chapter was to suggest Boruto should knock himself out to let Momoshiki take over. If you know my kid, you know this tracks with his favorite character agenda. But it's a good question... If Hima goes down, if Sarada's grievously wounded after he promised his Master that he'd take care of her, if Kawaki is overheated and injured... How much can this arc take from him before he gives in to Momoshiki, either out of rage or despair?
• If I have one complaint about this chapter, I wish there was more build up to Sarada's and Kawaki's respective crash outs. Daemon dominated the action, but I feel as though we could have used some more signs of eye pressure from Sarada. Moreso, I wish we could have seen Kawaki pushing himself to the limits earlier on, making his overheating seem more natural. It feels as though he pushed himself less hard in this battle than he did in many earlier ones... which raises the question...
• Where's Kawaki's horned Karma mode? He pulled it out when Jigen took Naruto and when he faced off against Boruto, but we haven't seen it in TBV yet despite engaging in battles that called for it. Is this part of the power Amado is still hiding from him? Despite is demands for more strength, he doesn't seem as strong as he was when he faced off against Boruto in the Code arc. Where is that Kawaki? Why isn't he here?
• A general thought that the series is showing both Sarada and Kawaki failing when relying on shinobi skills or scientific ninja tools alone. Boruto, with his enhanced blade, manages to be the balance point between the two, using his skills to manage his chakra expenditure. I like this role for him and for the story reinforcing the idea that the tools themselves aren't problematic, but overly relying on any one methodology can lead to harm.
• Who's left on the battlefield now? Hima, 2/3rds of Team 10, Konohamaru, Mitsuki, Delta, Daemon, and a very freaked out Boruto? Hima probably has some significant power left in her, but it's still untrained. Mitsuki's Sage Mode will harm his body eventually. Boruto has that pact with Momoshiki, an offer of access to all his powers. Losing Sarada and Kawaki was a significant hit to the OPs, especially as Mamushi seems to be only getting started.
• Will Inojin ever learn to stop saying that things seem to be going well? Actually, now that I think about it, Koji's attempted takeover of Kobu took Inojin out of the watching game so he didn't know about Sarada's earlier MS use, either. If this spectacular failure was something Koji didn't want to have happen, would he have nudged Inojin to figure out what went on when their communications were offline?
• Am I going to survive until next month? Are any of us? Will we survive until April 20th? Is it enough that we'll get the V-Jump cover for Boruto's 10th anniversary in May? Will there be enough extra content to help us survive this helluva cliffhanger?

I probably have more thoughts and more questions. I'm still stewing in the glory of such a catastrophe. Let me just end by saying that this chapter was amazing, and the entire team that produces the Boruto manga has my admiration and appreciation for all they do to bring us such goodness every month.