Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is a sequel series that takes place years after Naruto Shippuden ends. Lot of people, including myself did not like the anime at all due to the abundance of bad filler episodes. I dropped the anime and gave the manga a try, because 80% of the anime is filler, the first manga canon arc doesn't start until 40-50 episodes into the anime. Boruto does have a pretty nice concept to it – whether the Shinobi would become outdated due to peace and advancements in technology.

The first arc in the Boruto series is the Momoshiki arc which is only 10 chapters long while in the anime it’s 16 episodes, the mangaka quickly rushes the entire arc probably because there already has been a Boruto movie and since chapters are released monthly they didn’t want to drag it on for too long. Although the Momoshiki arc in the manga is a lot different from the movie with extra scenes. The arc itself isn’t executed very well, while it starts off decent, the ending of the arc is really cheesy, there's some cameos, stuff happens and everything is resolved in the end because Boruto beats the big bad alien and everyone buys into that so he doesn't have to pay any consequences for his actions. It merely manages to set-up future arcs.

After that 2 arcs just breeze by with the introduction of this new Organization, Kara. Boruto is really fast paced and doesn't develop much outside of it's protagonist for the first 20 or so chapters. The only promising thing that happens is when this guy named Kawaki is introduced and we learn about this thing called the 'Karma' and how Kara wants to exploit it. Kawaki is probably the best thing that happens in this series, I really like the dynamic he has with Naruto and Boruto. A really good father-sons relationship where the characters adjust and grow closer to each other similar to a family. Kawaki is pretty likable and compassionate as a person while retaining the Sasuke-ish edge factor.

But that's where the good qualities end, one of the problems with Boruto manga is that it's a little too rushed. It doesn't give enough screentime to characters other than Boruto, Kawaki, Naruto and Sasuke. Members of Team 7 - Konohamaru, Sarada, Mitsuki are just there for the fight scenes. The new generation ninja are barely present and several of the Naruto characters don't even seem to exist in this universe, it's literally just Naruto and Sasuke solving all problems with Shikamaru and Ino helping from time-to-time. Although I still prefer this over over the anime which has it's own filler arcs for filler characters with some cameos.

And another thing is how forcefully the plot moves forward at times. Every 3-5 chapters the author introduces a new element out of nowhere, random power-ups and asspulls, new pieces of info or abilities whenever the author seems to be stuck. This also leads to power escalation problems which fucked Naruto during the war arc, Boruto and Kawaki are waay too powerful for Genin.

Aside from these nitpicks it does have some good moments here and there, the strategic fights is another positive about the manga. Boruto-shiki is a cool villain and Code does look promising, the characters do need a little bit fleshing out. Hopefully Boruto Shippuden is able to improve things and perhaps even surpass it's predecessor someday.