Boruto manga was doomed to fail from the start, which makes its current success all the more impressive

The Boruto manga has been something of an underdog story in recent years in the industry and this is something that goes all the way back to the final volumes of the Naruto manga. There is no denying that author Masashi Kishimoto's most popular series had a very satisfying ending, which is something that had a huge impact on the sequel.

It makes a lot of sense that the Boruto manga didn't have a strong start with the anime community, especially when considering how the original series ended and the ramifications this had on the entirety of the franchise's world-building.

This makes the recent events of the Blue Vortex time-skip all the more impressive when it comes to public reception in the fandom.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Boruto manga. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda.

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Explaining how the Boruto manga had a tough start from the end of the Naruto series

Per Oricon, the Japanese platform that keeps track of manga sales, since the website started to work in 2008, Naruto volume 70 of the manga was the lowest-selling one in the original run. It is the only volume in the original series that didn't reach the million copies sold threshold and also marks the introduction of Hagoromo and Kaguya to the story, thus confirming the existence of the Otsutsuki.

The introduction of the alien Otsutsuki clan to the story has been widely perceived as a very erroneous decision by author Masashi Kishimoto and the Boruto manga was definitely affected by it, with people struggling to accept a sequel after the original series had such a disappointing ending. Writing quality notwithstanding, the Otsutsuki became the main antagonists of this new manga, which is something that a lot of long-term fans didn't warm up to.

All of this makes the success of the recent Blue Vortex time-skip all the more impressive since it shows that the story had a massive wall to climb to win back a lot of readers and gain new ones. It also shows how the original series, despite being one of the most successful and beloved anime franchises of all time, had a conclusion that hurt any potential for a sequel due to the increasing role of the Otsutsuki in the plot.

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The current success of the Boruto manga and the reason behind it

Boruto Uzumaki and Sarada Uchiha in the Blue Vortex time-skip (Image via Shueisha).

The success of the Boruto manga is down to a lot of different reasons, but one of the most prominent is the series of mysteries and how the tension has been built in recent chapters. Household names of the franchise such as Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki have been taken away for different reasons, there are powerful clones based on the Ten-Tails and some main characters, and Boruto Uzumaki is now a fugitive because of Eida's Omnipotence.

There is also a much stronger direction, which a lot of fans have attributed to the return of original author Masashi Kishimoto to the sequel. It makes a lot of sense when considering how the series has managed to improve greatly since Kishimoto came back to the title, marking a much-needed return to form for the mangaka after several years of what has been perceived as a decline by a lot of fans.

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Final thoughts

The Oricon sales record shows that the Naruto manga sales had lower numbers when the introduction of the Otsutsuki took place, which is something that also had ramifications when it came to the initial perception of the Boruto manga. This event further emphasizes the uphill battle that the manga had at the beginning, which makes its recent success all the more impressive.