Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is progressing steadily, and with it, so are the characters. But it might be going a little overboard with one character’s power-ups, and it bears a striking resemblance to another character in a galaxy far, far away.
Like father like daughter, you might say. Chapter 11 of the manga sees Himawari discover and use Kurama’s power as the new Nine-Tails jinchuriki. It’s quite a remarkable feat since she only just met Kurama and has the capability to use the ultimate technique of a tailed beast—a Bijuu bomb—while being fully awake and aware. But this isn’t matching Naruto’s capabilities by any means, this establishes her as a childhood prodigy, unlike her father.
Himawari’s power-ups in Boruto: Two Blue Vortex might be a cause for concern
As exciting as it is that Himawari might be able to fully master the Bijuu bomb soon, it is seemingly questionable. Naruto, her father, wasn’t granted this level of control right away. Masashi Kishimoto only had him using the Tailed Beast Bomb with the help of Kurama in chapter 571 of Naruto.
The Tailed Beast Balls are insanely powerful attacks that require a mastery over the chakras. Specifically requiring an 8:2 ratio of positive black chakra and negative white chakra while readying these projectiles in a sphere by the user. Naruto only tames Kurama by the age of 17 after years of pain, practice and trial-and-errors, but his daughter has seemingly surpassed him, being able to use these abilities at the mere age of 14.
Age is by no means a bar. But Kishimoto’s trajectory for her does pose a risk. Is she going to be handed all major forms of power with no character development? Naruto has had to earn and work his way to all his forms and its mastery painstakingly over the years.
Aside from her harmony with Kurama, Himawari possesses the Uzumaki clan’s self-healing powers. This has also translated to her ability to heal others, as she did Inojin in chapter 10. While these acts would normally consume huge amounts of chakra from the users, Himawari has Kurama to tap into for sealing both her offense and defense now, making her a jinchuriki capable of overtaking her father really soon.
If Kishimoto does continue with hasty power-ups with little character development to show for it, Himawari might be headed the Rey Skywalker path.
Fans loathed Rey for this very reason!
Rey was poised to be a strong female character, who just ended up feeling like she was shoved down viewers’ throats for having almost no character development. While many spent years trying to master the Force, Rey was shown “born-perfect” with it.
Not just that, she was also able to pilot the Millennium Falcon having no prior experience in flight and is supposedly better than Han Solo at its mechanical level.
Mastery over her lightsaber skills despite having no real fight experience? Oh, and social skills despite never having stepped foot outside the planet? Lucasfilm handed that to her on a silver platter as well. It’s not Daisy Ridley that’s hated (as much), it’s Rey and Lucasfilm’s direction with seemingly poor writing for most female characters post George Lucas’ exit.
The Skywalker family has notably seen Luke and Anakin undergo heavy emotional and physical tolls through their years to get to their fame and level of power. That aside, their mistakes and triumphs were seen in equal measure, giving the audiences a chance to actually like these characters for who they were. Practice makes perfect, right?
Himawari’s trajectory could be alarmingly similar to Rey’s, if Kishimoto doesn’t give us a good enough reason to see her surpass Naruto, for reasons outside of Naruto being her father. While Kishimoto has admitted to having hiccups in writing female characters, Himawari’s path is still quite empty for him to craft a fantastic addition to the Uzumaki clan, with reason.
Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is available to read on Viz Media’s official site. Meanwhile, all Star Wars movies and shows are available on Disney+.
