Yes, I agree. It took 330 chapters for Naruto to be on the same level as Kakuzu, who I consider to be in the lower tier of Akatsuki members(Kakuzu, Hidan, Deidara, Sasori). Look, I don't want Boruto, or anyone else for that matter, other than the Otsusuki, to be on the same power scale of Naruto and Sasuke. One, because Boruto doesn't have the Kyuubi or the Sharingan. The former is the most powerful of the tailed beasts, and the latter is among the most powerful Kekkei Genkai, and the most powerful base form dojutsu. Two, Boruto's motivations aren't clear to me, yet. He's sort of in a 'he loves me', 'he loves me not'/'I love him','I love him not', relationship with Naruto, and that's his entire character. Compare that with Naruto, who wants to become the Hokage(and along the way realizes through his experiences with people, like Jiraiya, his friends, Itachi, Pein, etc., that he has to be acknowledged by the village), or Sasuke, who wants to exact revenge on his brother. Both of their motivations are laid clear in the first few episodes itself. Three, to me, he's not compelling as a main character. I find Sarada to be more compelling, and whenever the old cast appears, I'm like 'get out of the screen' to Boruto.
Here's the excerpt:
Q:[size=small]Now, Ikemoto Mikio is in the middle of serialization in Shonen Jump for ‘Boruto’. What about his sketches?[/size]
A:[size=small] I’m fond of Ikemoto-sensei’s sketches. I especially like the ‘real touch’ of his characters and the upper lips…(laugh). Well, I thought Momoshiki was really cool, I was thinking honestly, ‘He did it!’. In terms of panel layout, his oblong landscape layout for frames is really cool. But for the anime, it’s difficult to depict the two-page spreads. It’ll be trial-and-error for me to depict Ikemoto-sensei’s ninja action in the anime. In comparison to the depiction of Kishimoto-sensei’s manga, which is more detailed and realistic. I don’t think there are other manga like it.When kunai fly from their bags, Kishimoto-sensei uses three panels! Including sound, there’s the panels to accommodate in the anime. It’s even difficult for an animator to draw the characters movement at the angles that Kishimoto-sensei has drawn them. I think it’s an advanced sketch.[/size]
The fan-art is closer to Kishi's design, actually, and I'm just saying that it looks far better. Ikemoto's cover falls flat and looks really bad.
Look, I'm someone who's cool with changing artstyle and design. This happens all the time in the comics. Batman looked way different when he was conceived in 1939, he looked very different in Frank Miller's iconic 'The Dark Knight Returns', different in Alan Moore's 'The Killing Joke', in Scott Snyder's art, in various movies, ranging from 1989's Batman, 2008's excellent 'The Dark Knight' and the up-coming 'Justice League'.
However, I complain when I perceive it to be ugly. And, this is not a minority opinion. I follow many Naruto pages on Facebook, and I looked at a few reddit threads when the raw edition was released, they were making fun of this cover left and right. If you think this looks nice, good for you. But, I think he has to stick to Kishi's design for the original characters, and he can do whatever he wants with the new ones, since it's anyway not gonna get adapted, and Studio Perriot, inspite of their short-comings, are doing a good job with the animation and the designs of both the old and new characters.
Cool, then let me know what you think about the last chapter when you read it =)
