Giving you all some context, I used to love Naruto back in the day, but after the time skip, every thing just fell apart, and I stopped watching. A show about ninja's shouldn't try to be DBZ, and a story about a ninja boys coming of age story should at least allow the plot to give the boy some breathing room to develop. Instead we got the clusterfuck that was shippuden.

Boruto, while not perfect, gives you a story similar to what Naruto used to be. You could argue that Boruto is whiny and insufferable, but his attitude makes sense given his age and upbringing, and he doesn't take long to mostly conquer his daddy issues, which could be taken as a good thing or a bad thing. I honestly like how he's more laid back and a bit smarter than Naruto was. On the other hand, I don't like how they lazily made his motivation "I want to be like Sasuke!". Still, if it gives him some good moments between Sarada who DOES want to become the Hokage, I can roll with it. I also don't like how his eyes have to be some new hybrid variant that's super relevent to the plot. Hinata's eye trick was simple, cool, and it even gave her cool bulging eye veins. Would that not have been enough for Boruto? Sure, his teammate Sarada also has an eye trick, but they could have maybe found a way to explore th differences between the sharingan and byakugan and maybe allowed the two to work together and get around each others weaknesses.

Most of the other characters are a problem, and until they develop enough I'm going to label them as forgettable ripoffs. The first main villian was absolutely terrible, and the story so far has mainly put the focus on Boruto and Sarada. Sarada is to Sakura what Boruto is to Naruto, and while she is kind of a ripoff, she lacks some of the negative qualities Sakura had, and right off the bat she actually gets opportunities to fight, not only that, she's actually good at it. Let's hope she doesn't get shoved to the side like Sakura was.

The story has it's ups and downs so far, and also has inconsistencies. For example, I'm not sure I follow Naruto's train of thought when he was scolding his kid so hard. When Naruto was a kid he had a super powerful demon fox sealed inside him that he could rely on when shit hit the fan. He comes off as a hypocrite. I'm also not a fan of how Boruto is given a marking similar to how Sasuke got one. But hidden within the worse parts are nice little gems that made Naruto good back in the day. Sasuke's "loser" quote is a good example of this. The story is nothing special, but it does have a bit of charm.

There are also little things I enjoy. Boruto can actually make a rasengan without relying on a clone to help him. Remember how it was hinted that Naruto was supposed to learn that, but they never let him have that? Boruto also seems less rely less on the clone technique than Naruto did. Let's hope he can learn a bunch of new techniques instead of using the same ones over and over again like his father did. I'm also hoping his eyes don't give him a "super powered evil side" like Naruto's fox abilities. I'm also hoping that Boruto will be given the opportunity to raise up in the ranks like his father was supposed to.

Now for the final part: Would I recommend it? If you enjoyed Naruto back in the day but hate what it became, you might find a bit of enjoyment in this...for now. This story could just as easily go south like the original did, especially the first battle in Boruto is a sign of what's to come. If you're not looking for that nostalgia factor the original series did however, I'd have to say no. There are much better shounen stories out there. Here's hoping that Boruto learns from some of the mistakes it's predecessor had.