The following contains spoilers for Chapter 76 of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, "A Girls' Sanctuary," by Masashi Kishimoto, Mikio Ikemoto, Mari Morimoto and Snir Aharon, now available in English from Viz Media.
In the Boruto manga, Konoha is battening down the hatches, with Naruto and Co. expecting an impending attack from Code, Isshiki's former protégé. It's why they've welcomed Amado back to the fold, despite his seedy confessions about his scientific past and how he engineered weapons for Isshiki. They need all hands on deck after Naruto lost Kurama and Sasuke lost his Rinnegan, after all, so they're willing to make accommodations, even if Amado has rubbed the village wrong in the past.
A major part of this also has to do with Amado bringing the all-seeing Eida into the mix, as well as her powerful bratty brother in Daemon. Even if Shikamaru objects on the inside, he can't help but feel like they need these warriors as weapons in the war to come. It's a trade-off Boruto and Kawaki agree to as well, knowing they're still feeling out their Karma marks and that they may short-circuit in the field, especially as Momoshiki has a hold on Boruto. Unfortunately, Chapter 76 just turned the crowded safe house into a teenybopper version of MTV's The Real World, which takes away major momentum from what should be a grave, intimidating arc.
Boruto's Safe House Becomes a Childish Love Den
The Real World was noted in the '90s for having strangers live together, which led to a lot of hook-ups and conflict. It was the kind of drama that fans of reality TV back then loved, but a lot of it felt vapid, silly and cosmetic. Still, MTV pushed it a lot, as it was ratings gold back then for young adults, which funneled into shows such as Road Rules and, for modern generations, Jersey Shore. Boruto follows this superficial route by having Eida invite Sarada and Sumire for a sleepover to the house she and her younger sibling are using as haven. Shikadai arrives too, but Eida entrances him and shoos him away, making it clear she wants a girls' night out, albeit with people she has absolutely no connection with.
As for Boruto, he's jealous that Eida is into Kawaki more than him, leading to Daemon throwing verbal barbs his way. The thing is, Boruto shouldn't be this way as he knows nothing about her, and isn't a victim of her love spell. Kawaki, though, remains uninterested, which leads to Eida complaining how to get him to think they're soulmates. Sarada and Sumire have no clue how to address her thoughts on true love or offer advice, which get even weirder when she asks them why they aren't fighting over Boruto in a love triangle.
It's such a random thing to posit, especially as they end up in a bed during this slumber party, with the Konoha-nin feeling awkward and weirded out. They should be discussing her love charm more, but again, the story opts to deal with petty drama, romantic questions, and issues that feel so out of place on the heels of the battle with Isshiki.
This interaction makes the den more juvenile, immature and boring than first assumed. It might have been a good plan had the kids known each other intimately, but not when jumbled together and executed like this. Further, it has the story feeling outdated and not like something that's evolving away from tired clichés, tropes and stigmas. Such stereotypes over teen love have also made the genre come off unattractive to other folks or those expressing interest from the comic world, especially from the Western hemisphere, who feel like these sorts of arcs and sub-threads are overdone. As Boruto offers up this classic piece of evidence, such critics and people who'd be turned off and away are indeed proven right.
Boruto's Love Trouble Feels Inorganic
This predicament honestly feels forced and regressive, nodding to how inorganic it was when the likes of Sakura and Karin fawned over Sasuke in their teen days. Granted, this best boy is a concept a lot of manga and anime harp on, but the way Boruto packs everything together, it's just too many nonsensical beats at a time when domestic safety should be of paramount importance. This drama shouldn't be priority, especially if Eida wants to protect Kawaki from Code and get back at the latter for betraying her.
They do have their own jealousy arc, so Eida and Kawaki should be forging a friendship, working on tactics for him, while detailing how they were loners robbed of their agency when Amado created them for the Kara cell. This kind of depth and character development could spark a real romance and even lead to Boruto feeling isolated, with a natural rift occurring. It'd inform why he and Kawaki possibly become enemies down the line, thinking maybe Kawaki's better than him on all fronts and nodding to their previous envy (which ironically, Naruto and Sasuke also had). Instead, Eida's time is eaten up with Sarada and Sumire thrown into the mix as outliers impervious to Eida's mind-control, as if producers are trying to engineer beef for MTV's hidden cameras.
Ultimately, this levity is killing what has potential to be a haunting arc, as Kawaki and Boruto should be navigating how to deal with the siblings should they break bad. This can even have the boys bonding, perfecting their strategy and mental game as 'brothers,' which would make their eventual split all the more emotional. This relationship-building is squandered, though, leaving Boruto fans hopeful the story dives back into the dire threat at hand, rather than kids bickering over love, games and attention when the franchise is trying to prop them up as responsible teens pushed into adulthood under the cloak of war.