This article will contain spoiler for the Naruto and Boruto: Next Generations manga.
As an avid mystery reader, I love that ecstatic feeling when all the pieces finally fall into place. One standout example is Soji Shimada’s “The Tokyo Zodiac Murders,” for how its cryptic ‘astrology and latitude lines will save us’ prologue unravels at the end into a ‘grounded yet off-the-wall’ detective story.
Similarly,Boruto’s first episode left me flummoxed with its depiction of an adult Boruto crossing swords with the mysterious Kawaki, but instead of telling us more, the series kept meandering aimlessly through Boruto’s childhood (which regrettably proved to be interminably boring). At least it wasn’t all for naught, as the recent release of the manga’s 79th chapter finally decided to grace us with a key to make sense of the whole mystery (honestly, not all of it, but hey, baby steps!).
Boruto’s anime has been a controversial topic for god-knows-how-long thanks to incorporating an awful amount of original episodes and deviating from the primary source material – the monthly manga. Adopting Kawaki as Boruto’s cooler long-lost brother didn’t do much to balance out the latter’s off-putting and entitled character.
The frustration even extended to the characters, with Eida–Kawaki’s number one fangirl–clamouring for a casting change to make her Kawaki: Next Generations anime since her story debut. It seems the author has finally had enough and decided to grant Eida’s wish without even forcing her to collect the seven dragon balls first.
Eida’s intense affection for Kawaki has prompted her to unconsciously activate a supremely powerful ability called Omnipotence, which allows her to manipulate reality as she wishes, stripping away everything that defines Boruto (his family lineage, friends, and history in the Konoha village where he grew up) and giving it all to Kawaki instead, resulting in Boruto being branded as a village outcast, even a villain of Konoha (and Kawaki now consideredNaruto’s son as if that’s always been the case).
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I only realize this now, but it may have been painfully obvious how Boruto’s journey has steadily set the stage for him to take on the role of anti-hero or antagonist. From the start, you had Boruto learning the ninja ropes from Sasuke Uchiha, a former Konoha ninja turned antagonist/anti-hero, rather than from his own father, the previous protagonist and hero of the Konoha village. Moreover, Kawaki’s constant envy of Boruto’s laid-back lifestyle, and Boruto’s death and rebirth as a full member of the villainous Ōtsutsuki Clan in their last fight, all subtly contributed to this trajectory, cunningly cementing Boruto as a village outcast and an antagonist against the Ninja world in a calculated setup no one could have predicted.
Needless to say, Boruto was never really that intense about his national identity as a ninja of Konoha. He always seemed to prioritize his own moral code over his position as the son of the Hokage (the village leader), and having grown up playing Nintendo Switch games and collecting TCG cards rather than mopping roofs for a living like his father, his disrespect towards Naruto’s position and legacy was evident.
He did grow up later, but it always felt undeserved. He needed to experience some kind of loss to genuinely realize how precious his life was, and losing all of that spoke volumes about how having Boruto born with a silver spoon in his mouth was deliberate (and wouldn’t have worked with his orphan father).
Boruto also displayed a cunning nature and a willingness to bend the rules to achieve success, which earned him the ire of many viewers and characters in the story, but perhaps this was a foreshadowing that Boruto simply will not operate in situations that require him to respect the ninja code or any form of shared honor (I don’t think he even has the time to worry about that any more after that the ‘aliens-took-my-main-actor-role’ twist).
Boruto’s circle of friends and antagonists reflects this, seeing as it includes not only ninjas, but also aliens, cyborgs, and former enemies, showing that Boruto prefers to embrace and tackle different ideologies than what is established in the ninja world as the norm. It seems that Boruto was not groomed to become a national ninja protector like his father in the first place, but rather to develop his own unique personality and act independently as a lone wolf like Sasuke, as now proven in the story
However, all of this begs the question whether such a drastic change as eliminating Boruto’s entire identity is warranted, and the answer brings us back to how the introduction of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was the primary instigator of the original Naruto events.
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Naruto has always centered on relatable characters - individuals with complex histories and circumstances shaped by the ravages of war. The introduction of an alien clan mother from outer space not only felt incongruous, but also lacked the emotional depth or substance that many other human antagonists had. The twist proved so underwhelming that many fans, myself included, completely ignored its existence when reminiscing on the story.
But Boruto’s story never let me forget, instead expanding Kaguya’s character into an entire clan of fascist alien antagonists (the Ōtsutsuki) and their cyborg offspring (like Eida), which felt out of place and failed to add layered storytelling with roots in the ninja world. It’s a stark contrast to other iconic characters like Madara, Ubito or Itachi, whose confrontations with Naruto were always emotional because they were all originally members of the same village and families.
Most, if not all, of the Ōtsutsuki clan members have now kicked the bucket (though some exist in other forms using the karma curse they cast on other characters like Boruto and Kawaki, allowing them to be reborn in their bodies when time is due). These details, along with the new twist, cured the bad aftertaste I had after watching Naruto’s ending, as the Ōtsutsuki clan went from being an unnecessary plot point with undue focus to a clever setup for establishing the true narrative of the inner conflicts between the ninjas themselves (which has always been the core of Naruto’s charm).
I can now confidently say that Boruto has finally returned to its character-driven roots. It might have even surpassed its predecessor with its flexibility in handling the characters and the story, but without making it seem out of place or uneventful.
I don’t know what to think of the future, with the possibility of more reality-bending story twists lurking around to change everything I thought I knew about Boruto or even the original Naruto, but the fact remains that after this twist, Boruto will never be the same again.
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