#boruto analysis

[nacre-chimerical]

me explaining how the glorification of shinobi actually became worse after the fourth war and Boruto’s generation is even more flooded with propaganda despite the apparent “peace”:

[sourinartt]

kishimoto is really doing everything to get sns into boruto.

the characters now act like sasuke/naruto did and they celebrate and ship it but there are still people who deny sns

sarada is doing everything possible so that no one attacks boruto, and even though people tell her that she can't protect a "traitor" in that way, she still continues to protect him. for people, this is really the peak of romance and it is "clear to the tongue that sarada likes boruto." but if naruto does the same to sasuke, he is simply a madman

there's also a new pair of lovers, who, despite being enemies and in love, have to kill each other. why don't they do it? for love. but if naruto/sasuke is doing this throughout the entire manga, is it simply a very "strong" friendship or are they brothers and you are a fetishist

They are stealing tropes like the moon and the sun and this is what Boruto says to Mizuki and there are people who could even see that this seemed more like a very loving act

also since memorable times Kishimoto is making boruto like a son of Narusasunaru, naruto gets into an argument with sasuke about whether boruto has his appearance or sasuke's. (even though sasuke didn't give birth to him) In the end, Sasuke ends up taking better care of him and even calms the anger that Bort had towards his father and they all end up fighting as a family against villains.

And if we talk about appearance, nh is crazy about this topic, they bring up an interview where Kishimoto talks about bort's appearance where he only talks about his hair. and all so the world knows that boruto is hnt's son, but this doesn't even matter to Kishimoto. not when it's the same one who emphasizes that boruto looks like his father, with a sasuke-like personality, then makes boruto be called "uchiha kid" and then sasuke talks about how boruto still resembles his father

An interview is nothing when your own creator has always been known to contradict himself almost always, manga is where he has time to reflect, think and draw and kishimoto just made boruto a sns kid and other characters can see that.

It's funny how when they run out of ideas to continue with the manga, they take a step back to take sns as inspiration...

he will never surpass them....

[anime97-99]

Baku x Boruto: Two Blue Vortex MV

Hi guys!! I watched the new promotional video of Boruto TBV. You can watch it here!!

Yep!! The new MV was absolutely incredible, and I believe it’s dropping some massive hints about the upcoming arc.

By the way this is all just my interpretation so I could be totally wrong!! The MV focuses heavily on Sasuke/Hidari and Borusara, and at the centre of it all we have Naruto of course, but there is so much deeper symbolism hidden in the details. Here is a breakdown of what’s actually happening…

The Reflection of Naruto

If you notice the beginning of the MV, every character is thinking about Naruto. I said in other posts how Naruto is the at the centre, narratively speaking, of Boruto and acts as the catalyst in the series. He is defining their core motivations of literally everyone and you can see it here too:

-Boruto sees Naruto as his father (specifically referencing Naruto’s sacrifice from the movie).

-Sarada sees Naruto’s face on the Hokage Rock, representing her ultimate role model and dream.

-Sasuke sees Naruto’s back with his Hokage cloak. This is a direct metaphorical callback to his Final Valley monologue. Basically Naruto’s back represents how he is still unreachable to him. I believe It’s a complex mix of regret and a specific kind of jealousy. Like… being jealous of himself and wondering how things would have turned out if he had just arrived three days earlier during The Last. (Why does doom always happen in 3 days?! Like in Stranger Things?!😭)

Hidari’s POV and The Rinnegan

Later in the MV, Hidari opens his Rinnegan and sees Naruto and Hinata trapped in the dimension. So I think the authors will touch this superficially, using an indirect narrative, and hopefully discuss this deeper in other future arcs.

I believe that this is definitely Hidari’s perspective based on the Rinnegan patterns and the focus on Sasuke's bonds.

Since the last character to appear in Hidari’s Rinnegan is Sarada, followed immediately by Jura in a parallel shot, I highly believe Ikemoto and Kishimoto are setting up Hidari to confront both of them.

(We also get a sneak peek of Mitsuki confronting Kawaki.)

Also notice the difference!! Both are glitching but Sarada is Hidari’s light while Jura is destruction and kind of a distortion or broken mirror glitch.

The title of the song, Baku, refers to the tapir/spirit from Chinese and Japanese mythology. It’s a holy, benevolent beast that protects people by devouring bad dreams and nightmares. Crucially, myth says Baku were created from the "leftover parts after the gods made all other animals." This perfectly parallels the Tree Clones!! By framing the Baku as a good spirit, the MV might be hinting at Hidari's ultimate nature or redemption!!

Basically they are telling us that Hidari is a Baku!!

To add in this we see Sasuke trapped by the Divine tree after Sarada’s focus on the Uchiha clan symbol.

This is something I have talked about before but the reason I believe Sarada is Hidari’s target is not only because it is his daughter but because she is the last Uchiha. You can read more in detail here.

That is the reason behind Hidari though of Sarada after Bug brings up how he wants to devour Eida, to get her eyes.

That is why Jura gets suspicious with his answer and why he keeps Hidari close.

And the reason there is a lack of instint upon seeing Sarada compared to his actively curiosity for Naruto.

Pay attention to Jura’s reaction. He only acts like this around Hidari.

Building on that, the reason I think Hidari shows attraction toward Naruto in the manga, yet Naruto is not his target and he doesn’t consciously recognize him, is partly because I believe the original Sasuke considered Naruto dead at the time he was sealed. 

In this sense, the door is “closed” to Hidari. Not that the room has disappeared, but it is “sealed” and locked, so to speak. Still, Sarada is very important to Sasuke as his daughter and I don’t meant to undermine her value to him, so it is natural that she would be his target. 

On that note, I still think the targets of the clones are probably the last person they think of before being sealed = the person most important to them in that moment.

This is something I also talked about in my Hidari analysis one shot comic and other posts, here.

But most probably it won’t happened like this. I am not so sure how much info Ikemoto or Kishimoto will be willing to give Jump before publishing the chapters honestly!!

[axtrowrld]

Break down of a Borusumi hint in chapter 73.

I will break down what Konohamaru says lol.

The text Konohamaru says is:

よォーし お前ら！

イチャノのは そーいうもんや！

Here’s the full breakdown.

1. よォーし (yooooshi)

This is an exaggerated/casual version of よーし which means “Alright!”, “Okay!”, or “Good!”. The stretched オ makes it sound louder and more animated, like he’s hyping everyone up or reacting dramatically. His tone is sounding more Casual, Loud, Slightly comedic and Big-brother/older-brother energy. Konohamaru talks rougher and more casually than someone formal like Kakashi.

2. お前ら！ (omaera!)

The literal meaning is “You guys!” Or “All of you!”

Breakdown: お前 = “you” (rough/casual), ら = plural marker

His tone sounds very Informal, Masculine and Blunt but not necessarily hostile and this is the kind of speech a male shinobi uses with teammates/subordinates/friends.

Now this is where things get interesting lol.

3. イチャノのは (icha no wa)

The highlighted part is: > イチャノ

This is almost certainly shorthand/slang referencing イチャイチャ (Icha Icha) and it’s also the famous romance/flirty book series from Naruto written by Jiraiya which you guys it means “making out”, “necking”, “getting handsy”, “canoodling”, “being lovey-dovey”, “getting affectionate” (with each other), “romantic play”, and “fondling”😅 which is what jiraiya book is about and to clarify boruto and Sumire are kids here not that I’m trying to say that they’re like that but they’re just having that cute romantic flirty affectionate behavior like all kids their age do lol.

“イチャイチャ” literally carries the feeling of flirting, lovey-dovey behavior, romantic touching and acting affectionate. So, Konohamaru is basically talking about romance/flirting behavior here.

The structure のは = “as for…” / “the thing about…”

So overall イチャノのは roughly means “That lovey-dovey stuff…”, “Romance/flirting is…”

4. そーいうもんや！ (sō iu mon ya!)

Now the standard Japanese would be そういうものだ! But instead he says そーいうもんや！which This is much more casual/Kansai-style sounding.

Breakdown: そういう = “that kind of”, もん = casual version of もの (“thing”), や = Kansai-style/copula equivalent to “da and the Meaning of it is “That’s just how it is!”, “That’s how that stuff works!”, “That’s what romance is like!” And Konohamaru Tone is quite Casual, Experienced-sounding, Slightly teasing, Like he’s giving “wisdom”.

The overall mood of what Konohamaru says about Boruto and Sumire cute interactionis more of a playful, teasing, and casually romantic rather than serious or dramatic. He sounding like an older-brother figure watching two younger people have an awkward or emotionally charged interaction and humorously commenting on it like, “Yep, that’s just how this stuff goes.” The way he says “そーいうもんや!” gives off a relaxed “young love/flirting is naturally messy and awkward” feeling, as if he sees their behavior as obvious and normal rather than shocking. His rough, energetic speech style also adds a comedic warmth to the scene, making the interaction feel socially noticeable and lightly embarrassing in a fun way, rather than emotionally heavy or tense.

It’s like he’s saying “you two are acting awkwardly close again”.

Honestly that’s what makes their interaction cute☺️ is that It’s more like the Konohamaru is reacting to them being visibly close—standing too close, talking in a softer/awkward way, focusing on each other instead of the group and that’s why it feels like Konohamaru is the teasing supervisor / older mentor energy pointing out “you two are in your own little world😅” that’s why Sumire and Boruto interaction’s back then makes sense on a character-writing level because their interactions often sit in that space where it’s not openly romantic, but it’s also not purely casual either. It’s more like Sumire is careful and emotionally aware around Boruto and he tends to be oblivious but still shows concern in a restrained way and which is why they both can come off slightly awkward when the other is involved. This combination can easily get read as “cute tension,” even if in-story it’s still framed as friendship + emotional familiarity rather than explicit romance. For an example in chapter 27 Sumire drops that persona and started to be a bit confident and telling him to call her Sumire for now on and picks the cutesy act back up by telling him to look forward towards the sword and it will be cool and left him, it left him stunned because she never had a problem with being called “class rep” until now before and to him he always called her that in a sign of respect and closeness and it was such a habit and his look on his face looks confused, awkward, nervous and this is the example of the cute tension here. That’s what I love about Borusumi is how much they’re so subtle and quiet instead of being more direct and loud.

Enjoy!

[watermelonsloth]

So... Sarada's Timeskip Design

First some positives:

The design works in both Haruno(choker, red) and Uchiha(earrings, black) elements. Even though they are few, I prefer it over the complete absence of both like we got in her last manga design

I like the somewhat unique choice in headband placement

The outfit is pretty fashionable and I can easily picture a teenager wearing it

Her earrings are a nice touch

Her haircut is really cute

Now the negatives(oh god are there negatives). I can't shorten this to simple bullet points so I hope you like the paragraph format. First, the obvious:

It Doesn't Look Practical In The Least

She's wearing big-ass heels, her leg warmers are loose enough to get caught under her feet, her shorts(the bottom half of her romper?) are short enough to give her a wedgie, she has pretty much no leg protection, the shuriken holster attached to her leg without bandages looks uncomfortable, the belt is completely useless, her jacket is baggy and unzipped and begging to fall off, her sleeves look like they'd get in the way during combat, her glasses feel noticeably fragile, and what woman in their right mind would wear a strapless bra into combat? (I can only let the last one slide because it's two men who're working on this manga) If not for the metal plate, shuriken holster, and open-toed shoes, I wouldn't even think she was a ninja(or from the Naruto franchise, for that matter). Lack of practicality doesn't tend to bother me since this is fantasy and every character wearing maximum practicality outfits would get boring, but Sarada looks like they didn't even make an attempt at making her look combat ready. Still, all of this would be fine if not for my next point.

This Doesn't Look Like Something Sarada Would Wear

If impracticality was in character or served a narrative purpose, it would be a point in the designs favor. Except, Sarada isn't the type of character to wear something so impractical. In the manga, she's the character that takes being a ninja the most seriously, she's one of the few with clear goals, and she's the resident team leader and smart one. What part of her design tells us any of that? Yes, manga Sarada is weirdly flirtatious. But that aspect of her personality already contradicts her otherwise disinterest in boys and romance, it doesn't mesh well with her portrayal in the anime(which is also supposed to be canon), it's already an inconsistent part of her personality, and there's already been so many complaints about it(even in Japan from what I can tell) that you'd think that Ikemoto wouldn't continue with it.

Why Does It Invoke So Much Akatsuki?

This might just be me, but I think the design has too many nods to the Akatsuki. The oversized jacket, the fabric around the bottom of her leg, and the black, red, and white/silver color scheme in similar ratios. I'm not saying you'll confuse her for an Akatsuki member by any means and there were certainly more things they could've done to make her resemble the Akatsuki if that was their goal. What I'm saying is that if I were trying to make nods towards the former villain organization in a character's design, I'd use similar design elements.

The worst part is that this was entirely avoidable. Even ignoring that they could've scrapped the more impractical aspects of her design to avoid this, her color palette didn't even have to be this way. Red isn't the only color that can invoke connections to Sakura; shades of pink, light green, and white are also colors of Sakura. Black isn't even the most common color that Uchiha's wear, shades of dark purple and blue are. Purples and blues would've also been a better nod to Sasuke. Maybe they wanted her to wear "Uchiha colors," but, once again, those aren't really Uchiha colors. Black is, but red has only appeared in Madara's armor, the sharingan, and the clan crest and white has also only appeared in the clan crest(I don't even remember an Uchiha that ever wore silver). If you wanna argue that Sarada's color is red, then I ask why wouldn't they just keep red as her primary color instead of making it an accent? Her last manga design had black and white as accents, I don't think keeping her color palette the same would've bothered anyone. I know that Kishimoto added black to Naruto's design to help make him look more mature, but Sarada's design doesn't invoke "mature" anyways and it certainly isn't a more mature version of her last design because, much like the majority of the two blue vortex designs, it looks nothing like her last design. It's even worse than when they started adding too much black to Naruto's design because now it reminds people(or at least me) of an organization that I doubt she's meant to be affiliated with. But who knows? Maybe like the metal plate of her headband being on an easily removeable jacket, this is all foreshadowing to something.

I don't blame anyone for thinking this is a nitpick, but it bothers me and I wanted to express it.

Conclusion

Sarada's design is the worst for the same reasons her last design was the worst plus it looking too much like she took inspiration from the Akatsuki's wardrobe. Forget needing a second draft, this design needs to be scrapped and replaced. Maybe the anime will find a way to fix it, maybe it won't. Only time will tell and it'll hopefully tell us good news.

(Side note: why is she constantly drawn with her feet pointed inwards? it makes her look insecure.)

[al-hekima-madara-blog]

Madara is (still) Kaguya's vessel

Boruto speculations

I feel it coming... I really feel it coming... 😬😬😬

I think Madara or at least his body as a cyborg version is going to make a come back in Boruto, they send little hint and I'm scared to be right...I really don't want to see him back like this. Its not his era, he already had been resurrected so many time, but commercially speaking, let's be honest, it will attract so much people to the show.

Let me explains what leads me to this undesired theory, based on the information we got up to what we know from now : end of Jigen arc and beginning of Code arc. Below the line is going to be full spoiler so slide down on your own risk!

Learning more about the Otsutsukis thanks to Amado's revelations, made me rethink back what happened during the 4th Shinobi War when Kaguya took over Madara's body. The Karma works like an parasite taking over slowly someone else body. With this logic in mind, do you think Black Zetsu had implant Kaguya's karma on Madara ? Which made him, her permanent receptacle even if he's dead ? I'll explain why I say permanent later.

Black Zetsu is the will of Kaguya, an agent with the mission to resurrect her at her prime. In the same way before being defeated by Kawaki, Isshiki entrusted Code with his will (is it the same will than Kaguya's one? We don't know yet)

To my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong, receptacles are chosen with specific criteria by Isshiki. It's always among poor children having a very hard life, mistreated by their family. Isshiki insists a lot how empty is Kawaki's heart and that's the reason why he is a perfect candidate.

"Despise that emptiness within you. You, yourself...deny your own worth...there's an empty hole in your heart" Jigen/Isshiki

The strength of the future receptacle is as well important. Jigen was a desperate choice made by Isshiki out of survival and therefore not physically fit to contain his power. Both Kawaki and Boruto are strong and healthy fighters.

Momoshiki however seems to have chosen Boruto, not for his background. Boruto is loved by his family and friend and have a confident personality. Rather he was chosen for his bloodline. He is half Uzumaki (Hagoromo ascendant) and half Hyuga (Hamura ascendant), genetically the closest to an Otsutsuki like Kaguya. and apparently that work in his favour since the Kama is working faster on him. Up to 80% of Momoshiki's power and/or conscience are by now on Boruto.

Madara in a way was a bit of all criterias above: his physical abilities doesn't need to be prove. After becoming the second sage of 6 paths he was half close in DNA to Kaguya by being from Hagoromo bloodline through Indra and Ashura, and by implanting into himself Senju cells. He was just missing Hamura's bloodline cells.

I said in an other post here already that his life have some similarities with Kawaki. Both of them are discovered by the reader as ruthless and trusting no one. Kawaki's POV on his traumatic past made us empathise with him. Something which is difficult for a lot of people with Madara by the very absence of POV. Despise that, through second/third-hand viewers (Itachi, Obito, Hashirama), we guess the same traumatic path : being naturally a pessimist character, being born in time of constant war, after loosing one after an other his entire family, his reputation, his clan respect and betray by his best friend. The Valley of the End left him like an empty shell. Black Zetsu puts a lot of hope in him not only he was empty and isolated enough to be a perfect receptacle for Kaguya resurrection. But he as the long term determination to activate the Mungen tsukuyomi and thus giving her back her full power. Not just as a an diminished version as was Isshiki inside Jigen.

Knowing those Informations. Can we draw a parallel between Boruto and Kawaki transformation into Otsutsuki to what happened to Madara in the end of the war? is that correct to think Black Zetsu fix the karma on Madara in the moment he was stabbing him. but contrary to Boruto and Kawaki because he was already a powerful shinobi, the transformation into Kaguya was immediate and didn't take weeks. Or he put the kama earlier in his life and wait that all files are extract into him. But this last theory is strange how come he didn't notice that he was slowly transforming into an alien woman (imagine him chilling in his cave and all of the sudden you start to hear a woman talking in your head).

Amado is a character I can't wait to know better, He strikes me by his knowledge on every single people in Konoha. He always call people by their full name to implicitly say that he had many steps ahead of everyone, putting even Shikamaru in difficulty. Amado is observing Otsutsukis for a long time. As meticulous as he is, there is absolutely NO WAY he didn't study thoroughly how Kaguya resurrects through Madara, 15 years ago.

And let's not forget Madara's body is still there, probably somewhere in a Konoha's fridge. But if Amado can find Jiraya DNA in the depths of ocean, accessing Madara's body should be an easy task to him.

When he revealed how to use the karma he said :

Momoshiki adds as well an extremely valued information :

And oh convenient! Amado is working on a new cyborg able to protect Konoha in collaboration with Katasuke (who literally have the keys to Madara's fridge lol) :

All dots connecting, there is technically only one known person who had been a complete vessel to an otsutsuki, with a body still accessible, containing permanently 100% Otsutsuki's data, who can either resurrect again Kaguya (who is not dead by the way just sealed) or to only use his body as a cyborg able to use Ostustuki's power. : Uchiha Madara. Surely his soul won't come back anymore. But his body is just there ready to be use... And that will be a perfect tension to the story : how the 5 villages who lost half of their effective because of that single guy, will accept that the number one enemy is now going to be Konoha's saviour? The irony...

But I just don't want to see that. I hope my intuition is totally wrong.

See also my other speculations : Did Madara & Jigen ever met during the Warring States Era?

[sueske]

Will Naruto and Sasuke die in Boruto?

As someone mentioned in one of my posts, if Sasuke died, half the fandom would drop the manga which is 100% true. Same goes for Naruto himself. 

I personally think it won’t happen. One of the main reasons to get rid of Naruto and Sasuke is because of their strength - they’re the most powerful in the world, but if they still exist in Boruto why wouldn’t they just save the day over and over again? So, in order to give Boruto and co room to grow and surpass them, they either have to die, or become weaker than they are.

Which is what ended up happening in the Boruto manga. Naruto lost Kurama (the source of his excessive chakra reserves) and Sasuke lost the Rinnegan (no more cool eye powers). They both suffered two great major power downs. 

So this automatically lessens the gap between Boruto and co and Naruto and Sasuke (although they still have a long way to go obviously).

The only other reason I can think of why they might want to kill off Naruto/Sasuke is for the emotional stakes that would entail. But with Naruto, we already thought he was going to die once - they even made a whole scene of it only to be like ‘sike it was only Kurama’. If Naruto gets a death scene in the future than it already won’t be as ‘emotional’ because we’ve already partially gone through it once already.

With Sasuke... we didn’t get that yet. At the beginning, Kawaki said to Boruto, ‘I’ll send you to the same place I sent the Hokage’ but he doesn’t mention Sasuke. So his future is still up in the air. Still, it may be that Kawaki ended up sending Naruto to another dimension, and Sasuke’s not there because he’s trying to find a way to bring him back (because he can’t do so easily without his Rinnegan, and Naruto’s always his first priority anyways). Which would also explain why he’s not at the scene with Boruto and Kawaki, though the whole thing is just speculation on my part.

But going back to the original point - many people would absolutely drop Boruto if Sasuke died - which is why I think that even though they’re hinting at it, they’ll never follow through. Because at the end of the day, Boruto was developed precisely because of the money it brings in. SJ wouldn’t allow anything to jeopardize that. 

[fruitchakra]

the more i think about it, the more the boruto universe highlights the importance of naruto and sasuke's bond/relationship at the expense of nh and ss.

naruto is never home, and when he has to be for Important Events, he sends shadow clones

sometimes, naruto doesn’t even see the point of sending his shadow clones home

he would rather stay at the office than go home, even though konoha is at its safest and most prosperous

forget shadow clones or emails — sarada doesn’t even have memories of her father

sasuke doesn't kiss sakura before leaving for X amount of months

contrast all these moments to how naruto and sasuke are around each other

who stands like this? who looks at their friend like this??

be the seventh hokage and willing to drop your family, duties, and everything else to follow your friend with zero hesitation

conclusion: they are still being written like they’re in love with each other