Boruto Uzumaki - Wikipedia

 

Masashi Kishimoto created Boruto in 2013 when the manga Naruto was at its climax. The motivation for the creation was him wanting Naruto Uzumaki to become a father when the manga ends.[3] In the finale of Naruto, Boruto makes a prank in the mountain of Konoha that shows all its leaders, the Hokages. Kishimoto wanted Boruto to act like his father, but at the same time, have differences between each other. Despite not wishing to reveal much about Boruto due to developments of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, he added that Boruto is not as direct as Naruto.[4] Boruto's first name is a reference to his first cousin once removed Neji Hyuga as an homage to his death in Naruto while protecting both of Boruto's parents.[5] In Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto developed Boruto and Naruto's relationship from his relationship with his sons.[6] He wanted the film to depict the father and son relationship between Boruto and Naruto.[3] The film's theme song, "Diver" (ダイバー) by Kana-Boon, serves as a reference to Boruto. One of the singers of the band stated that it reflects how the character constantly changes from the beginning to the end of the story.[3]

Boruto's mentorship by Naruto's rival and best friend Sasuke Uchiha was influenced due to the latter having few appearances in the Naruto movies. Kishimoto decided that he wanted Sasuke to have a major role in Boruto: Naruto the Movie, which he wrote. In the film, Sasuke becomes the teacher of Naruto's first son, Boruto, inspired by Piccolo from the Dragon Ball manga series by Akira Toriyama. A former enemy of Dragon Ball protagonist Goku, Piccolo becomes the teacher of Goku's first son, Gohan.[7] Boruto anime and film director Hiroyuki Yamashita said that when first seeing the character in Sarada Uchiha's spin-off, he liked his character. In the making of the Boruto film, Yamashita said some scenes regarding to Boruto were removed due to time constraints such as one of the character's interactions with his father as well as another interaction between Boruto and Sarada. A difficult scene for the staff was the use of Boruto's Rasengan (螺旋丸; lit. spiral sphere, English manga: "Spiral Chakra Sphere") technique which had to disappear shortly after being used and then appearing again in an attack. The scene in which Naruto passes his son all of his chakra to increase his Rasengan was carefully storyboarded in the film.[8]

When it comes to Boruto's role in the sequels to Naruto, Ikemoto was influenced by Keanu Reeves's character Neo from the The Matrix franchise; similar to Neo, Boruto has the potential to become a saviour to his people and thus the manga focuses on Boruto's training to become such a strong ninja.[9] Ikemoto sees Boruto as his most relatable character due to both having a really strong father they follow. His development into the end of Next Generations and the beginning of Two Blue Vortex there is a change of relationship between Boruto and Kawaki. Despite parallels between Naruto and Sasuke, Ikemoto claims both character have a different type of rivalry. Boruto being falsely accused as a traitor was an idea Ikemoto conceived early in the making of the series and looked forward into its development.[10]

Although Boruto is the protagonist of Next Generations series, Ikemoto stated in early 2019 that the relationship between Boruto and Kawaki will be the most important point in the story as the manga is aimed to reach the flashforward scene from the first chapter where both characters start fighting against each other.[11] In December 2020, Ikemoto stated that the anime would make further progress in regards to Kawaki's and Boruto's meeting. However, he still refrained from explaining the flashforward where the manga started. Ikemoto stated that in future chapters, there will be revealed more hints about the flashforward such as their growth, why they become hostile.[12] According to Ikemoto, Boruto's character became similar to Sasuke in terms of loss, and in terms of achievement, he resembles Naruto.[13] The Japanese band Asian Kung-Fu Generation also commented on Boruto's and Kawaki's relationship, believing that the series might end in the fated face-off between these two characters as they hope they overcome their issues.[14]

Design

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In designing the character, Kishimoto intended Boruto to be similar to his father but at the same time avoided facial similarities in the eyes and cheeks due to the fact Naruto had the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Kurama, sealed inside him unlike his son. Additionally, he gave him a simpler costume than Naruto's original one that would yet remain the symbol of the Uzumaki clan. The author purposefully let Boruto wear his clothes casually by making him wear his jacket unzipped since he found it suitable for the character's personality.[15] For the finale of the manga, Kishimoto originally intended to give Boruto the Byakugan, an eye technique which he would inherit from his mother Hinata Hyuga. However, the author forgot about it and instead gave him an unknown eye technique.[16]

In the first few pages of the first chapter Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, an encounter between an older teenage Boruto against another one named Kawaki was briefly shown as a flashforward.[17] The purpose was to attract more fans so they could look forward to the battle as it has a chaotic state to it.[4] The battle against Kawaki was shown instead in the first chapter rather than Sasuke's one against Kinshiki Otsutsuki from the Boruto film to generate a different impact within the fans despite sharing the same storyline. Boruto's teenage design was first illustrated in little time. As a result, Mikio Ikemoto stated that once Boruto reached this moment, the older protagonist's design might change.[18] As the authors wanted the character's fashion represent their personalities, the teenage Boruto wears clothes that he borrowed from Sasuke as a sign of respect toward him as his teacher and pride for his upbringing.[19] As the story in the manga progresses, Boruto's facial expressions change when interacting with other character; with the friendly Tento, Boruto's eyes are shown bigger due to the portrayal of Boruto's childish personality. However, upon meeting Kawaki, Boruto's eyes are illustrated smaller due to the author's intent to show a more rebellious take on Boruto.[11]

Due to the staff of the Naruto anime referring to Naruto and Sasuke as "legendary characters", anime developers Pierrot aim to carefully portray Boruto and his friends, the "new generation", as the new protagonists. They also seek to have them developed as the previous generation.[20] However, Kishimoto is concerned about how Boruto and his friends could reach Naruto and Sasuke's strength as he finds it repetitive.[21] Ikemoto stated that Boruto's look is predetermined by the storyline so the author instead could not draw the character on his own completely. However, the scene from the 9th chapter where Boruto creates a Rasengan with his father left a big impression on him, believing it was important for the storyline.[11]

Voice actors

edit   Yūko Sanpei (Japanese) and Amanda C. Miller (English), the actresses who voice Boruto Uzumaki

In the Japanese version, he was voiced by Kokoro Kikuchi in The Last as a toddler; for the Boruto film and anime, he is voiced by Yūko Sanpei.[22][23][24] Sanpei has been a fan of the Naruto manga series ever since she was young. While identifying herself with Naruto Uzumaki's character, the actress noted the bond between her and Naruto became stronger when learning she would voice her son. As a result, once learning she got the role for Boruto's character, Sanpei bought the entire Naruto manga series despite already having it to prepare for the Boruto film.[25] Sanpei was thankful for being offered this position and joked about how Junko Takeuchi became a "father" as her voice role was Naruto. Initially, Sanpei recalls having difficulties voicing Boruto; when she received her script for the film, she began to understand Boruto's concept as the boy who loves his father dearly, which helped her voice the character better.[26] Please with the film Boruto, Sanpei asked Kishimoto to make another one which resulted in Kishimoto asking her to let him rest for another one.[27]

In the English version, he was voiced by Maile Flanagan in The Last: Naruto the Movie film as a toddler and Amanda C. Miller in the Boruto film as a teenager. Boruto is the first main character Miller has ever voiced. While enjoying the work she does as Boruto's English voice, she stated she felt stress about it due to how important her character is considering his role in the story. Miller and the other Boruto English voice actors felt honored to play the characters based on how large the franchise is.[28] Flanagan and Miller found the two family members similar in nature despite having different backgrounds.[29]