Boruto’s Anime Can Make the Manga Arcs Even Better

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has had a strange journey in telling its tale. Unlike most anime, Bourto has been done very little direct adaptation of the manga source material, of the series episodes coming from original material. That’s been a major double-edged sword, as the Boruto anime has been criticized heavily for its lack of substance and abundance of filler. However, after more than a year and half the Boruto anime is finally getting back to adapting the manga material, and fans are pretty excited about it. Of course, the Boruto manga doesn’t have enough material to provide for the anime, so changes will have to be made.

As the Boruto anime moves into the manga’s pivotal “Mujina Bandits” arc, it’s already clear that the anime will be taking a much deeper look at the manga storylines. However, there’s a way Boruto to use the change in format to better enrich the series, rather than pad it with even more filler.

Recently the synopsis for the anime version of Boruto’s Mujina Bandits arc leaked, and it definitely hints at a much different take on the story:

“Shinobi who have committted crimes are sent to Houzuki Castle, which is a prison exclusively for shinobi. That castle is located in an isolated island that’s surrounded by the sea, and the shinobi who are imprisoned there have their ninjutsu sealed away. In order to atone for their crimes, they are to serve many years of penal servitude. A criminal claiming to be one of the former member of the Mujina Bandits was serving their time at that castle; A request arrives to Konohagakure Village from them. The contents of it roughly read, “Someone from the Mujina Bandits who are imprisoned in the castle are aiming for my life. If you save me, I’ll give you information about the Bandits.” The Mujina Bandits are a thieving group who make their livelihoods by stealing across many nations – Even the complete overview of that organization and its boss were a mystery. Since this was a unique opportunity for them to be able to obtain information about the Mujina Bandits, the Nanadaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, decides to accept their request. The ones whom he assigned to this mission to infiltrate Houzuki Castle are his son, Uzumaki Boruto, as well as Sarada and Mitsuki. In order for Team 7 to protect their client’s life, just the three of them head out to Houszuki Castle, which is a den full of rascals. They planned on sneaking into it. As expected, it was riddled with criminals: Will Boruto and his comrades be able to survive….?” —Organic Dinosaur

Right out of the gate, the Boruto anime is going to be establishing a much deeper mythology for the Mujina Bandits, and how they end up crashing into Boruto’s life. Rather than the manga’s matter-of-fact introduction of the bandits group, the anime will have a much bigger build-up to the villain group’s debut. That could be good for teaching fans more about things like the inter-village politics Naruto and co. deal with, and/or fleshing out the underworld of side of things, and how bandit groups operate. Or, it could end up being a filler-filled, dragged-out process of revealing what its ultimately a minor villain group.

MILD SPOILERS: Fans of the Boruto manga know where the main storyline of the series is headed, after the Mujina Bandits Arc, and it’s a pretty exciting place. The mysterious Kara group is just on the horizon, and given the group’s clandestine operations, there’s room for the anime to use the longer run of the Mujina Bandits arc to being sewing seeds for Kara’s introduction.

Similarly, the manga’s “Mujina Bandits” arc centered around Boruto developing a friendship with Tento Madoka, the heir to the Land of Fire’s daimyo. That character arc helps differentiate Boruto from the stereotype of being a spoiled brat heir to a great power – an exploration of the character that the anime could sorely use. The TV series has spun long character arcs out of nothing before, so this should be easy.

Finally, the threat of Kara is something that the anime can stretch out into much longer tease to keep anime fans hooked, with the group’s presence being felt (but not seen) in the series for awile. The knowledge of Kara’s arc in the manga would help guide the anime, so that the buildup to Kara was done with exciting and relevant episodes (even ones featuring side characters or adult Naruto characters like Sasuke), rather than random filler.

In short: Boruto could have a very successful run coming, if it invests its attention wisely.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.