‘Boruto’ Releases 2019 Anime Key Visual

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations may be closing out 2018 with one of the most divisive arcs in the anime to date, but the series’ future is bright as it continues on into 2019.

To celebrate the series going into the new year, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations shared a new key visual with Boruto and his friends looking out into the horizon full of hope for the series’ future.

While this new visual does not reveal much about what’s to come in the series’ future, it does tease that many of the original Boruto crew are returning to the series soon. The series is currently in the midst of the Mitsuki Disappearance arc, and depending on what fan you ask, the arc is either the longest or just feels like the longest one in the anime yet.

A major through line of the arc has separated Boruto from the majority of his Hidden Leaf friends as he and Sarada (along with the new Ino-Shika-Cho team) have left Konoha in search of Mitsuki in the Hidden Stone. Things have only been complicated further as not only is Mitsuki’s reason for leaving still needing further elaboration, but Boruto and the others have found themselves in the midst of a major Hidden Stone conspiracy with a full-on coup de etat in the works.

The new visual may not reveal much, but given how it’s not focused squarely on Boruto and Mitsuki, this may imply that the end of the Mitsuki Disappearance arc is close at hand as the series prep for the next story. With the anime series being mostly detached from the events of the manga with original stories, there’s no hint at what’s to come in that sense either.

The manga’s illustrator mentioned how plot elements from the manga will eventually make their way into the anime (much like the fan-favorite Chunin Exams arc), so there’s still a chance the anime will soon explore Boruto’s Karma mark. His relationship with the mysterious Kawaki seems to be the focus of the manga currently, so fans would love to see that arc make its way to anime sooner rather than later.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 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.