Boruto Artist Reveals Their Scrapped Plans for Neji

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has had a successful go with its manga, but it seems one of the artists representing the Leaf Village in print had to scrap their plans for a much-wanted revival. While the series’ main manga is overseen in part by Masashi Kishimoto, Kenji Taira has taken the Boruto SD manga in all sorts of crazy directions. But when they pitched the idea of revisiting Neji for a story, it seems the artist was shut down.

Recently, Taira gave fans a brief update on how they have been faring with the Boruto SD manga. They opened up in an author’s note including in the gag manga’s third volume, and it was there Taira said they had hoped to check in on Neji during a recent time-slip arc.

“In this volume, I drew the time-slip story in alignment with the time-slip arc from the TV time! I felt a little nostalgic while drawing it,” Taira began. “In the manga, I actually wanted to add Uncle Neji into the story. Boruto would’ve learned Gentle Fist from him. My imagination is running wild!”

Of course, this nod to Neji has got fans fired up as the Hyuuga isn’t nodded to enough. If you have been with Naruto since its debut decades ago, then you will know Neji was one of the Hyuuga family’s most talented fighters, and he was Hinata’s first cousin. Neji grew up with an intense hatred for his clan’s main branch because of their conservation practices, and the death of his father weighed upon him heavily. But thanks to some intervention from Naruto, Neji was able to break free from his cycle of hatred.

Neji went on to become a hero within the Leaf Village before he sadly died in the Great Ninja War against Madara. His death marks the first (and only) death amongst the Konoha 12, and fans continue to mourn the fact Neji never met Boruto or Himawari. So if Taira can find a way to get the Hyuuga into his manga, we’d all be down for it!

Do you wish Neji had made a comeback with the time-slip arc? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!