Naruto Fans Identify The Biggest Letdown In Boruto (It's A Villain Thing)
When "Naruto" ended its legendary manga run in 2014, many wondered when they would see their favorite shinobi again. Masashi Kishimoto's final chapter included a fast-forward look at the fan-favorite characters, revealing that Naruto becomes Hokage, marries Hinata, and has a few soon-to-be shinobi of their own.
It didn't take long to capitalize on the shinobi-sized hole in fans' hearts, as "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" quickly began production in 2016. Focusing on Naruto's oldest kid, "Boruto" showed fans that Boruto is much like his dad, causing chaos and growing up practically without a father, as Naruto is too busy with his Hokage duty.
However, the show never hit the same beats as "Naruto" did, and fans were quick to judge the series, hating some of the characters changes it featured. The problems continued piling on to "Boruto," as the anime quickly caught up to the source material, leading to an incredible number of skippable filler episodes in the show's early years. Unlike most animes, Viz Media didn't let the "Boruto" manga build up a buffer, choosing instead to develop the show with a mix of manga-canon and anime-canon (filler) episodes.
Nearly six years into "Boruto," the show has already eclipsed over 250 episodes, surpassing the original "Naruto" anime. Fans have spent those years debating whether or not it lives up to its predecessor, but one person thinks they've found why many "Naruto" fans aren't pleased with "Boruto."
Fans agree that Boruto villains don't stack up to Naruto's
"Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" failed to capture some fans in the same way that "Naruto" did, and they've been discussing what works and what doesn't with the anime since its premiere in 2017. On Reddit, u/JadedF20 suggested the show's glaring issue is that its villains don't match up to the complexity of those throughout "Naruto," which included the likes of Pain, Madara, Itachi, and Obito.
U/turingincarnate agreed, further elaborating that "every villain in 'Naruto' (minus Kaguya) has some sort of worldview or ideological conflict with Naruto. The ones in 'Boruto' do not." They continued saying that "Naruto" villains are believable, not some all-powerful ancient foe that can withstand endless beatings. Once the series gets to Madara, that changes, but, like u/Generic_Nerd_Dude and u/Devdadryppa said, "Naruto" built up to Madara, so the Thanos-like villain made sense in the grand scheme of the show.
U/rex2900 doubled down on the original post's statement that "Naruto" has better-written villains, saying, "The bad guys of 'Naruto' were never entirely wrong is what made them great. They weren't just evil." Characters like Gaara dealt with abuse and loneliness. Pain tried to use the lessons life taught him to end all wars. Obito wanted peace to absolve pain, willing to put everyone in a fake world to achieve it. Death and betrayal influenced Sasuke's youth, forcing him down a path of revenge. Meanwhile, Boruto villains, as the user puts it, "are Space Gods whose only motivation is wanting to be stronger space gods."
U/Krzesio doesn't think all hope is lost with "Boruto," saying the writers could easily give the characters a compelling villain to fight but felt that it was "lackluster" that they hadn't yet.