The Boruto anime, which concluded in 2023, is expected to begin with a time skip that pushed Boruto’s story forward in the manga’s second part, Two Blue Votex. However, the anime will cover a lot of ground before reaching that point. The world of Boruto is rapidly changing, and the story is finally approaching the moment it foreshadowed in the first chapter through a flash-forward, where Boruto and Kawaki appear as grown-ups fighting to the death in a not-too-distant future.
The anime series could take a break and adapt the Two Blue Vortex era of Boruto, but fans of the manga and anime may already have a problem with this idea.
There’s one last arc in Boruto to adapt before the time skip
Fans speculate that Part 2 of Boruto anime will be a version of Naruto Shippuden, with the main characters grown up. However, the final episode of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations ended a chaotic battle between Code, Kawaki, and Momoshiki Otsutsuki, who had taken control of Boruto’s body. Kawaki attempted to kill Boruto, but Momoshiki used his powers to resurrect him, temporarily losing control over his body.
Peace returns to Konoha after Code is repelled, but it’s only brief. Kawaki’s last words to Boruto remind him that he sees his adopted brother as a threat to Naruto and the village. Kawaki’s decision to kill Boruto triggers the events of the time skip.
The anime will need to adapt a long part of the manga, detailing Code’s attempt to kidnap Amado and Eida’s decision to betray Code and move to Konoha to be closer to Kawaki. This part is described as an attempt to turn Boruto into a rom-com, and it ends abruptly when Kawaki decides to attack Boruto.
The Boruto’s last episode, Farewell, adapted up to the manga’s 70th chapter, meaning the anime still has 10 chapters of manga to adapt before it can fully begin the Two Blue Vortex era. How many chapters one anime episode can adapt varies, naturally, but Boruto’s anime has typically adapted two to three chapters at a time when it follows the manga.
All this implies that Boruto’s anime probably has somewhere between 3 and 5 episodes of content to adapt before it can kick off the time skip. This all puts the anime in a strange position in regard to the first part’s ending, as it’s unclear why the anime would stop when it was so close to a much more natural conclusion.
Could Boruto time skip with a movie?
Boruto anime’s pacing could be affected by a few episodes re-adapting the next ten chapters of the manga. However, Studio Pierrot is considering this solution, as other anime series have adapted entire arcs into movies. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train was a trendetter, with series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man doing movies alongside new seasons.
Studio Pierrot CEO Muchiki Honma hinted that Boruto would follow a seasonal schedule inspired by Demon Slayer’s success, suggesting they may want to replicate Mugen Train’s success with their biggest franchise, Boruto.
Though this would indeed be logical, there are definitely some downsides that make a Boruto movie far from guaranteed. First is that Pierrot has only ever done one Boruto movie, and that was a prequel to the rest of the series and was technically part of the Naruto movie franchise.
The much bigger problem for Pierrot though is that Boruto’s last arc might not work as a movie nearly as well as Mugen Train, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, or the upcoming Chainsaw Man, The Movie: Reze Arc.
Anime series adapting canon arcs for movies are shorter and self-contained, with prequels like Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Mugen Train requiring minimal knowledge of the original series. However, Boruto’s last arc, a culmination of multiple plot lines, may be difficult for a casual audience to understand.
Still though, neither of those barriers are insurmountable. While a straight adaptation of the manga’s last arc might be difficult to parse, Pierrot could make changes so that the conflict and characters are easier to grasp.
Pierrot may split the first season of Boruto’s return into two parts, covering the end of Naruto Next Generations and adapting the first few chapters from Two Blue Vortex. This approach was used in Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season, where the first part was a mini-arc before continuing the series’ story in the longer part.
The decision to end the first season of Boruto when it did is surprising may be surprising from a story perspective, but Studio Pierrot was clearly overworked, which was impacting the anime quite negatively. A break was needed so that Pierrot could take the time they needed to make Boruto finally live up to fans’ expectations. This means that Part 2 of Boruto will be very different from Naruto Shippuden, as it will not begin the Two Blue Vortex time skip.
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