So I’ve been reading Boruto Naruto next generations for a while now and I think it’s safe to say it’s been doing fairly well considering everything. I mean after Naruto ended we all knew there was very little chance that Boruto would be able to live up to the original, and fans were a bit worried that it might even turn out to be an utter flop, but despite that, it’s managed to do pretty well for itself.

That said, there are some glaring problems that continue to plague both the manga and anime to this day, and needless to say I think the biggest problem is the mere fact that unfortunately, Boruto Naruto next generations simply put has been a victim of it’s predecessors overwhelming success.

Now one would have imagined that with Boruto standing on the back of a juggernaut the likes on Naruto it would have had a much easier time, but as it turns out, no such luck.

You see since the manga and more importantly the anime started, fans have complained about a lack-luster plot, bland characters and the series generally failing to make a whole lot of sense, now don’t get me wrong, there have been instances where the manga and anime especially made utter messes, but I really feel there is more to the issue than the Boruto Naruto next generations manga and anime simply been of lower quality compared to their predecessors.

I believe a lot of the issues Boruto is currently facing may in fact stem from the way Naruto’s ending was handled. Madara’s undeserved end and the ass pull that was Kaguya Otsuki, disastrous as those two events were at the time they sewed the seeds for many of the issues currently plaguing Boruto.

So let’s start, I think the first thing we probably should discuss is the mere comparison between Boruto and Naruto and how said comparisons may be doing more to hurt Boruto than anything else. You see funny enough the Boruto anime seems to be doing pretty well in Japan, but it’s outside Japan than it has faced a lot of criticism and I think this says plenty about what the actual issues are.

Those who have been quick to criticize Boruto anime or manga seem to forget just how the Naruto anime started. The questionable animation, and long drawn out sequences, don’t get me wrong, by the time we reach the land of the waves arc the manga had really begun to kick off, but it wasn’t yet the Naruto we know and love today.

That Naruto took years of build up to reach, episodes of slowly fleshing out characters and refining plot until the very first encounter with the Akatsuki, but Boruto on the other hand was not given the freedom or opportunity for such build up.

From the get go people expected the fire and intensity that was Naruto shippuden because frankly after years of following these characters, that was what we had gotten used to, that was the standard, but that been said one might think an argument can still be made for the critics. I mean after all once Naruto had done the heavy lifting one would have expected Boruto to just pick up where Naruto left off, but the unfortunate thing is, things were simply not that …well… simple.

Boruto was now saddled with the unenviable task of finding a new direction for characters that had been fleshed out for essentially what would amount to decades, characters who in that final arc were elevated to such a level, there was simply too little if any room for any major development, the fortunate thing should have been the fact that this wasn’t supposed to be a mere continuation of their story, this was supposed to be a completely new story about completely new characters.

The unfortunate thing is that these new characters may have as well been little more than side characters because the mere fact they were put right alongside fan favorites who were essentially their parents just made it difficult for fans to give them the attention they truly deserved.

I mean the fact is for the most part, a lot of us spent more time waiting for Naruto or Sasuke or some one from the old gang to show up, rather than genuinely follow what Boruto, Shikadai, Mitsuki and Sarada were up to and the truth is, you cannot fault fans. Why would they care about these new characters when the ones they’ve known their whole lives were right there?

This dynamic has created a situation that any writer would dread, as any attempt to completely remove or relegate these fan favorites to the background may simply discourage continuing fans to follow, but not doing so also gives them very little room to actually develop any characters at all, and it is for reasons like this we’ve been forced to witness the disaster that is the death of Kurama before our very eyes.

The truth of the matter is the writers have no where else to go, they have been forced to resort to tearing down years of progress and development just to create room for more. Make no mistake Kurama’s death was a monumental error, one that will comeback to bite the plot as the story progresses, knocking Naruto and Sasuke down to such an extent was unsightly to say the least but that’s where it has gotten.

This hammers home the initial point, how the focus has almost completely shifted from the core cast which should have seen some development to Naruto and Sasuke who are rather been torn down in a misguided attempt to progress the plot.

The unfortunate fact is that given the situation, it would have been far better if both characters were simply not in Boruto Naruto next generations to begin with. So for now we’ll just have to see how it goes, but the truth is if things are going to get better, the writers are going to need to get far more creative.