Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto will begin writing the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga starting with Chapter 52, which goes on sale this month.
Up to now, Ukyo Kodachi has written Chapters One to 52, with Mikio Ikemoto handling the illustration duties. Kodachi has published novels and also written scripts for Gundam and Macross.
Kishimoto, who ended Naruto’s manga serialization in 2014, has been the editorial supervisor for the Boruto manga from the start. In 2015, he created the Boruto spin-off animated movie, not only designing the characters but also crafting the story and writing the script.
The official Naruto/Boruto Twitter account announced that Kishimoto would be writing the manga, which is included in the December issue of V Jump, going on sale on November 21. The account also thanked Kodachi for his work on the manga and noted that this decision was planned since the beginning. From now, the tweet added, the serialized manga will follow Kishimoto’s original drafts.
DISCUSSION
I have mixed opinions. On one hand, it’s amazing that Naruto ended with anything near a comprehendible conclusion after just bombarding people with new “rules,” and new characters including an 11th-hour “big bad you’ve never heard of until now.”
On the other hand, Kishimoto was the very person who made Naruto that way in the first place. Maybe now that he had the opportunity to shove in so much lore in the back part of Naruto he wouldn’t feel compelled to do so in Boruto.