Masashi Kishimoto never intended to continue Naruto, but his former chief assistant Mikio Ikemoto decided to continue the story with a new generation of characters, focusing on Naruto’s son, Boruto Uzumaki. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has been published since ay 2016 and is currently at Volume 16. In this article, we are going to tell you when Boruto might end.
At this moment, we do not know when Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is going to end. The manga has been published since 2016 and is, according to Ikemoto, halfway done. Namely, Ikemoto said that he wanted Boruto to have around 30 volumes, in order to bring the whole franchise to a total of 100 volumes. Based on this, Boruto could be over sometime around 2028. As for the anime, it will probably be on for a year or two after the manga’s completion.
In the rest of this article, we are going to talk about Boruto and its run. You’re going to find out some facts about the manga and the anime, as well as when the series might be done, based on the information we have from the authors of the series.
Is Boruto: Naruto Next Generations going to end soon?
When the Naruto manga ended back in 2014, the Shueisha company asked Masashi Kishimoto to write a sequel. Kishimoto rejected the idea and instead suggested artist Mikio Ikemoto, who had worked as an assistant for Kishimoto since the first chapters of Naruto, to draw them. A countdown website titled “Next Generation” was used to promote the new manga.
In December 2015, the serialization of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was announced. Kishimoto said he wanted Boruto to surpass his own work. The author of Boruto, Ukyō Kodachi, had written a light novel called Gaara Hiden in 2015 and assisted Kishimoto in writing the screenplay for the film Boruto: Naruto the Movie.
Kodachi not only writes the manga, but he is also the supervisor of the anime’s story. Kishimoto also served as the anime’s supervisor for episodes 8 and 9. Kodachi explained that the setting of the series, which features more science than Naruto, was influenced by his father, a doctor. To further combine the use of ninjutsu and technology, Kodachi drew inspiration from sci-fi role-playing games.
Although Kishimoto revised the manga’s scenario, he advised Ikemoto to develop his own drawing style rather than imitate it. Ikemoto agreed and expressed optimism about his art style. Although he noted that longtime fans might be disappointed that Kishimoto is not drawing Boruto, Ikemoto stated that he would do his best to create the manga.
Ikemoto, who is honored to create the drawings for Boruto, stated that he is grateful that the series will be released monthly rather than weekly, as it would be very tiring to produce the required amount of nearly 20 pages per chapter; however, he still feels that monthly serialization is a challenge. Boruto’s regular chapters are usually more than 40 pages.
It usually takes a week to create the thumbnail sketches and 20 days to produce the pages, with the remaining time spent coloring the images and retouching the chapters. When drawing the characters, Ikemoto felt that Boruto’s facial expressions should change as the story progressed. Initially, he gave the protagonist big eyes for interactions with Tento, but Boruto’s appearance became more rebellious when he spoke to Kawaki instead.
Although the series has a lighter tone than Naruto, it begins with an allusion to a dark future. This scenario was proposed by Kishimoto to give the manga a greater impact and to take a different approach from that of the Boruto movie. In this scenario, Ikemoto drew an older Boruto, but he believes that this design could change once the manga reaches that point.
In early 2019, Ikemoto stated that the relationship between Boruto and Kawaki will be the biggest part of the plot, as it will develop until their battle in the flash-forward. When asked about the duration of the series, Ikemoto said he wanted to give the series nearly 30 volumes to tell the story. These are his words:
My utmost priority is to complete the entire story for BORUTO. That said, I do not want the story to sprawl out too much. As the original NARUTO series already has a whopping 72 volumes, I am hoping to complete the story within 30 volumes to keep the entire saga within a hundred volumes altogether.
– Miko Ikemoto
As you can see, Ikemoto and the current artist, Kishimoto himself, plan for the franchise to span over 100 volumes. As we’ve said, Boruto is currently on volume 16 so it’s about half of what Ikemoto has planned. Seeing how how it took the manga roughly six years to reach half of the planned content, without any delays, it could probably end around 2028. So, in our honest opinion, Boruto still has a long way to go and is not near its completion.
How many years will Boruto last?
As we have said, we don’t know for how long Ikemoto and Kishimoto plan to draw Boruto, alongn with Kodachi, but we do know that Ikemoto planned the series to have around 30 volumes. Based on the current publication and collection tempo, we know that Boruto published roughly 2.5 volumes per year, which amounts to the current 16 volumes for a six-year period.
Now, knowing that Boruto is planned to run for around 30 volumes, and knowing that it’s publishing tempo is roughly 2.5 volumes per year, we can calculate that Boruto will be running for roughly 12 years, which adds up to what we have said above – Boruto is probably going to end around 2028. It started in 2016 and if you add up the 12 years we got based on the current publishing tempo, it adds up to 2028.
Now, we don’t know if there are going to be any significant delays to the manga’s publication, which is why Boruto might be around for even longer, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it all happens.
