Is Kishimoto Writing Boruto? Well, He Is… Now!

Boruto, the sequel to Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, has been around since 2016, when the manga debuted; the anime series debuted in 2017. The story has evolved a lot in recent years, and that cannot be denied, but while working on a world of its own, Boruto is still intrinsically tied to the world of Naruto. Boruto was initially written by mangaka Ukyō Kodachi, who had previously worked with Kishimoto on some Naruto movies. But is Ukyō Kodachi still writing Boruto, or has Kishimoto taken over the manga? In this article, we will provide you with the official answer to this question, so you’ll finally know who is writing Boruto.

Mangaka Ukyō Kodachi initially wrote Boruto, Kishimoto’s former assistant, whom Kishimoto himself recommended. Kodachi was the head author from Volumes 1 to 13, but as of Volume 14 of the Boruto manga, Masashi Kishimoto is once again the head writer of his own franchise, and he is the one writing Boruto at this moment.

The rest of this article will tell you everything you need to know about the creative process behind the writing of the Boruto manga. We will give you all the official details related to Boruto, how it started, how it’s going, and who is writing it as of the time of writing this article. In case you have any doubts about this series, we are certain that this article will take care of all of them for you.

Ukyō Kodachi started off as the writer of Boruto, but as of Volume 14, Masashi Kishimoto is once again the chief writer

When the Naruto manga ended in 2014, the Shueisha company pleaded with author Masashi Kishimoto to write a sequel, but he was not too excited about the idea. Kishimoto ultimately rejected the idea and instead suggested artist Mikio Ikemoto, who had been 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 work, setting the bar really high, as Naruto was one of history’s biggest manga and anime hits. As for the author of the story Boruto, Ukyō Kodachi, wrote a light novel called Gaara Hiden in 2015 and assisted Kishimoto in writing the screenplay for the film Boruto: Naruto the Movie, was confirmed as the series’ chief writer.

Initially, it was unknown how much creative influence Kishimoto planned on keeping, but he created several characters for the new staff to use.

Kodachi was appointed not only as the head manga writer but also became the supervisor of the anime adaptation’s main story. Kishimoto, whose role seemed to be quite small, also returned to serve 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, who is a doctor.

To further combine the use of ninjutsu and technology, Kodachi drew inspiration from sci-fi role-playing games, which he had worked on earlier.

Although the series has a lighter tone than Naruto, Kodachi actually decided to start his story with an allusion to a dark future. Kishimoto initially proposed this scenario to give the manga a greater impact and take a different approach from that of the Boruto movie, so Kodachi agreed. In this scenario, Ikemoto drew an older Boruto, but he believed the design could change once the manga reached that point in the story.

In early 2019, Ikemoto stated that the relationship between Boruto and Kawaki would 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 stated that the initial plan for the franchise was for it to span over 100 volumes. As we’ve said, Boruto is currently on volume 19, so it’s less than half of what Ikemoto has planned. Seeing how it took the manga roughly six years to reach half of the planned content without any delays, it could probably end around 2028. This is what you need to know before we answer the main question of this section.

But, as for the writing process, we have to state that some things changed right around the middle of the series. Namely, Kodachi, who had been writing the series from Volume 1 to Volume 13, i.e., Chapter 51, stepped down, and he was, ultimately, replaced by none other than Masashi Kishimoto himself, who is, along with Ikemoto, the main author of Boruto as of Chapter 52 of the manga. So yes, at this moment, Masashi Kishimoto is, indeed, writing Boruto, and that only means that a lot of entertaining events await us in the future of the series.

So, knowing all of this, we can state that Boruto will probably not be as long as the original series. From what the authors have told us, it seems that it seems that Ikemoto and Kishimoto plan on wrapping up the story in these 30 or so volumes, i.e., they will explain how the dark future from which Boruto is reminiscing comes to be. We don’t know their narrative progression for us, but everything seems to be on track from this perspective.

This means that Boruto‘s initial main plot will end with volume 30-something, but this does not exclude the possibility of the series getting a sequel that will focus exclusively – more or less – on Boruto without holding on to the previous generation. Whatever the future may hold, we have to say we’re excited about it.