It's been less than a year since the Naruto manga finished, yet material from the franchise is still coming out on a regular basis. There was The Last: Naruto the Movie which came out last year in Japan, various manga one shots and a ten chapter miniseries, a series of light novels and the glacially paced anime, who has rewarded its loyal viewers with EVEN MORE FILLER. Naruto is a cash cow, and the people behind the series look to milk this cow for all its worth.
The recent miniseries, Naruto Gaiden, gave us a look at the next generation of characters in the Naruto universe. The culmination of all the next generation stories is the latest Naruto movie, simply entitled Boruto: Naruto the Movie. Long story short, I believe this is the best out of all the Naruto movies, simply because it tries not to be a Naruto movie.
Boruto is the son of the ninja we all know (and probably love), Naruto Uzumaki. Time has passed after the events of the end of the Naruto manga, and the ninja world is united and relatively at peace. While Naruto may be the strongest ninja alive at the time of the story, he is more or less an absentee father. Boruto resents him for this, and this has obviously created a rift between father and son.
And that's what makes this movie really shine, in my opinion. One of the biggest reasons I consider Naruto: Road to Ninja (2012) to be one of the best Naruto movies is because it was more a character study of Naruto and less of a generic shonen actioner like all the other previous Naruto movies. Here, Naruto mangaka Masashi Kishimoto and company take it a step further. Boruto is a family drama about a father and son who have trouble connecting. They really can't help it sometimes, either: Naruto didn't have the luxury of having parents as a child, and understandably has trouble being one. Boruto is hungry for his father's attention, but doesn't know how to express it. He craves it so much that any kind of attention - even a scolding - would mean something to him.
It's only when the two understand each other's situation that they resolve their familial problems. Aside from this, there is also the film's aesop, which deals with what it means to be strong. Naruto the manga has always emphasized the value of hard work- that is, hard work can beat talent if one tries hard enough - Naruto himself is the epitome of that. In the movie, Boruto is tempted with using shortcuts in the form of a ninja tool that can cast jutsu without the need for chakra. On the other hand, his training with Sasuke and his team leader Konohamaru to master one single jutsu is hard and laborious. Again, it works well within the story.
This movie would have been perfect, but a few things drag it down. Firstly, there is a lack of exposition for the non-fans, which limits its audience. It's highly recommended that one reads both the last arc of the manga and the Naruto Gaiden miniseries to better understand what's going on. The novelization of the movie (currently being given a fan translation) reveals a lot of exposition left out of the film, especially with regards to its two antagonists. Without the benefit of the light novels, the antagonists' backstories and motivations are never fully explored.
That's one of the movie's major flaws - its antagonists. They feel contrived and shoehorned into the plot, serving as plot points to facilitate a shonen manga-esque climax, much like the previous Naruto movies. I honestly think the movie didn't need to, as the movie was doing just fine by itself. The climactic fight scene is gorgeously animated, however, and I haven't seen this quality of animation in any animated iteration of Naruto since Part 1 of the anime.
Boruto is very much a baton pass from the old generation to the new, and it's best seen in one particularly moving scene in the film as Boruto himself dons his father's old costume and something else from Sasuke. The main manga may have ended, but the Naruto franchise still has a lot of stories to tell. I see this movie as a story in the right direction. I just hope that Kishimoto and the anime directors realize that you don't really need to follow formula to make a movie work.
And that's what makes this movie really shine, in my opinion. One of the biggest reasons I consider Naruto: Road to Ninja (2012) to be one of the best Naruto movies is because it was more a character study of Naruto and less of a generic shonen actioner like all the other previous Naruto movies. Here, Naruto mangaka Masashi Kishimoto and company take it a step further. Boruto is a family drama about a father and son who have trouble connecting. They really can't help it sometimes, either: Naruto didn't have the luxury of having parents as a child, and understandably has trouble being one. Boruto is hungry for his father's attention, but doesn't know how to express it. He craves it so much that any kind of attention - even a scolding - would mean something to him.
It's only when the two understand each other's situation that they resolve their familial problems. Aside from this, there is also the film's aesop, which deals with what it means to be strong. Naruto the manga has always emphasized the value of hard work- that is, hard work can beat talent if one tries hard enough - Naruto himself is the epitome of that. In the movie, Boruto is tempted with using shortcuts in the form of a ninja tool that can cast jutsu without the need for chakra. On the other hand, his training with Sasuke and his team leader Konohamaru to master one single jutsu is hard and laborious. Again, it works well within the story.
This movie would have been perfect, but a few things drag it down. Firstly, there is a lack of exposition for the non-fans, which limits its audience. It's highly recommended that one reads both the last arc of the manga and the Naruto Gaiden miniseries to better understand what's going on. The novelization of the movie (currently being given a fan translation) reveals a lot of exposition left out of the film, especially with regards to its two antagonists. Without the benefit of the light novels, the antagonists' backstories and motivations are never fully explored.
That's one of the movie's major flaws - its antagonists. They feel contrived and shoehorned into the plot, serving as plot points to facilitate a shonen manga-esque climax, much like the previous Naruto movies. I honestly think the movie didn't need to, as the movie was doing just fine by itself. The climactic fight scene is gorgeously animated, however, and I haven't seen this quality of animation in any animated iteration of Naruto since Part 1 of the anime.
Boruto is very much a baton pass from the old generation to the new, and it's best seen in one particularly moving scene in the film as Boruto himself dons his father's old costume and something else from Sasuke. The main manga may have ended, but the Naruto franchise still has a lot of stories to tell. I see this movie as a story in the right direction. I just hope that Kishimoto and the anime directors realize that you don't really need to follow formula to make a movie work.
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