Boruto: Naruto the Movie is a 2015 Japanese animated martial arts fantasy film and the directorial debut of Hiroyuki Yamashita. It is based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga and anime Naruto, and is the second film to be a part of the canonical Naruto storyline, being a sequel to the manga series. It stars Yūko Sanpei, Junko Takeuchi, Kokoro Kikuchi and Noriaki Sugiyama. Set after the finale of the Naruto: Shippuden anime series and from the adaptations of episodes 53 to 66 of the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations anime series, the film focuses on Boruto Uzumaki, son of the Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki, who cannot stay with his family due to being the leader of the Hidden Leaf Village. Vigilante Sasuke Uchiha returns to the village with warnings about two evil beings who may become a significant threat to the world peace secured by Naruto after the Fourth Great Ninja War.
The film was first teased in the post-credits scene of the previous film, The Last: Naruto the Movie (2014). Kishimoto took a large role in the making of The Last, handling the script and character designs. However, Kishimoto took an even larger role in the making of this film, handling the script, characters designs and screenplay. This brought him difficulties, because of which he required help from other staff members, such as the writer Ukyō Kodachi and director Yamashita. They created new scenes that left a deep impression on Kishimoto.
Released in August 2015, the film became the franchise's highest-grossing film, and its home media versions had good sales to the point of becoming Japan's best-selling releases in 2016. Critical reception of the movie has been mostly positive, with writers praising the animation, well-animated fight choreography as well as Boruto's growth, but it was criticized for its unmemorable antagonists along with Boruto's relationship with his father not being explored deeply, although the growing relationship in the climax was a subject of praise. Ukyo Kodachi and artist Mikio Ikemoto adapted the film as the first story arc of Boruto (2016), a manga sequel of Naruto manga series, with both it and its anime adaptation (in which it is the seventh story arc) altering some details with added content.
Plot
In the fifteen years since the Fourth Great Ninja War and Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha's final showdown in the Valley of the End, the village of Konohagakure is thriving under the Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki. He is married to Hinata Hyuga and has two children, Boruto Uzumaki and Himawari Uzumaki. Boruto, Sarada Uchiha—Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno's daughter—and a mysterious child named Mitsuki have become an elite ninja team under their teacher, Konohamaru Sarutobi. Boruto is truly upset at Naruto for focusing more on his job as Hokage than on their family.
Sasuke returns to the village to warn Naruto about two powerful and evil opponents he faced earlier. Fully enraged after Naruto misses Himawari's birthday, Boruto meets Sasuke and asks him to train him so that he can become strong enough to surpass Naruto. Sasuke agrees only on the condition that Boruto performs the Rasengan technique, which he then learns from Konohamaru. Frustrated with the difficulty of learning the perfect Rasengan, Boruto uses a Scientific Ninja Tool to impress Sasuke. The tool was given to him by the arrogant scientist Katasuke, who wanted his experiment to gain publicity for marketing purposes before Naruto rejected the proposal. Despite Boruto's dishonesty, Sasuke honors his promise and helps him prepare for the upcoming Chunin Exam, a test taken by young ninjas.
Boruto, wishing to be acknowledged by his father, passes the Chunin Exams by using the Scientific Ninja Tool to cheat. Despite the victory, Naruto realizes immediately that Boruto was cheating and publicly disqualifies his son. Tired of his father prioritizing his job, Boruto snaps of sadness, making Naruto realize it's his fault the situation happened in the first place. The moment gets interrupted when Momoshiki and Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki appear. The Ōtsutsuki duo are after Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox that lives within Naruto's body, as their objective is to create a chakra fruit in order to become immortal. Ensuring nobody stands in their way, Momoshiki destroys the surrounding area, though Naruto sacrifices himself to protect Boruto and the civilians.
Once Boruto awakes, Sasuke reveals that Naruto is still alive elsewhere, and allies himself with the other Kage to rescue him. Finally understanding Naruto's role, Boruto insists on joining them to make amends with his father. Using Sasuke's abilities, they arrive to find Naruto bound by the Otsutsuki duo, and a battle begins. With Naruto freed, he and Boruto pause for a moment to bond and acknowledge fault on both sides for how their father-son relationship suffered. Momoshiki soon finds himself cornered and devours Kinshiki to increase his strength, only to be quickly defeated by the combined might of Naruto and Sasuke. Having sneaked along, Katasuke attempts to kill Momoshiki with a Scientific Ninja Tool, but it inadvertently restores his strength. Placing his trust in Boruto, Naruto shares his chakra with his son to create a Massive Rasengan, an attack which obliterates Momoshiki.
In the days following the victory, Naruto improves his relationship with his family by making sure that he always has time to spend with them. Boruto resolves to follows Sasuke's steps to become a vigilante, a ninja who protects the village from the shadows and supports Sarada's dream of becoming the next Hokage, much to Sarada's blush. The conversation continues with Mitsuki revealing he is the son of a former arch-nemesis of the village, Orochimaru, surprising both his teammates.
Voice cast
Character Japanese English Boruto Uzumaki Yūko Sanpei Amanda C. Miller Naruto Uzumaki Junko Takeuchi Maile Flanagan Sasuke Uchiha Noriaki Sugiyama Yuri Lowenthal Momoshiki Otsutsuki Daisuke Namikawa Xander Mobus Kinshiki Otsutsuki Hiroki Yasumoto Wally Wingert Sarada Uchiha Kokoro Kikuchi Cherami Leigh Mitsuki Ryūichi Kijima Robbie Daymond Inojin Yamanaka Atsushi Abe Spike Spencer Shikadai Nara Kenshō Ono Todd Haberkorn Chocho Akimichi Ryoko Shiraishi Colleen Villard Himawari Uzumaki Saori Hayami Melissa Fahn Darui Ryota Takeuchi Ogie Banks Gaara Akira Ishida Liam O'Brien Chōjūrō Kōki Miyata Brian Beacock Kurotsuchi Hana Takeda Laura Bailey Hinata Uzumaki Nana Mizuki Stephanie Sheh Sakura Uchiha Chie Nakamura Kate Higgins Shikamaru Nara Showtaro Morikubo Tom Gibis Konohamaru Sarutobi Hidenori Takahashi Max Mittelman Tenten Yukari Tamura Danielle Judovits Shino Aburame Shinji Kawada Derek Stephen Prince Sai Satoshi Hino Ben Diskin Ino Yamanaka Ryōka Yuzuki Colleen Villard Rock Lee Yoichi Masukawa Brian Donovan Killer Bee Hisao Egawa Catero Colbert Yurui Kengo Kawanishi Bryce Papenbrook Katasuke Taira Kikumoto Christopher Corey Smith Kurama Tesshō Genda Paul St. Peter
Production
Boruto was first announced in December 2014 by a post-credits scene in The Last: Naruto the Movie. Kishimoto stated the film would star the son of Naruto and Hinata, Boruto Uzumaki, as well as Sasuke daughter, Sarada. While not knowing what the film would be about, voice actress Junko Takeuchi was pleased with the announcement. Takeuchi was surprised with how Naruto has grown up ever since she first voiced him, not only in the idea of age or new job but also the fact that he has become a father. As a result, she befriended Yūko Sanpei, voice actress behind Boruto. Takeuchi felt the writing for the adult Naruto was different from his younger days as his mannerism had changed too, joking that she never saw such growth in the story when first voicing him. As a result, she mentions having had some inner complications with how she should show the character's growth. Yūko Sanpei was thankful for being offered this position and joked about how Junko Takeuchi became a "father" as her voice role was Naruto. Initially, Sanpei recalls having difficulties voicing Boruto; when she received her script for the film, she began to understand Boruto's concept as the boy who loves his father dearly, which helped her voice the character better. Noriaki Sugiyama expected to see a bond between his character, Sasuke, and his student Boruto.
Flanagan and Amanda C. Miller found the two family members similar in nature despite having different backgrounds. Flanagan was surprised by how her character changed across the years but felt he was still the same for her, finding challenging to voice Naruto again when coming back to voice the younger Naruto. In regards to the change of tone, Flanagan was surprised by the fact that the dubbers did not replace her despite Naruto's age but felt it was something common in Japanese series. While having too many thoughts about the film, Kishimoto stated he was not sure what technique Boruto would use in the story. Director Hiroyuki Yamashita was added to the project in December 2014, and Kishimoto began writing the script the following month. Yamashita said that he had felt pressured due to the time constraints, owing to the movie's planned release date, and had almost refused to direct it. Kishimoto explained that he felt he could rely on Yamashita based on his work on the animated adaptations of the Naruto manga. Studio: Pierrot. Kishimoto had originally envisioned the film's storyline as a manga, but did not feel there was enough time to complete it and chose to write a screenplay instead.
Kishimoto requested that the characters rely on the hand-to-hand combat moves from taijutsu rather than the regular ninja techniques from ninjutsu. This was a change from the previous Naruto films. Kishimoto identified Naruto's fights alongside Sasuke against Momoshiki as the highlights of the film and asked that the film's staff pay close attention to those sequences. He said that the staff had very few ideas on how to advance the story; writer Ukyō Kodachi developed the idea that Boruto Uzumaki's Rasengan move becomes invisible when activated. Yamashita said some scenes had to be removed from the film because of the short time the team had to develop Boruto. Yamashita's favorite scene was Sasuke's fight against Kinshiki. The initial scene was also revised multiple times to reduce its length. Yamashita said they had to remove scenes that featured Shikadai and other characters from the film. He also added that the film's success was mostly due to many of Kishimoto's ideas which the staff liked.
The script was initially completed around the end of January 2014 and was finalised a month later due to fans claiming a false translation in episode 8 season 8 of Gaara's mother. There has been claims it stated " Karura's sister" when in check was the bother. After a few corrections. Even though Kishimoto had worked before on Road to Ninja (2012) and The Last (2014), this time he encountered various problems because of his greater involvement with Boruto — specifically writing the script. To prepare for Boruto, Kishimoto said that he had read a book about the process of creating screenplays. He added that in Boruto he paid tribute to several movies, the most notable being the 1996 film The Rock and the 2002 film Spider-Man. The tribute to The Rock was mostly done by using Kishōtenketsu, which is a common way of structuring stories in Japan. Kishimoto developed Boruto and Naruto's relationship based on his relationship with his own sons.