Will There Be a “Boruto: Shippuden” (Raiden)?

Boruto, the sequel to Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, has been around 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. But, with Kurama dying and Sasuke losing his technique, it seems the creators behind the concept are slowly shifting their focus to Boruto and the next generation of shinobi. Recently, we have also received confirmation that Part 1 of Boruto will be ending in 2023 and that a second part of the anime is on the way. Does this mean that Boruto will get a Shippuden-style rework? Keep reading to find out!

In March 2023, we received word that Boruto would be getting a second anime part sometime in the future, with Part 1 ending in 2023. A similar thing happened to Naruto back in the day, but as of now, we do not know if the second part of Boruto will be a Shippuden-styled sequel or a normal one. At this moment, we still don’t know where the authors plan on taking the story.

In this article, we will give you more details on the upcoming Boruto sequel story, which could be titled Boruto: Raiden (a play on the original Naruto sequel, Naruto: Shippuden). We will tell you our thoughts and theories on the subject so you can be properly prepared for what might be coming up in the world of Naruto.

Boruto sequel

When Naruto (Part I) ended, it was obvious that the story was not near ending. When Boruto Part 1 ends, it does not seem likely that the story will end as Ikemoto and Kishimoto planned, which means that the story is not on track to end in the current run. This means that a sequel is definitely going to have space to continue the story and even expand the universe of the Boruto series.

This is a very different situation than the one we had with Naruto, so we don’t know how it will play out. If the demand for more Boruto-focused adventures is high, we might see a sequel, although we don’t think it will be as big as Shippuden. Also, don’t really expect the Boruto sequel to be titled Boruto: Shippuden. The title made sense in Naruto’s case, as Naruto’s main technique was Wind Release, so “fast wind” (which is the meaning of the word “Shippuden”) made sense.

Suppose the sequel to Boruto gets made in the same manner as Shippuden. In that case, it is much more likely that it will be titled Boruto: Raiden since “Raiden” means “legends of lightning,” which makes sense seeing that Boruto’s natural technique is the Lightning Release.

Be that as it may, we have something to look forward to. Whether Boruto will end with its current run or there’ll be a sequel, we still have more stories to enjoy, so you don’t need to worry about this.

Will Boruto be as long as Naruto?

When the Naruto manga ended in 2014, the Shueisha company asked Masashi Kishimoto to write a sequel. Kishimoto 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 own work. The author of 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.

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 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 this design could change once the manga reaches that point.

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 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 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.

So, knowing all of this, will Boruto be as long as Naruto? Definitely not. From what the authors have in store for us, it seems that it will be about half of what the original Naruto series was. Now, 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 from this perspective, everything seems to be on track.

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. Still, will it surpass the original Naruto series? We don’t think. It takes a lot of time to write such a long series, and with Kishimoto being in his late 40s now, going towards 60 by the time Boruto finished, we don’t think he’ll be able to work on such a complex work for another two decades. But maybe we’re wrong, and that would certainly be a brilliant surprise for the fans.

How many years will Boruto last?

As we have said, we don’t know for how long Ikemoto and Kishimoto plan to draw Boruto, along 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 its 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 will 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. What is going to happen after that? Who knows!