Just FYI, I recently rewatched ALL of Naruto and Shippuden.
I never finished Shippuden so I decided to start it all over again.
I finished the series and immediately went on to watch Boruto.
So I have the series fresh in my mind (It took maybe 1.5 months to rewatch it all?)
As an added FYI, I skipped non-important filler.
So, is Boruto good? Well, yeah. Depending on what you consider "good"
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Just FYI, I recently rewatched ALL of Naruto and Shippuden.
I never finished Shippuden so I decided to start it all over again.
I finished the series and immediately went on to watch Boruto.
So I have the series fresh in my mind (It took maybe 1.5 months to rewatch it all?)
As an added FYI, I skipped non-important filler.
So, is Boruto good? Well, yeah. Depending on what you consider "good" to be, then yes, it is good.
Should I go in depth with my thoughts?
SURE!
Ok, so people want to compare this with Naruto/Shippuden, its understandable why, as its a continuation.
Whats different?
Quite a lot actually.
I'll go over what I dislike first:
The Naruto series focuses on seasonal plotlines/arcs that typically last 20 or more episodes, with some filler in between that lasts 1 or a few more episodes.
With Boruto, so far the entire first season has felt like multiple filler arcs, basically 10 or even less episodes focusing around a plot then switching to another that is unrelated to the previous, with a "background plot" going on that continues through the series.
Now, this isn't inherently bad, but since we are comparing the two its definitely a big difference that some may not like at all.
I personally dislike this as so far, I dont feel like there is any real progress being made in terms of an overarching storyline. During Naruto it was all about them training, getting better, learning, exploring the world before going into the chunin exams.
With Boruto, I only feel like there is exploration, well, I'll go into that now I guess.
Because Boruto is a sequel (set about 15 years after Shippuden), they need to bring people upto date with what has changed over the years, obviously.
This causes some issues as I feel it affects the pacing, as Boruto mostly focuses on showing us A LOT of stuff, not focusing on anything in particular as we explore this familiar but different world.
To me this is probably going to weigh the series down as they want to appeal to Naruto fans, but also want to do something entirely new.
To explain this further, I guess I should go into the characters.
The big problem with Boruto so far IMO, is that there are far too many characters.
To compare to Naruto, characters were introduced over time, every few episodes or a seasons, new characters would be introduced, thats just how it was structured.
But because Boruto is a sequel, they need to show all the old characters and their children.
Within the first 10 episodes I was lost as to who characters were.
There are just too many, I cant remember many of their names.
I dont blame Boruto for this though, as it would be expected from a sequel that needed to show all the old characters and the new.
However, I felt like they could've gone about the series in a different way, maybe start the same way Naruto did, focus on 3 main characters and introduce others over time. That'd be a good way to reveal where characters went after Shippuden.
However, since all the new main characters are in the Academy, they are all in the foreground along with their parents.
It just gives the anime a bloated feel.
THAT BEING SAID.
The series also has some strengths, really good ones.
The characters that are here are pretty interesting, personally I cant say I like them more than the OC, but they're still pretty good, with some interesting ideas here and there.
The animation is greatly improved from Shippuden and at times, beautiful.
The OC are really well done, I love to see them again, huge nostalgia bongos.
The shorter more filler-esque plots can be pretty good at times and it does keep me interested in seeing where the "background plot" goes. More specifically the plots that focus on character/relationship drama (if you've watched it you'll know what I'm referencing)
And overall it does have a very child-friendly feel while not being dumbed down or censored to "protect teh childs".
In the end, its not Naruto, imo it could never possibly be.
But on its own, its a pretty good, well made series, while bloated at times has moments of greatness that makes it worth the watch.
If you're a Naruto fan, you're either already watching it, or waiting to hear what people think, in which case, you'll watch it anyways.
I give it a 3/5, its not perfect, but its still pretty good, some things aren't handled very well, but things it does well are really good