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Freedom251 › Blog › Boruto

Naruto Fans Are Trying Very Hard to Pretend Boruto Is No Longer Canon

By Freedom251 Team · · 4 min read

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Yes—Boruto remains an officially recognized sequel to Naruto. The ongoing manga Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is distributed through Shueisha’s Shonen Jump service, listed by VIZ as part of the Naruto franchise, and presented by the official Naruto site as the next-generation story of that world. The argument that it is “not canon” mainly comes from confusion about who controls the manga creatively, not from any publisher announcement removing it from continuity.

What “canon” means in this dispute

Fans use “canon” in at least two different ways. In the publishing sense, a work is canon when the rights holder officially releases and treats it as part of a franchise’s continuity. In a personal or authorship-based sense, some readers only accept material written and drawn directly by the original creator. Those standards can produce different answers, but they are not the same claim.

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By the first standard, Boruto is still canon. By the second, a reader may choose not to treat it as part of their preferred Naruto story. That personal choice does not change the sequel’s official status.

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What the official Naruto and Shonen Jump pages establish

  • VIZ publishes Boruto: Two Blue Vortex through Shonen Jump and lists collected volumes.
  • VIZ credits Masashi Kishimoto with “Creation/Supervision” and Mikio Ikemoto with the art.
  • The official Naruto site maintains a dedicated BORUTO -TWO BLUE VORTEX- SPECIAL SITE, identifies Ikemoto as the author, and presents the series as a continuation of the Naruto world.

Those are direct franchise and publication signals. Neither source announces that Boruto has been removed from continuity, reclassified as unofficial, or canceled as a sequel.

Did Kishimoto say Boruto is not canon?

No. The quotation usually used in this argument is from an interview on the official Naruto site: “For Boruto, Ikemoto is completely in charge of the story and main illustrations. It really is Ikemoto’s manga.”

That statement describes creative responsibility. It does not say “Boruto is non-canon,” nor does it withdraw Kishimoto’s creation or supervision credit. “Ikemoto’s manga” means that Ikemoto leads the sequel’s story and primary artwork; it is not a continuity ruling.

Why Ikemoto’s authorship does not make the sequel unofficial

The sequel’s origin also contradicts the idea that it was an unauthorized spin-off. In an interview published by MANGA Plus, Ikemoto explained that Kishimoto did not intend to write more stories about Boruto and his friends, and suggested that Ikemoto create the sequel. Ikemoto said his priority was to complete the entire Boruto story.

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That arrangement separates two questions that online arguments often merge:

Question What the available evidence shows
Who created Naruto? Masashi Kishimoto.
Who leads Boruto’s story and main illustrations? Mikio Ikemoto, according to Kishimoto’s official-site interview.
Was the sequel produced and published inside the Naruto franchise? Yes. Shueisha, VIZ and the official Naruto site treat it as the next-generation Naruto story.
Has an official source declared Boruto non-canon? No such declaration appears in the cited official material.

How Boruto fits into Naruto continuity

Boruto: Naruto the Movie was the starting point for the sequel project, according to MANGA Plus’s interview material. The manga then continued the story of Naruto’s world through the next generation. Two Blue Vortex is the current continuation, centered on Boruto’s conflict with the Hidden Leaf.

Whether every reader likes a plot decision is a separate issue from whether the work belongs to the published continuity. A disliked retcon, character direction or power-scaling choice can motivate someone to reject Boruto personally, but it does not amount to a publisher-level continuity change.

Why some Naruto fans reject Boruto anyway

They equate “original creator” with “only canon authority”

Some fans apply a strict rule: only material written and illustrated by Kishimoto counts. Under that rule, Boruto may feel secondary even when it is officially licensed and supervised within the franchise. That is an interpretive preference, not the standard used by the publisher’s current listings.

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They treat creative handoff as a cancellation

Kishimoto’s decision not to write additional Boruto stories can sound, in isolation, like a rejection of the sequel. The quoted interview says something narrower: Ikemoto is in charge of Boruto’s story and main illustrations. It does not say Kishimoto disowned the project or that Shueisha stopped recognizing it.

They are reacting to story and fandom conflict

Online discussions often use “non-canon” as shorthand for “I do not accept this direction.” A current r/Boruto moderator megathread shows active disagreement after news of a new Naruto manga, with commenters defending Boruto’s status and others disputing it. That demonstrates a real argument, but it cannot establish what a majority of Naruto fans believe.

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A practical way to judge the claim

  1. Check the publisher. Is the work being officially serialized and sold? Two Blue Vortex is.
  2. Check franchise treatment. Does the official Naruto site present it as part of the Naruto world? It does.
  3. Separate roles. Kishimoto’s creation/supervision credit and Ikemoto’s author and art role describe how the sequel is made.
  4. Look for an explicit continuity ruling. The cited official pages do not announce that Boruto has been removed from canon.
  5. Then apply your personal standard. You can prefer the original Naruto manga, skip Boruto, or reject particular events without claiming the publisher has declared the sequel unofficial.

The evidence has limits

There is no reliable publisher survey or representative poll quantifying how many Naruto fans consider Boruto canon. Reddit post counts, votes and comments cannot be converted into a fandom percentage. The defensible conclusion is qualitative: the canon question is an active disagreement among some fans, while the official publication record continues to treat Boruto as Naruto’s sequel.

Bottom line on Two Blue Vortex

Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is officially published Naruto material. Kishimoto’s statement that it is “Ikemoto’s manga” identifies Ikemoto’s creative leadership; it does not declare the series non-canon. Readers may adopt a narrower personal canon, but that preference should not be presented as an official change to the franchise.

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