The time skip in Boruto: Naruto Next Generation offered a chance to reboot the storyline and inject new energy and purpose into a plot that more than a few fans believed had grown stale. The three-year gap between Naruto Next Generations and Two Blue Vortex is a long time – especially for the teenage characters. Ignoring or downplaying an explanation of the changes characters have experienced risks confusing old and new fans.
While Two Blue Vortex has had an explosive first few chapters, it could take more time to explain what happened during the gap between parts. While some might wonder whether extended flashbacks would take away from the conflict between Boruto, Kara, and Kawaki, that isn’t inherently the case.
Fortunately, a surprising Naruto collaboration offers an effective way to update Boruto fans on the changes that have been made across the time skip, without seriously affecting the flow of Part 2 and beyond.
Naruto X UT Shows Boruto How to Convey A Lot With A Little
Naruto x UT is an OVA made in a collaboration between the clothing chain store UNIQLO, Naruto’s creator Masashi Kishimoto, and the anime production company Studio Pierrot. Originally conceived to promote a Naruto-themed UNIQLO clothing, over 150,000 copies of the OVA’s DVD were distributed during the promotional campaign. While much of the attention was garnered by the marketing campaign, the video itself was groundbreaking. The video offers a string of flashbacks that tell the full story of Naruto’s Team 7 up until the climactic battle between Naruto and Sasuke. Without any familiarity with the story, Naruto x UT effectively summarizes the complex relationship between Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.
This short gives an effective model for how to push a cluster of big story points in a succinct but effective manner. The flashback compilation that was used so effectively in Naruto x UT could be put to great use in Boruto by offering a compilation of events that will update viewers on what happened during the time skip without weighing down the currently ongoing story. For instance, the model can be used to show the progression of Boruto’s training under Sasuke and Koji, or how life has changed under Shikamaru’s rule as Hokage.
Boruto: Two Blue Vortex Should Use a Montage to Cover the Time Skip
With the Naruto x UT model, there will be no need to generate chapters-long stories explaining how the village and community have adjusted to life without Naruto or how Code has built up and trained his army of demons. This should free up time to focus on the brewing battle between Code, Kawaki, and Boruto. It would also bring the Naruto-verse up to date with current trends in cross-media storytelling.
Since the anime has previously been a source of content for the manga, there is precedent for the anime to continue serving as the medium to explain or facilitate the main story thread. Two Blue Vortex may have more than a few chapters published, but much of the details of what happened during the Timeskip are still murky. Using the Naruto x UT OVA as a model in Boruto is a win-win situation. It saves Kishimoto the trouble of interrupting the flow of Boruto Two Blue Vortex’s story, while at the same time tacitly reintroducing fans to one of Naruto’s more interesting if less known works.
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