The 8th Opening for the Boruto series is performed by J-pop band Ikimonogakari, titled “BAKU”; the same band that produced the iconic Naruto: Shippuden opening titled “Blue Bird”. This can be considered as a sign that the manga moves the plot ahead quite heavily; as the studio has no plans on going easy on animating this arc. The opening foreshadows many scenes from the manga and also builds heavy symbolisms regarding the characters and the series itself. 

Since we’ve got so much to cover, let’s get right into it!

Warning: The following article contains HEAVY spoilers from the manga.

Foreshadowings from the manga:

The opening starts with a flashback-esque scene to the Momoshiki vs Konoha fight, where Boruto was infested with Momoshiki’s Karma.

The big screens behind Sarada and Mitsuki show Team 7 fighting someone. The screen has a fade effect on it, so we can’t make out who they were exactly fighting. However, Boro wouldn’t be a wild guess. 

The manga readers might’ve guessed this as well, as this was team 7’s last and most important fight. They saved Naruto after he was sealed by defeating Boro. Moreover, Momoshiki possessed Boruto for the first time here. Since the fight is so important, it is likely that the studio would hint towards it as it is one of the best peaks of the manga so far. 

Parallels from Naruto:

A few scenes in the opening are similar to Naruto Shippuden’s third opening, titled “Bluebird”. As stated above, Ikimonogakari performed Bluebird as well! Here, we first see Team 7 and then all the inners of the Kara organization.

This is similar to the scenes where Blue Bird showed off Naruto’s cast, both the leaf shinobis as well as the Akatsuki. This also helps to establish Kara’s role as the main antagonist organization for the anime-only fans.

Furthermore, we witness Boruto’s cast in Konoha just a few scenes later; establishing the parallel further. The most notable one, regarding the main duo, is explained below.

Kawaki’s life:

The next 10 seconds or so sum up Kawaki’s life so far. This part starts with Kawaki looking at his palm (with the karma seal) and shows his life of taking abuse from his father; only to be sold to Jigen and then finally saved by the 7th Hokage, i.e. Naruto. 

This particular section displayed Kawaki’s trauma and how Naruto saved him. The first section uses a simple vignette + grey colour combination to give off a flashback feel and then transitions to using dark purple.

Here, the dark purple part represents the sadness, irritation and frustration which Kawaki felt during his days at Kara’s base. Jigen’s constant berating and torture had broken Kawaki. However, Naruto and the others helped him grow out of it.

We transition beautifully from Kawaki looking at the sinister Jigen to Naruto in his Hokage cloak; with bright gold/yellow colors. These colors represent the positivity and happiness that Naruto and Konoha gave to Jigen’s vessel. They showed it through Kawaki’s eyes purposely, to signify the change in Kawaki’s perspective towards life.

Naruto was in his Hokage cloak specifically. Naruto introduced himself as the Hokage, which automatically gravitated Kawaki towards Naruto; even though he didn’t know what the word “Hokage” meant. This was a beautiful way to display Kawaki’s respect and love for Naruto.

Direct Parallels between Naruto Shippuden and Boruto:

While I’ve said that a lot of parts are important in the opening, this one is quite crucial. The opening has numerous foreshadowings, references, and parallels. Enough that you can break down every second of it. The classic scene from Naruto’s “Blue Bird” opening is used as well; where originally Naruto and Sasuke float in opposite directions and Naruto is on the red side whereas Sasuke is on the blue one. They somewhat represent the Yin-Yang symbol, which is of great importance in Naruto’s lore. Both Naruto and Sasuke had a similar childhood, and we know what decisions they made.

Here, Boruto and Kawaki are subjected to the same symbolism. While Boruto grew in a completely different way, they still share similarities and are like two sides of one coin. This time, it’s Boruto instead of Sasuke and Kawaki instead of Naruto.

You can also further notice that in the above image, Boruto has his eyes closed is manifesting his Karma which might unlock his dojutsu. Similarly, in Blue Bird Opening, the eyes of Sasuke are also hidden/closed, and we all know that Sasuke later manifested his Mangekyou Sharingan in the series.

Naruto and Kawaki:

Everybody knows the tale of Naruto, a jinchuriki, an outcast to the Hokage. While we can sum it up in a few words now, it took about 500 chapters for Naruto to achieve his goal. Kawaki seems to be in that same process. However, is quite different, he is a different person. So, how are they connected?

Naruto and Kawaki both grew up without anyone around and hated by everyone around. Both of them had a scarred childhood, as both managed to barely survive. Both grew with resentment towards other humans since childhood. While one resorted to mischief to gain everyone’s attention other went into a loner mode.

The most distinct points in their life start when Naruto graduated from the academy. He managed to make friends, while Kawaki was stuck in hell, the Kara organization. Kawaki was berated and tortured constantly, he was made weak. However, it is important to note that the two still ended up in similar ways. Naruto made friends for life in Choji, Shikamaru, and Team 7 members. Whereas, Kawaki treats Boruto as his own brother and considers Himawari his sister. He also looks up to Naruto as some sort of father figure. For Kawaki, Naruto is his Iruka and Boruto his Sasuke.

Both made friends who helped them grow and acknowledged them. Both of them also managed to change themselves and their lives.

As even Kurama said, both Naruto and Kawaki share similar pain and trauma. While Naruto was persistent and proactive, Kawaki became pessimistic and passive. This could very well be due to the lack of freedom Kawaki had. Naruto could still roam around the village and did mischief to catch the attention of people, whereas Kawaki was always locked up. 

Naruto knew about this and hence wanted to help Kawaki. Watching Kawaki’s behaviour hit too close to the deepest depths of the 7th Hokage’s heart, he couldn’t help but try his best to take care of Kawaki. This solidified Naruto as a father-figure to Kawaki. 

However, Kawaki still had the same knucklehead attitude at times. He can be very stubborn and rebellious. He is quite emotional like Naruto as well. So far, Kawaki has been successful in making positive changes in his life. He managed to learn to trust people around him and grow more receptive; especially towards his and other’s feelings. The transition of Kawaki becoming like Naruto is also hinted at in the manga as well. Have a look:

This further increases our curiosity and kind of proves that Kawaki is going the Boruto route. However, like Naruto, he still has the hatred for the root cause of all the problems (Jigen, His Father, Kara) he faced which he will overcome someday. I’d like to make it clear that Naruto HAS overcome these feelings while Kawaki is still in the process to do so. 

If we were to predict according to how this opening and the Boruto manga has majorly hinted towards Kawaki being the “next Naruto”, then he’s definitely going to grow more and try to protect Konoha. This may connect to the start of the manga, where Boruto and Kawaki are fighting each other. 

Sasuke and Boruto: 

While Boruto is similar to Naruto is many ways, he does share quite a few similarities to his master. 

Both of the characters are ready to do anything for power. Here, this crave for power comes from a strong feeling. For Sasuke, it came from hatred and revenge towards Itachi. He wanted to avenge his clan. Hence, he even left Konoha and comrades behind; and joined Orochimaru. He knew that Orochimaru was behind his body the whole time, yet he took the risk just to have a chance to avenge his clan faster.

Boruto is doing the same thing, he relies on his Karma to save his family and Konoha even though he knows that using Karma will decrypt Momoshiki’s data faster. Moreover, he even said that he needs to train and gain power in order to apply a karma seal on Code.

Again, he craves power to save his friends, family and himself too. 

The two of them are quite rational as well. Boruto is considerably smarter than younger Naruto. He also acts more rationally than Naruto, for the most part. However, he does take short-cuts or any route possible to gain power; just like his Master.

Moreover, he was always more inclined towards the role of the “Shadow Hokage”. While Boruto’s initial loss of interest in the Hokage title came from the issues that emerged between him and Naruto after his father took up the job; he always found Sasuke’s role to be way cooler. He also has an affinity for lightning release and dresses in dark colours like his master.  It is highly likely that Boruto will take the same path as Sasuke as he has strong emotions towards his loved ones and he’s too determined at saving them, no matter what it costs.

Is Boruto Anime Hinting Towards Boruto’s Downfall?

We ourselves have said that Kawaki could be the Naruto of this Next Generation and the anime is hinting at it as well now! It is quite likely that Boruto will go down a similar path to Sasuke, but we’ll only find out what will exactly happen when the story progresses that far! 

Finally, the last scene of the opening shows Boruto and Kawaki on the opposite ends of Konoha.

Here, the opening builds more heavily towards the dynamic between the main duo. Boruto is at the far end of Konoha, while Kawaki is standing near the Hokage statues. This opening seems to be building towards Boruto following Sasuke’s path heavily.

To us, these are major hints towards the story and the characters themselves. This opening is a banger and the visuals go even better with it. The anime seems to have removed all the stops and just go all out working on this opening and it turned out amazing! This is a classic Naruto-level opening and the fans get that too.

Anime-Only scenes?

From there, we swiftly transit to Team 7 possibly fighting Kawaki. If something like this happens, then it will be an anime-only scene, as Kawaki and Team 7 haven’t gone all out against each other, at least as of Chapter 55 of the Boruto manga. 

In the last leg of the opening, we see some more scenes which weren’t a part of the manga; perhaps hinting towards more anime-only content. Here, Boruto and Kawaki fight Jigen, and they’re somehow fighting him well!

If we were to assume that these are not just for the dope visuals, then it would be interesting to see what they do. Since the cube that Kawaki and Boruto stop in the opening is actually quite strong, and Naruto could hold it out only after using the Baryon Mode. Is the trying to build the younger generations stronger than the manga did? It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Final Thoughts:

You can see many people putting this song on Naruto to create their own opening and it actually suits Naruto a lot. I’d also like to take this opportunity to talk about Ikimonogakari, as this fresh sound is quite different from their previous work titled “bluebird”.

While Blue Bird is a great song, BAKU is a better song if we’re speaking technically. The blend of jazz, rock and pop elements is amazing, and the mixing is great as well. I’ve played this opening on repeat for a while, what about you?

Let us know your thoughts on the opening and the current Boruto arc below!