Creation and conception

Yūko Sanpei voices Boruto in the movie and the anime.

Masashi Kishimoto created Boruto in 2013 when the manga Naruto was at its climax. The motivation for the creation was him wanting Naruto Uzumakito become a father when the manga ends.^[2] In the finale of Naruto, Boruto makes a prank in the mountain of Konoha that shows all its leaders, the Hokages. Kishimoto wanted Boruto to act like his father, but at the same time, have differences between each other. Despite not wishing to reveal much about Boruto due to developments of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, he added that Boruto is not as direct as Naruto.^[3] Boruto's first name is a reference to the character Neji Hyuga as an homage to his death in Naruto while protecting both of Boruto's parents.

In Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto developed Boruto and Naruto's relationship from his relationship with his sons.^[4] He wanted the film to depict the father and son relationship between Boruto and Naruto.^[2] The film's theme song, "Diver" (ダイバー) by Kana-Boon, serves as a reference to Boruto. One of the singers of the band stated that it reflects how the character constantly changes from the beginning to the end of the story.^[2]Boruto's mentorship by Naruto's rival and best friend Sasuke Uchiha was influenced due to the latter having few appearances in the Narutomovies. Kishimoto decided that he wanted Sasuke to have a major role in Boruto: Naruto the Movie, which he wrote. In the film, Sasuke becomes the teacher of Naruto's first son, Boruto, inspired by Piccolo from the Dragon Ball manga series by Akira Toriyama. A former enemy of Dragon Ballprotagonist Goku, Piccolo becomes the teacher of Goku's first son, Gohan.^[5]

For the finale of the manga, Kishimoto originally intended to give Boruto the Byakugan, an eye technique which he would inherit from his mother Hinata Hyuga. However, the author forgot about it and instead gave him an unknown eye technique (it allows him to see chakra, an energy source within ninjas to perform jutsu) which is often shown on Boruto's right eye.^[6] During July 2017, one of the animators from Boruto: Naruto Next Generationsrevealed Boruto's eye is called Jōgan (浄眼, lit. "Pure Eye") and that its powers are related to the Byakugan and Naruto's ability to sense negative emotions. However, the animator refrained from explaining more about since the Jōgan would be explained later in the series.^[7] In the first few pages of the first chapter, Boruto's first encounter against Kawaki was briefly shown.^[8] The purpose was to attract more fans so they could look forward to the battle as it has a chaotic state to it.^[3] Due to the staff of the Naruto anime referring to Naruto and Sasuke as "legendary characters", anime developers Pierrot aim to carefully portray Boruto and his friends, the "new generation", as the new protagonists. They also seek to have them developed as the previous generation.^[9] However, Kishimoto is concerned about how Boruto and his friends could reach Naruto and Sasuke's strength as he finds it repetitive.^[10]

In the English version, he was voiced by Maile Flanagan in The Last: Naruto the Movie film as a toddler, and Amanda C. Miller in the Boruto film as a teenager. In the Japanese version, he was voiced by Kokoro Kikuchi in The Last as a toddler; for the Boruto film and anime, he is voiced by Yūko Sanpei.^[11][12][13] Sanpei was thankful for being offered this position and joked about how Junko Takeuchi became a "father" as her voice role was Naruto. Initially, Sanpei recalls having difficulties voicing Boruto; when she received her script for the film, she began to understand Boruto's concept as the boy who loves his father dearly, which helped her voice the character better.^[14] Please with the film Boruto, Sanpei asked Kishimoto to make another one which resulted in Kishimoto asking her to let him rest for another one.^[15]