IShowSpeed Slams Boruto in Naruto Comparison, Fans Erupt
iShowSpeed just torched two giants in one stream, dismissing Bleach before ripping Boruto as a weak heir to Naruto — and the anime fandom is erupting.
Streamer iShowSpeed tossed another grenade into anime Twitter, and this time it landed right in the middle of the Naruto/Boruto minefield. Fresh off taking shots at Bleach, he pivoted to Boruto and, well, did what Speed does: fired off a take at full volume that got the fandom arguing with itself.
"bro i've been finished that and boruto is ass cry in a river"
He posted that on December 24, 2025, after saying he finished Naruto. The pushback was instant, and not just because he dunked on Boruto. The real sore spot was using Naruto as the yardstick. That comparison is basically the entire point of Boruto's story, and it's exactly what the character is fighting against.
Why Boruto hits different (on purpose)
Boruto starts where Naruto dreamed of ending up: the kid has a family, status, and peace time Wi-Fi. He hates being treated like Naruto Jr., and the show telegraphs that frustration early. During the Chunin Exams, he cheats with a Kote tool. Not because he is helpless, but because he wants a shortcut to proving he is his own person. Naruto disqualifies him in front of everyone, which looks harsh if you only remember dad as the hug-a-villain hero, but it tracks with Naruto's core rule: you earn it, you don't borrow it.
If you only watched the anime's slower stretches, you probably bounced off the filler and slice-of-life errands. Manga readers were quick to jump in after Speed's post and point out the larger swing: Boruto is about ninjas colliding with literal cosmic threats. Once the Otsutsuki storyline gets going, it becomes 'don't lose your body, mind, or identity to alien gods' territory. The manga brings in Code and Eida, cranks up the stakes, and then the time skip into Boruto: Two Blue Vortex makes everything darker and meaner in a good way.
Key plot piece if you're out of the loop: Boruto gets the Karma seal from Momoshiki Otsutsuki. That amps his power but also turns him into a perfect vessel for Momoshiki to hijack later. So yeah, it's not just 'village exams' anymore; it's possession, memory shuffles, and planet-level consequences.
What fans told Speed
The replies on December 25–26 were a mix of 'stop grading Boruto against Naruto' and 'the anime did the manga dirty.' A common refrain: Naruto and Shippuden were once-in-a-generation emotional powerhouses, while Boruto aims for a different target by design. Several readers swore the manga, especially Two Blue Vortex, is where the series really sings, and some dropped the obvious caveat: the adaptation has not always done that material justice. Others just posted memes and called the take a career-ender, because the internet is nothing if not subtle.
Naruto vs Boruto, by the numbers
- Naruto: IMDb 8.4/10; Rotten Tomatoes 81% — Naruto Shippuden: IMDb 8.7/10; Rotten Tomatoes 86%
- Boruto: Naruto Next Generations: IMDb 6.3/10; Rotten Tomatoes 52%
- Dates to note: Speed's tweet landed December 24, 2025; most of the spirited replies rolled in December 25–26, 2025
So is Boruto bad? You can dislike it. Totally legal under anime law. But dinging it for not being Naruto is missing the assignment. Naruto was the climb from zero; Boruto is the fight to stand out when the whole world already wrote your narrative for you. Different era, different enemies, different tone. If you only watched the anime, the reputation makes sense. If you read the manga, especially Two Blue Vortex, you know the ceiling is higher than the memes suggest.
Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations are streaming on Crunchyroll.