Boruto's Dad

About

Boruto’s Dad is a comical way of referring to Naruto Uzumaki, the lead character in the Manga and Anime series Naruto& Naruto Shippūden, as Naruto is the father of Boruto Uzumaki, the lead character in Boruto: Naruto the Movie and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

Origin

On Aug 12th, 2017, Crunchyroll Tweeted out a message^[1] saying:

We’ve expanded availability for the original Naruto series!! Users in more countries around the 🌏 can enjoy the early days of BORUTO’S DAD🍥

The message refers to a spin-off anime called Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is currently airing. It’s possible Crunchyroll believed fans of this show would be more familiar with Boruto than Naruto.

Spread

Shortly after that post, many fans bristled at the idea that Naruto and all his accomplishments were for nothing more than to be known as Boruto’s Dad. One of the top responses to Crunchyroll’s tweet comes from @that_kiddo,^[2] who tweeted "Naruto did not go through all that he did just be known as ’Boruto’s dad’, along with a Drew Scanlon ReactionGIF, gaining over 670 retweets (shown below).

This led to various jokes within the fandom about the “Boruto’s Dad” slight in which scenes from Naruto are edited to have characters call Naruto “Boruto’s Dad.” Other users replied to Crunchyroll’s tweet with jokes in this manner; one of the most popular, posted by @xDPDx^[4] features such a joke, and gained over 1,300 retweets (shown below).

On August 15th, a thread on /r/Naruto^[3] posted by erraticcat quoted Crunchyroll’s tweet and offered alternative titles to Naruto series, such as “Boruto’s dad shippudden, boruto’s dad the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, the last: boruto’s dad the movie, boruto: boruto’s dad the movie.” The post gained 299 points. On August 16th, Crunchyroll appeared to poke fun at the controversy in a tweet advertising a new episode (shown below).