The original creator of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto is going to be taking over the writing of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

The change in staff was announced on the official Twitter for the Naruto and Boruto manga series. In the tweet, the current writer Ukyo Kodachi was thanked for his work over the past 51 chapters and welcomed original creator Masashi Kishimoto back to the franchise beginning with chapter 52.

You can read the official Twitter announcement below.

About the manga “Boruto
With the 52nd episode of “Boruto” to be published in the December issue of V Jump (on sale November 21), the production team will be changing as planned.
I would like to thank Mr. [Kodachi] for all his hard work on the script so far.
From now on, we will continue to work on the series based on Masashi Kishimoto’s original plan.

Translation: DeepL

Currently Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is illustrated by Mikio Ikemoto. It’s unknown at the time of publishing if Masashi Kishimoto will return to doing the artwork as he did on Naruto or if he will simply be writing future chapters.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations takes place after the events of the original Naruto series and follows the exploits of Boruto, the son of Naruto and Hinata. Other characters include Sarada Uchiha, the daughter of Sakura and Sasuke, and the mysterious boy Mitsuki.

Kishimoto’s latest series Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru ended in March 2020 and with no current projects Kishimoto now has time to dedicate to the Boruto series.

Ukyo Kodachi is also the story supervisor for the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations anime series. It’s unknown if this change in staff for the manga will result in Kishimoto taking the helm of the anime series as well.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is published in English in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Image: VIZ