Sasuke's Story - The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust was the best spin-off of the popular Naruto series, until the official sequel, Boruto, ruined it for many fans. The Sasuke's Story's manga was welcomed by fans with great appreciation and support. However, Sasuke's Story was then adapted in the Boruto anime before all chapters were published, which created massive spoilers for manga readers who do not follow the anime.
Sasuke's Story sits in a weird place in the Naruto franchise. It began as part of a series of spin-off light novels set a few years after the conclusion of Naruto, published in 2019 in Japan and translated in English by Viz Media in 2022. A manga adaptation made its debut in October 2022, gaining surprisingly positive reactions, proving that Sasuke, just like many other characters from the original Naruto series, is still immensely popular. In November, Sasuke's Story jumped up at number 2 in the most read manga on Manga Plus, accumulating more than eight hundred thousand views and beating series like One Piece, Dragon Ball, and My Hero Academia.
The Sasuke's Story Anime Adaptation Should Have Waited For The Manga To End
The popularity of this spin-off seemed unstoppable, to the point that an anime adaptation was announced, which started airing in January as episodes of the ongoing Boruto anime. However, this proved to be a controversial decision. The anime adaptation of Sasuke's Story began before the manga concluded, and it lasted only five episodes, from #282 to #286. Meanwhile, the manga published just two chapters, and it's still ongoing. Many fans don't watch the Boruto anime, which has often been criticized for the excessive quantity of filler episodes and the fickle quality of its animation. These fans, who wanted to simply keep reading the Sasuke's Story manga, are now surrounded by spoilers that are very hard to avoid.
Sasuke's Story's Success Shows Boruto Is Struggling
The decision to have the Boruto anime quickly adapt the entirety of Sasuke's Story without waiting for the manga to end seems hard to explain. If it wasn't for the unexpected success of the manga, these episodes of the anime would not even exist. The easiest explanation is that the popularity of Sasuke's Story was used to give a boost of confidence and viewership to the struggling Boruto anime, without concern for manga-only readers. However, this solicits a general reflection on Boruto. Despite being the official Naruto sequel, Boruto was blown away by Sasuke's Story in terms of fans' reactions, and this is a self-contained story that has little real consequences for the franchise at large.
The Sasuke's Story anime is excellent, it has good animation quality, and it stays faithful to the story. However, the decision to not wait for the manga to end first shows that Boruto is not in great shape at the moment. Hopefully, the latest chapter of the Boruto manga proves that things are already changing for the better, but for the moment Sasuke's Story remains the best Naruto sequel that fans have seen.
The latest chapter of Sasuke's Story - The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust is available from Viz Media.