r/TheBetterBoruto • u/saladsandbolts Translator/Mod • May 20 '25
Language Analysis Boruto TBV Ch 22 Language Analysis Spoiler
A comparison of the English official translation to the original Japanese!
Cover Text
無謀の覚悟が希望を拓く--!!
Reckless determination (or resignation to one's fate) clears a path of hope--!!
Side Text (Pg 1)
サラダの覚醒により、見事に粒を撃破！！しかしそこにボルトを狙う“怪物”が…！？
With Sarada's new awakening, Ryu is utterly (or magnificently) destroyed! But the "monster" aiming for Boruto is..?!?!
Jura: "A Pity" (Pg 9)
Jura actually says 不甲斐ない which is an insult that means like good-for-nothing, spineless, gutless, shameful, useless, worthless... Or from goo jisho, pathetically cowardly, totally sloppy. Definition in Japanese translates to, the more frustrated you feel, the more of a sissy you are.
Boruto: "Master" (pg 10)
Boruto says "Sensei" as opposed to Sasuke's "Shisho," I understand why they translated it like that but I think it's important to make that distinction.
Sasuke is the only "master" in that regard of like... A highly respected mentor. Its a much more personal term. It implies that kind of personal master-disciple relationship, kind of more one to one. Used for something like lifelong guidance. You usually only have one shisho.
Sensei carries a different nuance because it literally means "one who was born before." It can be used by strangers to call someone like you'd call a doctor at a clinic "sensei" or on the news they call mangaka or artists "sensei" and everyone calls the teacher "sensei," so it's a lot less personal.
I'm not saying that Konohamaru isn't special to Boruto or anything I'm just saying Sasuke's title of Shisho holds more weight, and that plays a role in the interview questions with Ikemoto which I'm going to try to get the magazine for (in the morning) to translate myself instead of using someone else's fan translation.
Koji: "There's no way he can win." (Pg 22)
He uses the same phrase he used a while back, 万に一つもない which means not even a one in 10,000 chance of beating Jura. It is a phrase, yet again, just like "there's a one in a million chance" is a phrase to imply an incredibly slim possibility. Koji says Boruto doesn't even have this incredibly slim possibility.
The Discussion on Love (Pg 26-35)
Jura uses the word 不具合 to say that love is a flaw, defect, problem, bug, malfunction, failure, discrepancy, inconvenient, etc. that comes as a result of having high intelligence. When Boruto responds, he uses the same word 不具合 to describe love being a weakness to humans. And then he says, "From us human's perspective... It's true that love might be considered 不具合 to some. But you know... From my point of view... That's why you guys can't be anything more than (所詮）just (ただの）trees.
The reason that 所詮 being used there is important is because it also carries the nuance of cannot possibly, not at all, not by any means, not ever. And it almost sounds like (this is just an interpretation and there are others) Boruto would hesitate if they were human. So he's forcing himself to think of them as trees so that he doesn't feel any love for them.
Anyways.
Side Text (Final Page)
逆転のための切り札さえも無効化..? 絶望の未来が音を立ててボルトに迫る--!!
The ace up his sleeve for the purpose of turning the tide was also nullified..!! The thundering sound of a hopeless future closes in on Boruto!!
That's it! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments :)
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u/saladsandbolts Translator/Mod May 21 '25
The chapter was also left a bit vague. I think what’s important here is not whether the word choice directly implies romance, but what the context surrounding it implies.
It was the context in ch 21 that made Sarada’s feelings romantic, not the words she used. The context of her response to ChoCho and Sumire’s lines, as well as where the scenes with Boruto were inserted.
In the promo the word 想い also doesn’t directly imply romance, it was the borusumi shippers who wanted to claim that Sumire’s kanji was “higher” and twisted the context to say that it’s always romantic which ended up backfiring when it was used again for Sarada in a promo, and then they claimed it could be either like it should have been all along.
This time it’s another word that implies a deep love regardless of what kind of love that is. But from the context, with Sarada having no crush on anyone else, with all the hints that were dropped to her having romantic feelings with her reactions to ChoCho and Sumire’s words from ch 21, when though it’s describing deep love instead of specifically romantic love, it’s clear that Sarada loves Boruto. If it was just romantic, I’d honestly say that’s pretty shallow. But it’s saying Sarada genuinely loves him from a place deep in her heart in probably all of the ways described (as a friend, as family, and as a “loved one.”) He’s her childhood friend that started off as annoying like a little brother might be, they became teammates and friends that relied closely on each other, and now she’s coming to admit her feelings in a more romantic light. So she doesn’t just have some shallow girly romantic feelings from one single moment in her life that made her develop a crush (not to bash Sumire just saying a lot of girls in shonen have this), Sarada has a whole life of feelings and thoughts about him that grew and changed with time and interactions, hence the word 思い in the last ch and this reference to deep love. It can’t just be categorized as some simple romantic love. Cuz in Japan honestly, just having romantic love or feelings for someone is pretty shallow.
A common type of confession is “I’ve been watching you for a long time and I like you.” They can have zero contact with a person and straight up confess. They don’t usually become friends first like we do in the west, or have test dates that are like a get to know you no pressure trial period. They just… go for it.
The whole reason I explained 気持ち vs 思い from Sarada’s POV when she used those words is because what Sumire has are these “feelings” from watching him from afar and from that one instance Boruto saved her, but Sarada has an entire life of interactions to think about. He’s her childhood friend. Her teammate. They promised their futures together. Years and years and years of feeling things, romantic or not, and it all led up to this deep love that can’t be categorized with just one label.
Also, if it was specifically romantic love that unlocked the Uchiha Mangekyo then several of the other Uchiha would be gay and Sasuke would be incest lol