Shikamaru is a fan-favorite Naruto character who is also a prodigy. Masashi Kishimoto gave him a beautiful evolution from a lazy ‘nothing concerns me’ bum to a highly motivated Shinobi. His growth was accelerated by the death of his sensei, Asuma Sarutobi.
After some time, he recognized Naruto’s efforts for the village and decided to support him. His strategies were also highly successful in Naruto. But the character has been severely nerfed in Boruto, like many of the OG cast.
Masashi Kishimoto’s Hyped Introduction for Shikamaru in Naruto Led to His Downfall in Boruto
Asuma had discovered long ago that Shikamaru’s IQ was above 200. He received poor grades simply because he was too lazy to take any exams. It is because of Shikamaru’s intelligence in Naruto that he was assigned so many responsibilities. He can focus on the vast amount of information that is gathered and thinks ten moves ahead of his opponents by devising over a hundred strategies. Amongst these, he instinctively picks the most effective one and acts on it.
Despite his various unparalleled contributions in Naruto, he has been severely nerfed in Boruto. He has taken one bad decision after another, which will make you ask if you are still observing the same character. Now, you might think that a character can obviously make mistakes, it’s what makes them human. Of course, the other opinion is that Masashi Kishimoto intentionally nerfed the character.
A fan theory states that while Shikamaru’s occasional mistakes are understandable, it is his introduction as a brilliantly swift analyst that makes things worse for him. If not for this over-hyped introduction, his mistakes would not have been so hard-hitting. If he was not termed an outstanding genius in Naruto, his moments of poor judgement could have easily been ignored.
Shikamaru’s Biggest Mistakes in Boruto
Shikamaru tried to assist Naruto in his battle against Code; however, he was taken hostage almost immediately, which impacted Naruto negatively mid-battle. It was because of this situation that Kawaki had to ultimately reawaken his karma.
The character also engineered a moment to trap Code since he knew Code was listening in on his conversation. He also restrained Code, but the latter pulled Ada into the fray, which completely changed the tide of the battle. Shikamaru could not guess that Code could have allies ready to help him if things went awry.
Another scenario that Shikamaru should have been able to conceive is when Kawaki ran away to fight. He knew that Kawaki could erase his chakra signature, yet he didn’t come up with better ways to detect his whereabouts. There must have been some technique to keep track of Kawaki despite his chakra signature glitch.
Naruto and Boruto are available to read on Viz Media, and the anime are streaming on Crunchyroll.
