They are just aliens who are not subject to any rules.
Summary:
- The Otsutsuki Clan was introduced in the late stages of the original Naruto series.
- They slowly became one of the main threats in Boruto.
- They aren’t interesting as characters, and they don’t fit into the world.
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations hasn’t been a very popular sequel. Especially among older Naruto fans, it has a poor reputation. Many say it ruins the beloved characters of the original and has generally lackluster worldbuilding — the rapid technological progress of Konoha being the most notorious example.
However, it’s not just changing the old aspects of the series that makes Boruto such a bad sequel. Some of the new things introduced in Boruto are also bad — the main example is the Otsutsuki Clan, one of the main antagonists of the series.
Otsutsuki Clan Was Actually Introduced
Initially, Kaguya Otsutsuki appeared as the final antagonist of Naruto (her children shared her surname, too). That already was a controversial decision, as the final arc ended up just replacing the main villain with a stronger one not once, but twice. Still, there was nothing that implied there were more threats like her — until a certain movie came out.
Another Otsutsuki Clan member was seen in Naruto: The Last — which is still considered one of the best Naruto movies, as it closes out the story of Naruto and Hinata.
While its canon status is questionable, the Otsutsuki Clan was technically introduced there, though we didn’t get a good glimpse at them or their abilities. We then saw two more of them in the Boruto movie from 2015.
They Contradict the Previously Established Lore
In the Boruto series, however, we learn way more about them. Apparently, they are a clan of aliens from outer space (yes, really) who can travel through worlds and eat others’ life energy. This is already a weird concept for something like Naruto, and it gets even worse.
There are pretty much no rules when it comes to the abilities of the Otsutsuki Clan members. They are weird and break all the existing concepts of the world, which makes sense, since they are aliens, but it still doesn’t feel natural to the story.
Most villains in Naruto — especially Akatsuki — still operate within the rules of the world, even if they push the limits quite often.
It feels like the Otsutsuki are really cheap and uninteresting villains. Even though we had a clan with varied powers — Sharingans of the Uchiha clan were all different, too — it doesn’t really feel like that, either. The villains in Boruto are allowed to break the rules of the world and do whatever, and that makes the series much worse for many readers and watchers.