As the first season of the Boruto anime wraps up, fans of the English dub in the West find themselves in a familiar predicament. The flow of information from Japanese producers to Western distributors, and ultimately to the audience, has been sparse. Consequently, details about the future availability of Boruto’s English dubbed episodes for streaming are scarce.
The journey of the Boruto English dub has been fraught with challenges. Fans have endured various hurdles including restarts, contractual changes, and streaming issues. Factors contributing to these difficulties include unexpectedly low viewership in Western markets, shaky global distribution agreements, and significant delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, all of which have hindered the dub’s accessibility to its audience.
Current Status of the English Dubbed Episodes
Initially, Adult Swim aired the first 52 episodes of Boruto in English on Toonami, but later removed the series from its lineup. Despite starting with only about a 50-episode lag behind the Japanese version, the English dub has faced delays due to a combination of VIZ Media’s home-release scheduling and the pandemic, slowing its progress significantly.
However, there are signs of improvement. In 2023, VIZ Media managed to release two box sets, each containing 21 dubbed episodes. As a result, dubbed episodes up to number 231 are now available. Typically, Boruto box sets include 13 episodes and are priced between $45 and $50, but the recent sets have each featured 21 episodes.
Online streaming services have begun to accelerate the release of these dubbed episodes. As of the latest update, the most recent box set from VIZ Media was issued in June 2023. Predicting the release schedule for future dubbed episodes remains challenging.
Streaming Options for the Boruto English Dub
Fans continue to face difficulties in streaming the English dubbed episodes of Boruto, despite VIZ’s ongoing releases, which currently include episodes up to the “Otsusuki Awakening” arc. Limited availability of episodes on various platforms, often due to licensing constraints, has led some viewers to incorrectly assume that production has stopped.
Hulu, owned by Disney, has particularly been a source of frustration for fans seeking the English dub. Despite starting its release in January 2021, Hulu has been slow to update its library and as of 2023, offers only episodes up to number 155, titled “Mitsuki’s Rainy Day”.
Funimation subscribers worldwide have also experienced inconsistencies, with reports of the addition and removal of certain Boruto episodes. This is likely due to Funimation’s acquisition of Madman and the subsequent elimination of AnimeLab, resulting in an erratic presence of dubbed episodes. Crunchyroll, on the other hand, does not offer any English dubs of Boruto.
In summary, out of the 294 episodes of Boruto Season 1 that have been dubbed, only 231 are currently available, and Hulu offers just 155 of these. English-speaking fans looking to stream the series will have to patiently await the release of the remaining 139 episodes to complete their viewing of Season 1.
