Boruto: Naruto Next Generations fans believe that Lisa, a member of K-Pop girl group BLACKPINK, inspired the character design for Eida.
Per Anime Senpai, Boruto fans are posting comparisons between the cyborg villain and the Thai K-Pop singer all over social media. A tweet shows Eida posing like Lisa. Another tweet shows Eida copying Lisa’s style on the cover of Boruto Vol. 15. There are more tweets showing how Eida looks like Lisa.
Mikio Ikemoto is a Japanese illustrator working on Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. Prior to making the 2016 sequel series, Ikemoto was Masashi Kishimoto’s main assistant for the Naruto manga. Ikemoto worked with Kishimoto on Naruto from 1999 to 2014. Currently, there is no official comment from Ikemoto or any of the Boruto staff to confirm fan suspicions that Lisa inspired Eida .
Comic artists use famous people for reference
While the connection between villain Boruto Eida and real-life singer Lisa may seem odd, it’s not uncommon for artists to use celebrities as references for their characters. For example, the late Japanese actors Yūsaku Matsuda, Kunie Tanaka, and Bunta Sugawara were the basis for the designs of naval admirals Kuzan (Aokiji), Borsalino (Kizaru) and Sakazuki (Akainu) from One Piece. Matsuda’s appearance also inspired Kenshiro’s character designs from Fist of the North Star, as well as Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop.
This is not the first time that the anime and K-Pop communities have clashed with each other. After the controversial decision to remove Kim Jiwoo from girl group LOONA, a fan showed support for the idol by re-imagining her as Chainsaw Man. An album by Bocchi the Rock outsold real-life K-Pop bands Stray Kids and NCT Dream on the Billboard Japan album chart for Top Downloaded Albums. K-pop also inspired illustrations by manga artist Mirei Hiranishi, the author of The Girl Who Can’t Have a Girlfriend.
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is available now on streaming services like Crunchyroll and Hulu. Viz Media handles the English release of the manga.
Source: Twitter, via Anime Senpai
