<p>This is only a partial answer, which I'm posting since it seems too long for a comment: I don't know Japanese well and I haven't followed <em>Boruto</em> at all so don't know about the language used in-universe. However, I have some knowledge of kanji from knowing a modicum of Chinese.</p>

<p>To me, <em>some</em> of this writing looks close enough to recognisable kanji, albeit kanji written quickly and sloppily. (Here are some examples of such handwriting, both in Japanese and Chinese: <a href="https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/3196">1</a>, <a href="https://www.hackingchinese.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/font-feature.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2</a>. A web search for <code>messy chinese writing</code> generates some fairly good examples in Chinese. I had less luck trying to find explicitly Japanese examples from a quick search in English. Many of the results that appeared were from foreign language learners, whose bad handwriting probably resulted from lack of familiarity with kanji as a whole.) For instance, I can see something that looks like <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%A7%A3#Japanese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">解</a>, which would be referring to the solution for the problem, on the left side. I can also see 甲 come up several times, but I don't know what it would be referring to. Some of the writing also appears to be Latin/Greek characters used in maths: V<sub>x</sub> written in a cursive style is on one of the top lines of the solution.</p>

<p>I don't know if some of the writing here was drawn as meaningless scribbles, but either way, Japanese maths doesn't use a vastly different set of characters from other fields or languages. [Consider that web searches for terms such as <code>東大 数学</code> (<code>tokyo university mathematics</code>) will only generate results that look like a combination of normal maths writing and some Japanese characters.]</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-12T09:36:13.687Z
The fractions at the bottom look indeed like mostly latin characters.
ratchet freak
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-11T22:04:41.633Z
2018-11-11T22:04:41.633Z
Maroon
<p>In episode 5 of <em>Boruto</em>, we see Shino-sensei testing Boruto on "Ninja Academy Math" or something along those lines, but when I look closely at the texts, they don't seem like the usual Japanese characters to me. </p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ryIg2.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ryIg2.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>I admit that my Japanese is not good but from the numerous anime that I have watched, I feel like I can differentiate the more commonly used kanji when I see them. But then I noticed that none of the ones there are distinguishable to me. Does this have to do with Japanese math and numbers?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-12T15:55:36.097Z
I'm pretty sure it's not kanji. The numbers appear to be Arabic numbers, but I think the writing is just a made up language, because it mostly doesn't look like any Japanese that I know, even accounting for terrible handwriting.
kuwaly
<japanese-language><boruto>
Why does the text of Shino-sensei's math problems look different from normal Japanese?
# Why does the text of Shino-sensei's math problems look different from normal Japanese?
Posted by: username_0 on 2018-11-11
In episode 5 of *Boruto*, we see Shino-sensei testing Boruto on "Ninja Academy Math" or something along those lines, but when I look closely at the texts, they don't seem like the usual Japanese characters to me.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ryIg2.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ryIg2.png)

I admit that my Japanese is not good but from the numerous anime that I have watched, I feel like I can differentiate the more commonly used kanji when I see them. But then I noticed that none of the ones there are distinguishable to me. Does this have to do with Japanese math and numbers?
**Tags:** japanese-language boruto
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm pretty sure it's not kanji. The numbers appear to be Arabic numbers, but I think the writing is just a made up language, because it mostly doesn't look like any Japanese that I know, even accounting for terrible handwriting.  
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## 1 answers
### Answer by username_2 on 2018-11-11. Score: 2
This is only a partial answer, which I'm posting since it seems too long for a comment: I don't know Japanese well and I haven't followed *Boruto* at all so don't know about the language used in-universe. However, I have some knowledge of kanji from knowing a modicum of Chinese.

To me, *some* of this writing looks close enough to recognisable kanji, albeit kanji written quickly and sloppily. (Here are some examples of such handwriting, both in Japanese and Chinese: [1](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/3196), [2](https://www.hackingchinese.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/font-feature.png). A web search for `messy chinese writing` generates some fairly good examples in Chinese. I had less luck trying to find explicitly Japanese examples from a quick search in English. Many of the results that appeared were from foreign language learners, whose bad handwriting probably resulted from lack of familiarity with kanji as a whole.) For instance, I can see something that looks like [解](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%A7%A3#Japanese), which would be referring to the solution for the problem, on the left side. I can also see 甲 come up several times, but I don't know what it would be referring to. Some of the writing also appears to be Latin/Greek characters used in maths: Vx written in a cursive style is on one of the top lines of the solution.

I don't know if some of the writing here was drawn as meaningless scribbles, but either way, Japanese maths doesn't use a vastly different set of characters from other fields or languages. [Consider that web searches for terms such as `東大 数学` (`tokyo university mathematics`) will only generate results that look like a combination of normal maths writing and some Japanese characters.]
> **Comments:**
> **username_3** (2018-11-12): The fractions at the bottom look indeed like mostly latin characters.  
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