Series: Naruto Shippuden Box Set 3
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 325 mins
Director: Hayato Date
Starring: Chie Nakamura, Junko Takeuchi, Noriaki Sugiyama, Akira Ishida, Hideo Ishikawa
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Naruto Shippuden Box Set 3 focuses on the continuing adventures of Naruto and Team Kakashi in the mature sequel to the original long-running Naruto anime. Picking up from episode 27 in season one, Impossible Dream, and running through to episode 39 in season two, Tenchi Bridge, this thirteen episode DVD box set highlight Starz’s attempt to transferring Naruto’s incredible popularity in Japan to the UK by focusing on the more adult adventures of the Kazekage gang.
Naruto and Kakashi Sensei are still on the hunt of Deidara, who is carrying Gaara’s prone body. Meanwhile, Sasori and Sakura are at lethal loggerheads, with Granny Chiyo caught in the middle. Sasori perishes, but not before letting slip that he arranged to meet a spy at Tenchi Bridge in ten days time.
The members of Team Guy are still battling their clones, and finally triumph with an unusual strategy. Kakashi uses his inter-dimensional warping technique, Mangekyo Sharingan, on Deidara but only succeeds in displacing his arm. However, this is sufficient for Naruto to retain Gaara’s body.
With Gaara seemingly dead, the group begin to mourn their loss. Granny Chiyo, seeing Naruto’s grief at the loss of his comrade, decides to use a Life-Transfer jutsu to resurrect Gaara. Once Gaara is revived, Chiyo dies whilst remembering her training and passing down her wisdom and teachings to Naruto. Simultaneously, in Konoha, the mysterious Danzo briefs Sai on his covert mission working for Team Kakashi.
Back at the Leaf Village, Lady Tsunade fights for Naruto’s right to be a member of Team Kakashi. Kakashi himself is recuperating in the infirmary after using such a powerful jutsu, so the calm but dangerous Yamato is recruited as Team Leader in his absence, and Sai added to the team in order to go to Tenchi Bridge and potentially confront Orochimaru. Sai and Naruto are immediate enemies, and Yamato and Sakura must do all in their power to keep the team together as the Tenchi Bridge confrontation draws nearer…
Naruto Shippuden Box Set 3 covers both the end of the Gaara hostage story arc, and the start of the new Team Kakashi story arc. Of the two, it is certainly the second which holds the interest more, providing more adult content in terms of political manoeuvring behind the scenes in the Leaf Village, and character heavy content, as the new additions to the main cast, Yamato, Sai and Danzo, clash to varying degrees with our established favourites like Naruto and Tsunade.
Disc one covers the end of season one, with episode 27, Impossible Dream, being set mainly in one location, with the standoff between Chiyo, Sakura and Sasori reaching its violent conclusion. A three-hander episode, it is impressively handled by director Date, and has a satisfying payoff with Sasori’s fate. In contrast, the next episode skips between scenes at a hyper speed, as various members of Team Guy battle their clones. This episode really shows off the animators’ skill, as the battles reach their climax simultaneously in a thrilling conclusion – although the solution that Neji comes up with in order to triumph is stretching the limits of credibility even by Naruto’s standards. However, there is plenty of fighting here to keep the more action-orientated fans happy.
Episode 30, Aesthetics Of An Instant, is the highlight of these backend of season one episodes, with emotion and action not only balanced perfectly, but also in a restrained fashion - a problem that has plagued both Naruto Shippuden and its earlier incarnation. The scene where Granny Chiyo sacrifices herself for Gaara is a genuine tearjerker, and it also heralds the return of the large Kazekage group scenes, a narrative feature that Naruto does so well, if, unfortunately, so rarely.
Sadly, the final three episodes of the season – and story arc – suffer by comparison, as they also have nowhere to go plot-wise, and the writers can be accused of treading water until the Kazekage return to the Leaf Village. However, the last five minutes of season one is a real treat for both longstanding Naruto fans and newcomers, with both the return of old favourites, such as Shino, Kiba and Akamaru, and a cliffhanger season-ending battle which utilises fantastic paintbrush animation surely inspired by the computer game Okami.
However, it is with the introduction of the Naruto surveillance and new Team Kakashi story arc at the start of season two that the narrative really shifts up a gear. Naruto has always relied on its older characters to add a bit of dramatic weight to proceedings, and with Lady Tsunade, Yamato and Danzo getting in on the action, there is a great deal more political intrigue and Machiavellian motivation going on to please the more mature Naruto fan. The instant dislike between Sai and Naruto is expected but entertaining nonetheless, but it does lead to a cringing ‘rapport building’ episode set in a Japanese bath house, which is the worst of these batch of episodes by a long distance due to the high comedy content - not a genre which the Naruto writers are adept at on this showing. The overall tone in these season two episodes is a lot darker than those preceding it, which bodes well for the future of this more adult TV sequel.
The intro music and animation is decent, and does get you excited for the show to a reasonable degree, but doesn’t hold a candle to other anime efforts such as Death Note and Full Metal Alchemist. The animation throughout is of a high standard, with the battle scenes infrequent but well done.
DVD extras are sparse, with just production art and trailers available. One final note: stick to the subtitles, as the dubbing is reliably awful.
Naruto Shippuden is shaping up nicely judging by this volume of episodes. Whilst still aimed squarely at the early teen market, older anime fans may find the increased adult content piques their interest. Long-time Naruto fans will no doubt be in heaven. If slightly more effort had been made with the DVD presentation and extras, this set would have been indispensable. As it is, it is merely recommended.
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