112 Min

Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure

Director: Tsuneo Kobayashi
Writer: Masashi Kishimoto

Plot: Set two years after the Fourth Great Shinobi War, the world faces a new threat, turning to Naruto Uzumaki and his comrades to extinguish the approaching crisis following the kidnapping of Hannabi Hyuga.

You could say I have pretty much been waiting for this film for around 10 years, really ever since Naruto first started airing on Toonami. I remember getting sucked into the show immediately because of how much of a more serious and more mature tone it had compared to other shows on Cartoon Network back then. I still remember the first time I watched the first episode of the show and all the episodes to follow, with the large world and crazy amount of memorable characters it became one of my favorite shows.

Naruto and Hinata was something I figured I would never see on screen of any kind. At the time of the show it was still new to me and when I found out how many more episode there were, it seem like this story would never come to end and just keep going forever like other Anime. But years later, I was wrong gladly and we got to see them actually get together but not just in the manga but in its own movie.


This movie came out last year in Japan and just a couple of months after her in the US. But I decided to wait just a little longer for the film to come out in English so I can watch the film with the voices I associate the characters with. For most people this wouldn't matter, but for me, this was worth the wait!

The movie starts off small because this film takes place two years after the war arc and things in the world are much more peaceful than they were before. We focus mostly on Hinata as she begins to knit Naruto a scarf that was ripped apart during their childhood. She is constantly contemplating on not only giving him the scarf but also confessing her love for him as well as getting the confidence to tell him. With the help of Sakura, she is given the opportunities to get closer to Naruto but when the time comes she doesn't have the courage to do it.



But on that same night she gets attack by a group of unknown ninjas and even almost gets kidnapped by them. Naruto comes to help and takes out most of the group but it turns out that Hinata's sister was also kidnapped but unlike her they actually got away. This leads to Kakashi putting a group together to go on a mission to find her and bring her back. This team consists of Shikamaru, Sai, Sakura, Naruto, & Hinata who are put on this mission.

This is easily one of my favorite films of the year. It handles all aspects of the film perfectly and I can't actually find any problems I had in this film. It had character development and even an over arcing visual theme.



What this movie did best was the character develop of Naruto, something that has even been missing from the show as of recently. I really like how the roles were flipped where Naruto developed feeling for Hinata in a way that he had not done before. The title of the movies makes sense in the context of Naruto, because there is a point in this movie where Naruto stops being the same kid and teenager that we have known from before and essentially becomes a Man. With little glimpses of him becoming Hokage material.


The romance was handled in one of the best ways not just for Naruto but for one of the best I have ever seen in any film. What this movie did was create moments. Moments that I will remember, which something I can't say for most modern films. There wasn't any romance cliches to be found, which makes the romance in this film fell all the more real and mature. 








Now the one thing that most people have complained about was the villain of the film. Yeah he wasn't the best villain but its hard to make someone stronger and more of a threat after what having the most powerful villains of the story just prior to these events. It just can't be done in a small film, and for what we got it was pretty decent especially since that wasn't even the main focus of the story in the first place.

I loved the use of the scarf, the theme of it through out the film and even how it tied back into the flash blacks from the show. Speaking of flash backs, this was the best use of them that I've seen from any anime especially Naruto Shippuden. Unlike the shows portrayal of flash backs, here they are full of emotion and the right amount of nostalgia that will make any Naruto fan smile.






I must also mention the music, which was composed by Yasuharu Takanashi, who has been doing the Naruto Shippuden music and most the the Shippuden movies. It is great and I love how the film has a musical theme to it. Even better he remade the original Naruto theme for this film which is used at the perfect moments.

This is the first Naruto movie that I would consider an actually movie rather than just a movies based on a Anime or Manga. It goes beyond what a typical Naruto movie goes and is very satisfying through the whole film. As of right now it is my favorite Naruto film (still have yet to see Boruto yet). But if any future movies are on this quality, I will definitively be looking forward to them.

I can easily say this film will be going on my list of top movies for 2015.

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