Ranked #899

Naruto Shippuuden: Gekijouban Naruto Shippuuden: Kizuna

[Note: this is a not-so-serious review, because really, the movie doesn't take itself very seriously.]

I went to the theater to see Naruto with very low expectations, in part because I've seen all the Naruto movies so far, and in part because the average age of the audience in the movie theater was 10 years old. Yes, in Japan Naruto caters to the "tween" audience, and I felt like an old lady sitting in the theater, waiting for the movie to start. I expected the movie to be "The Sasuke Movie" but...actually...I'm surprised to say, Naruto was the cool one in this movie. This instantly made it the top Naruto movie, in my humble opinion, and had the best fights of any Naruto movie so far. (I'm pretty sure next summer we'll be treated to another one.)

Story --Naruto movies are not known for their great scripts, but this one actually had some nice twists to it. Since one of the first scenes was of a smoldering Sasuke with no shirt on, I expected most of the action to be from him, but lo and behold, Naruto came through pulled some great moves during the course of the story. As there isn't much plot that the summary left out, I'll leave it at that.

Art --Also standard Naruto film style, some 3D, but not as out of place as the last movie (I thought). Mostly done on the ships, and the villain's hideout, which I hereby dub "The Castle in the Sky." The leaf ninja village seemed like it was trying to be Renaissance Italy for some reason though...

Sound --Nothing very impressive, but not at all bad. The voice acting of the movie-only characters was well done, as I normally get annoyed with the movie-only character voices.

Character --Ah, characters. Let's see, we have Sasuke as a less emo version of himself (yay), Sakura and Hinata as the still-useless-in-fights Naruto backups/fanservice objects, cameos by Kakashi, playing the role of a voice-over explanatory narrator, and Orochimaru, playing the bedridden grandmother (Sai, Neji, Shino, and Shikamaru play cameos of themselves). There's also the movie-only character Doctor and his apprentice Amaru, who gets to be the one befriended by Naruto (poor Amaru). Then then there's Naruto, slightly more mature than usual, still getting slapped around as usual, and showing tantalizing hints of becoming more hentai with each passing day...

Enjoyment --This could be high because my expectations were so low, but actually, I maintain that the awesomeness of this anime comes from when Naruto has to face, and/or use, the chakra of the nine-tails. And use it he does in this movie. It was like the Sasuke rescue-arc battle at the waterfall redone, which to me was the high point of the series. Sadly, there was also the Sasuke lipsticked-winged-monstrosity to be seen (I won't even mention the villain's cheesy "released" [to borrow a Bleach term] form), but I could take that when Naruto's busting out multiple rasengan from his clones and destroying everything in sight.

Overall, a good movie--by Naruto standards.



read more

There's a bit of action for Shikamaru and Sai when they fought some enemy soldiers while Shino managed to destroy warships with his insects. Other than that, the Konoha ninjas were practically doing nothing. Neji did saved some kids in Konoha during the initial stage of attacks though. As usual, Naruto saved the day, not that I'm complaining since my favourite character is Naruto. However, Naruto's rasengan was weak towards the enemy during the initial stage and he was being punched like a sandbag as he tried to reinstate confidence back to Amaru who was at her verge of committing suicide.

Compared to the previous Naruto Shippuuden movie, I'll prefer the earlier one's sound track to the current one. I especially dislike the music when Sasuke made his 'cool' entrance with a jazz like music, it almost makes me laugh. Other than that, the other musics are more or less adopted from anime series, like 'Douten', etc. At least there's two music from the previous movie which caught my attention, namely 'Decisive battle' and 'God's Will'.

However, there's more Naruto goodies in this current movie. Naruto made many funny expression and imitation when Amaru's teacher commented he looked like a cat and also when Naruto tried to show Amaru how Iruka, Kakashi and Jiraiya were like. There's also some scenes which make my yaoi blood boils when the Amaru-transformed demon slapped Sakura away to grab Naruto. During Naruto's part when he fought the enemy in the initial stage, there's also parts when the enemy crept up close behind Naruto, slammed him to the throne like chair (see picture) and also pulled Naruto close by grabbing his arm.

Plot-wise, it is as empty as the previous Shippuuden movie when Naruto fights as the only main character, being the only friend to the main female characters in the movies while other Konoha ninjas slutted around, doing little or practically nothing. The absorption of dark emotion of the villagers to transform them into power reminds me of some Inuyasha manga plotlines. The importance of the stolen scroll has also been diminished in the movie, making it more like a vague excuse for the invasion of Konoha which lasts less than 5 minutes.

Don't be mislead by the trailer onlines. Initially, I thought Naruto and Sakura were upset over the absence of Sasuke during the invasion of their village. After watching the movie, it turns out that Naruto and Sakura did not even bother whether Sasuke was involved in the battle at all. In fact, ONLY Naruto and the main villain noticed Sasuke's appearance at the last quarter of the movie. It was after Naruto's meeting and fighting alongside with Sasuke that he told Sasuke he would one day take him back to Konoha (the part was a bit touching as Naruto was, like, prepared to sacrifice his own life to destroy the floating city until Amaru grabbed him in the air and Jiraiya saved them both with Bunta's tummy). Sasuke did not communicate much with Naruto who tried throughout the fighting process to talk to him. Orochimaru was like a sick old granny waiting for his grandchild's return while Kabuto was like his personal maid. read more