Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 6 - Road to Ninja

Have you ever seen a Naruto movie before? Yes? Good.
Do you have the intention of watching this movie thinking it'll be something new? Yes? Alright, I want you to open a new tab and search up in Google, a montage of the "Best scenes" from this movie. Said montage will inevitably contain the much-talked about bath scene involving all the AU characters, a few scenes involving Naruto and his parents (perhaps Sakura if the person is a fan of that pairing), and his fight with the movie's big baddy (whom I won't spoil just in case, although if you don't know by now I doubt ... you actually cared about this movie much).

Do it, truly, come on. I'll be waiting.

Done? Congratulations, you do not need to see this movie anymore.

No, I am not kidding. You've seen all this movie has to offer; You do not need to bother with it anymore.

I am being as frank as I can be: This is what people for buying into it. No matter what they promise, it's always the same -- Their promise and promotion were bullshit, and ultimately it's another rasengan/shadow clone wank fest. It happened with the second movie when they promised us that Sasuke would be an integral part of it (He was barely there in the end), when they promised us that Minato would play a big role in the fourth movie (He was pointless to the story), it happened with the fifth movie (Or so I'm told, I was not following this one so I am not completely certain what was the case here), and now it happened with this, and will probably happen to the 2014 movie too.

Literally, the movie has no story; It's a holding pattern -- Naruto gets sad then something happens (he goes into the AU with Sakura), they faff about for like an hour, then the movie's bad guy pops in out of nowhere and with no explanation, ending with Naruto using a bunch of Rasengan and Shadow Clone and doing the whole "believe in myself" thing (Although, to it's credit, this one didn't end up with Naruto rasenganing the bad guy's ass, but rather with a fist fight, so there's that), even though said bad guy had previously nuked ENTIRE VILLAGES to ashes with a cough and the only reason he didn't vanish him out of existence with another nuke is because the movie didn't wanted him to.

And, the biggest offender is that this wouldn't even be so bad if the movie wasn't so fucking AFRAID to go out of its comfort zone despite this being virtually an entire new canvas for work -- The much anticipated (and HEAVILY advertised) personality switches mean absolutely NOTHING to the story or plot and the explanations for them are entirely nonexistent, something that also wouldn't all too bad (it certainly wouldn't be good, but yeah), if it wasn't for the fact that they're literally only there for (Legitimately) FIVE MINUTES (ten, max); Naruto and Sakura get in the AU and immediately find Team 8 (Hinata, who now is mean and bitchy and one of the few characters with clothing switches, and Kiba and Shino who look the same and behave the same except instead being good with dogs and bugs, respectively, they're now bad with them), they runaway and find team 10 (Ino, who now is shy and soft spoken, and Chouji and Shikamaru who essentially switched personalities, Chouji now being fit and stoic and Shikamaru being hyper active and dumb, although not fat, funnily enough), then Sasuke (Whom, despite now being a "playboy", is also basically the same outside of that, and this is literally pointed out by Naruto himself, plus a completely clothing switch), then that bath scene (No explanation is given for why they go there) where upon the last team shows up in medias res (Team Guy, compossing of Neji, who now is perverted and lacking in discipline, and Lee and Tenten who are the same except Tenten is now clumsy with weapons and Lee is a, well, I won't spoil just because the reveal of that makes for one of the better scenes in the movie), some faffing goes on before Hinata spots his cousin spying on the girls, causing her to get angry and attempt to beat him up until Lee shows up out of nowhere by falling through the ceiling (Much the same way he did in the manga preview, since the scene is essentially a reinacting of that with the personality switches), he runs away, they chase him ending in an actually pretty humorous scene, and then... They're gone. Literally. They just disappear, completely. They're not mentioned or seen ever again, with two exceptions: Shino, for no reason other than to show off his new found disdain for bugs (Him also being the second character to show no signs of change in the previous scene), and Sasuke who shows up two more times, one to give Sakura a flower (Which was in the trailer) and another where upon he flirts with some more girls causing Sakura to realize she's not a special case to him and making her sad.

The rest is entirely going through the motions; Sad scenes with Naruto's parents (some of which are, admittedly, fairly poignant), who are also exactly the same with the exception of one trait that I won't spoil, a bunch of pretty damn useless fights and missions, and then the ultimate bad guy shows up, destroying the village and ending in a long fight with Naruto, before he goes back to his world because he doesn't want to be there anymore.

And, I'm saying all of this with a pain, because this movie was one of thing that sparkled back my interest with the Naruto fandom (Where upon I got a lot of friends that I'm quite grateful for, even though I don't quite follow the series anymore those people keep me tangled back to it), and I really did wanted it to be good; I love its concept, I truly loved AU Hinata and the bad guy especially, and for the most part, while the animation is nothing outstanding, it's nice and pretty, a good treat for the eyes, ESPECIALLY on high resolution. But concept can never make up for lacking execution, and what the execution gave us was a reskinning of an already done movie with a more than questionable marketing campaign. Also, contrary to popular belief, the creator of the series, Kishimoto, didn't actually write this whole movie, he just designed the alternative characters and a few touches on the script and plot line, for the most part this was done entirely by the same thing that has brought us the same movies from before and that "Gold mine" of filler which makes the anime such a classic.

Admittedly, this does make it a little less sad considering that if it really was written and done by him and this is all he could do then it would tell you just how much wasted potential this series has had to suffer.

Still, all in all, what we have here is nothing more than a reskinned retread. There's nothing wrong with retreads, many forms of art have been essentially retreads of old formulas in order to explore new ideas, and, to a small (Literally microscopic) degree, this does explore new ideas. But at the end, we're still watching the same shit we've already seen with some added scenes of silly "what ifs" that amount to little more than "what could've been".

I don't believe in scores, but I have to rate this, so I'll just go with 5 because it's in the middle.

2012 Film overseen by Masashi Kishimoto
Directed by Hayato Date
6th Shippuuden Movie & 9th Naruto movie overall.
Review from my POV (w/personal biases)
(Sp)oiler Lite.

PROS/What I Liked about the Film:
+ On paper, this seemed to me like a very appealing premise. Main villain constructs new technique to use on Naruto, where he (and Sakura) are put in what essentially is Topsy-Turvy Town/OppositeVille/A "reversed" Konoha so to speak. like a badass "what if?" episode
+ Speaking of reversed everything, I personally thought that some of the humor worked well for some characters (Sp) Energetic Kakashi and "old man" Guy," Don Draper" Sasuke and "Flowers of Evil" Rock Lee, etc.
+ 1 ... or 2 aesthetically appealing action scenes, particularly in the climax.

CONS/What I didn't like:
- The "reversed" effect is treated as a gimmick. Superficial at best.
- Other supporting characters didn't bode so well with me (Sp) Hinata is excessively aggressive for no apparent reason. Some of the "cool" characters are turned into dweebs.
- For a movie, it feels like a bottle episode. There's only 3 set pieces.
- The theme of "Family" feels more forced than natural
- (Sp) (personal) "Menma"? WTF is this, AnoHana? Cmon man, use a better name.

Final Note:
Although it had a good concept, it was executed poorly. Ultimately, this feels like above average filler with a budget.

Recommends to:
Those who like the Bizzaro world concept
Fans of Naruto.

You know I just reviewed the last Naruto movie a few hours ago and I thought I wasn't going to review this movie until a few days later. However, I can't do it. The issues with this movie need to be addressed and I'm going to do it now.

Now let me by fair by saying that the plot actually had something going for it and although it wasn't executed that well it also wasn't executed terribly. Naruto and Sakura get transported to an alternate universe created by Tobi where everything is the opposite of what it was, Naruto's parents are alive ... while Sakura's are dead (I'll get to that later). They fight the main villain (which was actually a pretty good twist in my opinion) and get back home. The story itself was kind of good. I think the best part about this movie was truly understanding how lonely Naruto is. When he walked into his dark empty apartment and saw that he had no one to greet him when he got home, I couldn't help but feel for the kid. Hell, I almost cried for him.

Now let's get to the flaws

1. The alternate characters. Everyone is different in this universe. Some of these were done kind of creatively like Hinata being aggressive, Ino being soft spoken, Kakashi being energetic, while others were given no thought whatsoever like Kiba being bad with dogs (ok but if you hate dogs then why is Akamaru still with you?) , Shino hating bugs, and Lee being a…..cross dresser I guess? Even Sasuke is back and he's turned into a complete ladies man. Now here's the problem with the reverse character traits, they're too extreme. In the normal universe, the character traits are strong enough that you notice them but they're not portrayed so often that they seem overbearing. In this case, the alternate traits are so extreme that it's like they're screaming "LOOK WE'RE DIFFERENT!". I'm actually kind of glad that we only see them for 5 minutes because I was getting sick of them real quick.

2. As much as I liked the whole "Naruto has no parents" theme, I hate the way they introduced it. So the movie starts with Naruto and friends taking down the Akatsuki members they already defeated (how they were able to do this remains a mystery but I'm just gonna move on). When they all get back to the village they're instantly praised by their parents, besides Naruto for obvious reasons. This seemed like a setup to me. It's like all the parents got together and said "hey let's go and praise our kids in front of the one who doesn't have any". It just seemed far too coincidental and harsh to me. They were also saying how they were going to recommend that all of them get promoted to Jonin. Well what about Naruto? You're just gonna leave him behind? This entire segment could've been done way better.

3. Sakura. Okay listen, if you're a big fan of Sakura you need to leave this review right now because I'm about to go on a huge rant that Sakura lovers won't like. You have been warned. RANT MODE: ACTIVATED. This girl is easily the worst part of this movie. I could go on and on about how I hate her in the show but I'm gonna keep it focused to this movie. Let's start from the beginning. So everyone's getting praised by their parents but instead Sakura decides to have an argument with hers. Naruto tries to politely calm her down but she turns and yells at him for no reason at all. STRIKE ONE. Later that night she finds Naruto, takes him to the park and then proceeds to complain about how hard her life is because her parents are so annoying. Really? You're going to complain how hard it is to live with your parents to someone who never even knew his own? STIKE TWO. After Naruto finally decides to tell her to calm down she gets even angrier and starts yelling at Naruto again. Then she goes on to say "Sasuke would understand". REALLY? The guy who's parents died when he was a kid, the guy who's entire clan was killed, the guy who tried to kill you, would understand what you're going through right now? That has to be the most insensitive, disrespectful, and overall dumbest thing I have ever heard in an anime. STRIKES THREE FOUR AND FIVE. At this point her character was ruined for me. It didn't matter what she did, I was going to hate her for the rest of the film. But wait, it gets worse. When Sakura realizes that her parents are dead in this alternate reality does she feel mournful like any normal human would? Of course not. Instead she gets all happy and runs off to do whatever the hell she wants that her parents never allowed. Alright, we've all had arguments with our parents and we've all gotten angry but none of us, not even in an alternate reality, would ever be happy if we found out that they're dead. So after a few days, when she finally grows a heart and wants her parents back, she decides that she finally wants to go home. However, she sees that Naruto is really happy with his alternate parents and really begins to understand how lonely he is in the real world. I thought that she was going to go out with a high note but she doesn't. Long story short Naruto and Sakura get back to the real world and Sakura's parents show up. She hugs them and tells them how stupid and heartless she was and they forgive her. Here come's the problem. Naruto asks Sakura if they could hang out for a bit to which Sakura basically says "Haven't I hung out with you enough for one night? Let me hang out with my parents". Wow this guy sacrificed a life with parents for you and that's how you treat him. I understand you missed them but you have forever to talk to yours, Naruto only interacted with his for a couple days (a few hours if you count the time when he was actually nice to them). The least you can do is walk him home or say "look Naruto I know it's hard with no parents but I want you to know you have friends and you're like family to all of us". That would've been the right thing to do but no instead she tells him to get lost.

I apologize for the long rant but it just shows how one character can completely throw off the vibe for an entire movie. If Sakura was more sympathetic, if the side characters weren't so annoying and actually did something, and if the plot was revised a tad bit I think this movie would've been awesome. But the way it is now, I know I'll probably never watch it again.

**THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS**

From what I am able to see this movie has been rated to be the second best Naruto movie with its score but I can say that this is far from the truth.

Story: (4/10)

The story of Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 6 - Road to Ninja begins with a retelling of Minato and the Kyuubi. It then skips to the present with Naruto and his team fighting the revived versions of the Akatsuki and after the Akatsuki retreat Naruto and Sakura meet Tobi (Obito) who then sends them into a different world were everyone has the opposite personalities and now Naruto ... and Sakura must find a way to get back to their own world. I found many problems with this story. One of them would be how all the characters from Konoha in the beginning of the movie all act like dicks to Naruto for no apparent reason and as well as the characters bringing up to event of becoming a jounin which the parents of the ninja have to give a recommendation letter in order for that to happen and that pretty much is rubbing it in Naruto's face that he has no parents. This with the combination of how his parents are alive in the opposite world causes a clear view of how the movie will end up. There was a twist that was added into the story that I was able to see from a mile away. The opposite personality gimmick gets old very quickly and the predictability of the movie just ends up making it boring.

Art and Animation: (5/10)

The art was very average and there was nothing very visually appealing about it. The animation was good with the explosions that were happening all the time and action scenes keeping the viewer interested in it.

Sound: (5/10)

There is nothing memorable about the soundtrack in this movie with just some generic music. The voice actors all did a good job like always.

Characters: (4/10)

Even though people would say that the characters are the best part about the movie, I thought that characters were all a jumbled mess. The positives about the characters is that showed some of the problems Naruto and Sakura had to go through and the opposite personalities of the other characters were fun to see at first. This is one of the first times were Naruto has been a useless character because he throughout the movie does nothing to help everybody and when he actually tries he messes up and gets somebody else hurt which is what Naruto doesn't do because he is usually the one that gets hurt for somebody else. Naruto also acted very whiny throughout it too until the ending. Like I said before the opposite personality thing gets old fast and gets pushed aside. What I mean about them getting old fast is how that their opposite personality is the only defining feature that they will have throughout the movie and won't have anything deeper added to them other than that and they get pushed aside in the movie very quickly in the movie which just makes them seem that they didn't contribute anything to the story. I didn't get why Tobi sent them to a different world in the first place even though I'm sure that at that time Tobi could have easily overpowered Naruto and would have taken the kyuubi power from him and wouldn't have to go through the whole ordeal of taking him to a different world.

Enjoyment: (5/10)

The fighting scenes were nice to look at and there was some interesting conflicts shown.

Overall: (5/10)

Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 6 - Road to Ninja is a movie that had potential to be an interesting movie but it had too many things that held it back.

They did it. They finally fucking did it. This is a real, actual movie with real, actual stakes for the characters and without a fucking escort mission. It's not even half bad!

The theme they picked (Yes! A real, actual theme!) was the dangers of taking our relationships for granted. I don't relate to it super well, because my parents were awful, but I liked the direction for Naruto. The scenes with his folks were excellent. The bits they allowed Sakura to have with her parents were nice, too.

Sakura gets the short end of the stick, as expected. Despite participating in the isekai plot as much ... as Naruto, it felt like she had far fewer scenes. That was a shame because it didn't have her engage much with the loneliness without her parents that we would expect to see. But it was there. I would have preferred that she actively confront the mirror world's Sasuke over his womanizing, but that would be a dangerous sort of scene that I wouldn't necessarily trust the Naruto team to pull off well without being misogynistic. I mean, the scene at the beginning, after the movie had established that Naruto would be extra emo about his dead parents for the duration of this, where Sakura said "sometimes I wish I didn't have parents." It read to me like they thought Sakura was a thoughtless person, especially when she escalated it to "Why are you even here? If Sasuke was here..." Because. Like. Damn. I was laughing for the wrong reasons.

The movie's shortcomings are that it sidelined most of the cast to focus on Naruto, even if it did so better than any of the other movies by being an isekai. It could be argued that the scenes we got with the rest of the cast were "enough" to play out the mirror world joke. I would have still preferred that they be the ones to come to Naruto and Sakura's aid rather than the series' villains. But having the villains turn up as good guys in the mirror world was valid, too.

I also wasn't a fan of forcing the climax of the movie to escalate so far afield of the theme. It was an excuse to have two tailed-beast hosts fight to the death, and it was unnecessary. The fight itself was fine, but I didn't think it meant anything. If anything, they should have had the final conflict be between Naruto and his parents—not necessarily a fight—so it would be an extension of his arc about learning to accept their love.

The inciting incident, where the Leaf Village characters' parents all write letters of recommendation to promote their children to jonin was perfunctory and weird, unnecessary nepotism that made no sense. But the movie got rid of that plot in less than a second because it was just an excuse anyway. Fair dinkum.

In 2012, they finally decided that a Naruto movie didn't have to be just an excuse plot. My expectations for the rest of the series has been suitably raised, and that rules.

This is the ideal Naruto story that Studio Pierrot wanted us to show. So they made a movie. To promote the movie they even dedicated an entire episode from the Naruto Shippuden to it. The episode was better than the entire movie. The only good moments in the movie were Naruto reuniting with his parents, and the Akatsuki as a hero faction. Other than that the story was mediocre. The worst thing to hope in this movie which takes place in an alternate realm, thanks to Tobi, is Sakura's father being the 4th hokage, Sakura living the solitary life of Naruto, Shikamaru acting as a ... stupid idiot, Sasuke becoming a casanova and so much more. And also an alter-ego of Naruto called Menma!!!! Neji actig like a total pervert. So many minus points to talk about in this film. The only good parts are the Akatsuki sequence, Naruto wearing the 4th Hokage's robe, Naruto's emotions at the beginning of the film of being alone and living a solitary life without the love of parents.

Holy fanservice on a sandwhich!

In a world where all Naruto characters have opposite personalities!

And that's mostly it! >=D

Naruto & Sakura go on a sad-date and get Tsukuyomi'd by Obito for giggles. They're both dreaming about this reverse-world where they goof around for a bit. Then a mysterious bad guy pops up, Naruto fights him with the power of friendship, and then they leave and the movie ends.

There's some things going on like: well, goofing around with reverse characters. Seeing akatsuki members fighting, albeit -very- poorly. There's a few good animated scenes, but they're few and far between. The final fight is barely okay. The story ... makes no sense, and the premise doesn't either - if you think about it for longer than a few seconds, you'll fall in an endless hole.

You get to see Minato & Kushina, which is nice! Too bad they don't do much.. But they're there, and Minato at least does some things, sometimes.

There's some funny reverses like: Tsunade's opposite is not-having boobs.

It's a good laugh after not having seen Naruto for a few years.