Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 2 - Kizuna

I went into this expecting it to be bad. And wow did this movie far exceed my expectations of how bad it could be.

*Minor spoilers ahead*

Storywise, the whole thing makes no sense. What was even the purpose of the ninja subordinates from Land of the Sky? There was no depth, not even 1 good fight scene. I laughed at so many scenes because it literally was ridiculous. Like they're all highly trained shinobi but are useless for more than 3/4 of the move? Nothing about the writing moved me and felt very cheesy and subpar most of the time.

Characters are terrible and fall ... back on meaningless and flat tropes. All of them are skilled shinobi but they rarely show that they are useful in battle at all. The women were there for nothing other than to be Naruto's love interests and all they do is get punched once, get knocked out, kidnapped, or cry. The characters have no depth and show no character development throughout the whole movie. Truly quite sad to see the characters reduced to such shallow figures of themselves.

The art was decent but I feel like the studio ran out of their budget mid-way through because the art was getting pretty lazy by the end.

The sound was probably a more palatable aspect of the movie. I liked the soundtrack but often it would enter abruptly and didn't feel consistent.

The only reason I gave this a 2 was because I got a good laugh out of the movie. And because I was entertained for all the wrong reasons, this gets a 2.

This is a terrible, TERRIBLE movie. Kishimoto just lost all my respect for allowing something like this to be done to his creation. Surely the worst anime I ever saw -- and this is coming from a devoted Naruto fan.

**THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS**

As my journey continues through reviewing all the Naruto movies it so far is going at steady pace in quality with both of the Shippuuden movies I have seen. Hopefully it stays this way and doesn't change dramatically like the piece of trash that was Naruto Movie 3.

Story: (4/10)

The story of Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 2 - Kizuna begins with a mysterious group of ninjas bombing Konoha which leaves everybody awestruck at all the destruction and suffering that these ninjas have caused. Now, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, a man named Shinnou and his pupil who is named Amaru must go and ... discover what these ninja are planning. One of my main problems with the story is how many things that the characters seem to do just ends up to be meaningless because of how something just comes out of nowhere and disposes of the conflict instantly. All this time that was used for these scenes could have been put to much better use. This movie finally brung back the past trend that the first 3 Naruto movies did and that is to incorporate modern things into the story which for example are gigantic battleships, weird mechanical air gliders, guns, and a giant fortress that can go all the way up to the sky. The way that the story explains how there is a gigantic fortress that can go all the way to the sky that is hidden underground is by saying that there was a race back then that was able to make this which doesn't make any sense because how did they get all the material to make it if this is during the ninja era! The rest of the things I mentioned don't get answered at all.

Art and Animation: (6/10)

The art in this movie is good. The character designs are interesting and stay consistent, the backgrounds are good, and all the special attack visuals shown were good. The animation was equally as good as the art and the best of it can be seen during battles.

Sound: (5/10)

The soundtrack in this movie was pretty forgettable with the ending song being the best song. The voice actors did a good job with the characters and the sound effects were average.

Characters: (3/10)

The characters in this movie are all over the place. Naruto is still the same character that is the only one that does anything that affects the plot, is always giving inspirational speeches to the main characters, and always uses his nakama power. Sakura and Hinata don't do anything throughout the whole movie to the point that they could have just been not in the movie and there would be no change! and Hinata is in the movie even less than Sakura was which is terrible. I'm sure that many people were hyped up to finally see Sasuke come back and fight along side Naruto against a villain like in the old anime but all I can do is feel sorry for them because Sasuke is barely in this movie at all. Throughout the movie we see very short scenes of what Sasuke is doing with no dialog from him and apart from these scenes we don't see anything else about him until the final part of the movie. In the final fight in the movie it doesn't even look like Naruto needed any help to defeat the main antagonist because he was the one that pretty much did all the work to defeat him which makes it seem that Sasuke didn't have to be in this movie since this is Sasuke's only role in the movie. There was also some other characters that were not necessary to be in due to how little they do and how their problem just disappears instantly in the later half of the movie and these characters are Kakashi, Sai, Shikamaru, and Shino. Amaru who is our main character in this movie was pretty well developed but I felt that she could had much more potential to become a good character if they just gave her more time in the movie. There isn't much to say about the villains due to how they do not change at all in character in these movies because every single time their motivation is to destroy things because destroying things is cool.

Enjoyment: (4/10)

The animation and art was well done.

Overall: (4/10)

Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 2 - Kizuna had its moments with the animation and art but other than that there isn't really much to say about it because everything else is a mess.

Why did Sasuke come and go like a passerby?
As a kid, as a fan of Naruto, I can be super excited to see this movie, of course the first movie as well, I would enjoy this movie completely. But if I can comment on this movie as a mature fan and grew up with the characters, this movie is a shame.
The introduced Sasuke character is so important that he appears on the movie poster next to Naruto, but watch him in action in the movie, Sasuke is just simple an Orochimaru's puppet, and at the same time bait to attract fans, make money for the ... studio. Wtf???
I watched this movie a few times, and after watching it, what left me was Dragon Ball Z, not the content of the movie. The characters in the movie are too boring, except for the doctor Shinou.
I could sit here all day just listing the silly things in this movie:
- Again, when Konoha was attacked, old lady Tsunade just stood at the window and looked, what the hell
- I'm tired of anyone going with Naruto always arguing with him.
- Despite a well-explained background story, it's hard for anyone not to realize that these villains' machines don't seem to belong in our Ninja world lol
- When Naruto was bitten on the leg by a poisonous fish, Amaru sucked from the wound with her mouth (another detail not in the Ninja world) and super talented doctor Sakura sat there and watched wtf
- The fact that Hinata followed Naruto's group and she acted so normal and boring proves that the characters in this movie are still not properly cared for and deserved.
- And I don't know if the character Shinou was good person or not at the time when he jumped out into the rain of knives to protect Amaru, but with the task of escorting and protecting the client, the Sakura-Hinata-Naruto group is full of Jounins and high level let the people they have to protect run into danger, and what did they do? they slowly come so calmly, wtf are these the responsible Ninja I knew from Garra rescue? I feel a bit disappointed.
- The appearance of the monster Reibi is quite boring (just appeared from nowhere and then fighted)
- Not to mention the fact that Naruto returned to human form from Kyuubi in a second without any injuries wtf remember that Kyuubi's 4-tailed state has skin covered with Naruto's blood
- Maybe the Naruto movie production team can't stop creating characters with the same characteristics as Naruto (with monsters in him, lonely, alienated...) and I'm starting to get bored with the combination these two with each other
- It's great to see Shino of Team 8 showing his strength, but he appears too few, and I don't believe that the number of insects on his body can eat a large ship in the sea
- Shinou suddenly revealed his identity as a villain made me quite uncomfortable, this character could have deceived Naruto and Amaru until the end, he loudly claimed to be a villain for no purpose, so remember him spent 13 years fooling people
- I have to admit Shinou is an interesting character, but in my opinion the battle between Sasuke, Naruto and Shinou is too silly, the dialogue is very low quality, and there is no denying the part where Shinou transforms has some contact Dragon Ball Z lol
- And I know a lot of people would love to see Sasuke and Naruto together, but for me this has crossed the line, now that Sasuke is in the dark, there's no reason for the two of them to be close. Did Sasuke even help the boat save the villagers? Wtf
- At the end, when Amaru panicked and rushed to save Naruto, their friends sitting below calmly laughed and had joke with each other even though Neji knew Naruto was above, too absurd and ridiculous.
I really like Sasuke's presence, but the fact that he's so boring in this movie and Naruto turns into a hero, this really pisses me off. It's not that I don't want Naruto to show off, but remember he's nothing compared to Sasuke at this point. And I'm not impressed with the animation or the music, compared to the previous movie.

This is the fifth Naruto movie, made after the initial high spirited continuation was saturated and the show entered a state of slow pacing and full of fillers phase. Once again the excitement was over and the audience started to drop it for the second time. Even the directors seemed to have lost their will to make something exciting and just created this as basic as possible. The budget is still quite high but there was no work given on making interesting battle choreographies, while all the characters act rather bored and distant from the viewer.

I must admit though that this movie has a very ... different feel from the previous ones. There are no henchmen that need to be defeated fro example, just generic faceless mooks with fancy technology. And the main villain’s motives were left hidden for the most part, making the main objective of the film to be hidden from the audience. So in this regard the movie was much closer to a war drama or a mystery adventure than a bunch of teenagers kicking the crap out of each other. This made it feel more mature as an overall. The problem here is that Naruto was never mature and the target audience never expected it to be. They just wanted to see cool magical ninjas doing lots of exciting stuff and instead got a rather uneventful movie with some anti-war messages and a blurry sinister plan towards the end.

There was a major hook for the fans to see the movie though. The trailers mentioned that it will feature the return of Gaysuke, the real protagonist that is, who was absent since the first movie. They even tried to tie the events with the main series in a very subtle way by making Orochimaru to be in need of a scroll some doctor in this film has. It seemed like a good marketing trick and normally it should have worked. Yet to the most part it didn’t. Why?

EVERYONE IS SO WEAK AND STUPID! Seriously, all the elite super powerful ninjas you were watching for so many years doing all sorts of epic stuff, in this movie they feel like they are average people who can’t even move fast or fight properly.
- The invading ninjas are not using ninjutsu to the most part. They are using technology, which is so off with the rest of the setting. We are so used to see magic hand seals, gained after years of training or after a horrible experiment was done on them, that this is just stupid. They all look like mass-produced robots instead of specially trained stealth spies or assassins. Not that the evil underlings in the other movies were any better in terms of personality but at least they had a face and each one of them had a unique style of fighting. But these guys? They all look the same and fight the same and don’t even have a face. Hell, even the villains of the second film had faces and unique abilities, despite NOT being ninjas and STILL using technology. Thus they are completely generic and booooring from the first second.
- Konoha is invaded so easily by the aforementioned ninjas that is plain stupid. I mean you have this huge organization of spies, scattered throughout the world and NOBODY could see and inform the village that a dozen huge battleships are heading their way? In the previous movie for example a soldier informed the others with a messenger pigeon. They also have hounds, frogs, and a thousand other scouting animals that can even be summoned from afar. Hell, they have a magic barrier that senses the tiniest person entering and informs the rest of what has happened in seconds. So seeing Konoha being trashed so easily is not only lame but also contradicts what we have seen so far in terms of security.
- Seeing Konoha getting trashed stopped being dramatic after the tenth time they did it in a filler arc. It was dramatic when it was done in-story during the Chuunin exam or when Pain invaded but they used the same hook in so many fillers that it lost its dramatic tension. So what if thousands died from the attack? So did ten times so far and nobody seems to mind at all. Konoha must have a population of over one billion to excuse all the casualties going unnoticed.
- So our heroes go to the offense and go on a mission to find the enemy’s base and destroy it. Which is a reasonable thing to do… if they were doing it right. Instead of jumping from tree to tree, which is a trademark of the show and which allows them to cross huge distances in a matter of hours, they WALK towards the enemy or use riverboats. THIS IS COMPLETELY BS! Where are all the cool stuff they could do before?
- Another case of how weak and useless everybody is, is the scene where Naruto is poisoned by the bite of a fish. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? He has a mountain worth of chakra inside him that heals him in an instant and all of a sudden he can’t recover from a simple bite? Not only that but Hinata who can see and control chakra regulation, as well as Sakura who is a professional healer could do absolutely NOTHING to help him. THIS IS COMPLETE BS!
- And then a trap is triggered and someone gets killed with them standing right next to him. COMPLETE BS! We had seen them a hundred times having lightening-fast fast reflexes and saving people in a fraction of a second but now they can’t even run fast before it is too late.

What is even worse is when they really ARE using superpowers. It still looks completely crock.
- Although Sai’s fight with the flying ninjas was very cool, the way their ships were eventually defeated was completely anti-climactic. Somehow Shino’s bugs infiltrated them and destroyed them in a few seconds. LAAAAME!
- Gaysuke’s plan to defeat the main villain was also anti-climactic. All he did was throwing a few tiny sparks to cut his chakra circulation. LAAAAME!
- Then Naruto falls from a very high altitude and is saved by Jiraya who placed a frog to work as a trampoline that would stop him from crashing. Which would be cool if he was present in the film from the beginning and had foreseen and planned it to be as such. HE JUST CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!

What is even worse than even that is how all other characters besides Naruto (who is needed to provide his shallow idealism and final Rasengan on the enemy EVERY SINGLE TIME) are completely useless to the plot. They were useless before of course but now they CAN’T EVEN DO THE BASICS! They don’t even fight. They don’t even have a place in this whole mess.
- What is Sakura and Hinata doing in this film? They did absolutely nothing! They didn’t fight, they didn’t heal, they didn’t even offer some sort of service other than the tired jokes of Sakura hitting Naruto and Hinata blushing.
- What is Gaysuke doing in this film? Yes, he is looking for a scroll but was he important to the story? Hell no, he was there as fan service. Naruto did all the work as usual and Sasuke only managed to ruin the final battle with his cheap tricks.
- The main villain was a completely boring idiot and his plans made no sense at all.
- Zero-tails? Seriously? ZERO-TAILS? Not only it looks goddamn lame but it was so easy to defeat as well.
- That tomboy chick was also useless. Not to the story but because she felt like a sexualized and boring imitation of all the other emo kids Naruto was aiding in previous movies.

So in a few words the whole movie is anti-climactic and makes everybody to feel useless and stupid. It is completely unlikable and one of the worst additions to the franchise.

Boy, I was actually kind of interested in this movie. I mean, Sasuke. Without spoiling, I wanted to see a bit more of Sasuke and this movie should have had him. I supposed it would focus more on Naruto and Sasuke's relationship. What did I watch? A cliched and boring Naruto film. I was bored until the end where it became kinda eh.

Let's start with the story. Without spoiling, we get another typical kid who is almost the same as Naruto in his backstory. Really, just... nothing happens most of the time or is just really boring. There is one plot twist I didn't expect. ... Congratulations! The Sasuke bits were kinda cool but he had so little screen time. Not very interesting there, hell, he felt forced in just so there would be something to peak interest in people. It's just a drag and a boring, pointless movie. Bad story and bad characters. I'd write more but there really isn't anything to write about. Just Sasuke's short screen time and lack of dialogue.

The art is good and the soundtrack too. Nothing too special but they are good. It's about all I can say.

Overall, the movie is poor. Boring and unengaging plot and characters ruin it. Having Sasuke advertised so much would suggest him playing a major role. They might as well have just removed him from the story. They might as well have removed a lot of characters from the story. I can't really recommend it, unless you are like me and have to watch these movies in which case I can't really stop you.

You know, with all the other Naruto movies I at least found some semblance of enjoyment. Like, they aren't good by any stretch of the imagination, but they had a couple aspects that I could enjoy. Not so much with this one. Everything bad about every other Naruto movie is turned to the max here. And the script is a pain. The animation in these movies hasn't improved over the years either, which is disappointing. They could at least make this somewhat visually interesting. All these movies feel rushed, but then again what do you expect when they were pumping these out on a yearly ... basis. Definitely won't watch again.

Son of a bitch, the beginning of this one was actually threatening to be good. Spotlighting the side characters and letting them be effective? Creating a little bit of real tension and thematic depth with the doctor's death as a mirror for Naruto's relationship with Jiraya? The movie-original character designs are better than average for this movie series? Naruto ended up on an escort mission with movie original characters like the other ones, but I was willing to see where it was going to go. I could have forgiven the sin, especially since Hinata was part of the escort group.

And then it pissed it away ... by making that escort mission the focus of the movie and turning it into a bunch of friendship monologues. And the Jiraya analogue gained a romantic attachment element that was p creep. And then Sasuke showed up for little reason; he just hadn't been in the last several movies and they wanted him around. And the true villain showed up with a horrible design that was like a low-rent Super Saiyan 3. I was completely checked out by the end. Hinata didn't even get to do anything by the end.

Eh. As a general note, since I had lost interest in the series by the time Shippuden made it to the States, I like that Sakura's angry internal monologue got incorporated more into her overt personality. It added some spice to her character, although something makes me suspect that was the only hint of character development she ever received. I like her more than other people seem to, but it's disappointing that change came after a timeskip instead of during a storyline where she was allowed to grow up a bit.

These Naruto films are making me sleepy.

I've been binging the Naruto films and it's a shame how generic and lackluster they are. I feel this is my least favorite so far and that's partly due to the overabundance of films as a whole, It's wearing me down.

Bonds kind of tells an alternate universe story of what it could have been like for Naruto if he was betrayed by his master. The master and apprentice relationship is explored through new characters, one even sharing the same long white locks as Jiraiya.

I do appreciate this movie taking a different approach to the plot and not being an ... escort mission. It starts as a revenge from an old nation who have held a grudge for like 20 or 30 years. It's a bit out there, but realistic in my opinion. Lord knows politics can be long and ugly. I don't appreciate however, that what should have been a war between nations ends up hinging on a single man. Who even needs all the foot soldiers at that point?

The concept of the one tails was BS. If it posseses those with darkness in there hearts, it should have appeared and possessed Sasuke, or anyone else by now. There is no way no one hasn't felt despair until then. It just conveniently came into and out of existence within the span of this film.

The dude going super saiyan didn't even go all out. He said he could open all the gates of what you call it and didn't even open one. His combat was flashy, flailing Naruto around like a ragdoll, but he was either OP or powerless, there was no in-between.