I have been so turned off from Naruto recently, I mean come on, lets face it, the plot has become entirely convoluted - and that's without the perpetual interruption of fillers, and the characters... well.. and the art... and themes.. it's just.... well, when you look at all the other great anime out there, it's hard to come back to something like... this.
BUT... THIS... THIS is what the staff of Naruto needed to do. Instead of ignoring their many... many many faults, and hiding behind poorly conceptualized filler episodes and the bloated popularity/notoriety of their franchise, they've managed to release something legitimately entertaining, which actually draws upon the faults of the series (that seriously, did you expect us to just ignore them...?) and parodies them.
This special is an alternate universe parody of Naruto in a high-school setting in present-day Japan. It's delivered in manga format (so it's not animated or colored) and narrated by the seiyuus. Granted, it could have used a little more effort, but like most fast-paced, comedic, doujinshi-like omakes, it was a little rough around the edges (though I would think the Naruto budget is be big enough to compensate...) It seems like the staff of Naruto are finally learning a lesson or two from the other JUMP series' (which are rapidly gaining in the polls, probably for this reason... Go Gintama Go!!! show 'em how it's done! *cough*) and are taking a breather to slap themselves around a little! >:D
I won't give any spoilers, I'm just going to tell you to watch it. It's very short, painless, and you don't have to be up to date at all, hell, you don't have to be familiar with an episode of Shippuden (oh wait, that's a lie, you should at least know who Sai is... but that's enough).
Anyway, if you've become disenchanted/disappointed with Naruto, or hey, if you HATE it, even better - you'll get a kick out of this.
