Review for Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 14 (2 Discs)

Introduction

Along came collection 13 of Naruto Shippuden, and suddenly I was in ‘best thing since sliced bread’ territory. With that collection of episodes, Naruto was suddenly delivering on everything it had promised since the very first episode in terms of action, and in terms of story. I was glued to the screen for every frame, and was fervently proclaiming that this was the best Naruto yet. With something like that to follow on from, you have to wonder if Collection 14 can continue to push the limits, maintain the momentum that those episodes so emphatically established. I won’t leave you hanging in suspense. It can’t. As so often happens in a long running shonen action show, the creators have to make allowances for the pace of the source manga material, wait for the mangaka to create some more story. That’s done by creating filler episodes. We have two sets of filler episodes in this collection, episodes 170 and 171 are a promotion for the Lost Tower movie, while from episode 176 onwards begins a 21 episode stretch of filler consisting of short stories.


15 years previously, the Hidden Leaf village was plagued by the Nine-Tailed fox demon. The Fourth Hokage ninja sacrificed his life to defeat the menace, and sealed up the spirit in the body of a newborn child. That orphan grew up as Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous prankster with great ambition. He wants to be the strongest ninja of them all and be granted the title Hokage, leader of the Hidden Leaf village. In the first Naruto series, we followed him on his training as a ninja, tutored by Kakashi, and partnered with his ideal girl Sakura, and his archrival Sasuke. Of course Sakura was sweet on Sasuke, which didn’t help, but slowly the three became firm friends.


The dark clouds of ambition tore that friendship apart though, but it wasn’t Naruto’s ambition. It was Sasuke’s, sole survivor of the Uchiha clan, slaughtered by his brother Itachi. He grew up wanting revenge on Itachi, and wanting to gain in power and strength as quickly as possible. Sasuke gave into the temptation for easy power, offered by the renegade ninja Orochimaru, when Orochimaru infiltrated the village during the Chunin exams, and assassinated the Third Hokage. Sasuke left to join Orochimaru, and Naruto swore to get him back. For the last two and half years, Naruto has been in training with the sage Jiraiya, and he’s now returned to the village, empowered and ready to rescue his friend. But Orochimaru and Sasuke haven’t been resting easy either, while the Akatsuki group of renegade ninja, of whom Sasuke’s brother Itachi is a member, have been accelerating their plans, and top of the list is obtaining the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, the one that is currently sealed up in Naruto.


Previously on Naruto Shippuden, Akatsuki’ search for the Tailed Beasts had finally caught up with Naruto, who hosts the 9-Tailed Demon Fox, and to capture him, the Akatsuki member known as Pain unleashed a devastating attack on Konoha village, hurting those that Naruto cares about most, and laying waste to the area. Naruto was busy in training for the attack, trying to master Sage Mode, but he returned almost too late, and when Pain’s attention turned to Hinata, Naruto lost control and the Tailed Beast finally emerged.


The next 13 episodes of Naruto Shippuden are presented across 2 discs from Manga Entertainment.

167. Planetary Devastation
168. The Fourth Hokage
169. The Two Students
Naruto has never been this enraged before, with his home destroyed, his friends hurt and dying, the 9-Tailed Fox emerges and tears down the seal that has kept it quiescent up till now. The devastation it unleashes exceeds even that which Pain had wrought, and when the 8th Tail appears, it truly seems that all is lost. But the 4th Hokage foresaw even this when he sealed the beast inside the infant Naruto. There is one final jutsu to curtail the beast, one chance to save the village. Naruto finally meets his father...


170. Big Adventure! The Quest for the Fourth Hokage’s Legacy – Part 1
171. Big Adventure! The Quest for the Fourth Hokage’s Legacy – Part 2
Long before Akatsuki and Pain, back when all Naruto had to worry about was being the best ninja in the village, beating Sasuke and earning Sakura’s affection, back when he would loudly proclaim that he would one day be Hokage, his greatest challenge was the Chunin exam. Just one day remained before he would enter the arena, but training with Jiraiya, summoning toads wasn’t going well. Naruto wanted a shortcut, and when he misheard Jiraiya talking about the legacy of the Fourth Hokage, he became determined to find it. It turns out that Gai-sensei knows where it is hidden. Soon Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino are in a race to find it.


172. Meeting
173. Origin of Pain
174. Tale of Naruto Uzumaki
175. Hero of the Hidden Leaf
Having defeated the six Pains, there’s only one left, Nagato, and Naruto goes after him alone, with revenge on his mind. But in his heart remains the teachings of his master Jiraiya, and Jiraiya’s faith that Naruto can one day bring peace to the Ninja world. The path he chooses will determine the fate of the Hidden Leaf Village.


176. Leaf’s History – Rookie Instructor Iruka
177. Leaf’s History – Iruka’s Ordeal
178. Leaf’s History – Iruka’s Decision
Naruto Uzumaki may indeed be the hero of the Hidden Leaf, but that was not always the case. Host of the 9-Tailed Beast that laid waste to the village when he was just a baby, he was shunned by the villagers and the other children as he grew up. The first to see his potential, and connect with him as a person was his Ninja Academy teacher Iruka. But Iruka, himself orphaned by the 9-Tailed Demon Fox certainly didn’t start out as amenable to Naruto. In fact he was forced to become Naruto’s teacher by the Third Hokage, and this three part story relates how Iruka came to be Naruto’s first mentor.


179. Leaf’s History – Kakashi Hatake, The Jonin in Charge
Naruto’s second mentor as we all know is Kakashi, and as the village awaits the decision regarding the Hokage’s fate following the recent attack by Pain, Kakashi reflects on how he was first selected to be the teacher in charge of three unlikely Genin, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto.

Picture

Naruto Shippuden is now presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen in native PAL. The image is sharper, ghosting and blended frames are absent, and there’s an increase in resolution. Absent this time is the judder that plagued the first attempt to release Naruto Shippuden in PAL, and it may be down to these being the Japanese broadcast episodes, not the US versions with the edited English language credit sequences. Shippuden’s animation and its character designs are sharper and crisper than those in the first Naruto series. It’s certainly more detailed while the colours are a little more muted. The story comes across well, and the action sequences are impressively animated, while conforming to a long running anime budget.

Sound

The DD 2.0 English and Japanese stereo is more than adequate in recreating the original experience, and given a little Prologic magic does offer a pleasant ambience and some discrete action. Yasuhara Takanashi takes over the music reins from Toshiro Masuda, and the result is if anything even less memorable than the music from the first series. But it works well enough in driving the action, and it doesn’t get overbearing. Once again, I only sampled the English dub and found it acceptable if unspectacular. It certainly isn’t the worst I have heard, but some of the actors don’t seem particularly suited to the characters. The theme songs have long since ceased being subtitled, which is a shame.

I did notice a few signs of pitch correction in this volume, notably in the ballad end theme.

Extras

The discs get static menus, with the episode chapter breaks in place. Some of the episodes end in a brief animated Naruto comedy skit.

The extras are on disc 2, 10 line art images in a Production Art Gallery, and trailers for the second Naruto Shippuden movie as well as the Shippuden series.

Conclusion

Of course it couldn’t last. The brilliance of Collection 13 just couldn’t sustain through this set of episodes, although the fact of the matter is that the battle against Pain arc had to conclude at some point. That arc of the story comes to a head halfway through collection 14, and thereafter we head back to the arena of filler episodes, while the animators wait for sufficient manga to be created once more for adaptation. But I have to say, if ever there was an appropriate point to pause the main storyline, this would be it.


The action simply couldn’t get any more epic over the first three episodes of this collection, as Naruto finally loses control over the Fox Demon, and its full terror is unleashed against Pain Tendo. This is Naruto at its best when it comes to action animation, fast-paced, dynamic and energetic. The pace just doesn’t let up. Then, following a two episode stretch of filler, it’s a return to the confrontation, this time with Naruto facing the mastermind of the attack, Nagato. This on the other hand is a battle of wills, a confrontation of philosophies, as the two try to convince each other that their position is the right one. Both are students of Jiraiya, and both have taken different things from his teachings. If there are weak points in the narrative, they are here, although with Naruto the hero of the tale, perhaps it’s understandable that he manages to prevail even after the immense devastation and violence wrought upon the Hidden Leaf Village. You might be forgiven for thinking that Nagato ought to have been a little more resolute in his position, but sometimes the needs of the story dictate events. That too will go some way to explaining the reset button used here, which for me is one magical jutsu too far.


But even I am willing to forgive this given the conclusion of the arc. For Naruto finally gets what he has always wanted from his peers and his fellow Hidden Leaf villagers, acknowledgement. If you are a Naruto fan, you will have a lump in your throat at the conclusion of this arc, and you’ll feel no shame about it either.


Then there is the filler, which for once is actually fitting at this point in the series. We’ve just had a major climax, Naruto has achieved one of his lifelong goals, and it seems an appropriate place for reflection. The first, two-episode interlude is a precursor of that reflection, a short and wholly fun adventure that takes place prior to the final Chunin exam in the first Naruto series. But with the end of the arc, and Naruto finally receiving the plaudits that he is due, it’s the perfect place to see just how things used to be, and the next three episodes take us back to before the first series even started, to introduce the outcast boy shunned by everyone, as he starts school. He’s still hopefully optimistic that someone will accept him, but not even his beloved teacher Iruka at this point had any time for Naruto. This three part story tells how he made the first meaningful connection in his life, and began his path to becoming the strongest ninja in the village.


The final episode in this collection appears to be a standalone, as it takes a look at familiar events from an unexpected perspective. When team Kakashi was about to be assigned, Kakashi wanted to find out about his new students before he met them, so being the adept ninja that he is, he set about spying on them, and witnessed the comic hijinks that ensued whenever the Naruto Sasuke and Sakura triangle was in close proximity. It explains just why he chose the lesson with the bells as his first instruction to his charges.


After the battle against Pain arc, these looks back to an earlier, simpler time are actually very enjoyable. They serve as a nice way to wind down, but it also allows for some classic Naruto moments to be reanimated in widescreen. I also had a bit of a nostalgia attack, hearing the iconic music score from that first series again. In between all the flashbacks and nostalgia, there’s just enough tantalising politicking going on to add to the ongoing storyline, so you wouldn’t want to miss these episodes even if you do eschew filler as a matter of habit. The Raikage has sent a team to the Leaf Village in the search for Bee, Sasuke and his team are heading there as well, while Danzo makes a move against Tsunade.


Collection 14 was never going to match the intensity of the previous set of episodes, but there is enough going on here to leave any Naruto fan more than happy.