dgibson - 2017-06-18 22:25:57

touched my manly heart when boruto put the headband on…,, boruto,,.. broruto <3

hayes.clementine - 2016-12-19 02:24:16

Awesome movie 🎥

stoltenberg.grayce - 2015-12-04 07:02:28

lang.timmy - 2015-10-11 01:41:56

Likemany anime fans of my generation, I began my life as an anime fanthrough Cartoon Network's Toonami block, featuring shounen classicssuch as Dragon Ball Z, YuYu Hakusho, and RurouniKenshin. However, for mepersonally, I was on the tail end of those shows' airtime, onlycatching the Majin Buu saga and reruns of the first few episodes ofother shows. I didn't come in at the beginning, so it wasn't likestarting a brand new adventure, and it wasn't until around 2005 thatI first got to experience the start of a brand new story, and thatstory, of course, was Naruto,an epic reinterpretation of ninjas combined with the superpoweraction/adventure style of DBZand other shounen tropes, though of course I had no idea what shounenwas at the time. Now, after over a decade of popularity in the US,and half a decade more in Japan, the last story in the Naruto-versehas finally been told.

Severalyears after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto has finally becomethe Seventh Hokage, and a time of peace and prosperity has descendedupon the Leaf Village. However, this time our focus is not on Naruto,but on his son, Boruto, a young ninja desperately seeking theattention of his father, who has become overwhelmed with his dutiesas Hokage and barely has time to spend with his family anymore.Through his trials in the lead-up to the Chunin Exams, as well as amysterious new villain making an appearance, Boruto attempts togarner his father's attention and force him to recognize hisexceptional talent as a shinobi and give him the attention he sodesperately craves.

Muchlike Naruto: TheLast,we've moved past simply adding a new villain for our favoritecharacters to fight against, and instead the main focus of this movieis on the emotional turmoil that Boruto and Naruto have to workthrough in their strained father-son relationship. This part of thestory is pretty straightforward and basic, though that's really allthat it needs to be. Naruto doesn't have time to spend with his son,so Boruto gets angry and hates his dad's guts, yet still tries hisbest to get his dad to notice him. In terms of the franchise'shistory, Boruto is actually a fairly weak-willed main character attimes and gives up a lot more easily than his father ever did, thoughthis still seems to work because, rather than not having anyone inthe first place like Naruto, or having his family taken from him likeSasuke, he instead feels abandoned by a father who is stilltechnically there but doesn't pay enough attention, causing him toessentially lose hope that his situation will ever get better, andwhen he does finally start seeing reassurance from his father afterBoruto starts making more headway in the ninja world, hesubconsciously rebounds and does everything he can to keep his dad'sattention, even if his methods start to deviate from the shinobi way.In a way, this sort of echoes Sasuke's history, which kind of makessense since Sasuke is Boruto's mentor for a good portion of the film,and at times it almost feels like Boruto sees Sasuke as someone tofill the void left by his barely-there father, though this idea isn'texplored too much in the film. The overall arc of Boruto's characteris probably the best part of this film, as it reaches a satisfyingconclusion in the final act.

Asfor Naruto, this is probably the most difficult part of the story toconvey to the audience, since they have to make Naruto look extremelybusy without making him act like a douche to his family, and with theexception of a few lines, they manage to do that fairly well. You candefinitely see that he's become overloaded and exhausted from hiswork as Hokage, and also that he's still trying to find time to spendwith his family, although failing miserably. There are a few momentsin the beginning though where the strictness he's adopted as theHokage seems to be a bit too forced for his character and ends upmaking him look a bit uncaring, which is hardly the kind of trait youwould expect from Naruto.

Asfor the rest of the cast, most of them are fairly solid. I ended upliking Sarada a lot more than I thought I would since she ends upbeing an interesting support character for Boruto in sharing similarelements of their parental situations. I do wish they had exploredher more in this movie, but I suppose that's what SeventhHokage and the Scarlet Springis for. The rest of the characters fill out their own fan service andnostalgia roles pretty nicely, and I didn't really expect any morethan that since it would end up clogging up the main story line. Themain villain, unfortunately, is pretty much as generic as they come.Again, anything super-complex would have bogged down the characterdrama between Boruto and Naruto, but this guy's about as plain andstandard as they come. They try to work him into the already existingshinobi history, which worked out fine in Naruto:The Last,but it feels like too much of a stretch in this case and a lot of thedetails feel a bit jumbled and rushed.

Thenew technology they introduce in this film was also a bit odd attimes. I've always felt that Kishimoto has struggled with balancinghow much advanced technology is used in the Naruto universe, and thismovie almost fixes that problem by basically showing this giant leapforward in technology, and it even seems to address the debate ofwhether hard work and willpower or technology and cutting edge toolswith spearhead the future of the shinobi world, but it's still just atad too jagged and uneven at times.

Asfor animation, this is definitely one of the best-looking Narutofilms thus far, though I'm not quite sure I would call it the best.The character designs are about as refined and polished as they'veever been, though I did notice quite a few draw distance issues.Perhaps this was more a problem with the theater I saw itin...amongst many other problems I had with my particular theater viewing, that will eventually be fixed by the timethe Blu-rays come out, but it's still something worth noting. To mydelight, this film does not rely nearly as much on CG environments asprevious movies have done, though there are still a few whiffs ofthat pungent CG stench hanging around. As for the action scenes, onceagain, it does a lot of things right, and a lot of things not soright. When it gets into the huger scale of things, the choreographyand particle physics are outstanding, with tons of vivid colors andunique attack designs, and watching these massive explosions andearth-shattering jutsu go off in everyone's faces is spectacular towatch. On the other end though, a lot of the smaller, hand-to-handchoreography is a bit disappointing, especially compared to theprevious film. There are a few moments where the hand-to-hand getspretty awesome and some of the more complex strategies and jutsu arefun to watch, but these moments largely fall by the wayside inexchange for a “whoever has the biggest jutsu wins” competitionlike the latter half of the main Narutostoryline fell into. The very end of the battle did have at leastsome smartness to it though, so I wasn't dissatisfied by the endingto a significant degree. Despite its flaws though, this is some ofthe better work that Studio Pierrot has put out so far, and it's agreat way to view the shinobi world for one last time.

Onthe soundtrack end of things, it's pretty much the same as it'salways been: an epic combination of orchestral and rock compositionswith that extra Eastern flavor of shamisen, taiko drums, and bambooflute that has shaped the Narutosoundtrack's identity for the past thirteen years. The ending songplayed during the credits was provided by Kana-Boon and gives us thatlast burst of excitement as what is most likely the final chapter inthe Narutoworld comes to a close. Oh by the way, make sure you watch theafter-credits scene because it is absolutely something that you donot want to miss.

Overall,if you go into this movie thinking it'll be the big final hoorah ofthe Narutofranchise and that it's the best story yet, you'll probably bedisappointed. To me, the final climax of Narutowas in Naruto:The Last,if you couldn't tell from how often I brought it up during thisreview, and Borutois more of a fan service/second generation side story that serves asmore of a dessert dish rather than the last bite of a spectacularmain course. Despite that, though, I still highly recommend that yousee this movie if you are a Narutofan because, despite all its flaws, it's still probably the lastmajor project that Kishimoto will make for the Narutofranchise, and that's...kinda sad for me. Even though there are somany other, much better anime out there, Narutois the one that, for me and thousands, possibly millions of otheranime fans, shaped how we viewed anime as we were growing up, and toknow that the story is now completely finished is kind of depressing.Sure the TV anime is still going...for some reason, but the manga'sstory is completely finished and now there's this void left behindfrom a series that's been a massive part of my life for so long thatI can't even remember what life was like without Naruto.From the first volume to the last, from NinjaClash in the Land of Snowto Boruto,and the dozens of side stories in-between, this has been one hell ofa ride. Knowing that there's a future without more Narutois really weird for me, and, in time, perhaps a new franchise willtake its place...but, that's a story for another day.

For now, I say "Sayonara" to a franchise that, despite its flaws, means more to me than others can possibly imagine.