kaitlin.moore - 2015-10-17 18:10:47

Critic’s Log - Earthdate: September 15, 2013. Supplemental Review: Naruto OVA: Find the Crimson Four Leaf Clover

You may or may not have heard about this OVA, but lets Find the Crimson Four Leaf Clover. As ridiculous as that sounds.

Konohamaru, The grandson of the 3rd Hokage, finally has a crush on a girl, but he has a big problem...she is soon to be moving away from the Hidden Leaf Village. Konohamaru, trying to make her stay, seeks out the legendary crimson four-leaf clover, which is rumored to grant one wish.

To be technical, this is a Studio Pierrot production and this was the first OVA to Naruto. This OVA first released at an expo called “Jump Festa” or the Shonen Jump Festival. Chances are that if you first saw Naruto’s Japanese version Fansubbed, If you are not that savvy when it comes to technical stuff like extra material to certain anime (which is a big “if”) chances are that you may have never heard of this OVA. All I can say is that the animation is decent in the show but a bit cheaply made. It looks just like the TV show and usually OVA’s are top notch at times when it comes to animation. Oh, but wait till you see the movies if you haven’t seen them yet. Apparently, This OVA takes place right after the Land of Waves arc (out of popular belief by fans). Again, the animation to this OVA isn’t really anything to write home about.

The music is by the same group of people that did the music for the show. The themes are placed where you would expect them too. Again, nothing to write home about since it’s the same music from the show. This OVA was released back in 2003, a year after the show started airing. The music is ok in this OVA, but nothing special.

When it comes to voice acting, Don’t expect me to talk about the dub here because there is no English Dub to this OVA. For some reason, Viz did not pick this OVA up. The voice acting is just as fine like the show, so I won’t go into detail about this.

Here’s yet another thing that’s nothing special… The characters. With this OVA being 17 minutes long, there’s no need to mention character development since this is a special after all. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Konohamaru are fine. Kaede (only in this OVA) is fine. Too bad that she only gets little screentime. Nothing much happens with the characters, moving on!

The plot to this OVA is really ridiculous. What’s worse is that this OVA adds nothing to the story or the franchise. Whatever happened in this OVA is not mentioned again anywhere in the rest of the series. There really isn’t anything that needs to be said. If you want to watch this OVA for completion’s sake. Be my guest. If you are looking for something decent. Feel free to watch this. Just don’t expect anything much to come from this OVA. It’s not the worst thing I’ve seen from the series, but there was much...much worse later on. What would that be? The fucking Naruto Fillers.

The first Naruto OVA was never released stateside, the only way to experience this is by watching it online.

With all that said, even though the first Naruto OVA is only 17 minutes long. The animation, music, and characters get a free pass since it doesn’t add anything to the series. But the plot to this OVA is ridiculous that it may not impress much to whoever views it. It is a decent viewing but nothing more.

I give the first Naruto OVA a 4.7 out of 10. it is NOT REALLY GOOD!

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