A new story arc for Naruto Shippuden starts in the first episode of this box set. Tsunade discovers that the new jutsu that Naruto had been working on is too dangerous for him to use, and she forbids Naruto from ever using it. After Jiraiya makes a return to the village, he and Naruto head out on another training journey; Jiraiya hopes that Naruto can learn a synchronizing jutsu.Orocimaru sends Kabuto to find a woman named Guren, a woman who can use the Crystal Style jutsu; Orochimaru needs her to help him with a plan. The plan also involves a boy named Yukimaru, and Guren is placed in charge of him. Meanwhile, a member of Konoha's ANBU believes they have discovered Orochimaru's hideout, and sends word back to the village. Kakashi, Kiba, Hinata, and Shino are sent on a mission to try to locate the hideout.
As this story arc progressed, I found myself really becoming interested in the characters of Guren and Yukimaru. Unfortunately, this story arc does not resolve during the episodes on this set, so you have to watch the next DVD box set in order to find out where the story is headed.
When it comes to the actual DVD box set, it's just like the previous three sets, because only one disc includes any bonus features. The first two discs include a trailer for Naruto Shippuden The Movie: Bonds when the disc first starts playing before proceeding to the main menu.
There are a total of six bonus features included on the third disc. The first is "New From Viz Media," which is six screens of ads for Shonen Jump magazine and various Viz Media manga releases. "Online Features" includes two screens that show where Viz Media titles can be purchased online. "English Credits" allows you to see the credits for the English dub of the series.
"Storyboards" includes 10 screens of storyboards from episodes in this Naruto Shippuden set; unfortunately, between the size of the storyboards and the white lines on a black background, it can be rather hard to know what scene you're supposed to be looking at. It would have been helpful if an option had been included to watch the scene from the anime for the storyboard being shown on the screen.
"Production Art" includes 10 pages of production sketches of the characters that appear in this Naruto Shippuden set. Unlike the previous boxes, the sketches are done with white lines on a black background instead of black lines on a white background.
The final extra is "Omake," which is a collection of the short pieces included after the ending credits of Naruto Shippuden. On this set, most of the omake are comedic in nature; at most, there were maybe one or two that were on the serious side. Just like on the previous boxes that this feature appeared on, the omake are shown back-to-back in one continuous piece, and the English dub versions of the omake are used for this feature. I still wish there was a menu to choose which omake you wanted to watch.
If you're a fan of the Naruto franchise and want to have all of the episodes of the series on DVD, then I would recommend purchasing this box set in order to add it to your home video collection.
I wrote this review after watching a copy of this DVD box set that I checked out through the King County Library System.
| The Price of Power A Shinobi's Determination Orochimaru's Hideout Discovered Encounter | Connecting Hearts A Night of Rain The Two Charms The Unseeing Enemy | The Labyrinth of Distorted Reflection The Target Appears The Rampaging Tailed Beast Inside The Mist Bonus Features |
