The awesome conclusion of the exciting battle between Naruto vs. Pain! And the story then goes back to the past when Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were younger and training with Team 7 in “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut”. Definitely recommended for “Naruto” fans!
Image courtesy of © 2002 Masashi Kishimoto/2007 Shippuden. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut
DURATION: Episodes 167-179 (300 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: 2.0 Stereo Surround Sound, Bilingual (Japanese & English), English Subtitles
COMPANY: Shonen Jump/Viz Media
RATED: Rated T for Older Teen
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto
Series Directed by Hayato Date
Produced by Tomoko Gushima, Ken Hagino
Series Coordinator by Junki Takegami, Satoru Nishizono
Character Design by Tetsuya Nishio, Hirofumi Suzuki
Music by Yasuharu Takanishi, Yaiba
Music Production by Aniplex
Anime Production by TV Tokyo, Pierrot
Featuring the following voice talent:
Junko Takeuchi/Maile Flanagan as Naruto Uzumaki
Chie Nakamura/Kate Higgins as Sakura Haruno
Noriaki Sugiyama/Yuri Lowenthal as Sasuke Uchiha
Akira Ishida/Liam O’Brien as Sabaku no Gaara (Gaara of the Desert)
Hideo Ishikawa/Crispin Freeman as Itachi Uchiha
Houchu Ohtsuka/David Lodge as Jiraiya
Kazuhiko Inoue/Dave Wittenberg as Hatake Kakashi
Kentarou Itou/Robbie Rist as Chouji Akimichi
Kenyuu Horiuchi/Troy Baker as Pain
Kouichi Toochika/Steve Staley as Neji Hyuuga
Kousuke Toriumi/Kyle Hebert as Kiba Inuzuka
Kujira/Steven Blum as Orochimaru
Masako Katsuki/Debi Mae West as Tsunade/Fifth Hokage
Nana Mizuki/Stephanie Sheh as Hinata Hyuuga
Nobutoshi Canna/Henry Dittman as Kabuto Yakushi
Rikiya Koyama/Troy Baker as Yamato
Romi Paku/Tara Platt as Temari
Ryoka Yuzuki/Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Ino Yamanaka
Satoshi Hino/Ben Diskin as Sai
Shinji Kawada/Derek Stephen Prince as Shino Aburame
Yasuyuki Kase/Michael Lindsay as Kankurou
Yoichi Masukawa/Brian Donovan as Rock Lee
The attack on the Leaf Village intensifies, and Naruto’s transformation into the Nine-Tailed Fox reaches a critical level. With eight tails already emerged, Naruto makes a surprising discovery that changes everything. His confidence buoyed, Naruto seeks a face-to-face meeting with Nagato, the Pain responsible for the massive destruction in the village. Can one boy’s will alter destiny?
Naruto vs. Pain.
Konoha Leaf Village has been destroyed, Hinata is seriously injured after trying to free Naruto and save him from Pain. And now, the rage of Hinata being injured has led Naruto’s rage to bring out the nine tails.
The conclusion to the battle between Naruto vs. Pain in “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut”!
What is “Naruto”?
Since 1999, “Naruto” created by Masashi Kishimoto (“Karakuri”) has been one of the most popular anime and manga series in Japan and has easily become a favorite best selling anime/manga series among fans all over the world.
For the anime series, since 2002, “Naruto” lasted until 2007 with a total of 220 episodes. The series would follow the adventures of a boy named Naruto Uzamaki, who may not be the brightest ninja from the Konoha Village but he makes it up with heart and also tremendous power as the killer beast known as the nine-tailed fox has been sealed within him.
Earlier in the series, the anime series focused on Naruto and his team members Sasuke Uchida and Sakura Haruno as they would go on adventures and learn to become a team and also honing their ninja abilities. The series would then begin to introduce other young ninjas from the village who Naruto would be paired up with and the young ninjas would take on rival clans to helping people in need. But somehow as the series continued, Sasuke Uchida would then go off on his own personal mission to stop his brother Itaki Uchida, who murdered the whole Uchida clan and his family, only leaving Sasuke alive.
Within those six years, we have seen Naruto and his friends grow as friends and also in their abilities. For Naruto, all he has wanted is to become the next Hokage (the leader of the village) when he grows older and to help his friends accomplish missions. He knows that to be a good leader, he will need to get stronger so he can protect the village once he grows older. Of course, there is so much involved in the “Naruto” anime series and what makes its special is its humor, its action but also how well the series integrates so many characters but yet features a good number of character driven episodes that makes the viewer appreciate many of the characters in the series.
“Naruto”, the first series ended with the young ninja leaving to train with Jiraiya for two-and-a-half years.
What is “Naruto Shippuden”?
In “Naruto Shippuden”, the storyline now features everyone a little grown up but the stakes are much higher. We learn that the Akatsuki including Orochimaru are looking for those who possess a jinchuriki. With this power, this will give too much power to evil and this can lead to the death of many people and the destruction of many villages.
In the past few volumes, the Leaf Village along with other villages have managed to defeat the Akatsuki, unfortunately the price paid was the death of Asuma and a few other members of the Leaf and Sand Ninja.
Now, Orochimaru using Kabuto, have their sites set on capturing the other jinchuriki, as do the Akatsuki who have been after Naruto.
In “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 12 – Original & Uncut”, it is important to note that the episodes featured in DVD Set 12 covers the final episodes of “Naruto Shippuden” Season six as Naruto and his team take on the Eight Tails and learning from Madara of why his older brother Itachi massacred their family and the Uchiha clan and now this information will forever change Sasuke.
For episode 144-151, this was a shortened season seven and aired from January through March 2012 in Japan. This season features Lady Tsunade sending Team 7 and Yamato to assist Utakata and Hotaru after they learn that a clan known as Tsuchigumo and an elder named En no Gyoja developing a forbidden Jutsu.
It is revealed that Utakata is a Jinchuriki and he carries the Six-Tailed Demon Slug and a man named Shiranami is trying to kidnap Hotaru to be used as a vessel to collect natural chakra energy to release the forbidden jutsu.
Naruto and Team 7 must find a way to protect Hotaru from any harm. But another group appears to be interested in Utakata.
For episodes 152-153, this begins season 8 of “Naruto: Shippuden” and brings back the Pain storyline as Naruto is summoned to Lady Tsunade and is informed by Jiraiya’s master Fukasaku of the fate of Jiraiya in his battle with Pain and the Akatsuki.
In “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 13 – Original & Uncut”, Season 8 of “Naruto: Shippuden” continues as the Six Paths and Konan attack the Leaf Village in their hopes of capturing Naruto in order to obtain the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
With so much death and destruction, Kakashi along with Chouji Akimichi and his father Chouza take on the most powerful of the Six Paths. Meanwhile, in Mount Myoboku, Fukasaku trains Naruto to become one with nature and learn Sage Mode. But will Naruto learn and master Sage Mode in a short amount of time to take on the Six Paths?
The volume ended with Naruto being pinned down by Pain and about to be killed until Shino comes out of nowhere to fight and try to break Pain’s spikes that are keeping Naruto pinned to the ground. But as she is able to remove many spikes, Pain tries to kill her off by throwing her up in the air and slamming her down as hard as he can.
With Shino being used as a playtoy to show how much pain he can inflict on Naruto, Naruto’s rage due to the Nine Tailed Fox becomes out of control.
This leads us to “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut” which features the remainder of the episodes from season 8 and the beginning episodes of season 9.
As an angry Naruto is unable to control the Nine-Tailed Fox, Pain is shocked of how much power the Nine-Tailed Fox has and even breaking his Chibaku Tensei technique. But as Naruto seems to be losing control, in his consciousness, someone comes to give Naruto some help and also wise advice.
As Naruto prepares his final battle against Pain (ala Deva Path) in order to find the real Nagato through Sage Mode.
Also, included is a past episode in which Naruto and friends are training in preparation for the final rounds of the Chunin Exam. It is the first time Naruto hears about “The Fourth Hokage’s legacy” from Jiraiya and Naruto wanting to break the Fourth Hokage’s record. These episodes also introduce how Naruto came up with his motto.
The eighth season concludes with Naruto confronting Nagato. What will happen when Naruto confronts the former student of Master Jiraiya?
The ninth season of “Naruto” kicks off with a flashback episode and revolves around Iruka Umino becoming Naruto’s teacher and shows how Naruto and Iruka developed a close bond as teacher and student. While episode 179 is a Kakashi flashback in which he is assigned to Team 7 and tries to get to know Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura better by spying on them.
VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Naruto Shippuden” is an anime series that was never known for having spectacular background art, but it’s know for its action and its characters and how it captures emotion and its intense battles. While in this episode, a lot of episodes are contained in areas near lush green trees, water or dirt, it’s not so much of the background but how the characters are design and how well the battles are portrayed. And I can easily say that with “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original Uncut”, the fast-paced action in this volume is great for a TV series and good for what one can expect on DVD.
As for the audio, the audio for “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14” is pretty much Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 Bilingual (Japanese and English). Similar to a series like “Dragon Ball Z”, with “Naruto”, I have always enjoyed the voice acting of the English dub series. It’s well done and the voices fit the characters very well.
Especially Maile Flanagan’s Naruto Uzumaki. Personally, I didn’t think there would be a voice actor that could capture Junko Takeuchi’s Naruto vocals and sure enough, Flanagan does a great job. But I have watched the series in Japanese and English and for the most part, voice acting for both soundtracks are well-done.
Since the series is front channel driven, for those with a modern home theater receiver probably will enjoy a more immersive soundscape by selecting stereo on all channels.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut” comes with the following special features on disc 3:
- Production Art – Using your remote, you can view through ten pages of artwork.
- Omake – All the omake ending portions (after the credits) from the episodes featured in DVD Set 14 of “Naruto Shippuden”.
- Clean Opening
- Clean Ending
- English Credits
- More from Viz Media – Viz Media trailers
With “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 13 – Original & Uncut” taking the story to new heights and having become one of my favorite Naruto arcs in the anime series up to season 8, the arc concludes with the Naruto vs. Pain episodes featured in “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut”.
Without spoiling these final episodes, we do get to see part of the past of Naruto and Jiraiya, Naruto learning about the Fourth Hokage and his connection to him.
With a combination of both current episodes featuring Naruto vs. Pain and flashback episodes of when he was younger, meeting Iruka-sensei and also Kakashi learning about his new students, I’m sure there will be some people who wish there was not an abrupt stop to the storyline involving Naruto vs. Pain, but obviously the writers wanted to establish the Fourth Hokage in season 8 and for season 9, it’s almost like the storyline shifts back to the past as we see more adventures of Team 7 (young Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura).
As for the DVD set, you get a total of 13 episodes and a the typical special features such as storyboard, production art and the ending omake for each episode.
“Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut” is a pretty important volume but while most of the heavy hitting episodes of season 8 were featured in “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 13 – Original & Uncut”, this continuance and final episodes of season 8 establishes a storyline element involving Naruto that will become important later on.
As a longtime “Naruto Shippuden”, there is no doubt that season 8 was one of the most powerful seasons of “Naruto” and one of the most awesome battles for Naruto and the ninjas of the Konoha Leaf Village.  But as always, in order to give “Naruto” creator sometime to develop his storyline for the manga and making sure the anime doesn’t catch up too quickly, season 9 goes back to the past of Team 7 when Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were younger people in training. Yes, it’s a bit weird for a whole season to be dedicated to the adventures of Naruto in the past, but it’s understandable.
For Naruto fans who enjoyed the exciting battle between Naruto vs. Pain, it all comes to an end in “Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 14 – Original & Uncut”. Definitely recommended for “Naruto” fans!
