Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 3 - Hi no Ishi wo Tsugu Mono

First of all, don’t watch this movie unless you’re interested in Naruto because it’s a movie that mainly appeals to Naruto fans. I’ll assume you’ve watched to at least episode 120, Kakashi Chronicles, of Naruto Shippuden because there are references to Kakashi’s old friend. There are also references to Asuma. Just like the previous movies, Naruto goes crazy with his rasengan and shadow clone techniques in this movie too. But this is the best Naruto movie that’s been released so far. The main enemy of this movie is Hiruko, some ex-leaf ninja that wants to become the perfect ninja by absorbing ninja with bloodline limits. He starts out having four out of five bloodline limits, but he needs one more ninja with a bloodline limit to become the perfect ninja, and that’s Kakashi. Kakashi decides to sacrifice himself for the Leaf in order to defeat Hiruko. But guess who doesn’t want Kakashi to die? Naruto, of course. “Those that break the rules and regulations are scum. But those that abandon their comrades are worse than scum.” That’s pretty much Naruto’s reason for trying to stop Kakashi. Friends over mission. If you’re a fan of Kakashi or Shikamaru, you might like some of the lines they say in this movie. Of course, Naruto has some good ones, as well as cheesy lines too. Many of the other characters have their lines too, but nothing that great. There are some light comedy, some good references to Naruto Shippuden, characters going all out with their ninja techniques, and of course the animation is good. You’d be able to tell how much effort was put into the animation if you compared it to Naruto Shippuden. All of that in one package makes a good Naruto movie. The music was great. The music of the movie soundtrack fit well with the background to fit the mood of the scene. "Dareka Ga" by Puffy, the opening song, was pretty good to listen to. The strong point of this movie is the references they make in this movie. The involvement of many characters is also a plus in this movie. This movie is a good watch for Naruto fans.

I had relatively low expectations for this movie, seeing how all the previous ones were pretty bad. They all followed the same formula, which is to say Naruto preaches his views onto some filler character causing them to change their ideals and it would always end with Naruto rasengan-ing the big baddie. It was alright the first time, but it got stale after the 2nd movie and became absolutely abysmal for the next 3. Needless to say that asides from maybe a couple cool moments, all the Naruto movies have been bad, definitely not worth a watch. But than this movie came along and sorta changed things up making it slightly more fresh and enjoyable. The story is pretty much standard fare, a disgruntled ninja named Hiruko is hunting down ninjas with Bloodline Limits and absorbing their abilities to become the perfect ninja and start the 4th Ninja War. He soon has his eyes set on Kakashi, and the next thing you know the movie becomes a Kakashi rescue arc. Now this isn't really a bad thing since there are no filler characters and Kakashi is a pretty likable guy (unlike Sasuke) so its easy to empathize with Naruto's gung-ho attitude about the whole thing. There are no real twists to speak of, so don't go in expecting a really good plot because you won't find one. This movie caters to the fans, so people who aren't really into Naruto won't like it either. However that's not to say that they're isn't any meaningful dialogue or characterization. Sure Naruto is the same and preaches his ideals to anyone who bothers to listen but its still pretty entertaining. There's quite of bit of cheesy lines but some of the dialogue between Naruto, Shikamaru and Kakashi is well written and delivered. Naruto actually thinks his actions out and his speech towards the end is inspiring enough for us to get behind him, ignoring all the fat in between. Anyway the biggest reason why anyone of us would watch this is for the fights, animation and production values, since hey, this is shounen after all. The animation is MUCH better this time around compared to the last two movies. The fights are good and the Konoha 9 get plenty of screen time. If you're someone who likes the side characters, you'll probably enjoy the movie quite a bit. Though the final fight is kinda disappointing, the animation is good enough to keep it together. The music was surprisingly good. I didn't expect much at all from Pierrot, but they did a good job in creating a solid soundtrack for the movie. There are plenty of epic orchestrated pieces that that add quite a bit to the mood, especially during the fights. There's also a lot of good typical "Naruto rock", which is to say up beat songs, which are hot-blooded enough to get the job done. In the end, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. If you're a Naruto fan than its worth checking out, its definitely the best out of all 6. If you don't like Naruto than this movie isn't going to change your mind. Not that they could ever make a legitimately excellent Naruto movie, but its good mindless fun.

This is the sixth Naruto movie, made around the time Pain invaded Konoha and the Ninja War was close to beginning. At this point the whole show turned to a slow ass war drama with overblown tragedy that had no consistency in power levels. The movie tries to build on that by keep mentioning all the people who have died so far in the show. In theory that is good for reminding us of all the cool stuff that have happened so far and the various sacrifices that were made for the sake of maintaining peace. Unfortunately the story in this movie is doing a crappy job about it. In fact, it has by far the most uninspired scenario in all the current movies, since despite the world shaking events it’s supposed to include, it happens in a most simple and dried up way. So there is this Orochimaru/Pain hybrid villain who hypnotizes powerful people and intends to turn to a god by stealing their powers. Kakashi is the last on his list and Konoha feels that they should sacrifice him in order to use some weird technique which when used will kill both him and the villain. Naruto disagrees and against all attempts to stop him, he just storms in to save Kakashi. As simple as this sounds, there are many things that make the movie to feel like it’s the end of the world when it otherwise feels like just a minor skirmish. A unique feature of this movie is how there is no movie-only emo kid that Naruto feels obligated to help. It is just Kakashi and the rest of the usual gang having some issues regarding honor and respect; so in a way the whole film was mostly a civil war. Other than that though, there is absolutely no twist or anything else to look forward to. Half of the film is an uneventful build up where Kakashi reminds everyone of all those who died so far before deciding to do the same for Konoha. The other half is mostly wasted on the characters fighting amongst each other because of that. So just expect to see things you have already seen before everything ends with Naruto using a Rasengan... as always. I must say that the whole film felt like it was full of pointless action. - The Suna village is ordered to attack Konoha just because the villain Hiruko was once part of it. Without any proof of them being allies they are ready to fight one another while the villain is calmly fulfilling his devious plan. That felt completely uncalled for and too forced to accept. Why not just teaming up against him? And as you can guess, that is exactly what Naruto does to save the day. - The characters are fighting amongst each other, something which results to nothing other than proving what a thickhead Naruto is. - There were the usual cardboard evil henchmen that needed to be defeated but they might as well not be there at all since the villain was powerful enough not to need any help and the heroes were busy fighting each other instead of the bad guys. - And what exactly is this friendship and teamwork they keep talking about if Naruto does everything alone? It sounds like a contradiction. Ok, they are working together in order to defeat the underlings but those were completely useless to the plot and winning or losing had no effect on the Big Bad’s plans. - Naruto pretty much wins by being a stubborn traitor who uses a hax power which for some unexplained reason can’t be absorbed by the enemy. That felt cheap and anti-climactic. - The villain in his dying breath has a change of heart. Which is pointless again since no time was invested on getting to like the guy. He remains as nothing more that an Orochimaru wannabe. Heck, we never even understand why he looks like a kid half the time. So as you understand, apart from the rather good production values the whole film was boring, uneventful, and full of events that made no sense. It is once again a very bad addition to the franchise.

"Naruto Shippuuden: The Inheritors of the Will of Fire" is the third installment of "Naruto Shippuuden" movie and sixth overall. Hiruko, a former Konoha ninja who abandoned the village a decade ago, declares war against all five major nations in the name of Konoha Village. He had perfected the "Chimera Technique", which absorbs opponent chakra and skills, and starts kidnapping ninjas with Blood Line Limits. The final target of Blood Line users is Kakashi, who possesses the Sharingan from Obito. To prevent the impending 4th Ninja War, Tsunade sends Kakashi on a suicidal mission to stop Hiruko. ANIMATION: 7/10 The animation is impressive. I would describe it as `extreme fluidity`. In fact, this film probably has the smoothest character movement I have ever seen. Battle scenes and leafs/wind effects were stunning. Unfortunately, the drawings of characters are very simple, and backgrounds lack detail. Some scenes were so bad that it seemed like the poor drawings from the original series filler episodes. Still the director Murata Masahiko did a great job in this film, with some breathtaking scenes with CG-assisted camera movement, and wonderfully choreographed action sequences. SOUND: 5/10 The voices are same as the original series, and generally fine. Kakashi`s voice was exceptionally well done. There was very little music, and not very effective. I still have no idea why they replaced MUSASHI for musical scores since the flute and drum instrumentals in the original Naruto series was epic in my opinion. Theme song is also very weak despite being sang by Puffy. I miss the days when top artists like Hamasaki Ayumi and Every Little Thing sang those touching and memorable songs for anime films. Even the theme song for the first Naruto movie by YUKI was better than anything I`ve heard from anime movies in the past 3 years. STORY: 6/10 The theme for this movie is pretty good: the clash of moral values. Is sacrificing one person for the welfare of the village a right thing to do? This is what the entire story is centered around. Pretty much the whole movie is about Naruto and Sakura chasing after Kakashi to stop him from sacrificing himself to save the village. There were couple of major plot holes. ==============SPOILER============== - Why did Sand Village advance its troop to the border? Sand Village has a strategic alliance with Konoha, and Gaara of all people should know that Hiruko had nothing to do with Konoha, and that Tsunade would never try to invade other countries. The whole thing was just an excuse to bring out the popular Gaara to the movie, since he had a very limited appearance in "Shippuuden" series so far. - Why did Hiruko have a child-form? Tsunade even mentioned he should be much older by now, but it was never explained to the end. We are left guessing that maybe it had something to do with the Chimera technique, but there is no apparent advantages in having a child-form. - Isn`t `give your life for the village` an honorable thing to do and what all the great Konoha ninjas did? The Third Hokage gave up his life to stop Orochimaru`s invasion. The Fourth sacrificed his life to seal the Kyuubi. Itachi gave up his life and lived as a traitor for a secret ANBU mission. Jiraiya also died on a clearly suicidal mission. In fact, Naruto himself was sacrificed as a vessel for the Kyuubi as a baby. I`m sure there are more that I can`t think of at the moment, but it seems to me like sacrificing one`s life for the village is what Konoha is all about. It also creates heroic and legendary figures that children can look up to. Naruto`s argument was severely flawed. - Wasn`t Fuuton: Rasen Shuriken devastating to Naruto`s arm? I can understand him using the forbidden technique in that situation, but he seemed to be completely fine after using it. - I understand Kakashi's desire to leave a keepsake for his apprentice, but with everything those bells stood for, it was like saying 'please break the rules and come after me'. Just a dumb thing to do if he really wanted the mission to succeed. ============================= The story also repeated the same old theatrical Naruto battle formula: Three villain ninjas ending up in head-to-head battles to buy time for the last boss. Only this time they were 1v3s instead of head-to-head, and some Kuchiyose (summoning) were used. Still, the story is well-structured with an introduction, story development, climax, and a comical ending. Following through the central theme. Flashbacks from the anime series were used very effectively, with the animation completely redone from story board. 'Will of Fire' and 'Obito' cards were played especially well. CHARACTERS: 2/10 There are very little character developments in movies for series. In fact, I don`t really expect too much from them. "Will of Fire" still managed to completely bomb this section. They made a fatal mistake for movies: Making every single character in the series appear. Pretty much all the ninjas in Naruto`s generation showed up, only to make their signature move and used as action fillers. They ate away precious screen time that could`ve been used to develop the main characters or the story. As a result, the main characters remained paper-thin, with Naruto acting like a stubborn child and Sakura a tsundere who kept beating up Naruto and Sai. I did like Gaara`s involvement though, since his action sequence was very cool, and his role supported Naruto`s determination. ENJOYMENT/OVERALL 7.5/10 Theatrical releases of continuous series (as opposed to episodic series like "Doraemon" or "Crayon Shin-chan") are always going to be a side-story, and should be expected as such. There will never be a good animated movie for series. Despite all the criticisms, "Naruto/Shippuuden" is my favorite 100+ episode anime series after "Yuu Yuu Hakusho". The 3rd Shippuuden movie "Will of Fire" was a great side story for me, even though the story and characters would be terrible for a stand-alone film. I didin't really agree with Naruto's decision that could've destroyed the entire village over one person, but I guess as a movie, they had to push the friendship over responsibility. Sometimes I feel these movies are targeted toward younger audiences than series or manga itself due to their corniness and deliberate attempts for inspiration, but compared to all previous Naruto movies, "Will of Fire" was by far the most well-directed, and personally the best Naruto film since the very first Naruto movie "Snow Princess".

The plot is very lousy, seriously. Here's a very breif summary... Tsuade, Jiraya and Orochimaru had a weak childhood friend we didn't know about. This person later becomes and evil villan, a threat to all nations. When Kakashi was a teenager, this person put a curse on him, a curse he still carries to this day. Kakashi is destined to die! He undertakes a kamakaze mission. It's up to the Hidden Leaf's youth to save the day. What's lousy you may ask? It's unoriginal: - Like Orochimaru, this character becomes a 'mad scientist', carrying out inhumane experiments in order to get strong - This villian is 'invincable' and 'immortal', just like most villians who end up getting killed - Yet another person after the shiringan - The 'curse mark' has been done before What else lets the film down?: - Sakura's typical 'violence toward friends, useless in battle' trait - Chemeria's are the theme great, time to get creative? NO, all the chemeras seem to look more robotic then organic - Outright silly stuff occure also, such as Naruto creating a chain bridge of shadow clones, Tsunade knowing how to tamper with the shiringan, Naruto having a mild heal/repair ability I'll leave you on a high not however, what's good about the movie... - The fight scenes are great; each team gets some attention - Naruto's determination to "Bring Kakashi back" is realistic (don't we know) - We get to see what Gaara can do without the 1 tailed badger These elements make it worth watching and are the reason I gave it a good score.;)

I am not a fan of extra material or of movies spawned from anime spawned from manga series. That being said, I still have seen most of the Naruto movies. This particular movie I can't say "let me down" because I go into these things expecting complete and utter filler nonsense. This story is half that. It has some really good fan fare, but then it has some really bad nonsense that is out of place in the series. Someone who has never seen the series or any other movie might find this ok, hence my score. The story in this movie seemed like it would be interesting, although it really wasn't. It had a lot of cool fights and action, and since the characters are from a popular series, the characters are already liked. Basically, I am saying that I already liked the characters so I may have given this an extra point on it's score than it deserves. The story was the swiss cheese of stories. It had so many holes that at one point I just laughed out loud. My LOL was because I finally had excepted that this is just an action flick filled with fan fare. The story is like most Naruto filler stories. A villain comes out of nowhere and is extra powerful. There's a world threatening plot, and the village gets attacked. Things happen that shouldn't. plot holes open, then there's an action filled finale. This one does have some good fight sequences, but it's completely out of place if you're a fan of the series. If you don't care about story and just want your favorite characters in any way you can get them, then this is for you. If not, then consider taking a pass on this. Not horrible, but not the best. All in all, I was generous with the 6 I gave it.

Like pretty much all other Naruto films, the third one follows the same template. Sadly, it too suffers from a lot of problems. **Minor spoilers** We are introduced to a new character who supposedly were a friend of Jiraiya & co, although never mentioned or seen in the main series. This character and his story is basically a copy-paste of Orochimaru's, though we are not told what happened to him after certain events. Suddenly, he appears with his new over-powered abilities which he got using a technique that up to this point has been unheard of. Being a mediocre shinobi back in the day, it is unclear how this man managed to obtain the sources of these powers and nothing is shown to explain this. Hiruko, as his name is, wants to declare a 4th great war once he gets a hold of some more strength. This is the main plot but again, the film simply will not explain why he wants to do this. One would think this guy has moved on to another village after all those years ...but apparently not. Since this guy is from Konohagakure and probably was banished, Tsunade was aware of his abilities and should therefore be wary of what he is up to. However, for some reason the guys in green decide to not give a shit and claim that he is too strong to be dealt with when he shows up. Even though they could've prevented the problem in the first place. Hiruko is now said to be impossible to beat, but if he's so dangerous, how come we've never heard anything about him before? I'll tell you why. Because rushed and forced story. The characters are mostly poor in this movie. Apart from Naruto, who does the same thing wherever we see him, there's the bad guys, Naruto's friends, Tsunade and Kakashi. The main villain and Kakashi had the key roles in this film but for me the spotlight was shining on Shikamaru as his mind was conflicted by duty and the words of Obito. Sakura didn't do much to make herself shine except for comic relief (not that that's unusual) however the film set up a neat little reference to the "loss" of Sasuke once she reacts to Naruto's promise about bringing back Kakashi. Both Gaara and Tsunade felt out of character and considering the forced story it's pretty safe to say that the writers did not take their character behaviors into account. Tsunade is a wise woman, there is absolutely no reason why she would sacrifice Kakashi to Hiruko when he clearly stated that obtaining Kakashi will make him immortal. Actually, there's no way she'd sacrifice him in the first place 'cause she's a softie. Yes, I know. They had a plan, but there's a chance of it being unsuccessful and it's totally unnecessary when they could just kill the guy and be over with it. Couldn't they have locked up Kakashi instead? Would have made more sense. Hiruko, Mr. Reptile Mouth, had an odd but interesting character design which I actually did not mind. The same thing can not be said about his accomplices, especially not the female. Without revealing too much, all of their abilities were stupid and one of them even looked like something straight out of Digimon. It is odd to me why close to every bad guy in these movies have people helping them as they're hardly likeable characters. A quick flashback on how Hiruko made these friends would clear things up. Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 3 has animation that is superior to what's in the main series. Although not as good as in the 2nd film, the fighting scenes has good looking effects that fly by smoothly and look very cool. The quality of the artwork itself has only improved by a bit and things such as background images could be given a bit more detail as with all other Naruto films up to this point. The music in this film is not bad, it works well with the scenes if you pay attention to it, but that is what you will have to do to notice it since it does not stand out in any way. I did not pay much attention to be honest but my grade for the sound effects would be a 5. They are average. When it comes down to a conclusion, it has to be said that Inheritors of Will of Fire is a pretty good media-production that fails to deliver in terms of story and depth because it forces out a rushed plot as an excuse for including lots of action.

By far my favorite Naruto Movie to date in my opinion. This one involves the whole of Konoha 11 and allows us to see more of the other characters as well as their combination of jutsu's that I just love and seeing all of them work together. A really good movie that has a good amount of action and focuses on nakama power which I always love.

**THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS** So far everything is seeming to slowly go up in quality with the last 2 Naruto Shippuuden movies and this movie helps that trend. Story: (4/10) The story of Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 3 - Hi no Ishi wo Tsugu Mono begins with the potential outbreak of a Fourth Great Ninja World War, a few ninjas with Kekkei Genkai abilities begin to disappear from the land of Lightning, Earth, Water and Wind. One of the Kekkei Genkai members plans to become an immortal perfect ninja by using his chimera technique and the only thing left to complete it is to absorb Kakashi. Now, Naruto and his group must go save Kakashi. One of my main problems with the story is how many of Naruto's allies didn't want to save Kakashi because they taught that it was the only way to save everyone even thought if they let the person absorb Kakashi and become immortal it could mean death of everyone because of how Hiruko has villainous motivations that are shown throughout the whole movie. There were many moments that I felt that were meaningless to put in and took up a lot of time and some are found near the middle of the movie. I thought that the ending to the movie was very absurd with all that it showed. Art and Animation: (7/10) The art in the movie was good with it being able to keep every character's design consistent and good, the backgrounds were good, and all the different powers that were shown looked good. The animation in this movie is the best thing about it and is LEAGUES better than the animation in the anime. The fights were all animated fantastically especially the fight with Gaara and the final fight. Sound: (5/10) The soundtrack is nothing to write home about with the ending song for the movie being fine. The voice actors did a good job with all the characters and the sound effects were average. Characters: (4/10) I thought that many characters that were included in this movie were unnecessary like all the side characters from the ninja teams with only Shikamaru being the only one out of side characters that contributed anything to the plot and having a interesting conflict with him that is shown throughout the whole movie. This movie gave some amount of spotlight to Sai who is supposed to be the replacement of Sasuke in the Shippuuden anime which was cool to see but he is quickly pushed to the side in the later half of the movie kind of like in the anime. Sakura did nothing in the movie again. Kakashi who is our main character in this movie was given a small amount of screen time with some of his scenes consisting of him remembering his past when he was in a team with Obito and Rin. All the villains that were in this were all very one dimensional and underdeveloped especially the main villain. Enjoyment: (5/10) The animation in this movie is really good and all action scenes benefit a lot from this. Overall: (5/10) Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 3 - Hi no Ishi wo Tsugu Mono is a movie that lacks many things in many departments but the animation in it solely caused me to give this movie a 5 instead of a 4.

The short: Ninjas with Kekkei Genkai begins to disapear from various villages and it turns out that the villain, uses these ninjas inorder to obtain their power. He has caught 3, but missing the last one in order to be fully complete, which would make him a perfect ninja. He casts a jutsu in form of a projectile which is broadcasted through all the villages, claiming that he's from Leaf Village and lay out his plans. This causes disarray with the villages, as they are now targeting Konoha - even sandvillage. While Konoha is at risk of invasion, Kakashi figures out a plan to stop this villain, so he quickly moves out, while Naruto and Sakura are on his tail. The Hokage asks Shikamaru to gather a team to get the team kakashi back so Kakashi can execute his plan successfully. Overall: I actually was in doubt that this was an actual movie. The artwork, the quality, the sound, it all seemed too "normal" to me, like the television episodes. I had to google it for more info, and it turns out that this was in fact a real movie and not just some special or OVA. You can't compare it to the previous titles, and I gotta say that they sure saved a bunch of money on the production with this one. Verdict: Not as pretty as the second movie, this "movie" is another filler that took a turn to the big screen. The only thing that saved this movie from being bad to average, is that they included all the other characters from the other teams which is always a good thing in a Naruto movie. 5 = Average

1. "Those aren't normal dogs. Why? Because they don't look like normal dogs" -Shino 10/10 would sass again 2. "I knew you two were close but I didn't expect this" -Hinata 10/10 Would ship Naruto x Kakashi again. Watch if you've seen Shippuden up to episode 122. If you're reading this you probably want to know if it's worth your time. If you liked the other shippuden movies then yes. If not, then no. Done. It's only filler. -Below here isn't an essential part of my review but MAL wan't more words- No plot summary because plot summaries are so boring and pointless to a review, I wan't everyone to stop doing it. Every Naruto movie is just a well animated and decent filler. This one is no different. I really appreciated how each of Naruto's peers had at least 1 attack / time to shine, if only for 3 seconds. I gave it a 6 because that was the average of my other scores (4 story, 10 art, 8 sound, 5 character, 6 enjoyment). Also let me preface that a 5 isn't bad, unlike so many mal users seem to think. use your damn heads. 5 is average, middle of the road, not good but not bad. There are an equal number of things worse than it as there are things better. 4 for story because it was less than average, but not that bad. It was more a vehicle for carrying characters into cool events and cheesy messages about friendship. 10 Art because it's the best Nartuo's visuals have and will ever be (Referring to all the movies as a whole) 5 for sound because it didn't stand out. They used standard recording equipment and these things will never truly sound good unless you have expensive audio hardware. Which I don't. 5 for Characters because they weren't any different from their usual selves. They acted pretty average. 6 for enjoyment, would be 5 but that Kakashi x Naruto skit at the end was golden and made the movie worth it. Also Shino is sassy as f***

Okay, so I've seen enough of them by now to know that the Naruto franchise has had its ups and downs when it comes to the movies. Some of them are actually quite good... And some of them are pretty terrible. I'm a little torn about this one. My opinion of the plot swung between it being bad... to it just being unnecessary. I know, Naruto is not exactly known for subtlety, but the main point of this movie-- really showcasing the will of fire and what it means to their village-- was just further expounding on something that the series proper had already handled very well. This is one of those movies that's pretty heavy on the flashbacks. It felt a little like it was meant to be a recap of all the major points that had already taken place in the anime itself. It very much had the feel of some guy standing off to the side of a theater after a big plot reveal going, "Did you get that?!" On top of that, the conflict between our protagonists felt really forced. I could appreciate that it would be a legitimate conflict in their ninja society-- sometimes it's not possible to follow orders and follow your heart at the same time. And I did kind of like the idea of the heroes turning on each other over conflicting ideals, but it felt all too obvious that they would all eventually side with Naruto-- and not just because he's the main protagonist and that's how the story works, but because it's also just who the other characters are. In fact, Shikamaru really walked the line of being out-of-character. I get it. This movie came out right after Asuma's death, which was a crucial point in Shikamaru's growth as a character, and he was still learning to live with his new motivation to uphold Asuma's beliefs at this point... But they really pushed that past making a point. There's a time where Shikamaru literally says, "I'll stop Naruto... even if I have to kill him." Um, Shikamaru? Calm down, buddy. Let's not go off the deep end, if you don't mind. Our villain is already playing that role. And speaking of... So the plot was kind of dumb and unnecessary, but this movie's lowest point was definitely with its villain. Don't get me wrong, Todd Haberkorn's portrayal of him was excellent, and near the end, Hiruko was genuinely creepy in an insane way, but his story and motivations were bullshit. To put it lightly. Personally, I think the best anime movies are the ones that technically could have taken place within the series itself. And then there are movies like this one... where the writers couldn't bother to develop their character well enough to give us a reason to like the villain, so they just tacked him onto another character's backstory as a sad attempt to make the viewers care about him. In my experience, this rarely works, and it destroys any hope of allowing us to believe the movie could be canon. So overall, the story was pretty weak in this one. But even so... There was something I really liked about this movie. There was something cheesy and heartfelt about it that was just... fun. I really liked that all of the Konoha Eleven (plus Sai) got some screen-time. They all had a role to play, and it just felt... right. Also, some of the fight scenes were actually quite well-done, while managing to give everyone a place. Lee and Neji combining their jutsu sounded ridiculous in theory, but turned out to be quite clever, and kind of hilarious to see. Like I said, a lot of this movie was just fun. And on one last, totally unrelated note... Is it just me or was Sai especially adorable in this movie? I've always had a soft spot for Sai and how his naïve earnestness gets him into trouble, but it just really shined through in this movie. I was particularly fond of the scene where Naruto basically dragged a protesting Sai out of the hospital to attend a party on their behalf. And I had to laugh when Naruto of all people told Sai he'd had a dark childhood. It was little instances like that, where the movie was almost mocking itself, that really won me over.

Note: Before you watch this movie, I suggest you get caught up with the series up to the Kakashi Chronicles and after the Asuma vs. Hidan fight because the movie makes quite a few references towards these incidents. Now, I personally thought that this movie had a pretty good mix of all the components of a Naruto movie: character development, action, and dialogue meant to move the watcher. There are also many cameo shots of nearly every minor and major character in the series... except Sasuke ((sigh)). The plot of the movie is to follow Naruto and the rest of the gang as the chase after Kakashi who has been possessed by a problem child looking for power through bloodline limits. At first, Tsunade orders for no one to subdue Kakashi, but of course, Naruto goes after him anyways, taking Sakura and Sai along with him. Shikamaru and the rest of the happy-go-lucky Konoha gang go along after them, planning to stop him from rescuing Kakashi. I liked the plot of the story, what having it to do with friendship and all, but maybe that's just me being a sappy girl. Nonetheless, the plot kept me attached to the screen and didn't make me pause and do other stuff, which is usually what Naruto movies make me do. The art is standard, but there's some A+ animation along with fight scenes from your favorite Konoha ninja and even come action cameos from the Kazekage himself. The 3rd Naruto Shippuden movie was by far my favorite and I encourage you all to take a gander at it whenever you can.

I haven't been a huge fan of many of the Naruto movies. I find the missions have felt pretty pointless, even though most of them deliver with regards to flashy fights and don't take forever to finish. Naruto Shippuuden 3: Inheritors of Will of Fire feels like the first good Naruto movie, which would be their sixth attempt at doing so. Story: Naruto Shippuuden 3: Inheritors of Will of Fire would see Hiruko, an Ex-Hidden Leaf ninja, who was essentially exiled due to the experiments he was performing in order to create the perfect body - which should sound familiar to some older Naruto fans. In order to do so, he found that he could attain a desirable body by absorbing the bodies of five ninjas with Bloodline Limits, also known as Kekkei Genkai. When they were younger, Hiruko put a curse on Kakashi that would forcibly draw him to Haruko's location. He finally decides to use this to try and obtain Kakashi's Sharingan, which would complete his fifth Kekkei Genkai. Kakashi gives into this curse, but Naruto can't believe his ears when he gets word of this. This is due to the belif that Kakashi instilling in him years ago: Those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum. So Naruto tries to drag Kakashi back to the Hidden Leaf, even though his opinion in doing so sit in the minority. The story itself is pretty straight forward, but I need to be honest, much of the fun in this movie is the fact that you get to see basically Naruto's entire gang engage the enemy at the same time. There are multiple villains, even though the early ones kind of only act as a body in the way. The storytelling from Kakashi's viewpoint was well told though, and there were points that involved his old friend Obito Uchiha. This gave the story more meaning. It wasn't flawless though. There were story elements surrounding Hiruko that causes the Hidden Leaf and Sand Villages to almost engage in a large scale fight, and I really thought the entire thing was completely overblown. It's not terribly laid out to us, and it almost feels like it was done just to give certain characters more screen time. They could have done away with the entire thing and audiences wouldn't have felt like anything was missing. It just feels overdramatic. (7/10) Characters: They really do push Naruto's belief's in this movie, supporting that he cares about his friends so much. Many of the other chuunin from his year also get brought into this ordeal, and Naruto acts as the beacon of hope when some of them don't believe in what he does. Hiruko is a fine character, but will likely remind audiences of Orochimaru a little too much. Regardless, I loved the abilities they introduced into this character, and that's one of the key reasons I enjoyed this movie - they're just so much fun to watch. His followers Ichi, Ni and San don't have any background story to them so it would have been nice if they both they gave them more story, and involvement into what was going on here. I liked their abilities in general, but considering how much thought gets put into other villains in the series, I would have liked to see more from them, and with slightly longer fights. (7/10) Art: Naruto Shippuuden has a long history of very lazy animations, especially late in the long series. That shows up much less here, which is good to see. Fights in the series are always really fun to watch and match some of the best in history, if you can ignore the fact that some of them drag on forever. The movie obviously doesn't have this limitation, and the result is one reason I liked this movie so much, especially when Hiruko gets involved. It's not stunning, top of the line animation, no, but there's something that makes me love these fights that make them special. (9/10) Sound: The OST has typical Naruto music, though the ED, Dareka Ga by Puffy wasn't one to my liking. I have had problems with the casting for Naruto for years, but that's obviously not something meant for this review. Instead, somehow, they got all of Todd Haberkorn (Hiruko), Patrick Seitz (Ichi), Laura Bailey (Ni) and Matthew Mercer (San) voicing the villains. All four of these are top notch VOs with long histories of outstanding performances. It's just a shame that the latter three didn't have a ton of voice lines. (9/10) Overall Enjoyment: Despite some weird things going on with the story in the middle, Naruto Shippuuden 3: Inheritors of Will of Fire is a ton of fun to watch. I'll be honest, much of my enjoyment comes from the fights in this movie, and that brings it above the previous movies, for me. You won't find any deep storytelling here, but fans of the series should give this a try. (8/10)

Pretty fun movie for the most part. Honestly, all of these movies are kind of all over the place. To be fair though, the Shippuden movies have so far been the best Naruto movies. The character interactions are pretty great, the action is fun to watch, and the animation is overall solid. The dialogue is pretty crap at times though. I was actually really surprised at the amount of character development that they had in this movie though. Shikamaru had some pretty good screen time. The worst thing about all of these movies is how underutilized Gaara is though. They include him in the movie, but then give him next to nothing to do. This is really a movie you can only enjoy if you're really invested in the show. Otherwise, it's pretty bad. I had fun with it though. Probably won't watch it again.

This one is, so far, the closest to what I've been hoping for out of these Naruto movies. It spent a lot more time with the side cast and actually tried developing some ideas from the show, particularly the bells lession from very early in the show. I liked how much time it spent in the Leaf Village proper and how the main emotional conflicts rise from the characters we know instead of randos from the other movies' escort missions. The scene where Sakura broke Naruto out of jail was great, and there were a bunch of other good individual scenes, too. But the story itself is just not good. There was no reason to connect the original baddy to so many sets of characters. His design is bad. His gimmick is probably the least interesting of all the movie villains thus far. The tiff with the sand village was contrived. They title dropped the movie like infinitely many times. The second act and especially the third act dragged on so much that you could feel the story's potential drying up the entire time. Signing off with a gay joke was wild as hell in a bad way and I would not recommend it.

At first I wasn't going to this movie because all the previous ones were pretty bad, but I saw it anyway. I had relatively low expectations however I was pleasantly surprised! The story was good; it was different from the other movies (they had the same plot with different characters). I really liked how it involved most (if not all) of the characters from the series. What I enjoyed most is that the movie ties in with the main story of the series unlike the other Naruto movies. The one complaint I have is that this movie follows the formula as the other Naruto movies. Overall I recommend this film to every Naruto and Naruto Shippuden fan, It is the best Naruto yet!

A breath of fresh air in the series of Naruto films. This movie had an original plot and an original threat to the village. Although I knew the characters would ultimately be safe, I was curious to see how they would get out of this dilemma. Great mix of characters where everyone gets some screentime. You get to see essentially all of the leaf shinobi get in on some of the action. The film posed a moral and ethical dilemma that caused the shinobi to question where their loyalties lie. It had hints of a civil war. I didn't understand the immediate tension caused between nations. They see a big hologram in the sky and immediately point their ballistas at their neighbor? It's clear the leaf does not associate with that man. In this film, Kakashi was like a second Sasuke. Another one of Naruto's friends under evil influence that he feels he must rescue when it feels like everyone else has given up on them. I felt that the leaf village and Tsunade were too quick to give up Kakashi. Why send the man that the enemy desires straight to them? They should've been locking Kakashi up in that cell instead. The villain was like a reenvisioned mashup of previous villains. They had Orochimaru's experimental hunger for power, and multiple abilities like Pain. Although the villain was interesting in concept, their motive fell short with the generic desire to be all powerful with no real plan if they were to get what they want. The villain's defeat was cheap and coincidental. They made him too powerful, so he could only be defeated be breaking the logic they created. The ending bit was too ridiculous, but funny. I know it was meant to be, but it's not like they could have seen through his mask and they were taking it a bit far. A stretch for a comedic relief.

First of all, watch this after Naruto Shippuden episode 120-Kakashi Chronicles at least. hmm I preferred the previous movies[as of when I'm writing this review, I haven't watched the movies after this one]. I just couldn't get into this, as I kept pausing and doing other things. It was boring and i think the story was shallow. Like what's up with a sudden new childhood friend of the Legendary Sannin randomly appearing that has a stupid inferiority complex wtf Loved the message and stuff though. Naruto obviously went after Kakashi and Shikamaru kinda pissed me off I LOVED THAT PART AT THE END THO JKDSHKDJDJH- ***SPOILERS AHEAD I GUESS*** . . . . . I LOVED THAT PART AT THE END THO JKDSHKDJDJH Kakashi was all like "you're just like him(obito)" to naruto and all of their reactions LMAO Hinata: "How scandalous of you. I didn't know you were into that, Kakashi-sensei" Sai, with his books: "Sometimes after experiencing the same excitement, love can blossom, it says. But nothing between two men..." Neji looking kinda hot. smiling behind him Lee: "Guy sensei told me. That's also part of youth!" Naruto running off cringing after that "YADAAA" It was like the best part of this movie for me