Naruto - The Lost Story [DVD]

The Lost Story is a 40 minute special episode that sees Naruto and the other Genin Ninja escorting Shibuki, the young leader of the Waterfall Village back to his home. Seems like a pretty straight forward mission, yet predictably the mission soon becomes complicated. Shibuki's Village is attacked by the outcast Suien who is after the hidden waterfall treasure "Hero's Water" which increases the users chakra tenfold.
What follows is a stand alone Naruto feature that runs for the length of about 2 episodes. Despite the short length, this OVA (original video animation) manages to fit in plenty of action, comedy and some morals about courage and responsibility as Naruto has to show Shibuki what it means to be a true Hero.

The action is pretty decent with some nice fight scenes and jutsus, which are nicely animated by the studio pierrot. Fans of the series will recognise all of the music as it is all recycled from the TV series.
Love it or Hate it, I only watch the english dub of Naruto, and I was impressed as usual with the quality. Fans of the series may recognise that the voice of Shibuki has been done by Steve Staley, the voice of Neji Hyuga in the series. I was pleasantly surprised with this as he is actually one of my favourite voice actors having provided voices for Heat Guy J, Tenjho Tenge and Buso Renkin. The special features on this disc are a bunch of Manga entertainment trailers along with a bonus 17 minute short episode entitled "Find the four leaf red clover". As there was no english dub for this, I watched Japanese and found it quite good, but nothing spectacular.

Newcomers to the series may feel lost while watching this one so it is better to check out the television series beforehand (the series boxsets are going pretty cheap now!).
The Lost Story is definetly NOT the best Naruto DVD out, and it doesn't set out to be either... It doesn't really provide anything new in terms of character development or story, it is just a nice addition to any Naruto fans collection. So if you're looking for that extra bit of Naruto fixation after watching the series then you should check this DVD out.

Got this for my 10yrold nephew, he loves the Naruto games, and after he got this film we didn't see him for a few days as he rewatched it several times and drove us crazy telling us the plot lines.

This Naruto OVA sees the hyperactive ninja and his team hired to protect Shibuki, the young leader of the Village Hidden in the Waterfall. Just as they are finishing their mission the village is attacked by a group of rouge ninja who are after the mystical Hero's Water, a substance that can greatly increase a persons Chakra. Naruto must not only help save the village but must also force Shibuki to overcome his fears.

This is an okay story that fits into the series sometime after the Chûnin exams, although where exactly is difficult to say. The animation and voice acting are on a par with the series proper and although the story doesn't have any bearing on the plot of the series, it is interesting nonetheless. I would say that this OVA is about as good as the average Naruto episode but it there was potential here that wasn't used. Basically this story is a bit of enjoyable Naruto fluff that would probably be enjoyed most by diehard fans of the series rather than the casual viewer.