Naruto Unleashed - Complete Series 4 [DVD]

Before I start, this review may contain some spoilers if you havent watched the previous series'.

The village of Konoha is under attack and it's up to Naruto and his friends to protect everyone from the invading sand village and it's mysterious ninja Gaara. Naruto series 4 kicks in right where the last series left off. And the build up and suspense pays off with some truly extroadinary action and emotionally charged fights. Series 4 brings a conclusion to the invasion of Konoha story arc and then goes into the search for the fifth hokage. This new story arc sees the pairing of mismatched duo Naruto and 'pervy sage' Jiraiya as they set out on the journey to locate and bring back the new hokage. So, you can expect plenty of comedy as these two characters constantly bounce of each other to give some great laughs. The beginning of series 4, with exception to the fight between Gaara and Naruto is undeniably more light hearted and certainly less action packed than the previous seasons. However, this is down to the fact that a certain number of episodes is devoted to Naruto's training from Jiraiya and also getting to know the new Hokage when she is introduced. The fifth Hokage, Tsunade is another great addition to the Naruto cast as she and Naruto instantly clash and seem to dislike eachother, however, you can tell that there is a mutual bond between them. Even at this stage of the story, the series pays special attention to the characters and this results in the series producing some of the most likeable and well-recognised characters of recent animes.

After several slower episodes, the action gets cranked up a notch when the sinister Orochimaru returns. Like Jiraiya and Naruto, he has also set his sights on the new Hokage for his own devious reasons. What results, is some great action sequences that the series has become so good at pulling off and you also get to see the true power of the sannin ninja which makes for some edge of your seat viewing.

Hardcore fans of Naruto may not enjoy series 4 as much as previous installments as you don't really get to see much of the side characters that have become so well liked. However, I can understand that this was necassary in order to progress the story and also to get used to the new characters. Furthermore, if you have read the manga of Naruto beforehand, you will notice that a fair amount of the series is filler material. Filler material is basically new stuff that was not in the original source manga and is original to the anime. It will usually have little or no connection to the main story/plot of the series. Many long running animes use filler because they often end up running out of material to use from the manga, and therefore have to come up with their own episodes in order to let the manga catch up. Naruto is no exception. Towards the end of series 4, comes the very first of many filler arcs which sees Naruto and the rest of Team 7 accompanying a young man called Idate as he participates in a traditional foot race to determine who becomes leader of his village. Though this filler arc is not at all bad, it is undeniably the weakest section of the series. Thankfully, series 5 looks set to conclude this filler arc and then carry on with the actual storyline, which is one of the most important parts of the Naruto series as a whole.

As can be expected, the animation continues to be excellent, and kudos to the collosal sannin showdown fight scenes which look simply gorgeous. This set conatins both English and Japanese language tracks and fortunately we get subtitles instead of the annoying dubtitles. As per usual there are no real special features to speak of except for the usual trailers of other manga entertainment animes, however, the sheer quality of the episodes is enough to keep most fans happy.

This series ends on episode 104 meaning that we have still got a full series and a bit before the full on filler material which goes on for about 90 episodes before sequel series Naruto Shipuuden/Hurricane chronicles kicks in. Naruto series 4 is definetly a must buy for fans who have been collecting the previous boxsets. If you have never seen the Naruto series then you need to start from series 1 as this is Naruto is a series that is so rich in story and character development that you need to watch it from the very beginning. Alternatively you could try the manga which is still being made and (at the time of writing this) is on volume 32 in Britain and about 44 in Japan. This fourth box set contains another 26 episodes of this great series and is well worth adding to your collection.

This series is a tricky one as it has some excellent episodes in the conclusiong of the attack on Konoha arc and the epilogue is also very touching. Then the series slows down a little but before we get an action packed couple of episodes where we get to see just how powerful the legendary Sannin are as they battle one another. Unfortunately we then have several "light-hearted" episodes which encapsulate all of the problems with Naruto's filler material. At least in this volume there's always some good episodes to prop it up but this won't be the case come series 6. If you are one of the people who enjoy the wacky and fun installments then you will find little to hate in this series but to me it is a bit jarring after the sheer excellence that was series 2 and 3.

Naruto series 4 is a fantastic buy for not only Naruto fans but anime lovers alike. Although this series does not include as much intense fighting as previous series such as 2 and 3, this doesnt distract from the exellent plot and well developed characters. This mix of fighting with humour is extremly interesting to watch and will leave you wanting series 5 as quickly as possible.