After the death of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, at the hands Orochimaru, the Hidden Leaf Village suffered from its own mini-depression. The Hidden Leaf was both short on available ninja for missions and lacked a leader to take the crown of Hokage. Thanks to Jiraiya, one of the legendary San-nin, Lady Tsunade, another one of the San-nin, eventually took the mantle of Fifth Hokage. The original Naruto series concluded with several filler episodes revolving around Naruto and his friends coming of age and going on several mini-adventures.
Naruto: Shippûden takes place approximately three years after the events in the original Naruto series. Naruto has gone off to train extensively with Master Jiraiya, while the leaf goes through its own growth spurt under the leadership of Tsunade. However, Naruto’s return to the Hidden Leaf is as much of a happy occasion in the Leaf as it is an omen of the dark future that looms over the horizon.
Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 1 includes the first thirteen episodes in the Shippuden series on 3 Discs. The Shippuden series starts off infused with adrenaline and never stops to take a breather. The season begins with a short dream sequence of Naruto once again searching searching for Sasuke, his childhood friend and training partner who went off to work for Orochimaru. Whereas the Naruto series focused on the threat of Orochimaru and his followers, while hinting at the threat of the Akatsuki, Shippuden wastes no time in diving right into the threat of the Akatsuki. Deidara and Sasori of the Akatsuki are sent on a mission to find Gaara, harbinger of one of the tailed-fox spirits. The original Naruto series established the deadliness of Gaara. Now, Gaara has become Kazekage of the Sand, the Sand Villages equivalent to the Leaf’s Hokage. We also see that Gaara has changed a lot since his earlier days. Meeting Naruto has changed Gaara. Now, Gaara dedicates his life to helping others and most especially his village. When Deidara is able to fight off Gaara single-handedly, we quickly see how dangerous the Akatsuke can be.
The Akatsuke’s attack on the Sand Village prompts the Leaf Village to send Shinobi out to help. Needless to say, Naruto is ready to jump into action. However, first, Naruto must prove his worthiness to work on A-Rank missions. After Naruto is welcomed back into the village, Tsunade has Naruto and Sakura fight together against Kakashi, the two teens former instructor. Kakashi has long been a favorite of Naruto fans. Shippuden pushes Kakashi into the forefront of the Naruto mythos by having him team up with Sakura and Naruto.
Kakashi is not the only character that gets a role boost in Shippuden. Sakura also steps up in a big way. In the Naruto series, Sakura had begun training as a medical ninja under the guidance of Lady Tsunade. We’ve always heard that the classical ninja teams were comprised of one medical ninja. Now Sakura is a full-fledged medical ninja. We quickly see how important she is to the team when Sasori of the Red Sand poisons Kankuro. Sakura is called upon to use her skills to help heal Kankuro.
The Box set includes a collectable Naruto figure and art card from Toynami, which is limited to 10,000. The figure features Naruto in his new orange and black outfit, the result of an unfortunate and laughable accident from Master Jiraiya’s training. The collectable figure is in a windowed box that neatly adjoins the 3-Disc set. The Nartuo figure has Naruto’s old-fashioned ear-to-ear grin. However, the box has a more adult layout to it than the original Naruto series’ DVD box art. The set comes in a black and white box, with a very serious and grown-up looking Naruto in color on the cover. You can display the box either with the serious Naruto cover art on the black and white background or turn the box around to show off the smiling Naruto figure in the windowed box.
Naruto is definitely back in Naruto Shippuden, and the Collector’s Box is the best way to truly bring Naruto home. Like prior Viz Naruto releases, this set comes uncut.
