The Last: Naruto the Movie is the seventh movie in the Shippuden series (the 10th film in the Naruto franchise). This movie is an original masterpiece from the master Masashi Kishimoto and he’s made it a beautiful and whimsical love story from start to finish.
This film takes place two years after the events of the Fourth Great Ninja War, our favourite headstrong, but dense ninja Naruto has matured and is now in his early 20’s along with his comrades. Naruto is now idolised among his peers and many female admirers over his heroic past. His biggest crush however Hyūga Hinata struggles with her feelings for Naruto and how to convey them, her only outlet is knitting him a scarf, hoping by the time it’s finished she’ll have the courage to pour out her feelings to her beloved.
However things don’t go to plan, just as Hinata is going to outlay everything on the table, (with some motivation by friend Sakura) she gets shot down by the absent minded Naruto and runs away. Before Naruto can catch up with her a ghostly figure named Toneri approaches and reveals that the final days of the world are approaching. He plans to destroy the earth, which he sees as corrupt and vile. Toneri moves the moon from its orbit, causing meteors to bombard all surrounding ninja villages and the moon will gradually plummet its way towards earth, causing mass destruction. However to complete his goal Toneri needs the ancient powers of the Hyūga clan to make this plan come to fruition.
During this time a legion of puppet soldiers kidnap Hinata’s younger sister, Hanabi, heir to the Hyūga clan. Toneri also states that he has dibs on Hinata and that she will be his wife.
From here on out Hinata, Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Shikamaru have a new mission to rescue Hanabi, hunt down Toneri and stop the moon from declining. While the rest of the shinobi world struggle to keep pieces of the moon from obliterating all they hold dear.
In the course of their mission the Ninja troop travel to the moon via a supernatural cavern. During this time – Hinata and Naruto get a bit of alone time and start to build a strong foundation for their relationship. Naruto also revisits many of his memories (from childhood and teenage years) of his relationship with Hinata and discovers that he is in fact in love with her.
Just as Naruto expresses his feelings to Hinata, Toneri appears to take Hinata to be his wife, heartbreakingly she accepts to help the fate of world.
Will Naruto forget about Hinata and make the moves on Sakura? or will Naruto fight to his last breath to save his love? Grab the movie to find out!
I really enjoyed this movie, it finally gave you some closure and insight in the relationship of Naruto and Hintata – in some way it was very poetic! It gave you more understanding and depth to these two characters.
At the start of the movie we are given some commentary that outline the movie: “Before the concept of Shinobi existed, there was one who bit into a forbidden fruit and obtained the power of Chakra, and with this power tried to end the age of violence. However he become obsessed with power and drowned in it. To maintain order in this world does one need power or love?”.
By the end of the movie (or even the Naruto series) you realise that the answer is love. All villains that Naruto has faced over his battles have been power hungry mongers. However Naruto always stands superior, that’s because of the love and friendships he has behind him, which gives him the power to protect them.
The visuals for this movie are outstanding! The animation is gorgeous and I found that the CG was seamless and worked fantastic with the production. I can happily say that they are finally starting to get it right. Fighting choreography and camera angles literally made my jaw drop in some places – I’m hoping that this is going to set the standard.
The Blu-Ray version is a brilliant release from Madman including some juicy extras such as Movie Trailers, Movie Promos, Commerical & an Art Gallery.
I recommend this to all those shounen or Naruto fantatics out there – If you haven’t quite gotten there with the series yet – there will be some spoilers, but won’t kill the entire series for you! One Last thing – don’t forget to stick around after the credits for a truly special moment!
A review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment to the author for the purpose of this review.
