NYCC: Naruto Gets New Anime and Manga Projects
The Big Apple got its geek on last weekend, as this year's New York ComicCon took place. One of the sold-out events at this year's show was the panel Naruto: What's Next? The panel was a celebration of the beloved Naruto franchise and brought news about its future. In attendance were Junko Takeuchi and Noriaki Sugiyama, the Japanese voices of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha and Yoshihiro Tominaga, executive producer at Naruto producers Pierrot Films. Waiting fans were treated to news of new anime, manga, video games and more.
Naruto will return to our screens in a new, four-episode limited series anime. The series will be a crossover with the series Ninku. What the heck is Ninku, you might ask? Originally serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump, the manga was created by Koji Kiriyama and ran from 1993 to 1995. The anime adaptation aired from 1995 to 1996, and also spawned two movies. Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto cites Ninku as a major influence on his series. "Without Ninku, Naruto wouldn't exist", Kishimoto told fans in a statement. "Simply put, Fūsuke is Naruto's secret mentor. Eventually, I began dreaming of bringing this master-and-student relationship out of the shadows, and into an actual storyline." Both series were produced by Pierrot.
In the crossover, Kakashi sends Squad 7- Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura- on a mission. With Kakashi not able to take part himself, he names Naruto as acting squad leader. Somewhere along the way, they take a wrong turn and end up wandering into another world. There they meet Fūsuke, the lead character from Ninku.
Kishimoto and Kiriyama are overseeing the project together. Noriyuki Abe, who worked on both the Ninku TV series and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, is directing the series. Tetsuya Nishio, who also worked on both Nishi and Naruto, will be the character designer and chief animation director. The series is currently in production, and no release date has been announced yet.
Based on the footage seen in the teaser trailer, the new episodes seem to take place in the continuity of the original Naruto series, as opposed to Naruto Shippuden or after. The first five episodes of the original Ninku anime are currently streaming on Studio Pierrot's offical YouTube page.
The series is part of what is being called Project Rasengen, a large scale global project designed to take Naruto and Boruto into a new era. As well as the new anime, a video was screened that announced that Kishimoto would be producing a new manga: Naruto: Shadow Rising, to be released in 2027.
A new Naruto Collectable Card Game will also launch. Coming June 2027 worldwide from Bandai Card Games, the game will launch with three base decks centered around Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara. Meanwhile, it was also announced that the Naruto Mobile Game, released exclusively in mainland China in 2016, will be expanding worldwide.
Tha panel also featured an update on the live-action Hollywood Naruto movie. The film is being directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, director of Marvel films Shang-Chi and this summer's collosal hit Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so at least we know he's got action chops. Cretton sent a message for con-goers: "When we kicked off our worldwide search for Team 7 this summer, I talked about what an honor it is to bring Kishimoto-sensei's incredible world and characters to life.The further we get into making this film, the more excited I am about what we're creating.We're hard at work and will have more to share soon."
More updates on Project Rasengen will be announced at Jump Fiesta, which will take place in December in Japan.
