Naruto has been running around the ninja world for years, but a few things have remained constant in his life. Sasuke is his mortal enemy and best friend, his parents are dead, and he is a big ball of energy packed into a teenage boy.
Naruto: Road To Ninja takes those bits of Naruto’s life and flips them around by sending Naruto and Sakura into an alternate dimension. As a test of the Limited Tsukuyomi, Madara uses the two shinobi as guinea pigs to try and capture Naruto and take out a threat. Some parts of the movie were great, and some left a lot to be desired.
10 Didn’t Love: The Opening Akatsuki Fight
While we do find out later in the movie that the Akatsuki at the beginning of the movie are White Zetsus, it doesn’t forgive the fact that the pacing and action of the opening fight just lack severely. The Akatsuki, all of whom were previously killed off in the series, as this movie takes place before the Fourth Great Ninja War arc, fight against the Konoha Eleven.
Most of them, like Shikamaru and Naruto, have a connection to the dead Akatsuki members, yet none of that shows. The missing-nin are some of the strongest anyone has ever faced in the ninja world, yet the battle is so simple and boring, especially when compared to the Akatsuki fight at the end of the movie.
9 Loved: Slice Of Life
The Naruto series tends to stay focused on larger action set pieces and flashbacks, which this movie does quite a bit. However, we rarely get a look at the home lives of these teenagers, which is one thing that Boruto: Naruto Next Generation does well. Naruto: Road to Ninja is surprisingly good at including enough slice of life to keep the movie from being just another actiony beat ‘em up.
Seeing Sakura’s home life addressed is something a lot of Naruto fans have wondered about since she was first introduced as the daughter of a florist. Contrasting the two stories of Naruto and Sakura’s home lives in the real and parallel worlds was a needed step back for the series.
8 Didn’t Love: Fan Service
If anyone can explain why, for approximately seven uninterrupted minutes of the movie, we are starring at children’s bodies in the bathhouses, we would love to know. Yes, bathhouses have always been a part of the series, but this movie has such a strong focus on these scenes, especially the boy’s side, that it is a little grating to see.
It is perfectly valid to bring up the plethora of fan service of female characters, but that doesn’t exactly excuse the action in this movie. Fan service moments are made for the more adult viewers, which would be fine if, again, these weren’t a bunch of 16 and 17-year olds naked.
7 Loved: Sakura Focus
Sakura is a heavily underrated character in Naruto, especially in the movies. The original series sees her begin as an equal with Naruto and Sasuke, but she quickly takes a back seat to them in their first mission. Even in the finale of the series, she seems kind of tossed into the mix without real direction.
This movie has so much more of a focus on her, and it was welcomed. Fans get to see her home life, her father, who was made for this movie, and her somewhat spoiled personality. After going to a world without her parents, she learns a valuable lesson about parents, and a good portion of the movie is devoted to her. Although, she is shortchanged in the combat parts of the movie.
6 Didn’t Love: The Flashback that Naruto Couldn’t Know
There are a few times that Naruto, while in a conversation or a fight, would flashback to the events that took place either when he wasn’t around, or when he was literally just born. Flashbacks in media are set so the viewer can see a past event that the remembering party was present at, typically from a third-person point of view.
While that does happen several times throughout the movie, there are a few moments where Naruto is remembering exact moments of Minato and Kushina that he shouldn’t remember. Even with parts of the two within him, which is further acknowledged in this movie, he wouldn’t have the memories scene-for-scene.
5 Loved: Naruto Having Parents
As much as this was a movie about Sakura finding herself, this movie was important for Naruto to find his family. Initially rejecting the alternate Minato and Kushina as his parents, Naruto learns to open himself up to them.
It is an emotional rollercoaster that has been toyed around with, such as in Naruto: The Lost Tower, but never to this extent. Watching as Naruto breaks down the walls he has been building for 16 years was well done. A big point of his character is his loner status, but he has become more of a family guy over the years, which is a growth he needed, and it started right here.
4 Didn’t Love: Switched Personalities for Ensemble
Some of the personality switches for the ensemble cast in the mirror dimension were great. Kakashi and Might Guy having such drastic changes in their personalities were, at the very least, funny. Hinata flipping from being shy and reserved to aggressive and loud made sense. Sasuke going from loving nobody to loving everybody was a drastic and welcome flipping of his character as well.
Where it lacks is pretty much everyone else, though Shikamaru and Choji are the worst offenders. It would have made sense for them to make Shikamaru dumb and Choji anti-food, but instead, Shikamaru becomes Choji and vice-versa in personality. It doesn’t even make sense when the food aspect of Choji was tied directly to his Jutsu, which he still has in the mirror world.
3 Loved: The Emotion
Naruto is the show series that, in the final battle against a god-like being, had a joke where the main character turned into a bunch of naked people. It can be crass and quite humorous, but it has a lot of heart. This movie proved that to be true.
Naruto and Sakura face a lot of emotional challenges in the movie, essentially having switched places. The movie does a good job of showing loss and the failure of bloated ideas. Sakura wishing she didn’t have parents only to realize what she was missing, and how Naruto feels constantly, is honestly tear-jerking. Naruto accepting his mirror parents, then having to leave them for the greater good is also incredibly moving.
2 Didn’t Love: Nega-Naruto
Naruto escaped the “dark version of a character who is the same character with a different hair color” trope for many years, though it did come close with the Pain Assault arc. This movie introduces a world that is a mirror image of the world we already know. That means that somewhere in the world, there is a copy of Naruto and Sakura, which is known since everyone knows who they are.
While the Sakura thread is left completely ignored, the mirror Naruto character is plot-relevant. Nega-Naruto, or Menma, is Naruto’s mirror double who is currently under a dark influence. Even though the character is markedly stronger than Naruto, Naruto manages to beat him, and beat his body possessed by Madara. It just doesn’t flow well with the rest of the movie since there is no reason for Menma’s darkness that is explained.
1 Loved: The Symbolism of the Final Fight
Every part of the last fight was needed. The surprise mirror Akatsuki being good and helping, the Kurama battle, and the battle of Naruto versus Madara all had great moments. Seeing the Akatsuki play a part in the major end battle, as well as their personalities being slightly shifted was just fun.
Though it is noted above that the flashback thing was weird, it does actually pay off as the iconic Minato Rasengan to Madara’s back is remade with Naruto using the same move. Even Madara comments on it. The final fight pulls together everything that had been building up in the movie and the series and does it well.