Genre: Action, Shounen, Romance
Written By: Kyozuka Maruo
Director: Tsuneo Kobayashi
Production Studio: Studio Pierrot
Release Date: December 6, 2014
Plot
Two years after the events of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kakashi Hatake became the Sixth Hokage, and the moon that Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki created long ago to seal away the Ten-Tails’ body begins to descend towards Earth, with the moon now a meteor that would destroy everything on impact. The crisis is caused by Toneri Ōtsutsuki, a descendant of Hamura Ōtsutsuki through the Branch House, dedicated to fulfill his ancestor’s legacy that mankind must be punished for using chakra as weapon hostilities for over a millennia.
Story: 7.5/10
The main point of this movie is to show how Naruto came to realize his feelings of love for Hinata. That’s it. Nothing else. The whole movie was made to fill the gap between the end of the 4th Shinobi World War and the ending of the Naruto manga where we see Naruto married to Hinata with two children. But they couldn’t make a movie to show just that. So they made some story about a descendant of Hamura Otsutsuki trying to punish the humans for using chakra as weapon by making the moon collide with earth. The story seemed pretty weak to me. Don’t get me wrong though. I’m a massive NaruHina shipper but the story of the movie was just weak. And OMG woman! How many times are you gonna sew that scarf? It’s like from the beginning to the scene right at the end of the movie, all Hinata did was sew a freakin’ scarf. Even after the ending credits, a few years after Naruto and Hinata get married and they have two kids, guess what hinata was doing?? RIGHT!! Sewing a red freakin’ scarf!! I mean how many years does it take take to sew an effin’ scarf??
Character: 8/10
Since this is a movie of the 15 year long running anime Naruto, almost all the characters are fully developed. So, there is not much room for development. The main focus of the movie are Naruto and Hinata and how their relationship has developed. It showed how their relationship developed into something into something concrete. We see how it all started back when they were little kids and not even going to school and how it matured throughout the course of he show. We also get to see how Naruto is viewed after his heroic contributions in the 4th great ninja war. We see that he has turned into an icon of Konohakagure. What I’m a bit disappointed about is that we only get to see about 10 seconds of Sasuke in the whole movie. Oh we get to see Kakashi as hokage.
Now moving on to the completely new character introduces in this movie, Toneri. To be honest,, I could care less about him. He’s by far one of the most uninteresting and unoriginal antagonists I have ever come across. Or maybe I was expecting too much coming from the franchise that has given us some of the most epic antagonists in anime history like Madara, Pain and Obito. But we do get to know a bit more about the descendants of Kaguya. Toneri is like those stereotypical villains that sees mankind as inferior and want to punish them but ends up kidnapping the heroine and wants to marry her.
Overall in terms of character development The Last: Naruto the Movie decent at best. I even thought the process of Naruto realizing his love for Hinata a bit weak. I mean so much more could have been done than him just seeing her memories and falling in love with her instantly.
Here are some notable characters from the movie:
Animation and Art: 8.5/10
The animation and visuals from the was absolute stunning. Especially the introduction bit with the ancient scroll type animation. I loved it. It was some top quality work. The rest was as good as the Naruto anime. Really good animation and execution of fight scenes. The characters looked great and the backgrounds looked awesome. Studio Pierrot did a really good job.
Here are some screenshots from the movie:
Music: 9/10
Naruto has always been outstanding in the music department with its epic and iconic soundtracks. I mean anyone who has been following Naruto will recognize the soundtracks from a mile away. Similarly the soundtracks in The Last: Naruto The Movie has been nothing short of great. The introduced new versions of the iconic soundtracks as well some new ones too. I absolutely loved the ending credits song, “Hoshi no Utsuwa” by Sikuma Switch. I listen to it all the time and its in my top favorite playlist. Also loved the wedding photos of that accompanied the song.
Enjoyment: 8/10
Well, The Last: Naruto The Movie was a bit of an emotional ride. I have been following this show for over 10 years now and it was so fulfilling to see your childhood friends/role models get a sort of a closure. Being a NaruHina Shipper I have been waiting to see them get together for so many years now and finally it happened. But if I leave the sentimental value out of the equation, it was a fairly enjoyable standalone movie at best. I mean i loved the Naruhina moments but the movie tends to get boring at times. The villain wasn’t interesting at all so other than the romance element nothing really attracted me.
Final Thoughts
Like I said before, this movie has a lot of sentimental value for me being an avid follower of the franchise for more than 10 years now. I remember the times when we didn’t have good internet. I would wait for months to buy DVD/CD containing roughly 10 episodes of Naruto with saved up lunch money. Seeing my childhood buddies grow up and get a happy ending felt really satisfying. I mean Naruto deserves it more than anyone. The amount of hardships he had to go through is just overwhelming. This movie gave me a sort of closure and I was in tears by the end of the movie just like I was while reading the last chapter of the Naruto Manga. If you guys are anything like me and have an attachment to the Naruto franchise, you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t watched this movie yet, go watch it. You’ll love it. The Last: Naruto The movie was a good wrap up for the story of our good friend, Naruto.
