Naruto Set 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Naruto (ナルト) is a 2002 television anime series based on Masashi Kishimoto’s manga series of the same name. The series was adapted by studio Pierrot, and the staff credits include director Hayato Date, series composition writers Katsuyuki Sumisawa & Junki Takegami, character designers Hirofumi Suzuki & Tetsuya Nishio, and music composed by Musashi Project & Toshio Masuda. The anime first aired in Japan on October 2002.

Background:

“The little ninja that changed the world finally comes to Blu-ray! Journey back to a simpler time when Naruto was a little scamp pulling pranks and defacing monuments. A social outcast with the dreaded Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit locked inside of him, Naruto’s infectious optimism and never-give-up attitude propels him towards the path of greatness. Relive the outrageous beginnings of a generation of ninja that would go on to become legends!”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, November 2024.

If someone had to pick an example of what is considered one of the biggest anime and manga titles out there, Naruto is probably going to be one of the common picks. It was a massive hit internationally and in Japan with a long-running anime series, various spin-offs and stories in different mediums, numerous video games and theatrical anime projects plus I think there were some stage plays as well. It’s been over 20 years and people still talk about the manga.

Much like Dragon Ball, the Naruto story was split into two anime shows. The first, simply named Naruto, ran for 220 episodes between October 2002 through to February 2007, then afterwards came Naruto Shippuden, ran for 500 episodes all the way to March 2017. Both series were back to back, so the anime as a whole stayed on Japanese television for a whole 15 years, filled with weekly new episodes.

Now the long run did mean the anime had suffered from the same issues that impacted Bleach, which funny enough both shows were animated by Studio Pierrot. The issues I refer to is filler, non-canon content which was designed to keep the anime on-going while also keeping the gap between the latest adapted episode and the latest manga chapters far enough to avoid running into issues. This resulted in storylines or standalone stories that may feel out of place or have no value to the world-building or development of the story, but during the final arcs of Naruto Shippuden‘s airing run, they did include adaptations of side stories and novels to make it less damaging whilst still adding value for anime only viewers who wanted more.

The first Naruto series does feature a fair amount of filler but a vast majority are in the final quarter of the airing run. Episodes 136-140 and 143-219 are said by various fans to be considered as non-canon with the final 220th jumping back to canon to wrap up the series. That is a lot now that I think about it, but my assumption behind that was to provide enough room so that Naruto Shippuden can start off without too much filler in the way early into its story.

Viz Media picked up the rights to release Naruto for North America while Manga Entertainment received the same rights for the United Kingdom. The series did very well for both territories, which was helped by an English dub, the manga being translated into English by Viz Media and various video games being localised by Bandai Namco and other publishers for many different platforms. Crunchyroll did stream Naruto Shippuden whilst the original series was not accessible in the UK until 2017.

Viz Media have retained the rights for many years, but surprisingly when Manga Entertainment was rebranded as Funimation then into Crunchyroll, Naruto‘s UK & Ireland home video licenses just simply expired out of nowhere so it was a bit of a shock when Anime Limited revealed they picked up the UK & Ireland home video rights at MCM London Comic Con in October 2023, with plans to release the entire series, including Naruto Shippuden, on Blu-ray. Now they currently do not have the rights for the Naruto films before anyone asks but that is probably going to happen at some point.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

If you thought Bleach was long, Naruto‘s even longer but was split into two series; Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Anime Limited are starting off with the first series for their Blu-ray release and have proceeded with the collector’s edition approach which is insane. Unlike Bleach, the model here has two different options. If you are going for the standard editions, that’s 8 parts to collect, but if you’re following the collector’s editions instead, there are only 4 sets to collect. For consistency, I’ll be naming the collector’s editions as ‘sets’.

Set 1 is presented with a rigid box containing two Amaray cases to house the Blu-ray discs alongside a 36-page booklet that contains character designs for a select few characters from the anime series. If you have bought the collector’s edition directly through AllTheAnime’s store, you’ll also have an outer rigid box to house all four collector’s edition sets which will cover the entirety of the first Naruto series.

The rigid box and amaray artwork are free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray is estimated to be roughly 1000 units printed for an SRP of £99.99 (as there are two versions, with and without the storage box, we don’t know if the unit is split between the stock on AllTheAnime’s store and for other retailers), with a standard edition Blu-ray available for retailers at an SRP of £49.99 per part (as a reminder; one set covers two standard edition parts).

The series was included as part of their July 2024 early bird line-up which I have ordered from. The set was on offer for £79.99 with the Anime Unlimited membership lowering the cost down to £71.99.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with two Amaray cases packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 36-page Booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 11th November 2024 (AllTheAnime), 18th November 2024 (Other Retailers)

The collector’s edition Set 1 release for Naruto contains episodes 1-55, across eight Blu-ray discs. This edition is pretty much both Volume 1 (Episodes 1-27) and Volume 2 (Episodes 28-55) together if you went with the standard edition volume route.

The discs have been authored and encoded by VDMS, a UK authoring company whom Anime Limited have worked with on a number of their releases including Cardcaptor Sakura, Jujutsu Kaisen and Macross Plus. Rather than opting for Viz Media’s Blu-rays, Anime Limited decided to re-author the original series for the UK.

Audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the STUDIOPOLIS, Inc. English dub commissioned by Viz Media. The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the discs are region locked to players set to B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Upscaled format 1.33:1 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	8 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 4 (Volume 1 Disc 4):

• Clean Opening “Rocks”
• Clean Closing “Wind”

Disc 8 (Volume 2 Disc 4):

• Clean Opening “Haruka Kanata (遥か彼方)”
• Clean Closing “Harmonia (ハルモニア)”

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Naruto Part 1 is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Set 1 Blu-ray release can be bought through different retailers including AllTheAnime Store (which includes a storage box), Amazon UK, and Anime-on-Line, while the standard edition Blu-ray can be bought through different retailers including AllTheAnime Store (Part 1, Part 2), Amazon UK (Part 1, Part 2) and Anime-on-Line (Part 1, Part 2).

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)