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:
“Get ready to cheer for your favourite characters, because the Chunin Exam battles are on! Naruto’s Shadow Clones face a wall of hands when he takes on Neji. In the midst of a bitter match between Sasuke and Gaara, Orochimaru strikes! Together with the sinister Sound Ninja, he wreaks his serpentine revenge on The Village Hidden in the Leaves with only the Hokage to stop him. Naruto desperately tries to keep a rampaging Gaara from succumbing to his rage! Can he break through Gaara’s pain?”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, March 2025.
The adventures of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura continues with the second collection of episodes from Anime Limited. Now I’ve already mentioned in my unboxing post for the first set that Naruto was a massive hit both in Japan and internationally, to the point where Bleach, Naruto and One Piece were treated as the ‘Big Three of Anime’. Since then, Bleach and Naruto ended but their stories continued in various forms whether its a spin-off or sequel series (like Burn the Witch and Boruto) while One Piece is still kicking.
The anime adaptation was split into two shows – the first series lasted 220 episodes, and then came Naruto Shippuden, lasting 500 episodes in total. A lot of filler was present throughout both shows but it still did the job of introducing people to the franchise and anime in general. Anime Limited have the rights to all of the television episodes for Naruto and Naruto Shippuden for the United Kingdom, but they don’t have the license for the films, OVAs and TV specials that were released so far. If anything, the films are probably going to be picked up later down the line but anything can happen. As mentioned before, the original series is being released in four box sets (or eight standard edition volumes) on Blu-ray in its original 4:3 aspect ratio.
In the previous set, we started off with the Land of Waves arc and Chunin Exams arc. Now with this set, we continue the Chunin Exams arc but also cover Konoha Crush, Search for Tsunade and the start of the Recovery Mission arcs plus the filler non-canon arc Land of Tea Escort Mission. Pretty much almost all of the canon episodes are covered with the first two sets, while the remaining episodes are scattered between the next two sets since the series produced a lot of filler arcs to avoid catching up with the source material.
The artwork you may notice is also a bit different to the previous sets but that’s how it was in Japan as well with their DVD releases. I suspect we will see similar design choices as we go through each set and volume releases. Viz Media in North America have already released the series on Blu-ray across eight volumes, and at the time of this post are going through Naruto Shippuden on Blu-ray across 18 volumes.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
This is the second of four set releases for the original Naruto, so the consistency from the previous set remains.
Set 2 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 Set 1 directly through AllTheAnime’s store, you can fit this release inside the outer rigid box that 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, with a standard edition Blu-ray available for retailers at an SRP of £49.99 per part (as a reminder; Set 2 covers the same amount as Volumes 3 & 4).
This release was included as part of their February 2025 early bird pre-order range on their AllTheAnime online store where I ordered from. The set was on offer for £79.99 (with free postage), with the Anime Unlimited membership lowering the cost down to £71.99. I bundled the release with another title to reach the free shipping threshold (£50) for the other (which was Bleach Part 4).
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: 3rd March 2025
The collector’s edition Set 2 release for Naruto contains episodes 56-110, across eight Blu-ray discs. This edition is pretty much both Volume 3 (Episodes 56-82) and Volume 4 (Episodes 83-110) 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 3 Disc 4):
- Clean Openings “Turning Sadness into Kindness (Kanashimi wo Yasashisa ni) (悲しみをやさしさに)” & “GO!!!”
- Clean Closings “Viva Rock ~Japanese Side~”, “ALIVE” & “Many Times Before (Ima made Nando mo) (今まで何度も)”
Disc 8 (Volume 4 Disc 4):
- Clean Opening “Rhapsody of Youth (Seishun Kyosokyoku) (青春狂騒曲)”
- Clean Closings “Meteor (Ryūsei) (流星)” & “Mountain A Go Go Too”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Naruto is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland.
The collector’s edition Set 2 Blu-ray release can be bought across different retailers including AllTheAnime Store, Amazon UK, and Anime-on-Line, while the standard edition Volumes 3 & 4 Blu-rays are also available across different retailers including AllTheAnime Store (Volume 3, Volume 4), Amazon UK (Volume 3, Volume 4), and Anime-on-Line (Volume 3, Volume 4).
(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.)
The Normanic Vault 
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