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 mission to rescue Sasuke begins! First, Naruto’s ninja classmates face the deadly skills of the Sound Ninja Four! Choji, Neji, Kiba, and Shikamaru fight for their lives to save their friend. Then Naruto squares off against his rival when he clashes with Sasuke at Final Valley! This is the first of their epic fights and a turning point in the series. Watch young legends in the making in the fan-favorite battles that will shape their destinies!”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, May 2025.
The adventures of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura continues even further with the third 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.
With the third set of Naruto, the story for the first part almost comes to a close but due to catching up with the manga, the anime adaptation started a whole bunch of non-canon episodes all the way until the final few (which are in the fourth set). In the previous set, we wrapped up the Chunin Exams arc all the way to the start of the Recovery Mission arc. Now in this set, we continue where we left off but jump straight into multiple filler non-canon arcs; Land of the Rice Fields Investigation Mission (eps 136-141), Mizuki Tracking Mission (eps 142-147), Bikōchū Search Mission (eps 148-151), Kurosuki Family Removal Mission (eps 152-157), a standalone episode (ep 158), Gosunkugi Capture Mission (eps 159-160) and a majority of the Cursed Warrior Extermination Mission (eps 161-165 of 167).
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.
Like before, the artwork is matching the Japanese DVD releases as we go through each volume and set. 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 third of four set releases for the original Naruto, so the consistency from the previous set continues.
Set 3 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 3 covers the same amount as Volumes 5 & 6).
This release was included as part of their May 2025 early bird pre-order range on their AllTheAnime online store, though due to a typo on their listing, I missed the early bird window so I instead ordered through MVM’s Anime-on-Line store which was pretty solid at £69.99 where I ordered from.
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: 26th May 2025
The collector’s edition Set 3 release for Naruto contains episodes 111-165, across eight Blu-ray discs. This edition is pretty much both Volume 5 (Episodes 111-137) and Volume 6 (Episodes 138-165) 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 5 Disc 4):
- Clean Openings “Seishun Kyosokyoku (青春狂騒曲)” (repeated 4 times) & “No Boy, No Cry (ノーボーイ・ノークライ)”
- Clean Closings “Mountain A Go Go Too (マウンテン・ア・ゴーゴー・ツー)”, “Hajimete Kimi to Shabetta (はじめて君としゃべった)” & “Nakushita Kotoba (失くした言葉)”
Disc 8 (Volume 6 Disc 4):
- Clean Openings “No Boy, No Cry (ノーボーイ・ノークライ)” & “Namikaze Satellite (波風サテライト)”
- Clean Closings “Speed (スピード)” & “Soba ni Iru Kara (そばにいるから)”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Naruto is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland.
The collector’s edition Set 3 Blu-ray release can be bought across different retailers including AllTheAnime Store, Amazon UK, and Anime-on-Line, while the standard edition Volumes 5 & 6 Blu-rays are also available across different retailers including AllTheAnime Store (Volume 5, Volume 6), Amazon UK (Volume 5, Volume 6), and Anime-on-Line (Volume 5, Volume 6).
(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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