Review for Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 7 (2 Discs) (Review)
Sunday, 30th October 2011, 16:49

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Introduction
We've settled down to something approaching a regular schedule with Naruto, as we seem to be getting the boxsets on a seasonal basis. Naruto Shippuden Collection 7 will hit the streets as autumn draws to a close, and Collection 8 is set for the dying gasp of winter at the end of February. That pretty much matches a television schedule of one episode a week or thereabouts, which is fine when you're mired in the midst of filler. The thing is that we aren't in filler now. For the last couple of collections, Naruto Shippuden has been getting good, and it looks like with Collection 7, this is where it gets great again. When that happens, you wind up needing your next fix with alacrity.

15 years previously, the Hidden Leaf village was plagued by the Nine-Tailed fox demon. The Fourth Hokage ninja sacrificed his life to defeat the menace, and sealed up the spirit in the body of a newborn child. That orphan grew up as Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous prankster with great ambition. He wants to be the strongest ninja of them all and be granted the title Hokage, leader of the Hidden Leaf village. In the first Naruto series, we followed him on his training as a ninja, tutored by Kakashi, and partnered with his ideal girl Sakura, and his archrival Sasuke. Of course Sakura was sweet on Sasuke, which didn't help, but slowly the three became firm friends.

The dark clouds of ambition tore that friendship apart though, but it wasn't Naruto's ambition. It was Sasuke's, sole survivor of the Uchiha clan, slaughtered by his brother Itachi. He grew up wanting revenge on Itachi, and wanting to gain in power and strength as quickly as possible. Sasuke gave into the temptation for easy power, offered by the renegade ninja Orochimaru, when Orochimaru infiltrated the village during the Chunin exams, and assassinated the Third Hokage. Sasuke left to join Orochimaru, and Naruto swore to get him back. For the last two and half years, Naruto has been in training with the sage Jiraiya, and he's now returned to the village, empowered and ready to rescue his friend. But Orochimaru and Sasuke haven't been resting easy either, while the Akatsuki group of renegade ninja, of whom Sasuke's brother Itachi is a member, have been accelerating their plans, and top of the list is obtaining the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, the one that is currently sealed up in Naruto.

Manga Entertainment present the next 11 episodes of Naruto Shippuden spread across 2 discs.

78. The Judgement
79. Unfulfilled Scream
80. Last Words
81. Sad News
82. Team 10
Naruto's still hard at work, trying to develop a new jutsu that will hold him in good stead against the growing Akatsuki threat, as well as enable him to face Sasuke on a level playing field. He's trying to take the Rasengan one step further beyond the fourth Hokage, who created the jutsu. But Akatsuki have no patience for Naruto's timetable. Two of their number, Hidan and Kakuzu have come to the Land of Fire to find the Nine-tailed beast. When last we left the story, Asuma and Shikamaru's team had just confronted them, but were at a loss when faced with the fact that Hidan was immortal. It turns out that this is the least of his powers, and Kakuzu's abilities are yet to be revealed. It will take all of Shikamaru's wit and strategy to just survive against them, and it's only through sheer luck that the Akatsuki pair are called away before Shikamaru runs out of ideas. But even as they leave, the Akatsuki duo leave the Hidden Leaf Village a lethal, and devastating reminder of their power.

83. Target: Locked On
84. Kakuzu's Abilities
85. The Terrifying Secret
86. Shikamaru's Genius
87. When You Curse Someone, You Dig Your Own Grave
88. Wind Style: Rasen Shuriken
Shikamaru deals with his grief the only way he knows how, to go out again and complete his mission. This time, the old team reforms, and he has Ino and Choji at his side. The Fifth Hokage questions his judgement, wondering if he is acting out of a desire for revenge, but Shikamaru makes a potent point. Revenge or not, Hidan and Kakuzu are still out there, they still want Naruto, and they still need to be stopped. The Hokage's concerns are quelled when Kakashi joins the team, but Shikamaru will still need backup. Now that Naruto has worked out the final step in his training, the Hokage gives him 24 hours to master his new jutsu, before she assigns another team to back Shikamaru up.

Picture
Naruto Shippuden is now presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. What's more, the transfer is a native PAL one, clear and sharp throughout, with no issues regarding blended frames or ghosting. It seems that with this instalment of Shippuden episodes, the disc authors are beginning to rein in that problem with unsightly judder during pans and scrolls that afflicted the two previous volumes, significantly blighting the last. In volume 7 it only rears up its ugly head during episode 81, and the preview that follows episode 88. It's significantly less than before, and hopefully this will be the last that we see of it. Shippuden's animation, and its character designs are sharper and crisper than Naruto's. It's certainly more detailed than the first series, and the colours are a little more muted.

Sound
The DD 2.0 English and Japanese stereo is more than adequate in recreating the original experience, and given a little Prologic magic does offer a pleasant ambience and some discrete action. Yasuhara Takanashi takes over the music reins from Toshiro Masuda, and the result is if anything even less memorable than the music from the first series. But it works well enough in driving the action, and it doesn't get overbearing. Once again, I only sampled the English dub and found it acceptable if unspectacular. It certainly isn't the worst I have heard, but some of the actors don't seem particularly suited to the characters.

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