Naruto's anniversary episodes are finally here — and fans did not see this crossover coming
The Naruto anniversary episodes that vanished in 2023 seem to have resurfaced as four episodes based on a manga Americans spent Saturday night googling. Kishimoto, for his part, says the frog-faced
The Naruto anniversary episodes that vanished in 2023 seem to have resurfaced as four episodes based on a manga Americans spent Saturday night googling. Kishimoto, for his part, says the frog-faced boy is the reason Naruto exists at all.
Naruto turned up at New York Comic Con on Saturday 10 October, which happens to be his birthday, with a guest nobody had on their bingo card. The "NARUTO: What's Next?" panel announced NARUTO×NINKŪ, a four-episode limited series that drops Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura into Ninkū, a Weekly Shōnen Jump manga that ran from 1993 to 1995. Within hours "ninku" was trending on Google in the US with more than 20,000 searches. A lot of fans, it seems, were asking the same question: what on earth is a Ninkū?
The official synopsis doesn't help much:
"Team 7 finds themselves lost in another world. What appears before the bewildered trio is a boy with a face resembling a frog's, named Fūsuke."
— official synopsis for NARUTO×NINKŪ
Kakashi can't join the mission, so Naruto is made acting leader and is, per the synopsis, "fully motivated", which anyone who has watched him for five minutes will read as a warning. Studio Pierrot is animating; there is no broadcast date or platform yet.
Four episodes, three years late
If the number four sounds familiar, it should. Pierrot has promised a four-episode Naruto comeback before, and it never arrived. Here's how the wait went:
- 2023: Pierrot announces four new episodes for the anime's 20th anniversary, due on 3 September, the first new Naruto anime since Shippuden ended in 2017.
- 29 August 2023: pulled five days before air to "improve the quality". No new date.
- December 2025: rumours of a late-2026 release, never confirmed.
- 10 October 2026: four episodes again, now with Fūsuke.
Pierrot hasn't said in so many words that NARUTO×NINKŪ is the shelved anniversary special. Anime Corner reports that it is; Anime News Network calls the link unclear. Same studio, same count, three years on. Draw your own conclusions.
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Who the frog-faced boy is
For the uninitiated, Ninkū is Koji Kiriyama's martial arts manga about Fūsuke, a 12-year-old former member of the Ninkū Corps with a face like a frog's. Its 55-episode anime in 1995–96 was directed by Noriyuki Abe, who later did Boruto and now directs the crossover. Then it slipped out of most Western memories.
Not Kishimoto's, though. In his comment on the official NARUTO×NINKŪ page, he says he created Naruto because he "personally wanted to see the continuation of NINKŪ" and calls Fūsuke Naruto's "secret mentor". Both creators are supervising every episode.
Fans asked for classic Naruto. Kishimoto gave them the manga Naruto was meant to continue.
So anyone grumbling about a random isekai detour instead of classic Team 7 has it slightly backwards. To be fair, this is the most classic Naruto idea going. Most of the audience just never knew about it.
And the rest of the panel
The crossover is the first piece of Project Rasengan, a roadmap running to 2029. The panel ended with a teaser for Shadow Rising, a new Naruto manga from Kishimoto, with details promised at Jump Festa in December. Destin Daniel Cretton, who is directing Lionsgate's live-action film and is still casting Team 7 worldwide, sent a message about the hero:
"He's excitable, he tries too hard, and people underestimate him."
— Destin Daniel Cretton, director of the live-action Naruto film
The crossover has no date, the manga gets its reveal in December and the film has no cast. After three years of waiting, the first thing Naruto fans actually get to watch will star a frog-faced boy from 1993. Kishimoto would call that a family reunion.
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