Movie Review: The Last: Naruto The Movie (2015)

Naruto is back with another movie! In The Last: Naruto The Movie, not only will you find the fighting and action the series is known for, you will also find a nice little love story.

The far-seeing shinobi Hinata has had a huge crush on Naruto since childhood, but Naruto is completely oblivious to that fact. With the encouragement of their common friend Sakura, Hinata knits a scarf for Naruto and tries to muster enough courage to present it to him to express her feelings, but it often ends with Hinata running away once she makes eye contact with Naruto.

As this awkward courtship is happening, the sadistic ninja Toneri kidnaps Hinata’s sister Hanabi. He also tries to kidnap Hinata, but Naruto stops him. Naruto also learns that the moon is falling out of orbit, threatening to hit Earth. Naruto and Hinata team up with Sakura, Sai, and Shikamaru to rescue Hanabi from Toneri, while the remaining ninjas deal with the falling moon.

Things get complicated for Naruto and Hinata

The pace of the movie is not too fast at the beginning, but speeds up within several minutes. The combination of the countdown-to-apocalypse and the romantic storylines are done as well as it can be on a franchise-based anime movie. The animation looks quite impressive and the CGI-assisted scenes were not overkill.

The biggest complaint for The Last would be how we don’t really learn too much about the characters besides Naruto and Hinata. This is obviously not an issue if you are familiar with with the Naruto series, but it can puzzle people who don’t know the relationship between the main and supporting characters.

The Last: Naruto The Movie is a definite must-watch for any Naruto fan. But, even if you are not the number one Naruto fan, there is still a good chance that you will like this film.