[AFAID] Feature Anime: Boruto: Naruto the Movie and Special Guest Junko Takeuchi

Like they say, the apple does not fall far off from the tree.Taking a cue from his father, Boruto is now taking over his father as the main star of the latest Naruto movie, Boruto: Naruto the Movie. This time around, Naruto takes a step back from the limelight as he takes up the mantle to become the Nanadaime Hokage “The Seventh” of the Konoha Village, while his son, Boruto hogs the spotlight in this movie.

This movie follows Boruto (CV:Yuko Sanpei), the son of Naruto Uzumaki (CV: Junko Takeuchi) and Hinata Hyuga (CV: Nana Mizuki), who seeks the attention from his absentee father (Sounds familiar?). He rebels against his father who couldn’t care less about his family, as his father was too focused performing his duties as the Seventh Hokage. Now that Konoha is under threat, Naruto must take up his stand and protect his village leaving his son, Boruto, in need of some much needed attention. Sasuke Uchiha (CV:Noriaki Sugiyama), Naruto’s rival and childhood friend, takes it up upon himself to take Boruto under his wing.

The movie is part of the Naruto New Era Opening Project (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ‐ナルト‐新時代開幕プロジェクト,Naruto: Shinjidai Kaimaku Purojekuto) and the movie has gotten some personal touch from the series’ mangaka, Masashi Kishimoto. Kishimoto-sensei is credited for writing the screenplay and creating the character designs of this movie. The movie opened in Japan on 7 August 2015 and has grossed more than 600 million yen during the first 3 days of showing. In fact, the movie  recently became the highest earning Naruto Movie.

Written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto was serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump on 21 September 1999. It ended its run 15 years later on 10 November 2014. Naruto began as a story of a young outcast ninja named Naruto who dreams of one day becoming the leader of his village. To this day, Naruto has became one of Shounen Jump’s biggest selling manga.

It was not long before the popularity of Naruto caught on and soon after in 2002, the manga was adapted into an anime. The anime began airing at TV Tokyo where the director, Hayato Date, had chance upon an upcoming seiyuu by the name of Junko Takeuchi (Lambo in Katekyo Hitman Reborn) to voice the iconic role of Naruto. During that time, Junko Takeuchi was already doing well in her career with notable voice credits as Gon Freecs in Hunter x Hunter(1999),  Gomamon in Digimon Adventure and Honjō Kamatari in Rurouni Kenshin to name a few. Well, as they say,  the rest is history. Fast forward to 2015, with the latest movie project focusing more on the Boruto,  son of Naruto, the search for the perfect voice ensued. Yuko Sanpei, who previously had done the voice of Seita in Gintama, Selim Bradley/Pride in Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood among others, was tasked upon the role of Boruto. She joins Kokoro Kikuchi ( Boruto Uzumaki in The Last: Naruto the Movie) as Sarada Uchiha, daughter of Sasuke Uchiha (CV:Noriaki Sugiyama) and Sakura Haruno(CV:Chie Nakamura) and Ryuuichi Kijima (Takao Miyazato in Shokugeki no Soma) as Mitsuki to succeed as the next generation of shinobi who will ensure peace in the village of Konoha.

The movie will be released outside Japan. In line with this, AFA ID will have a stage event for the movie and will invite veteran voice actress , Junko Takeuchi a.k.a. the voice behind Naruto,  to come up the main stage on 27 September 2015 at Jakarta International Expo. Check out AFA ID Main Page for more details.

Staff
Screenplay and Character Design: Masashi Kishimoto
Director: Hiroyuki Yamashita (The Last: Naruto the Movie)
Character Design & Chief Animation Director: Tetsuya Nishio(Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance) , Hirofumi Suzuki (Naruto)
Music: Yasuharu Takanashi (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal)