This Week in Anime

Naruto, Live on Stage? Believe It!

Jean-Karlo
"Devil take the claims of non-strategic coloration and bewildering phantasmagoric arts! I, too, doubted in the power of these assassins, but their pathos rings true in this mercenary world. Children that they are, forced to choose between loyalty to their nation or loyalty to their hearts' path—indeed, many would doubt the earnestness of such a story. But to that, I am most joyous to urge the naysayers: 'Believe it!'."

Wow Nicky, I wonder what has Orson Welles so excited he came back from the dead to give it the nod...

Back in the '00s when Bleach was one of the Big Three, I remember a lot of my fellow anime fans being especially big fans of the Bleach stage shows. I myself couldn't normally be bothered (so sue me, I wasn't much of a Bleach guy), but I was always curious at how the effects would be handled. Live Spectacle "NARUTO" was one heck of a treat in that regard!

The costumes are very creative and manage to bring the outlandish outfits of early Naruto to life without making them look too goofy or strange. They must have been hell to wear while jumping and dancing around. Those poor actors constantly look like they're sweating up a storm in closeups.

Yūki Kimisawa's Kakashi deserves special credit. Kakashi was always extremely cool, which of course means he'd be hard to bring to life without looking like a total doofus. Worry not, Best Boy™ was done justice!

Also, Asahi Uchida and Miho Imamura really stole my heart as Zabuza and Haku. This one little bit here, a throwaway appearance of theirs in the back of a stage during a dramatic speech, really tugged at my heartstrings. Zabuza's face is still really weird with his lack of eyebrows, though, and what I'm sure is supposed to be camo paint on his arms just looks like he's missed a few bath days.

Part of it is cutting out the absolutely useless parts of the story. In other words, the Genin Tournament and Tenten. We do miss out on Rock Lee dropping the weights (how dare you), but who actually likes Neji or Tenten?

Well, this is awkward...

For those who were too young to see Boruto's Dad in action: Naruto tells the story of a young man who had a powerful nine-tailed fox sealed inside of him as a baby. Sealing the ninetails cost the Village Hidden in the Leaves a lot of lives, and so Naruto grew ostracized. He aspires to be a great ninja and to become Hokage, the leader of the village.

A lot of other things happen, but the main crux of things is that Sasuke Uchiha is another ninja that Naruto is teamed up with. Sasuke is out for revenge upon his older brother, Itachi, who slew Sasuke's entire clan. Sasuke's desire for revenge leads to him turning his back on the Village Hidden in the Leaves and allying himself with Orochimaru, an evil ninja who seeks a way to cheat death, potentially with Sasuke's own body. The better part is him doing everything he can to open the door for Sasuke to come back, even when he's working with war criminals.

I was curious how they'd adapt Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu to the stage, but a choreographed LED dance number was not what I expected! It definitely hit the spot. I was crushed to find out they only did it once, especially with how iconic Shadow Clone is in the series. And it was one of the first things they did!

Things like the choreographed trampoline segments or the forced perspective changes for "walking up trees" were also exciting and inspired. A lot of creativity went into making sure the iconic abilities all looked great.

The Blacklight Ninetails! That was definitely a showstopper for me. Again, it's a tragedy that this was something they only did the one time, but everything about that black-lit fox head being puppeteered around by a stagehand wearing all black was just magical to me.

Yes! The audience participation bits were the best! I always got so excited whenever someone ran out into the audience. You almost expect some lucky kid to become a temporary ninja onstage and get his hair tousled by Kakashi.

Their morning routines were especially fun—the stagehands clearly rose to the challenge of having to deal with such grandiose personalities.

Jiraiya teaching Naruto to summon frogs was another one of the excised bits. There was a nifty projection of a frog, but my heart longed to see a big frog puppet slapping Naruto upside the head.

Playing a villain means going big or going home. Hiro was feeling herself as Orochimaru, and she definitely left an impact. We didn't get to see much martial arts choreography from her, but she belted her heart out with some harmonics the first time Orochimaru appeared. Way to let the folks know just who walked in!

Hers is also basically the only vocal performance in the whole show. I expected song and dance, but besides ninja choreography there's a surprising dearth of singing.

Yeah, remember when that was Sakura's shtick? Considering the twists and turns that Naruto eventually runs through, it was nostalgic to see the gang where it all started. Naruto crushing on Sakura while Hinata hangs in the background, Sakura's inner monologue... all we needed was the ever looming presence of that swing.

I imagine these would make Ikuhara very happy indeed. It's a very effective and economical way to truncate all of that extra character information and not get bogged down in details. A similar feat was done with Gaara, showcasing his backstory as an animation on the wall while he reacted to his bitter memories. Also, some nifty special effects were used to recreate Gaara's sand armor transformation.

I don't know much about aerialism, but I know it's something people put a lot of time into practicing. For a stage show about ninja, Naruto On Ice really did a great job of giving us actors showing off all kinds of feats of grace and agility. Naruto and Kabuto's trampoline fight is another great example (not to mention something that looks like it was a lot of fun to practice).

Naruto was a thing I enjoyed reading whenever my issues of Shonen Jump came in the mail, but it wasn't exactly my favorite shōnen manga when I was younger. Regardless, I do have fond nostalgia for those early days of the series and that sad song telling you to 🎶 CULTIVATE YOUR HUNGER BEFORE YOU IDEALIZE 🎶. This musical may miss out on a lot of the little bits that people really love about Naruto, like (again) Rock Lee dropping his weights or Naruto's impassioned speech to Neji about how people's fates aren't set in stone. But it hits the high notes of the arcs it does cover. Naruto learning the ruthlessness of the mercenary life through Zabuza and Haku, Sakura's anguish over Sasuke's wellbeing, Sasuke's inner turmoil in his attempts at avenging his clan, the remaining Chunin of the village rallying to Naruto's defense... scenes like this are what hooked people into Naruto way back when, and this stage show did a lot in reminding me of all that.

I didn't know what to expect out of Live Spectacle "NARUTO", but I can say I walked way plainly impressed. I do hope people manage to find a way to watch this, especially Naruto fans. There's a lot of love in this production.

And! They're apparently streaming a stage show for My Hero Academia and a Sailor Moon musical! Yes, please!