Naruto Shippūden Movie 5: Blood Prison

“You no longer matter to anyone.” Mui, warden of Hozuki Castle to Naruto Uzumaki

A murderous attack is launched on the Raikage at his stronghold – and the attacker is identified as none other than Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto is stripped of his rank by Hokage Tsunade and packed off to the notorious Blood Prison, Hozuki Castle, the remote island jail for shinobi who have disgraced their clans. There the prison warden Mui binds him and the other new arrivals with a jutsu that seals their chakra. Determined to clear his name, the defiant Naruto instantly clashes head-on with Mui and is thrown into solitary confinement for his pains. However, his defiant attitude earns him the respect of fellow inmates, among them ash-blond Ryuzetsu and the enigmatic Maroi. He also learns that the sinister Mui is guarding a secret treasure that many people desire: a box that will grant any wish. What is the true secret of the Box of Paradise? And what is Ryuzetsu’s connection to this secret? Escape from the Blood Prison seems impossible, even to a jinchuuriki like Naruto, cursed and gifted with the power of the Ninetails Fox sealed within him. But Naruto is not the sort to give up easily; he relishes a challenge.

Films made for long-running series such as One Piece, Bleach and Naruto tend to display the same advantages and pitfalls as filler episodes – but on a grander scale. On the plus side, it gives the creative team the opportunity to develop a side-story (a one-shot) in much greater detail than a TV episode would allow and with a bigger budget. On the minus side, this filler story has to be self-contained and therefore is unable to advance the ongoing main plot, often giving the impression of the team having to mark time until the manga moves on a few more chapters and they can get back on track. This can occasionally produce little gems, like Baron Omatsuri in One Piece (written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda) but Blood Prison is nowhere near as distinctive in dramatic construction or visual imagination and impact, with a strong element of our old friend ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ underpinning the plot. However, setting the action in a remote prison has more than a few advantages.

Removing Naruto from his fellow shinobi leads to a tighter story than usual (no diversions or perorations to give the many other shinobi a brief chance to shine). Nevertheless many of the old prison movie clichés are flirted with, and scenes such as the one where Mui’s gleefully sadistic and creepy second-in-command insists that Naruto remove everything for a complete body search – yes, even the boxers –sit rather uneasily alongside the usual blustery jokey tone. And there’s no getting away from the fact that the initial premise is pretty clunky. If you can forget that and just go with the flow, you’ll be rewarded with some dazzling action scenes which are stylishly animated.

The usual voice actors do the honours in both the original Japanese and the fluent US dub, with Mie Sonozaki and Carrie Keranen giving strong performances as Ryuzetsu. The Ending Theme is “Otakebi” by Yusuke and the suitable soundtrack is by Yasuharu Takanashi, who composes for the Naruto Shippuden TV series, and –yaiba-.

Extras: Short Film – Chunin Exam on Fire! Naruto vs. Konahamaru!, Interview with Junko Takeuchi (the Japanese language voice of Naruto Uzumaki), Message from Masashi Kishimoto (Original Author of Naruto), Art Galleries.

In Summary

Blood Prison makes a diverting and exciting watch for committed Naruto fans, while at the same time adding little to the ongoing story development.