Naruto Shippuden Box Set 37 Review

So Box Set 37 contains Episodes 473 to 486 of the 500-episode series, and while we haven’t reached the end of the series proper, what we do reach is the end of the final story arc from the manga. We left off with former antagonist Obito having redeemed himself (somewhat) in death and the recently revealed final antagonist Kaguya fighting Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. After all the build-up, filler and stalling, the final battle comes to a close at the end of 473 itself, with the left-over parts of the battle being tied up in the following episode. So all that stalling and they add zero filler to the actual battle itself… I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or not, but that’s what happened! Anyway, even if you’ve only paid half attention to the series you’ll probably know that there is one other piece of unfinished business left to tackle…

Yes, Sasuke and Naruto have their long… long teased rematch at the same area they fought each other at the end of the original Naruto series. The rather spectacular, but surprisingly quite short battle is soon over, indeed the story arc in general is wrapped up at the end of Episode 479, with only the Boruto chapter left unadapted from the original manga (and it remains so, thanks to the spin-off series!) It’s a perfectly satisfying end, though one with an admittedly predictable outcome.

So what of the rest of the set? Well, Episodes 480 to 483 are Studio Pierrot favourites: flashback stories to when the characters were children. There is a similar theme across the mini-stories based around your usual themes of being brave, overcoming sadness, and some humour over attempting to get the attention of a boy who is oblivious to it. It’s… rather dull to be honest, especially as it adds nothing to a series that has officially ended…

The final three episodes of the set are actually adapted episodes themselves, though in this case it’s adapting the light novel “Sasuke’s Story: Sunrise”, set after the manga’s end and focusing on an even more brooding Sasuke as he wanders the lands in search of redemption and answers. With scenes involving randomly exploding humans and some good fights, with more to come (the adaptation doesn’t end until Episode 488) the story doesn’t take its time. It has tighter storytelling and more interesting characters than the usual affair, so in terms of having to sit through Naruto “filler” I’m glad it’s actually adapting something with a bit more flare for storytelling.

“Blood Circulator” by Asian Kung-Fu Generation is the first opening, taking us up to 479, with “Empty Heart” by Anly taking over for the rest of the set. The endings are similarly paced, with “Pino and Amélie” by Huwie Ishizaki taking us up to 479, and “Departure Song” by Ayumikurikamaki taking over until the end of the set. As per usual, the only extras are clean openings, endings and some trailers.

So Naruto Shippuden Box Set 37 ties up the final story arc and Naruto as a whole perfectly well, but the “years later here are the characters, now with kids!” cliché chapter is replaced with some filler and a new story set in between Shippuden and the soon-to-be-released Boruto. The half seen here isn’t bad, mind you, and since we’re not getting a proper ending as such, it’s inoffensive. Now if I’m  saying that when the final box drops with nothing but the adapted pseudo-filler in it is a story for another day. Instead let’s focus on the fact that a storyline that had already started when I took over covering Naruto Shippuden for this site with Box Set 21 is now finally over, four years later…