^{Naruto Shippuuden}
Kizuna

Studio: Pierrot
Year: 2008
Genre: Action

Director: Hajime Kamegaki
Screenplay: Junki Takegami
Music: Yasuharu Takanashi
Original Creator: Masashi Kishimoto
Character Design: Tetsuya Nishio

Ending Theme: "No Rain No Rainbow" by Home Made KAZOKU

Synopsis: A mysterious group of ninjas makes a surprise attack on the Konohagakure, which takes great damage. The nightmare of another Shinobi World War could become a reality. Sasuke, who was still a missing nin from Konoha trying to kill his brother, Itachi, appears for the second time in front of Naruto at an unknown location to prevent it from happening.
Konoha has suddenly been attacked by flying shinobis from the Sky Country. It turns out to be revenge for the Second Great Ninja War in the past which Konoha destroyed the Sky Country. At the same time, a doctor and his apprentice, Shinou and Amaru appeared in Konoha requesting aid for their village on the outskirts of Fire Country. As they also have been attacked by the Sky Country. Naruto, Sakura and Hinata teams up to form a three-man cell to accompany and help Shinou and Amaru as they head on to their village. Meanwhile, Shikamaru and other ninja’s takes the offensive to attack Sky Country’s fleet before they can launch a second attack.
(from Anime News Network)

Nice movie, it’s the first one that actually keeps it close to Konoha and has a cool new character.

The movie starts with a strange assault on Konoha. It all well done but, something felt off. It’s like half of Konoha was obliterated and only Tsunade realized that. If you compare this to when Pain came to Konoha.. well, they could have pulled it off much better and make it more dramatic. During the assault, Naruto finds some kind of Doctor, Shinou, who has a pupil, Amaru, who’s calling him for help in his village. This two are the "filler" main characters of the movie.

Naruto leaves with them along with Sakura and Hinata. I’m not sure why Konoha would allow Naruto, Sakura and Hinata, three really important shinobi, to leave when Konoha is so damaged and the threat of another attack is real.

Anyway, this Sky Ninjas aren’t that strong. They managed to succeed because the attack was a surprise, short and they were flying. Konoha quickly launches a counter-attack.

Meanwhile, Sasuke is sent to search for the shinobi doctor who taught Orochimaru is rebirth technique. I’m not sure it was good that the movie decided to take some credit off from Orochimaru but, at least they managed to interlink the movie’s plot with the rest of the Naruto saga.

I’m not gonna discuss much more plot details, just know it involves some new beast, evil doctors and a lot of parties fighting each other.  The plot isn’t really smart and has some holes but, it moves fast and doesn’t leave much time for boredom.

I really enjoyed the two new main characters. I don’t normally like "filler" characters much but, this two were really interesting and even though they are not really original they managed to stay away from most Naruto cliches and feel repetitive.

The art was awesome. I really loved the overall background art and specially the jungle’s green/blue theme. The animation was good too of course but, the fights disappointed me a lot. Contrary to how I usually feel, the fighting in this movie wasn’t it’s strong point, it was the characters.

The whole soundtrack is also new and has quite a different feel that the last shippuuden ost’s. Sasuke’s western-like cool theme easily stood out lol

Overall, this movie is far from awesome but, it was the one I enjoyed the most until now. It was the fighting that actually let me down. Even though the movie features some very cool animation, the fights were dull and non-imaginative. I also think they kind of put Sasuke a little too much kind hearted but, nothing that can seriously get in the way of the shippuuden series.

The comedy, although noting hilarious was quite natural and didn’t feel forced at all.

So, cool movie, it kind of ends well in a strange way, it almost makes it right that Sasuke and Naruto are away from each other. I actually wish Amaru could appear in the series in the future. She would be a good choice for some love development with Naruto, although the Naruto manga has kind of always been laking in that kind of relationship.