The Naruto X UT OVA Was the Famed Shonen Franchise's Biggest Missed Opportunity  (2024)

The Naruto franchise is massive, even when omitting its sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. The anime ran for an impressive 720 episodes, eleven films, and twelve OVAs released over the course of its adaptation.

One of the most remarkable things about Naruto was that it wasn't afraid to try new things, often blending its fantasy action with different genres to stunning effect. One OVA, Naruto X UT, did this in a fascinating way and this OVA is one of the franchise's most prominent missed opportunities. RELATED: My Hero Academia: The Paranormal Liberation Front's Organizational Chart, Explained

The Story of Naruto X UT

Naruto X UT is the eighth Naruto OVA. The OVA begins with Sakura holding Naruto's seemingly lifeless body. Naruto's hand flops lifelessly to the floor, suggesting that he died a few moments before the OVA began. Kakashi stands close by, seemingly struggling to look at his defeated friend's body.

Then the audience is treated to a montage of moments from Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha's history. From their first meeting to their various fights with other people and each other. This concludes with the pair clashing again, fighting harder than ever before. After a large explosion, the men are seen in a white void with Sasuke looking over Naruto's downed body. Thankfully, the OVA then returns to the opening scene, as Naruto reveals that he is alive, much to Sakura's relief. Then the OVA pans to Sasuke looking on, suggesting their rivalry is far from over and that they will clash again someday.

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This OVA is amazingly artistic and approaches Naruto in a unique but utterly mesmerizing way. Starting with the shot of Naruto's dead body and then telling the story via flashback pulls the viewer in by subverting their expectations and breaking away from the show's usual rhythm., giving the story immense stakes right from the start. And this is only made better by the OVA's stunning use of sound. Outside the flashback sequence, the OVA features no dialogue and little sound, with most shots featuring only the wind and Sakura's sobbing. This gives the images of Naruto's limp body a heavy atmosphere, showing the weight of this moment and capturing the shock the other characters are feeling. The flashback is accompanied by Naruto Shippuden's 16th ending theme, "Midnight Orchestra", by Aqua Timez. This song works surprisingly well as a flashback montage soundtrack, and the fact it's an ending theme helps convey the idea that this might be Naruto's final moments.

Plus, this flashback format helps ground Naruto's combat and gives everything around it way more weight. While Naruto frequently struggles to overcome the odds, audiences rarely see him beaten down like this. It helps remind the audience that while the combat sequences are flashy, Naruto is only ever one fight away from a terrible end. And that every battle is a risky endeavor, which only makes everything you watch after this OVA more nail-biting.

In many ways, you could consider this OVA a precursor to 2014's The Last: Naruto the Movie, as both take Naruto's characters and storyline but present them differently, using another genre's genre conventions to tell their story in a way that recontextualizes plot beats the audience already knows.

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Why the Collaboration Was a Missed Opportunity

Alas, one of the main issues with Naruto X UT is its release method. This OVA was made to promote fashion-brand Uniqlo's line of Naruto-branded shirts. Because of this, the OVA was only distributed in Uniqlo stores, and you could only get your hands on it if you bought one of the Naruto shirts while the promotion was running. This means this OVA is exceptionally rare today, as it's predicted that only around 200,000 DVDs were distributed. This means this unique OVA is now one of the hardest-to-find pieces of Naruto merchandise. And thus, it is frequently overlooked by most fans as it isn't easy to find.

Plus, the OVA is painfully short, with a runtime of six minutes. Most of which is recycled footage from the anime, meaning that this stunning concept doesn't get the time or budget it needs to establish itself or show what it could do. This is a shame as this concept could be used to tell a fascinating story that puts a whole new spin on the Naruto franchise.

It's a shame this OVA is so hampered by its release method. The darker, more grounded flashback format could be used to tell so many gripping and impactful stories that pull viewers deeper into the world of Naruto and show the inherent risks and dangers that lurk in the world, waiting for their moment to strike. Hopefully, one day this format will be revisited and used to its full potential. Until then, Naruto X UT remains a footnote in the history of Naruto, a tantalizing taste of what could have been. But, as a stand-alone OVA, it is merely a missed opportunity to do something utterly stunning with the franchise.