Naruto ended over 10 years ago, but is still an incredibly popular series. Its legacy lives on with the official sequel, Boruto. While Boruto may not appeal to many Naruto fans, it has manage to establish a solid fan base, and it seems to be growing even more popular now.
One of the reasons Naruto has remained popular even after both the manga and the anime have concluded is probably its easy availability on many popular streaming services. As a series gets older, availability tends to become more difficult. However, as Naruto got older, it became even easier to find. Today, it may even be available on services that don’t offer too many anime options.
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Naruto’s Special Surprise on Google
The official website was recently updated with news: Naruto has partnered with Google to celebrate its 24th anniversary — celebrations officially started on September 21, 2024 (exactly 25 years after the first manga chapter are published) and will probably last around September 2025.
According to the website, there is an Easter egg on Google for those who search for “Naruto”. Fans quickly discovered it and posted on social media about it. Basically, you can watch a 2D “Naruto run” animation when clicking on Konoha’s icon:
There is no information about how long this Easter egg will be available on the search engine.
Naruto’s 4 Upcoming Special Episode Release Window
As part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the Naruto anime (2002-2017, including Shippuden), four special episodes were first announced to be released in September 2023. The first promotional images suggested that they would take place during Naruto, and not Naruto Shippuden. However, they were postponed, and no new release date has even been officially announced. Back then, little promotional stuff was being shared, so some speculated that they wanted more time to properly promote the show.
As we are currently on the 25th anniversary of the franchise, many expected them to be released later this year. There have been rumors suggesting an “early 2025” release — these rumors are actually based on documents from TV Tokyo. These episodes will be supervised by creator Masashi Kishimoto. As Studio Pierrot will be at AnimeJapan 2025 in late March, some hope that at least new information will be shared at the event.
The collab with Google shows that right holders are still investing in marketing the franchise, so it could be part of the preparations for the new episodes. Fans are also expecting these episodes to be streamed internationally, and probably all the major players have been trying to negotiate the miniseries. Back in 2023, French distributor ADN was the only one to announce the acquisition of the series (only in France). After finishing Bleach: A Thousand-Year Blood War and airing this new Naruto content, there is also a good chance that Pierrot will turn its focus back to Boruto.
Naruto and Naruto Shippuden are available on Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix and several other streaming services.
Source: Naruto Official Website
Naruto
- Release Date
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2002 – 2006
- Showrunner
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Masashi Kishimoto
- Directors
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Hayato Date
