We finally have an updated release window for the four previously announced "brand new" episodes of Naruto that were ultimately delayed last year.
Plans for the four new episodes were announced back in March 2023 as part of the Naruto anime's 20th anniversary celebration. The first episode was scheduled to premiere on September 3rd, but in August of that same year, the production committee announced that the project had been postponed to "increase the quality."
No new premiere date was given, and we haven't really heard much about the project since then.
This week, however, we finally got an update. During TV Tokyo's FY2024 Annual Results Briefing, it was announced that the new episodes of Naruto will be released at some point during this fiscal year, which means any time between now and March 2025.
“While the new series of ‘BORUTO’ is currently on hiatus, we are planning to broadcast new episodes [of Naruto] to commemorate the 20th anniversary this fiscal year. For distribution, we have been expanding to Central and South America and the Middle East in addition to worldwide distribution, and the remaining region is Eastern Europe. We are in the final stages of negotiations to find a good partner to handle peripheral businesses.“
Once again, no further details were provided, but at least we have somewhat of a window to mark down.
Written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto is one of the best-selling manga series of all time. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from September 1999 to November 2014 with Viz Media licensing the manga for North American production in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
The story is told in two parts: the first set in Naruto's pre-teen years, and the second in his teens. Part 1 of the manga was adapted into an anime television series, titled Naruto, by Pierrot and Aniplex, which ran for 220 episodes from October 2002 to February 2007. Part 2 of the story was adapted into a second anime series, titled Naruto: Shippuden, which was also produced by Pierrot. It ran from February 2007 and concluded in March 2017.
Unfortunately, there have been no new anime episodes of Naruto released since then, which is why many fans are eagerly looking forward to this new series. In the meantime, you can catch all the old episodes of Naruto on streaming services like Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix, and more.