Gekijô-ban Naruto Shippûden: Hi no ishi wo tsugu mono

The Will of Fire, the third Naruto Shippuden movie, attempts to explore themes at the heart of the series-loyalty, sacrifice, and the legacy of the shinobi. With a stronger connection to the main series than most Naruto films, it delivers more emotional weight and character interaction than its predecessors, though it still suffers from some familiar pacing and plot issues.

The Good: Unlike other Naruto movies that feel like standalone filler, The Will of Fire is more organically tied to the larger world of Naruto. The plot centers around the mysterious disappearance of ninjas from various villages and the suspicion that the Hidden Leaf is behind it. When it's revealed that Kakashi may have gone rogue to prevent war, Naruto and his friends defy orders to rescue him-rekindling the master-student bond that has been so central to the series.

One of the film's strongest elements is its focus on Kakashi. Giving him a central role allows for more emotional stakes, and his willingness to sacrifice himself for peace is in line with his complex character history. Naruto's emotional growth also shines, as his refusal to accept losing another mentor mirrors his earlier losses and further cements his will to protect his "bonds."

The animation is solid, especially in the later fight scenes. The confrontation between Naruto and the antagonist, Hiruko, has a good mix of chakra-based powers and physical combat, though it doesn't reach the heights of the series' best battles.

The Weak: While the central story has more weight than usual, the villain, Hiruko, is disappointingly generic. His goal of absorbing kekkei genkai powers and achieving immortality feels like a recycled trope, and his motivations lack depth or emotional resonance.

Some side characters feel underused. Despite appearances by Team 10 and Team 8, they mostly act as background noise or filler fight scenes, which dilutes the emotional focus of the film. The middle act also drags, with too much time spent on chasing or explaining rather than deepening character development.

Final Thoughts: The Will of Fire stands out among Naruto movies for trying to say something meaningful about duty, friendship, and sacrifice. While it doesn't always succeed-thanks to a forgettable villain and uneven pacing-it's one of the more character-driven entries in the franchise. Fans of Kakashi and Naruto's bond will find it especially rewarding.

Rating: 6.6/10 - A thoughtful but flawed film that brings heart to the action.

After the mediocrity that was "Bonds," I was convinced that the "Naruto" movie franchise had begun to deteriorate. This film, however, proved me wrong. Not only is it a return to form for the franchise, it just might be the best entry yet.

There are some very strong themes in this movie. They include self-sacrifice and the series' theme of remembering to never abandon your comrades, no matter what. The choices that the characters have to go through and the tension between some of the characters on whether or not to save Kakashi added a lot of stakes and drama to the proceedings.

The Konoha 11 all get prominent involvement in this movie, which is extremely refreshing after the previous movie "Bonds" gave most of the supporting characters almost nothing to do. They all get their time to shine and prove to be quite useful on the battlefield.

The action scenes are intense and exciting and really kept me on the edge of my seat. Hiruko isn't too special off a villain, but he's pretty serviceable and certainly a big improvement on the villains from the last couple of movies.

The animation is once again solid, even though I personally would have liked for the color palette to be just a little bit brighter. By the way, the ending scene is absolutely HILARIOUS!

I was very pleased with this movie. It gets the franchise back on track, and I would even say that it replaces "Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow" as my favorite "Naruto" movie so far. Definitely check this one out.

RATING: A

Will of fire is your basic naruto plot naruto almost singlehandedly fucks everything up then gives a big speech bringing everyone to his side then uses ass pull jutsu to fix everything last minute. Where this movie and the series as a whole shines is with the characters. Almost the entire movie revolves around kakashi, naruto, and shikamaru as you learn more about what it means to them to be ninja and protect their loved ones. The plot without spoiling it is pretty bland though the intro is pretty interesting. Also the animation is pretty good and stays pretty consistent throughout and shows off some cool fights and effects. All that said it's worth watching as a naruto fan but would be pretty boring if not for that.

Usually a movie made from a series mean bigger story and bigger everything. In the Naruto franchise I haven't seen one example of this fact. On the contrary it is quite the opposite of the epic anime. It is obvious that the writers are out of ideas. To be honest every Naruto movie including this one has this one message repeated ad nauseam. And the message is always the same,friendship. There is no need to make 6 movies to tell me this. At first this movie started great with promise of epic proportions. Sadly there aren't any. I understand that the writers want to save their best for the anime. But couldn't they just for once show something that actually would be interesting. Like the period between Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden. We are talking about two and half years. Surely something interesting happened in that time. Or why not a little background story of one of the multiple characters like Lee or Kakashi. He is supposed to be this super ninja but always gets hurt. So why not show us how he earned this reputation. For me these movies are redundant and they should stop making them. Of course this won't happen since Naruto is big business. As I understand the fourth Shipuuden movie has already been released and there are plans to make fifth movie. Well,I can only hope for some improvement.

This movie is primarily for Naruto fans, as it features references to Kakashi's old friend and Asuma. Naruto uses rasengan and shadow clone techniques in this movie, making it the best Naruto movie so far. The main enemy is Hiruko, an ex-leaf ninja who aims to become the perfect ninja by absorbing ninjas with bloodline limits. Kakashi sacrifices himself for the Leaf to defeat Hiruko, but Naruto doesn't want Kakashi to die. He believes that those who break rules are scum, and those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. Naruto tries to stop Kakashi, as he believes that abandoning friends is worse than scum.