Naruto Shippuden the Movie 4: The Lost Tower
劇場版 NARUTO-ナルト-疾風伝 ザ・ロストタワー (Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 4 - The Lost Tower)
- Action
- Adventure
- Fantasy
- Time Travel
- Episodes
- 1
- Duration
- 1 hr 25 min
- Aired
- Jul 31, 2010
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Under Yamato’s command, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sai are sent to apprehend Mukade, a rogue ninja seeking the ancient chakra current known as the Ryuumyaku beneath the ruins of Rouran. Although the Fourth Hokage once sealed it away, Mukade succeeds in unleashing its power, and the resulting surge swallows Naruto and Yamato before they can get clear.
Naruto comes to in a dazzling yet dangerous kingdom, where he meets the young queen Saara and three Leaf shinobi carrying out a covert mission. Their discovery is alarming: Naruto has been thrown 20 years into Rouran’s past. Worse still, Mukade has already embedded himself in the palace as Saara’s trusted minister, Anrokuzan. Working alongside the three ninja, Naruto must keep Saara safe to derail Mukade’s scheme and find a way back to his own time.
Otaku Consensus
The Lost Tower earns its place as a polished but non-essential Naruto theatrical detour: Masahiko Murata’s direction and the time-travel structure give fans a rare franchise pleasure, especially the chance to frame Naruto against Minato’s era. Its strongest appeal is franchise-specific character gratification rather than narrative surprise, and the most consistent criticism is that the villain conflict and rescue-mission framework feel predictable and generic for a non-canon movie.
Why You Should Watch
Watch The Lost Tower if you want a Naruto movie built around franchise curiosity rather than canon consequences: a compact, big-screen side mission that lets the series play with time, legacy, and the Fourth Hokage without asking you to track manga continuity. It scratches the same itch as the better shounen theatrical specials: fast escalation, familiar jutsu spectacle, a guest-character kingdom with its own visual identity, and a clean emotional hook designed for a single sitting. The appeal is especially strong for Minato fans and for viewers who like Naruto most when it explores inherited ideals through action instead of exposition. Skip it if you need plot unpredictability; pick it up if you want a focused Pierrot-produced adventure with Yasuharu Takanashi’s franchise sound and a rare Naruto-Minato dynamic.
Key Characters
- NNaruto Uzumaki(VA: Junko Takeuchi)
Naruto works here because the movie uses his usual impulsive heroism as a contrast against an older generation of Leaf shinobi rather than simply repeating a TV-series mission beat.
- MMinato Namikaze(VA: Toshiyuki Morikawa)
Minato is the film’s main fan-service draw, giving the story a rare chance to showcase the Fourth Hokage in active mission mode outside the core canon timeline.
- SSaara(VA: Saori Hayami)
Saara stands out as the movie-specific emotional center, with Saori Hayami giving the young ruler a gentler presence than the film’s machinery-heavy action might suggest.
- MMukade(VA: Ryuuzaburou Ootomo)
Mukade is remembered less as a nuanced antagonist than as the kind of theatrical Naruto villain built to justify large-scale chakra spectacle and mechanical set pieces.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
This is the fourth Naruto Shippuden movie and a standalone, non-canon feature, which lets it pursue a self-contained time-travel hook without altering the TV series’ main continuity.
- 2
Studio Pierrot anchors the film in the recognizable Shippuden visual language while scaling the action around a theatrical setting, with Hirofumi Suzuki and Chikara Sakurai credited as chief animation directors.
- 3
The AniList tag profile is unusually specific for a Naruto entry: alongside Shounen, Super Power, and Ninja, it carries a high Robots tag, reflecting the movie’s blend of shinobi combat with mechanical threats.
- 4
Yasuharu Takanashi handles the music, keeping the film tied to the sound of Shippuden-era Naruto, while Kana Nishino is credited for the theme song performance.
- 5
The film’s reputation is split in a very particular way: reviews often call it predictable and filler-like, yet it is also singled out by parts of the fanbase as one of the stronger non-canon Naruto movies because of its time-travel setup.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Masashi Kishimoto is credited as the original creator, but the movie is widely treated as a non-canon franchise feature rather than a required chapter of the manga storyline.
- Fun fact 2
- Masahiko Murata served as both director and storyboard artist, with Atsushi Nigorikawa also credited on storyboards, giving the film a more centrally guided production structure than a routine TV episode.
- Fun fact 3
- The character design credits pair Hirofumi Suzuki with Tetsuya Nishio; Suzuki also served as chief animation director alongside Chikara Sakurai.
- Fun fact 4
- The film aired theatrically on July 31, 2010, and is listed as a single finished episode rather than a TV arc or OVA series.
- Fun fact 5
- Its database reception sits in the middle-positive range for the franchise: MAL lists it at 7.42 from 159,947 votes, while AniList records a 71/100 score and 466 favourites.
Studios
- Studio Pierrot
