Naruto is getting a brand-new TV anime, and it's not the sequel or remake fans have been guessing at. It's a limited series that crosses Naruto over with NINKU, Koji Kiriyama's 1990s martial arts manga. According to the official Naruto site, NINKU is "the legendary series that inspired Masashi Kishimoto to draw Naruto."

That framing is what makes this more than a fan-service team-up. A franchise this big could have gone anywhere for its next anime. Instead it went back to the series that sits at the root of Naruto's own origin story.

Both creators are supervising every episode

The project page describes it as a brand-new story created entirely under the supervision of Kishimoto and Kiriyama. That's a notable detail for Naruto fans, since a lot of the franchise's animated output over the years has been filler or spin-off material that didn't come straight from the original author.

The page's copyright credits list Shueisha, TV Tokyo and Pierrot alongside both creators, the same companies credited on the original Naruto TV anime. The official site hasn't posted a premiere date or an episode count on the project page yet.

Part of a bigger Project Rasengan push

The anime is the first item on a roadmap the franchise calls Project Rasengan. The official hub lists a few other pieces alongside it:

  • A new Naruto manga drawn by Kishimoto himself
  • A trading card game set for a simultaneous worldwide release in June 2027
  • A Naruto mobile game heading to a global audience

The official site says more updates on the project will come during the Jump Festa stage, which will also be streamed.

Why NINKU is a deep cut for most fans

NINKU ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in the mid-1990s, years before Naruto, and got its own TV anime back then. Most Naruto fans who came in through the 2000s anime, or through streaming since, have likely never seen it. A crossover hands that older series an audience many times larger than its first.

Where the crossover will stream in the Philippines hasn't been announced. For now the official site's video is the only footage out there, and the Jump Festa stage is the next date worth circling.