Thousands of Fans Rally Behind Continuation of Live-Action ‘Naruto’ Project

The group created an IndieGoGo campaign following the success of its web series “Naruto Live Action: Climbing Silver” in early March.

The series garnered over 2.1 million views in total for its four-episode run that covered the Hidan part of the “Akatsuki Suppression Mission” arc, according to a press release.

 

“We already completed filming Part 5 and Part 6, and now we’re looking for support to successfully break both of these through the post-production finish line,” the campaign read.

The campaign’s goal is to raise $15,000, which will help fund the visual effects (VFX) needed for the much-anticipated battle between Naruto and Kakashi against Hidan.

RE:Anime plans to add more VFX into the fight, including Kakashi’s Chidori, Naruto’s Rasengan, Choji’s Arm Expansion Jutsu, and “Exploding Hidan to little bits and pieces.”

“Naruto Live Action: Climbing Silver” director Nik Shaw described the project as a movement against Hollywood whitewashing.

“Lionsgate is currently adapting ‘Naruto’ into live-action. As we all know from previous live-action adaptations like ‘Death Note,’ ‘The Last Airbender,’ ‘Dragonball’ and ‘Ghost in the Shell,’ Hollywood does not understand anime and does not take it seriously,” Shaw said.

“There is a community of people inspired by the series, and we’re taking a stand to say this is how we want ‘Naruto’ adapted and this is what we see. We won’t take another ‘Dragonball Evolution’ as an answer to what we want,” he added.

 

Elsa Nilaj, a fan of the live-action adaptation, organized an online petition, urging Lionsgate to include Shaw and his team from RE:Anime for key creative positions in the film. It reached over 9,500 signatures of its 10,000 goal as of this writing.

“A small indie production company, RE:Anime, has shown us fans what live-action anime should feel and look like,” Nilaj said in the Change.org post. “They nail it every single time and on a shoestring budget. Their new “Naruto: Climbing Silver Series” is exactly what we, the fans, want.”

“RE:Anime not only adapts anime very well, but they cast Asian actors and even have predominately Asian crew members,” Nilaj added. “Just speaking to the founder and seeing everyone work together on set, I feel their passion and support for bringing those in the Asian community on screen for major loved animes like Naruto.”

The campaign raised over $10,000 as of this writing. If they reach their goal, the film will be released this June.

Featured Image via RE: ANIME (left, right)