The Last: Naruto the Movie

[Full spoilers for the story as it's meant to be a review/analysis. Only read if you've watched it.]

The Last is the most popular Naruto movie in the fanbase, often surpassing others like Road to Ninja and frequently regarded as a masterpiece. Its status as canon also sets it apart from other movies that can be skipped. However, I find it comparable to, if not worse than, Boruto, and I'm going to explain why. I recognize that this movie is almost universally beloved and that I'll likely face backlash, but I’d like to share my thoughts.

Firstly, let’s talk about how it changes the characters. The movie attempts to change Hinata’s backstory by borrowing elements from Sakura’s bullying and Sasuke’s role as Naruto’s "counterpart." While Hinata was never the deepest character in the manga, this reimagining feels tacked on and forced, clearly not aligning with the original intention. The introduction of the scarf comes off as a retcon, trying to justify Hinata’s crush on Naruto. It feels unnecessary and awkward to suddenly attach such a symbol to their relationship. The movie essentially strips Hinata of her voice and character from the series, turning her into a damsel in distress for Naruto to save. Rather than focusing on her rich backstory and connection with her clan, the plot places her in a scenario where a "generic villain" wants to marry her just as a way to make Naruto confess his "feelings" to her." Neji is hardly even mentioned in the movie for god's sake! He was the most important relationship in the world to Hinata, and he’s a genuine point of connection between her and Naruto, and he’s not even leveraged. The spark from Hinata’s character during the Pain Arc and her fight against Neji in the Chūnin Exams is completely absent as she’s been hollowed out to force her to fit into the plot.

There's a natural way to write a more proactive Hinata without having to have the universe force them to get together. Why not start the movie with her confessing and that gets interrupted, then the rest of the movie can be Naruto sorting out his feelings by spending time together with her? I'm not a professional writer but there are ways that doesn't involved retconning and forcing the characters together. She did say that she was going to try to become more active after the war, so I don't understand why they couldn't have gone that route.

Naruto’s character is also damaged as he is retconned to oblivion. He seems to lose the ability to distinguish between romantic love and general affection, which is used to explain why he hasn’t fallen for Hinata sooner. They also change his crush on Sakura to be that he doesn’t understand love and that he only liked her because Sasuke liked her, which doesn't fit the established canon. The change is just another way to twist the story and gaslight the audience into thinking Naruto hasn't been open to a relationship with Hinata because he doesn’t understand love. A guy whose main defining traits are kindness, honesty, empathy, and the ability to understand others isn’t emotionally intelligent enough to understand what romance is, yeah sure, they’re literally just trying to turn him into Goku. And if that’s not enough, the way that Naruto falls in love with Hinata is even worse. He's trapped in a genjutsu that reveals Hinata’s crush, making it seem like he’s simply grateful for her feelings, feels guilty for not noticing them earlier, and then forces himself to reciprocate. It doesn't feel like he falls in love with Hinata for WHO SHE IS, but rather for WHAT SHE REPRESENTS as the author's hand forces them into a relationship.

Secondly, it’s not the worst plot in the world as it’s pretty standard for an anime movie to have a threat that comes out of nowhere with a paper-thin plot, but the fact that it’s mainly built on the interactions between Naruto and Hinata (who act completely out of character) makes it worse. The other characters like Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sai only feel like they’re on the mission in order to be able to explain to Naruto that Hinata loves him and sell toys, as they don’t really get anything to do in the whole story. They don’t have arcs or moments; they’re glorified extras. On the other hand, the villain is an Otsutsuki which I typically would hate, but I do appreciate that they try to add some humanity to him by showcasing his feelings and his backstory. Toneri is neat and I wish we got more time to explore him beyond “I want the Tenseigan” and instead focused on his relation to Hamura more.

Thirdly, the positives are few, but there are some there. The movie looks great with stunning visuals making for probably the best that the series has looked aside from a couple of highly hyped Boruto episodes. I also like the redesigns for every single character as they make them look recognizable but also mature. They were willing to rake risks like having Naruto have short hair, which I really appreciate as a choice. I also like the idea behind some of the character interactions, even if they feel forced together. Some of the moments are genuinely cute, even if they fall apart if you put thought into it.

Fourthly, there are a few minor inconsistencies worth mentioning. For instance, Naruto gets trapped in a genjutsu, but as a perfect jinchuriki, Kurama could easily have woken him up, making the film's most pivotal moment seem implausible. Another issue is that Naruto attempts to use hand-signs for the Shadow Clone Jutsu to save Hinata from bullies, even though he learned the technique from the scroll in Episode 1. Additionally, Hinata is bullied for having the Byakugan, yet the Hyuga clan is canonically one of the most respected in the village, with most of its members possessing the Byakugan. While these aren’t major issues, they highlight a recurring trend of disregarding established canon for the sake of storytelling, reflecting a tendency to alter characters to fit the plot.

To summarize, these aren't the characters from the manga, they are sock-puppets that simply look like the characters that we know and love. It's a movie that exists because Pierrot liked the idea of Naruto ending up with Hinata, but didn't have any material to work with as Kishimoto clearly didn’t prioritize romance. As a result, the movie’s attempt to rationalize their relationship in just 2 hours of screen time feels rushed and contrived as they try to gaslight us to buy their altered version of the story and the characters. There's a beautiful idea here, but it reads like a fanfiction from a 14-year-old on Tumblr that somehow was canonized.