The thirty-second DVD set of Naruto Shippuden is out now. As the final canon arc begins to close, Set 32 takes us on Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee adventure, and a ton of filler, as unfortunate as that may be. Though the last few episodes does continue Naruto’s ongoing battle with Madara Uchiha.

Naruto Shippuden is a 2007 shounen anime series, it is produced by Studio Pierrot, and licensed by Viz Media. the TV anime is currently available on DVD in English.

Editor’s Note: A review copy of Naruto Shippuden Set 32 was provided by Viz Media.

A set that takes a break from the core story.

Taking a small intermission from the Fourth Great Ninja Warm, Set 32 decides to focus on the joint Leaf/Sand Shinobi Chunin Exams. Kiba and his group search for their missing scroll and Sakura, Ino, and Choji deal with a battle in the desert, meanwhile Gaara is under attack in the Sand Village for his Tailed Beast, leading Neji and his group to come to the rescue.

Team 8 in the Joint Chunin Exams.

THE GOOD: If you’re just looking to relieve the glory days of Part I’s Chunin Exams, then I suppose one could see the appeal in these episodes, but due to it’s placement within the final arc of the core story, it kind of feels more in the way than a successful nostalgia trip. It’s good seeing other characters outside of Naruto and Sasuke getting the spotlight for a period of time at the very least.

Honestly, these episodes would probably have fared better had they been placed prior to or even after the Fourth War arc.

THE BAD: As mentioned previously, the main issue with this Joint Chunin Exams arc is that it’s filler interrupting an already ongoing canon arc. I’m not sure what Pierrot’s thought process was going into the production of these episodes, perhaps they were getting dangerously close to the manga’s finale and had to save up time or risk a rushed ending?

The set ends with where we left off at least.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Set 32 features an oddly placed arc that doesn’t do it’s attempted nostalgia trip run much justice, maybe it would have been better if Studio Pierrot chose a better area to place the episodes in, but when reaching a manga’s conclusion before the manga becomes a production concern, there’s not a whole lot you can do in regards to filler. Otaku Dome gives Naruto Shippuden Set 32 a 68 out of 100.