Renowned anime director Mamoru Oshii (“Ghost in the Shell” and “Angel’s Egg”) recently revealed that he was once involved in a “Naruto” project, but ended his involvement prematurely. We summarize.
Towel thrown in
The comments were made in an interview with Animage, in which Oshii spoke about his career and his changing philosophy. When the topic of adapting existing works came up, the 74-year-old confessed:
»I actually started working on a Naruto project once, but then gave up halfway through. I’ve always loved characters that reproduce, so I liked Naruto’s shadow clone technique. The idea that you can compress time by training with shadow clones is fascinating, and I thought I could do something with it, but unfortunately nothing came of it.”
Oshii left it open whether his involvement concerned the original anime adaptation of the series or an independent project or film in the “Naruto” universe. It is also unclear whether the work was made with another director.
Oshii’s interest in “Naruto” is entirely understandable given the brand’s immense popularity. Even today, the title still attracts countless new fans and is one of the most popular anime worldwide, which is also reflected in the streaming numbers: the franchise dominated the anime category on Netflix in the first half of 2025 with over 45 million views.
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Via Animage
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