Naruto Shippuden Box Set 3   Starring (voice): Junko Takeuchi, Chie Nakamura and Noriaki Sugiyama Manga Entertainment RRP: £24.99 MANG5153 Certificate: 12 Available 04 October 2010

After fierce battles with the Akatsuki, Sakura, Granny Chiyo, Kakashi, and Naruto have finally retrieved Gaara from Deidara's clutches. But is it all too late? Back in the Leaf Village, Kakashi's on bed rest for overusing his Mangekyo Sharingan, and Naruto's preparing to recruit some of his friends for Team Kakashi. But the village elders have beat him to it, and their choice of the unfeeling Sai has Naruto spitting mad...

Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 3 contains another 13 episodes (episodes 27-39) of this animated series which was first released in 2007.

Disc one contains the episodes Impossible Dream; Beasts: Alive Again!; Kakashi Enlightened!; Aesthetics of an Instant; The Legacy; and Return of the Kazekage. This concludes the first season.

Disc two opens season two and contains The New Target; Formation! New Team Kakashi!; An Unnecessary Addition; The Fake Smile; Untitled; Simulation; and Untitled.

You'll be glad to hear that finally Chiyo and Sakura's battle against the puppet master Sasori finally reaches its conclusion. But boy is it dragged out.

We then move onto another story which sees team Kakashi (minus Kakashi) form up to go on another mission - this time they have to travel to Tenchi Bridge in order to meet up with a mysterious Akatsuki spy who has managed to infiltrate Orochimaru's organisation. However there seems to be no rush as instead we are presented with a load of filler material. Naruto and the new team member, Sai, don't hit it off. This results in Naruto bitching and moaning the whole time - obviously he's not much of a team player. Then we spend a whole episode seeing them training for the meeting on the bridge... by this point I'm just pleading: "Come on! Please get this over with!" And finally we get to the final showdown - which is actually quite interesting. However, as I've mentioned before, everything is so long and drawn out that the whole viewing experience is rather painful.

What is interesting about this series are the segments after each episode. These help to flesh out the universe a little by offering interesting trivia information as well as the odd puzzle for viewers to solve.

I did find the American dub to be a little OTT. The acting is well below average and the comedy doesn't work quite as well as the original Japanese version. And while we're on the subject of the audio... the options are a little disappointing. You can either listen to a surround sound American dub, or a stereo Japanese soundtrack. Now if a surround sound version of the original Japanese had been available this would have been much more welcomed.

Extras include Production Art and trailers.

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Nick Smithson