The new Naruto anime that Viz teased in September is a crossover, and it finally has details. At the “NARUTO: What’s Next?” panel at New York Comic Con, the franchise revealed that the previously announced “limited” television series is NARUTO x NINKŪ, a four-episode anime that brings Naruto together with Koji Kiriyama’s Ninku.
The panel ran on Naruto Uzumaki’s birthday before an audience of roughly 3,000 people. Junko Takeuchi and Noriaki Sugiyama, the voices of Naruto and Sasuke, appeared in person, along with Pierrot Films executive producer Yoshihiro Tominaga. A collaboration key visual and a teaser trailer debuted on the stage.
What the crossover is
The story is completely original, supervised in full by Masashi Kishimoto and Ninku creator Koji Kiriyama. Team 7 gets a mission from Kakashi, but Kakashi cannot join them, so Naruto is made acting captain. On the way, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura wander into the world of Ninku, where they meet a boy with a frog-like face named Fūsuke.
Kishimoto has never been shy about the connection between the two series. The teaser quotes him directly: “Without Ninku, there would be no Naruto. I wanted to read more of Ninku, so I started drawing Naruto.”
Who is making it
Noriyuki Abe is directing. He directed both the Ninku television anime and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which makes him an unusually fitting choice for a project that sits between the two. Tetsuya Nishio is the character designer and chief animation director, a role he has held across both Naruto and Ninku. Tominaga also showed work-in-progress animation drawings by Nishio during the panel.
Ninku, explained for the Naruto side
Ninku is not a deep-cut reference for Japanese readers of a certain age. Kiriyama’s manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1993 to 1995 and ran to nine collected volumes. It inspired a Studio Pierrot television anime in 1995 and 1996 that lasted 55 episodes, plus two films: Ninku Knife no Bohyō in 1994 and Ninku the Movie in 1995. A sequel manga, Ninku Second Stage: Eto Nin-Hen, ran in Ultra Jump from 2005 to 2011 and reached 12 volumes.
Pierrot is currently streaming the first five episodes of the Ninku anime for free on its YouTube channel, which gives new viewers a way in before the crossover arrives.
The rest of the panel
The crossover was the headline, but it was not the only item. The event also introduced PROJECT RASENGAN, described as a multiyear global initiative to move Naruto and Boruto into a new phase, with a key visual and promo video and a roadmap covering manga, anime, games and events. Several projects on that roadmap are still unannounced.
Bandai Card Games confirmed that the NARUTO CARD GAME will launch worldwide in June 2027, with a Pierrot-animated trailer, three starter decks led by Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara, and a first booster set called “Enter: Naruto Uzumaki!” Demo events start in early 2027, and a spring campaign will hand out a million demo decks worldwide.
The panel also confirmed that the Naruto mobile game, a battle action title that launched in mainland China in 2016, is coming worldwide. A teaser trailer debuted at the event, with release details to follow later.
And then there was the manga. The stage closed with a teaser that Kishimoto is working on a new Naruto manga, later confirmed as Naruto: Shadow Rising. That story is separate from the crossover and has its own article, which you can read in our full breakdown of the new Naruto manga.
One loose thread
In 2023, the Naruto anime announced four “brand-new” episodes for the anime’s 20th anniversary, set to air weekly from September 2023. A week before they were due, the episodes were pulled to improve quality. Nothing has been said about them since August 2023, and it is still unclear whether this crossover is that delayed project or something separate. Viz has not connected the two, so treat the link as unconfirmed.
Why it matters
For a franchise that has been building sideways through sequels, films and stage productions, a four-episode Naruto animation set inside the original Team 7 is a different kind of announcement. It is short and self-contained, which matches both the crossover premise and the “limited” wording Viz used from the start. It also puts Kishimoto and Kiriyama in the same room as supervisors, which is the closest the two series have come to a formal link in 30 years.
The rest of the news points in the same direction. PROJECT RASENGAN, the card game and the mobile release are all about keeping Naruto active on multiple fronts at once rather than letting it rest. Marching all of that out on Naruto’s birthday, with the original voice actors on stage, was not a coincidence.
Source: Anime News Network · Viz Media press release
Featured image: Collaboration visual for the NARUTO x NINKŪ crossover anime, via the Naruto franchise’s official channels / Anime News Network.
