Naruto x Ninku New Collaboration Anime Announced, Revealed to Be the 4-Episode Project

The completely new NARUTO anime first announced for the series’ 20th anniversary has finally been revealed as a four-episode collaboration with NINKU.

The project was originally scheduled to air on TV Tokyo for four consecutive weeks beginning September 3, 2023, but was postponed shortly before broadcast so the production team could further improve its quality. No major update followed for more than three years.

The newly revealed anime will tell an original story in which a young Naruto Uzumaki becomes lost in the world of NINKU while carrying out a mission.

The project was revealed as part of the latest NARUTO anime announcements at New York Comic Con 2026. Ahead of the event, the official NARUTO website had confirmed that the “NARUTO: What’s Next?” stage would feature a world-first reveal concerning completely new animation for the franchise.

While NINKU is considerably less familiar to international audiences than NARUTO, the connection between the two series goes back decades.

Created by Koji Kiriyama, NINKU began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1993. Its story follows Fusuke, a young former member of the Ninku Corps who uses “Ninku,” a martial art combining ninjutsu and karate. After a major war, Fusuke travels through a troubled world while searching for his kidnapped mother and fighting enemies targeting former Ninku fighters.

Studio Pierrot adapted the manga into a 55-episode television anime that aired on Fuji TV from January 1995 to February 1996. Noriyuki Abe directed the series, with Hiroshi Hashimoto in charge of the series composition and Tetsuya Nishio and Mari Kitayama as character designers.

NARUTO appeared at New York Comic Con on October 10, where “exciting new updates” were revealed. Junko Takeuchi, the Japanese voice of Naruto Uzumaki, and Noriaki Sugiyama, the Japanese voice of Sasuke Uchiha, attended as special guests.

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NARUTO is a manga written by Masashi Kishimoto. It began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in September 1999 and ran for 15 years until November 2014, ending with a total of 72 volumes. Studio Pierrot animated the anime adaptation, which premiered in October 2002 and ran for 220 episodes. The anime was followed by a sequel titled NARUTO Shippuden, which ran for 500 episodes.

There is also the sequel BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS manga, originally written by Ukyo Kodachi. Masashi Kishimoto later took over the story, which has illustrations by Mikio Ikimoto. The manga started in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2016 but moved to V Jump in 2019.

Part 2 of the manga titled BORUTO: TWO BLUE VORTEX began in August 2023. The BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS anime adaptation began broadcasting in April 2017, while the anime went on a break in March 2023. A 4-episode special was originally scheduled to broadcast for 4 consecutive weeks from September 3, 2023, but was delayed to ‘improve quality.’

A new NARUTO Card Game TCG was also recently announced for 2027, as well as a non-verbal live-action show set to run at Kyoto’s Minamiza Theater from February until June 2027. The live-action film directed by Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton recently began a cast search for Team 7’s Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.

Source: Official X
© Masashi Kishimoto, Scott / Shueisha, TV Tokyo, Pierrot