Naruto Shippuden Box Set 15 is a three DVD set that contains Episodes 180 through 192 of Naruto Shippuden. The first disc contains five episodes, the second disc contains four episodes, and the third disc includes four episodes and the set’s special features.

Naruto Shippuden Box Set 15
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Format: DVD
Release Date: July 16, 2013

All of the episodes in this set are “filler” material, which continues the filler that began at the end of Naruto Shippuden Box Set 14, which takes the viewer back to earlier points in the Naruto series and fills in some gaps or shows some of the same events through a different character’s perspective.

Over the course of these episodes, we see a story featuring Inari from the Land of Waves, Team 7 finding a lost ostrich and getting entangled with a guy trying to carry out a vendetta, Team 7 being assigned to work with Gaara and a couple of ninja from the Sand Village in their first joint mission after the treaty that was made after the Chunin Exam, a chakra virus that Naruto is suspected of bringing in from another village, Tenten leading a team to the Konoha Tool Research Lab for more tools for the village, the ostrich Team 7 had dealt with earlier escaping and hiding out in “Ground 0” of the Forest of Death, Naruto trying to get a flower that’s needed by Guy to make Lee’s special medicine while he’s recovering from the injuries he sustained during the Chunin Exam, Jiraiya teaching Naruto how to repel genjutsu, Granny Cat asking Sasuke and Team 7 to collect the last cat paw print to complete the “Paw Encyclopedia,” Naruto is put on a team with an elder known as “the Eternal Genin” to patrol the border of the Land of Fire, Kakashi encounters a woman named Hanare who is spying on the village and learning they had met several years earlier, and Neji talking to Konohamaru and his friends about rescuing Hinata when she’s kidnapped during the confusion of the invasion that took place during the Chunin Exam.

These fillers were definitely a mixed bag when it comes to quality. In my opinion, the best of these episodes are the story with Inari, Team 7 working with Gaara and his team, Jiraiya and Naruto’s training, the story about Kakashi, and the story about Neji. To me, these stories were the best at enhancing the already existing canon material that appeared earlier in the series.

To me, the absolute stinkers on this set are the chakra virus episode, the story with the ostrich in “Ground 0” of the Forest of Death, and the “Paw Encyclopedia” episode. When it comes to the ostrich, when he first appeared, all he did was peck people angrily on the back of the head and acted like a normal ostrich. However, when he appeared again for the Forest of Death episode, the ostrich was talking to and understood by not only young ostrich chicks, but by the human characters as well. This change was never truly explained, and it just came across as rather stupid and bizarre. Also, the episode with the “Paw Encyclopedia” just came across as weird.

The remaining episodes didn’t impress me, but I didn’t think they were bad, either. They were just rather “meh.”

Animation-wise, the quality seemed to fluctuate throughout the set. I can’t say that any of these episodes had top-notch animation, but I can say the animation tended to look average or somewhat bad. However, it’s nowhere near as bad as the animation that some episodes on Naruto Shippuden Box Set 14 received.

When it comes to the actual DVD box set, it’s just like the previous eight sets, because only the third disc in the set actually contains any bonus features.

There are a total of six bonus features included on the third disc. The first is the English credits for Naruto Shippuden. The second is labeled as “More From VIZ Media,” but all that’s included is the same Neon Alley trailer that appears at the beginning of the first disc of the set.

“Clean Opening” contains a textless version of the one opening that appeared in this box set, while “Clean Ending” contains a textless version of the one ending that appear in this set. “Storyboards” includes six screens of storyboards from two of the episodes included in this set.

The final extra is “Omake,” which usually takes all of the omake pieces that appear at the end of the episodes in the set and put them together back-to-back. However, only one omake appeared in any of the episodes in this set, so this feature felt like it really wasn’t necessary.

The only way I can truly recommend this box set to anyone is if they’re a fan of Naruto Shippuden and want to watch and/or own every episode of the series in their anime home video collection.

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