It has been almost half a year since Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto manga came to a close, but the franchise is not over yet. The first details and images about the upcoming manga and light novels taking place after the manga’s conclusion have been revealed.
The spin-off manga will be titled Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring Month and will begin publication in next week’s issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump as a double issue. It will be written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto and will be about the new generation of shinobi that will follow Boruto Uzumaki and Sarada Uchiha. It is unknown if the manga will tie into the upcoming film Boruto -Naruto the Movie-.
Additionally, the release date for the remaining 3 Naruto epilogue novels have been revealed, the first three have been released. The fourth novel, Konohagakure Hiden, will be releasing on May 1st. The fifth novel, Gaara Hiden, will release in June, and the final novel, Akatsuki Hiden, will release in July. The fourth novel will be written by Shou Hinata (Hentai Kamen novels). The novels are set in between the 699th and 700th chapters of the Naruto manga.
The new projects are part of the Naruto Shin Jidai Kaimaku Project (Naruto’s New Era Opening Project) and includes The Last -Naruto the Movie-, the upcoming film Boruto -Naruto the Movie-., and a Naruto Exhibition that will open in Japan this month.
Naruto is an original manga series created by Masashi Kishimoto. The manga began in 1999 in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, where to date a total of 69 volumes have released. Since its debut the manga has sold over 130 million copies in Japan alone. The series has also received two TV anime series adaptation, covering the manga’s two parts: Naruto and Naruto Shippuden in 2002 and 2007 respectively. Both series were produced by Studio Pierrot. Additionally, a total of 9 anime films have released to date and numerous OVAs and specials. A light novel spin-off was produced by Masatoshi Kusakabe and released in 2002, and a manga spinoff, titled Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden, began publishing in 2010 from Kenji Taira and was adapted into an anime in 2012. Today, the franchise is one of Japan’s most renowned and one of the most popular anime/manga series outside of Japan.
Here is a synopsis of the original series from MAL:
Naruto Uzumaki, a hyperactive and knuckle-headed ninja, lives in Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf village. Moments prior to his birth, a huge demon known as the Kyuubi, the Nine-tailed Fox, attacked Konohagakure and wreaked havoc. In order to put an end to the Kyuubi’s rampage, the leader of the village, the 4th Hokage, sacrificed his life and sealed the monstrous beast inside the newborn Naruto.
Shunned because of the presence of the Kyuubi inside him, Naruto struggles to find his place in the village. He strives to become the Hokage of Konohagakure, and he meets many friends and foes along the way.
The first two chapters of the Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring Month spin-off mini series will begin in next week’s issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump. The next novel in the epilogue series will then release on May 1st.
For more details about the novels, visit: http://j-books.shueisha.co.jp/pickup/naruto_hiden/
Source Article and Images – Shueisha’s J Jump Books
Source Article – Anime News Network
“Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring Month”, “Naruto Hiden”, “Naruto”, © 2015 Masashi Kishimoto, Shou Hinata and Shueisha