The second season of the Naruto anime television series, labelled as the "2nd Stage" in the Japanese DVD release, is directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo. Based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga series of the same name, the season follows Naruto Uzumaki and fellow genin-ranked ninja participating the Chūnin Exams, surviving Orochimaru's invasion of the Hidden Leaf Village and confronting Gaara in the Leaf Forest. The season ran from June 4, 2003, to May 12, 2004, on TV Tokyo and its affiliates, consisting of 48 episodes.
The English dub aired on both Cartoon Network's Toonami and YTV's Bionix programming blocks from June 3, 2006, to April 14, 2007. The season's episodes ran on Adult Swim's relaunched Toonami block in a completely uncut format from December 1, 2012, to November 30, 2013. After the 52nd episode, it was removed from the schedule rotation to make room for its successor series, Naruto: Shippuden.
Sony Pictures Entertainment collected the episodes in a total of twelve DVD volumes under the name "2nd Stage", between January and December 1, 2004. Episodes from this season were released on by Viz Media between the ninth and twenty-first DVD volumes from the series, while several uncut DVD boxes have also been released.
Seven pieces of theme music are used for the episodes in Japanese version; three opening themes and four closing themes. The first opening theme is by Asian Kung-Fu Generation (used for episodes 36 to 53), by Little By Little (used for episodes 54 to 77), and "Go!!!" by Flow (used for episodes 81 to 83). The four closing themes are "Harmonia" by Rythem (used for episodes 36 to 51), "Viva★Rock" by Orange Range (used for episodes 52 to 64), "Alive" by Raico (used for episodes 65 to 77), and by The Mass Missile (used for episodes 78 to 83). The opening theme for the English airing are "Rise" by Jeremy Sweet and Ian Nickus (used until episode 52), "Haruka Kanata" by Asian Kung-Fu Generation (used for episodes 53 to 80), and is then replaced by "GO!!!" in the same way as the Japanese version, while the closing theme is an instrumental version of "Rise", which is used in all episodes. __TOC__
Episodes
Home media release English DVD + Naruto Uncut (USA) Volume Date Discs Episodes Reference 3 May 29, 2007 3 26–38 4 August 7, 2007 3 39–52 5 December 4, 2007 3 53–65 6 February 12, 2008 3 66–78 7 May 6, 2008 3 79–92
+ Naruto Season Box Set (USA) Box Set Date Discs Episodes Reference Season 1, Vol. 2 November 24, 2009 6 26–52 Season 2, Vol. 1 February 16, 2010 6 53–78 Season 2, Vol. 2 April 27, 2010 6 79–106
+ Naruto Unleashed (UK) Volume Date Box Set Release Disc Episodes Reference Series 2 Part 1 May 21, 2007 December 24, 2007 3 27–39 Series 2 Part 2 September 3, 2007 3 40–52 Series 3 Part 1 April 7, 2008 October 20, 2008 3 53–65 Series 3 Part 2 May 26, 2008 3 66–78 Series 4 Part 1 August 25, 2008 February 23, 2009 3 79–91
+ Naruto Uncut (AUS / NZ) Collection Episodes DVD release date Reference 3 26–38 July 23, 2008 4 39–53 August 20, 2008 5 54–65 September 17, 2008 6 66–78 October 22, 2008 7 79–92 November 12, 2008
+ Naruto Origins (AUS / NZ) Collection Episodes DVD release date Reference 1 1–52 May 24, 2017 2 53–106
Blu-ray + Viz Media (Region 1/A) Set Date Discs Episodes References 2 February 16, 2021 4 28–55 3 May 11, 2021 4 56–82 4 August 24, 2021 4 83–110
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