The fifth and final season of the Naruto anime television series, labelled as the "5th Stage" in the Japanese DVD release, is directed by Hayato Date, produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo. Based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga series of the same name, the season follows Naruto Uzumaki and friends succeeding in their missions, and concludes with Naruto's journey in two-and-half-years training with Jiraiya. Following the original series finale, a sequel anime series which primarily adapts the second part of the manga, titled Naruto: Shippuden, premiered the following week on February 15, 2007. The season ran on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from April 12, 2006, to February 8, 2007.
It was the last season to air on Cartoon Network's incarnation of Toonami before its cancellation, as episode premieres shifted to regular network programming beginning on October 4, 2008. The final eleven episodes never aired on television in the United States, as Cartoon Network removed the series from its schedule before they could debut. The remaining eleven episodes of the English dub instead premiered in Canada on YTV's Bionix, from October 25 to December 6, 2009.
Sony Pictures Entertainment collected the episodes in a total of ten DVD volumes, each containing four episodes between January 1 and July 4, 2007. Viz Media's English adaptation of the series was collected in several DVD boxes from the series.
The season uses five musical themes for the Japanese version with two openings and three closings. The two opening themes are Flow's "Re:member" (used for episodes 180 to 202) and Hearts Grow's for episodes 203 to 220. The three closing themes are "Yellow Moon" by Akeboshi (used for episode 180 to 190), by Oreskaband (used for episodes 191 to 202), and by Saboten (used for the rest of the episodes). The English episodes use the same openings, and an instrumental version of "Rise" by Jeremy Sweet and Ian Nickus as the closing theme. __TOC__
Episodes
Home media release English DVD + Naruto Uncut (USA) Volume Date Discs Episodes Reference 14 May 26, 2009 3 178–191 15 July 21, 2009 3 192–205 16 September 22, 2009 3 206–220
+ Naruto Season Box Set (USA) Box Set Date Discs Episodes Reference Season 4, Vol. 1 October 26, 2010 6 164–191 Season 4, Vol. 2 December 14, 2010 6 192–220
+ Naruto Unleashed (UK) Volume Date Box Set Release Disc Episodes Reference Series 7 Part 2 October 26, 2009 3 170–182 Series 8 Part 1 December 14, 2009 June 14, 2010 3 183–195 Series 8 Part 2 February 1, 2010 3 196–208 Series 9 April 19, 2010 3 209–220
+ Naruto Uncut (AUS / NZ) Collection Episodes DVD release date Reference 14 178–191 October 21, 2009 15 192–205 December 16, 2009 16 206–220 February 17, 2010
+ Naruto Origins (AUS / NZ) Collection Episodes DVD release date Reference 4 164–220
Blu-ray + Viz Media (Region 1/A) Set Date Discs Episodes References 7 June 14, 2022 4 166–192 8 October 18, 2022 4 193–220
Notes
References