A new fan film from Rogue Origin Films imagines the iconic battle between Rock Lee and Kimimaro from Naruto in glorious live-action. Created by Masashi Kishimoto, the long-running manga centered on the titular young ninja as he seeks recognition from his peers and strives to achieve his dream of becoming the Hokage, leader of his village. The novels were split into two parts, with the first centering on Naruto's pre-teen years and the second on his actual teen years.
The popularity of the manga led to an anime series adaptation from Pierrot and Aniplex from 2002-07 in Japan, which came to the US with an English dub on Cartoon Network from 2005-2009. The show's success spawned a sequel series, Naruto: Shippuden, that ran for a decade and 500 episodes on Disney XD and Adult Swim, further expanding into 11 movies, video games, light novels, and trading cards. The fourth-best-selling manga series in history, Naruto would eventually come to a close in 2014 after 25 years and 72 volumes.
After weeks of teasing the recreation, Rogue Origin Films has released their live-action Naruto fan film, subtitled Legend of the Drunken Fist. The six-minute short sees the group recreating the iconic battle between Rock Lee and Kimimaro from the manga and anime series. Check out the exciting short below:
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Both the manga and anime were full of iconic fights between characters and the battle between Rock Lee and Kimimaro marked a major turning point for both Lee and Gaara, the antagonist seeking redemption. Though the fight between Gaara and Rock Lee may be better praised by viewers and critics, the introduction of Lee's drunken fighting style against Kimimaro was a nice expansion of the character and his repertoire. But the most exciting thing to come from the fight was the return of Gaara as he saved Lee from death and continued the fight against Kimimaro in an effort to protect the man whose dreams he nearly crushed.
Rogue Origin has done a solid job with their prior live-action recreations of iconic anime and their Naruto fan film shows their continued growth. From the energetic direction to solid fighting choreography, visual effects, and editing, the group has done a great job of translating the battle between Rock Lee and Kimimaro from the page and animated world to live-action. With the short's final moment teasing the continuation of the fight between Gaara and Kimimaro, one can only hope that the group returns with their adaptation in the near future.
Source: Rogue Origin Films