Naruto Announces Ninku Crossover Anime and Shadow Rising Manga

Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto franchise announced new projects at New York Comic Con, including a Ninku crossover anime and the Shadow Rising manga, expanding the series with new stories involving the original creator and other franchise collaborators.

The NARUTO×NINKŪ limited anime series brings Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura into the world of Koji Kiriyama's Ninku after the characters become involved in an original crossover story. According to Anime News Network, Kishimoto and Kiriyama are supervising the project.

The crossover anime is directed by Noriyuki Abe, who worked on both the Ninku anime and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. Tetsuya Nishio, who contributed to Naruto and Ninku, serves as character designer and chief animation director.

During the panel, Kishimoto explained Ninku's influence on his creation of Naruto.

"Without Ninku, there would be no Naruto. I wanted to read more of Ninku, so I started drawing Naruto," said Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto creator.

The event also revealed Naruto Shadow Rising, a new manga project that Kishimoto will draw. Final Weapon reported that additional details are expected at the Naruto Stage during Jump Festa 2027 in December.

New York Comic Con attendees included Junko Takeuchi, the Japanese voice actor for Naruto Uzumaki, Noriaki Sugiyama, the Japanese voice actor for Sasuke Uchiha, and Pierrot Films executive producer Yoshihiro Tominaga.

According to Anime News Network, Ninku was published in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1993 to 1995 and received a Studio Pierrot television anime that ran for 55 episodes from 1995 to 1996. Naruto began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999 and ended in November 2014.

The broader Naruto roadmap also includes a global release for Naruto Mobile, a Naruto Card Game planned for worldwide launch in June 2027, and a live-action Naruto film project directed by Destin Daniel Cretton that has started a global casting search.