NARUTO x NINKŪ: the new Naruto anime announced at NYCC, and what it means for Naruto cards

The "completely new Naruto anime" that the franchise's official site promised for New York Comic Con turned out to be a crossover. On October 10, 2026, at the NARUTO: What's Next? stage, in front of what the official site puts at "about 3,000 attendees", Masashi Kishimoto and Koji Kiriyama announced NARUTO x NINKŪ. Here is what is on the record, what is only reported, and why it matters to anyone holding Naruto cards from any of the four lines.

What was announced

The official NARUTO site's roundup, dated October 11, 2026, calls it "A completely new animated crossover of four episodes, supervised by Kishimoto and Kiriyama", in which Team 7 is "lost in another world and meets Fūsuke", the lead of Kiriyama's NINKŪ. Kishimoto's line on the page: "Without 'NINKŪ', 'Naruto' wouldn't exist." Kotaku's Lewis Parker quotes him at the stage as saying "I created Naruto because I personally wanted to see the continuation of Ninkū", and The Outerhaven's Josh Piedra quotes the episode count from Kishimoto himself: "It consists of 4 episodes in total, and I hope you enjoy it to the very end!"

The PROJECT RASENGAN page for the series, headed "New NARUTO TV Anime Limited Series", describes it as "A crossover project with NINKU, the legendary series that inspired Masashi Kishimoto to draw Naruto", made "completely under the supervision of Masashi Kishimoto and Koji Kiriyama, the author of NINKU." Its copyright line credits Shueisha, TV Tokyo, Pierrot and Bandai Namco Entertainment. Anime News Network's Crystalyn Hodgkins reported the staff on October 10: Noriyuki Abe directing, Tetsuya Nishio as character designer and chief animation director.

What the official pages do not give: an air date, a broadcaster, a streaming platform, or a word about whether the four episodes air weekly or drop at once. The speakers on stage were Junko Takeuchi, Noriaki Sugiyama, Pierrot Films executive producer Yoshihiko Tominaga, Kiriyama, Kishimoto and Rica Matsumoto, and the official site says the next details come at the Jump Super Stage at Jump Festa 2027, December 19 and 20, 2026 at Makuhari Messe (see our Jump Festa 2027 page).

Is this the delayed 2023 project?

Probably, but nobody official has said so. ANN reported on March 9, 2023 that the original Naruto anime would get four "brand-new" episodes for its 20th anniversary, airing from September, and on August 29, 2023 that the September 3 premiere was postponed "to further improve their quality", with a new date to follow. None followed. ANN's September 28, 2026 report on Viz's limited series announcement noted: "There has been no new news about those four episodes since August 2023."

Anime Corner's Marko Jovanovic headlined his October 10 piece "Revealed to Be the 4-Episode Project", noting the original was "originally scheduled to air on TV Tokyo for four consecutive weeks beginning September 3, 2023" and that "No major update followed for more than three years." ANN's Hodgkins, the same day, wrote the opposite caveat: "it is currently unclear if this newly announced crossover anime is related to that delayed project." The official roundup and the project page never use the words "20th anniversary". We print both readings. An Outlook India item from January 22, 2026 claimed the anniversary special "returns late 2026"; no official source has given that or any other date, so treat it as unverified.

The card game trailer and the rest of PROJECT RASENGAN

The same stage carried Bandai's NARUTO CARD GAME news. The official site's October 11 card game post sets the three Starter Decks (Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Gaara) and the first Booster Set for June 2027, with Advance Trial Events "Starting Early 2027", and links a "Special Anime Trailer". The English card game channel's upload, YouTube id bl_reRk9kD0, is titled "【Official】NARUTO CARD GAME Special Animated Trailer" and posted by "【OFFICIAL】NARUTO CARD GAME English Version"; the NARUTO / BORUTO Official Channel carries the same trailer as jmiYpUXgVj8. Viz's press release, as reprinted by ANN and quoted by The Outerhaven, says "A new special trailer animated by Studio Pierrot, the studio behind NARUTO and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, was shown publicly for the first time during the stage." Bandai's own page does not credit Pierrot, so the credit rests on Viz. Our full report on the launch products is here.

PROJECT RASENGAN's hub lists four items: the limited series; the card game, "06/2027 RELEASE!!"; the NARUTO mobile game going worldwide, with its "release date is to be determined" per the roundup; and "An all-new story drawn completely by Masashi Kishimoto", a manga whose title ANN and Kotaku report as NARUTO: Shadow Rising, with details promised at Jump Festa. TV Tokyo framed all of this in May: Anime Corner's report on the May 19 earnings Q&A quotes the broadcaster calling the 25th anniversary "the beginning of a new stage", with "New projects, including videos and games developed with new partners, planned for 2027 and beyond."

The live-action film

The Lionsgate film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, announced in February 2024, is the one Naruto project with a 2026 official milestone. On July 10, 2026 naruto-official.com announced a worldwide casting search for "the three young shinobi of Team 7" and said "Lionsgate is ramping up pre-production"; Kishimoto's comment was that the work is "truly, truly becoming a Hollywood movie." Everything after that is reporting. The Week wrote on August 8, 2026 that Tasha Huo is co-writer, that the casting call sought actors aged 16 to 20 available from January to August 2027, and that "Principal photography is expected to begin in the first half of 2027." The Hollywood Reporter reported in August that Charles Melton was "in final negotiations" to play Kakashi and that the film was "eyeing a production start around February 2027, according to sources"; Lionsgate declined to comment. At NYCC, Cretton appeared only by written message: "We're hard at work and will have more to share soon." Boruto's Two Blue Vortex anime, which The Outerhaven reported Pierrot had resumed in April 2025, was not on the stage and has no date.

What it means for Naruto cards

A new anime does not move card prices on its own, and this one has no date. What it does is stack a fourth Naruto event onto a twelve-month window that already has three. Where each line stands:

Bandai. The game the anime attention will meet first is the one with the official Pierrot connection on stage. The release date page tracks June 2027 and the events before it.

Kayou. The Shippuden-era Series 4 lands three weeks from now, per CBR's interview with Kayou's US team and Cottier TCG's product guide, and Kayou's cards are the ones most collectors mean when they say "Naruto cards" today. Our Kayou index had 1,077 priced cards on October 27.

Mythos. Cicaboom's game is the only Naruto TCG you can play right now; its second set shipped September 4 and the third is dated "Early 2027" on the official Set 3 announcement.

The 2006 CCG. The anime the crossover revisits is the one these cards were printed for, so this is where nostalgia would show up first. On our October 27 scan the old CCG index had 1,694 priced cards with a median asking price of $7.22, and among the 130 cards with a 30-day comparison the median change was 0%: 53 up, 39 down, 38 flat. Our separate piece on whether old Naruto CCG cards are going up walks through the claims and the figures.

We will update this after Jump Festa. Until then, the facts are four episodes, two supervisors, one Pierrot credit, and no date.