S.H. Figuarts - Itachi Uchiha

The dastardly, seemingly cold-hearted brother to Sasuke and S-Rank criminal of the Village Hidden in the Leaves is Itachi Uchiha. At the beginning of the show it is made clear he is the culprit in the mass murder of the entire Uchiha clan.

The Uchiha clan the Senju clan were long ago enemies that fought constantly, and eventually, the two leaders, Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju put aside their differences for the common good and built the first Ninja Village cooperatively. This became the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but not all sat well with all the Uchiha. As both a way of keeping them close and allowing them some power, the Senju appointed the Uchiha as the village police.

S.H. Figuarts - Boruto Uzumaki

I just-just got this figure! Released earlier this month, he is probably the least desired figure by fans, but one of the best lower-body engineered Figuarts I have seen for this line! That may be weird praise, but it's a fantastic figure in many ways.

Boruto, as is implied by the last name, is the son of Naruto. He has his own show called Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. The writer of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto, has ended his career writing Naruto and passed on the art and writing of the sequel series to Ukyo Kodachi, someone who worked with him creating some of the writing in Naruto and the Boruto movie that preceded the Boruto series.

The Boruto show is still young in anime terms, with the very first episode hinting at a pretty dark future, while the rest of the anime is super bright, colorful and generally optimistic. The show has the children of all the Naruto characters everyone loves, many easily identifiable by a mix of anime traits of their parents. I quite enjoy the show, even though it has a bit of a slow start. Boruto doesn't seem like a super likable character to me like Naruto was, but his personality is distinct from his father's, and the show actually tackles some fairly real-life issues (like a suicidal game designer...wow).

S.H. Figuarts - Minato Namikaze

One thing that was very absent from the first part of the Naruto anime was: Where in the world are his parents?!? Basically, no one talked about it, including Naruto. Based on inference, the audience deduces that Naruto was somewhat raised and provided for as a baby by the Third Hokage (See Kakashi post for what that means), but by the time he's 12ish he's basically completely on his own, down to living in a studio apartment and using mission money to buy food and the like. At that point, we only knew that his parents both sacrificed themselves to seal the Nine-tails Demon Fox inside him. Naruto grows up not knowing the identity of his parents, with the (somewhat weak) explanation that no one is allowed to talk about that particular time given how many died fighting off the attack. In a pretty clear instance of dramatic irony, we definitely know that Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, is his father. The Shippuden series later clears up a lot of details of that attack, and how Minato died.

S.H. Figuarts - Kakashi Hatake

Kakashi Sensei. The copy cat ninja. Hero of the Sharingan and Sixth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He is the ultimate cool-headed teacher and team leader to a young Naruto Uzumaki and Team 7 before the time skip. He has a bit of a tragic past with his father having committed suicide, and both his teammates dying (at separate times) as a young Jonin (senior level ninja). As a side note, in the Ninja village system in the show, the rank of shinobi goes as follows:

Academy student (ninja-in-training)

Genin (Low ranking ninja, qualify for D level missions under a supervising ninja)

Chunin (Mid-ranking ninja, can guide genin and take on C or B level missions)

Jonin (High-level ninja, can lead a team, take on A and S rank missions)

Special Jonin (High-level ninja that Jonin-like specialty in a single field. ex: Info extraction)

Kage (an Exceptionally powerful ninja who is a leader of a given Ninja village)

There are other classes and specialty of Ninja, but in terms of official ranks, those are it. A side note to this side note is that Naruto and Sasuke, the most powerful Ninja in the show, were Genin rank for most of it due to circumstances not permitting testing. OK, back to the main post!

Playmates Toys' April O'Neil - TMNT 2012

April O'Neil has undergone probably the most changes throughout the entirety of the TMNT Universe. See below!

In the 2012 cartoon, she is a half-human, half-Kraang 16-year-old girl who starts as the turtles' friend but quickly develops into a badass telekinetic powered, fan-wielding shinobi of her own.
I like that they give her more of a prominent role in the series, as they did with the 2003 version of April. I have to say though, while I did love the show and most of the animation used, the way human bodies and faces were done was probably the least appealing part of the show for me. Something about the aesthetic never sat well with me.

While most parts are fairly spot on for sculpt and paint, she is fairly disappointing as a figure in a few ways. First, the face sculpt is really overly glossy and poorly defined. Next, while the accessories are mostly fine, there isn't a war fan or two in there. Her hands are quite small and soft and do not hold onto weapons well, and finally, her articulation is much worse than all the others figures I had collected up to this point.