S.H. Figuarts Minato Namikaze - Narutop99 Edition

 

If you don't know anything about Minato Namikaze, I previously reviewed him here: Minato Namikaze. Being the father of Naruto, a legendary teacher, ninja and inventor of the Rasengan, he's got a lot of status in the series despite being dead at the start. He's a cool character, and one who worked hard to create his power set and relationships in the show. Since the writing of the last figure (7 YEARS AGO....I can't believe it!), Minato won Narutop99, a poll contest that determined the most popular Naruto characters worldwide (I voted Shikamaru!). 

This is a great revamp of Minato, featuring significantly brighter colours compared to the previous model. The figure also stands better with the current line and has larger proportions than the original as well. The accessories here are pretty standard for SH Figuarts, hands, many face plates, kunai and a Rasengan with a special 99 on it! 

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.