The third and fourth seasons of the Naruto anime series are directed by Hayato Date and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo.[1] The episodes were released in North America by Viz Media and in South America and Europe by Warner Bros. Television. They are based on the Naruto manga series by Masashi Kishimoto and adapt the eleventh through nineteenth volumes of its source material over forty-nine episodes.
The third season ran from October 2003 to April 2004 in Japan, with the fourth following it from April 2004 to October 2004. Both seasons were shown on TV Tokyo.[2] The English airing of the third season was from September 2006 to March 2007.[3] The fourth season was aired from March 2007 to August 2007.[4] Both were shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami and YTV's Bionix programming blocks.[5][6]
Seven pieces of theme music are used for the episodes; two opening themes and four closing themes in the Japanese episodes, and two opening themes and an ending theme in the English ones. The two Japanese opening themes are Little By Little's "Kanashimi o Yasashisa ni" (悲しみをやさしさに, lit. Sadness into Kindness), used for the first twenty-four episodes, and "Go!!!" by Flow for the remaining episodes. The four closing themes are "Viva Rock" by Orange Range, used for the first thirteen episodes, Raico's "Alive" for the next thirteen episodes, "Ima Made Nando mo" (今まで何度も, lit. Many Times Before) by The Mass Missile in the next twelve episodes, and Japanese singer TiA's "Ryūsei" (流星 lit. Meteor) for the rest of the episodes. The opening themes for the English adaptation are "Haruka Kanata" by Asian Kung-Fu Generation in the first twenty-five episodes, and Flow's "Go!!!" for the remaining twenty-seven. The closing theme is an instrumental version of Jeremy Sweet's and Ian Nickus' "Rise".
For the Shōnen Hen HD reruns, five new pieces of music are used; two openings and three endings. The openings are Kishidan's "Sayonara Sekai" (さよなら世界, "Farewell World") from episodes 53 to 67, Mass Alert's "Tada Yowai Dake ja Nakute Bokura wa..." (ただ弱いだけじゃなくて僕らは…, "We Are Not Only Weak But...") for episodes 68 to 85, serial TV drama's "Copy and Paste" from episodes 86 to 99, and DOMINO's "Promises" from episodes 100 to 104 . The new ending themes are "Sign" by Flow for episodes 53 through 56, "Kokoro no Kakera" (ココロの欠片, "Fragment of the Heart") by Junko Takeuchi featuring Feros for episodes 58 through 70, and "Life Goes On" by Takeuchi from episodes 71 to 87 and episode 92, Kana Nishino's "If" from episodes 88 to 91 and again from episodes 93 to 97, and "Diver" by Nico Touches the Walls from episodes 98 to 104.
