Naruto Official January Schedule
#000 (January 01): NO EPISODE
#394 (January 08): The New Chūnin Exams
#395 (January 15): The Chūnin Exams, Start!
#396 (January 22): The Three Problems
#397 (January 29): Someone Suitable for a Leader
A new ending theme airs with episode #394, called "Spinning World" by American singer Diana Garnett
Plot synopsis for the new arc:
After his fight against Madara, Naruto is still between life and death. His friends from Konoha and Tsunade, concerned for his survival, remember that he has always been their symbol of hope, even when he wasn't there.
We're back in the past. Two years have passed since Sasuke left the village of Konoha. While Naruto and Jiraiya continue their training trip, the hidden villages of Konoha and Suna are discussing co-organizing the next Chûnin exam since the incident with Orochimaru.
Gaara proposes, for his first mission as Kazekage, to organize the exam in his village. While everyone's concerned about Akatsuki, someone else is making their movement in the shadows. Will the Chûnin exam go as planned?
ALSO
Fuu, the seven tailed Jinchuriki will also be in the arc.Judging by the manga/databooks, Fuu was captured by Akatsuki before Gaara during that timeskip. Perhaps Akaktsuki will be showing up in this arc as well!? It is unknown, but I believe it very likely they will capture her at the end of the arc.
Animation Directors
394: Naoki Takahashi & Shinichi Suzuki (may range from low-average quality)
395:
396:
397:
Q: When will there be a new Opening/Ending?
A: The openings and endings go by the following schedule
First week of January: New Ending
First week of April: New Opening and Ending
First week of July: New Ending
First week of October: New Opening and Ending
Q: When are new episode titles released?
A: Titles&staff info are released around the 6-10th every month Officially the magazine with the titles is released on the 10th, but it is almost always leaked up to 4 days early.
Q: Where can I learn more about the animation staff?
A: This page has some good info: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Naruto_...mation_Credits
You can usually know how good(or bad) an episode will be by learning the names of the animation supervisors. For example, if you see "Hiroyuki Yamashita" or "Masayuki Kouda" listed, it will always be a good quality episode, because they are among Studio Pierrot's most talented animators.
On the other hand, if you see "Ik-hyun Eum" listed as animation supervisor, that episode is being outsourced primarily to a studio called "Jiwoo Animation". approximately half of all Naruto episodes are "outsourced" to other animation studios. This is usually to save time and money, and therefore the outsourced episodes tend to be lower quality than the ones done b Studio Pierrot's staff.