Honestly, if you grew up watching Naruto on Saturday nights, the Legend of the Stone of Gelel probably occupies a weird, dusty corner of your brain. It’s that second movie. The one with the European-style knights, the massive moving fortress, and a plot that feels like it wandered out of a JRPG and accidentally sat down in the Hidden Leaf Village.
It’s weird. It’s colorful. But is it actually good?
Most fans dismiss the movies because they aren't "canon" to Masashi Kishimoto’s original manga. That’s a mistake here. Even if the events don't impact the Boruto era, the Gelel story is one of the few times the franchise actually tried to build a world outside of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. It gave us a glimpse of a different kind of power—one that wasn't tied to chakra or ninjutsu, but to a mineral that basically acted like a radioactive nuclear battery.
The Absolute Chaos of the Gelel Plot
The movie kicks off with Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura on a mission to return a lost pet. Standard stuff. Then, out of nowhere, they get jumped by soldiers in heavy plate armor. This isn't your typical kunai-and-shuriken fight. These guys are tanky.
Enter Temujin.
He’s the "antagonist" who isn't really a bad guy, just a dude who’s been brainwashed by a charismatic old man named Master Haido. Haido is a classic villain. He talks about building a "Utopia" where war doesn't exist, which is usually code for "I’m going to kill everyone who disagrees with me." To do this, he needs the Legend of the Stone of Gelel, a mineral with terrifying biological and geological properties.
The stones are essentially solidified energy. Back in the day, an ancient civilization used them to build an empire, but—shocker—they couldn't handle the power. Civil war broke out, the stones were buried, and the survivors fled. It’s a classic cautionary tale about technology outstripping morality.
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Why the Stone of Gelel is Different from Chakra
We spend hundreds of episodes learning that chakra is spiritual and physical energy. It’s personal. It’s intimate. The Stone of Gelel is the opposite. It’s external.
If you shove a fragment of this stone into your body, you get a power-up. You can heal almost instantly. You can fire off massive energy blasts. But it changes you. Haido’s elite guards—Kamira and Ranke—actually transform into literal monsters because of the stone’s influence. It’s more like a mutation than a technique. Think of it as the difference between a professional athlete training for years (ninjutsu) and someone taking a highly experimental, flesh-warping steroid (Gelel).
Breaking Down the Big Players
Temujin is the heart of the movie. He’s basically a mirror to Naruto—orphaned, lonely, and desperate for a sense of purpose. He believes Haido saved him, but he’s really just a battery for Haido’s ambitions.
The fight scenes in this movie are surprisingly crisp for 2005. Hirotsugu Kawasaki, the director, clearly had a blast mixing Naruto’s frantic combat style with the heavy, clunky movements of the knights.
Then there’s Gaara.
If you want to know why this movie still has a cult following, it’s because of the Sand Siblings. Kankuro and Gaara show up and absolutely wreck house. Seeing Gaara use his sand against these European-style knights creates a visual contrast you just don't get in the main series. It’s "Shinobi vs. Medieval Fantasy," and it works better than it has any right to.
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The "Utopia" Problem
Haido’s plan involves finding the "Vein of Gelel," which is basically the motherlode of this energy. He wants to use it to "cleanse" the world.
It’s interesting to look back at this now.
In the years following this movie, the main Naruto series introduced the Infinite Tsukuyomi—a massive, world-altering plan to create peace through force. Haido was doing the low-budget, mineral-based version of that years before Madara Uchiha made it cool. The movie explores the idea that you can't force a perfect world. Peace bought with a magic rock isn't peace; it's just a temporary ceasefire enforced by a dictator.
Technical Standouts: Why the Visuals Pop
The Legend of the Stone of Gelel is gorgeous.
The art direction leans heavily into a different aesthetic. While the Hidden Leaf is all wood, roof tiles, and forest, the Gelel ruins and Haido’s ships are all brass, gears, and cold stone. It feels like Steampunk Naruto. The animation during the final clash—where Naruto mixes his Rasengan with Temujin’s energy—is a peak "Big Screen" moment for the franchise.
Does it Fit Into the Timeline?
If you're a stickler for the timeline, this movie takes place after Sasuke leaves the village but before the timeskip to Shippuden. Naruto is still a kid, but he’s starting to show that weary, post-betrayal maturity.
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It’s a weird era. The "Filler Purgatory" of the original anime was in full swing, but the movie had a significantly higher budget. You can see it in the fluid movement of the cloaks and the scale of the environments. The "moving mountain" fortress is one of the coolest locations in any Naruto movie, period.
Common Misconceptions About the Gelel Stones
- They are related to the Sage of Six Paths. Nope. They have nothing to do with Hagoromo. They are an entirely separate prehistoric power source.
- The stones are gone forever. At the end of the movie, the vein is sealed away. But in the world of fanfiction and head-canon, people love to bring them back as a rival power to the Otsutsuki.
- It’s a "filler" movie so it’s boring. Actually, the pacing is better than many of the later Shippuden films. It’s a tight 90 minutes.
Why You Should Care Today
The Legend of the Stone of Gelel matters because it represents a time when the Naruto world felt bigger. Today, everything is tied to aliens (the Otsutsuki) and cyborgs. Back then, the mystery was about the earth itself—what ancient civilizations lived there before the shinobi? What weird, forgotten powers were buried under the dirt?
It’s a bit of a tragedy that the Gelel lore was never revisited. Imagine a Boruto arc where a tech company finds a leftover fragment of the stone and tries to integrate it into a Scientific Ninja Tool. That’s a goldmine of a story.
Actionable Takeaways for Fans
If you're planning a rewatch or diving in for the first time, keep these things in mind to get the most out of it:
- Watch for the Lighting: The movie uses a very specific color palette—lots of deep purples and glowing greens—that sets it apart from the bright orange and blue of the TV show.
- Compare the "Monsters": Look at how the Gelel transformations compare to the Curse Mark. There are some really interesting visual parallels in how the power corrupts the human body.
- Pay Attention to the Credits: The ending theme "Ding! Dong! Dang!" by 7!! (Seven Oops) is a total earworm and perfectly captures that mid-2000s anime vibe.
- Check the Subs vs. Dubs: The English dub is actually quite strong here, especially for the original characters like Temujin.
The Legend of the Stone of Gelel isn't going to redefine your understanding of the Uzumaki lineage. It isn't going to explain the mysteries of the Sharingan. What it will do is give you a really fun, slightly bizarre adventure that proves the world of Naruto is much larger than just five villages and a few kage. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the best stories are the ones that wander off the beaten path.
To dive deeper into the lore, your best bet is to track down the Naruto Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel animation artbooks. They contain detailed sketches of the ancient Gelel ruins and the mechanical designs of Haido’s fleet that never made it into the final cut. You can also find the movie’s original soundtrack on most streaming platforms; the orchestral themes for the Gelel civilization are genuinely some of the most underrated tracks in the entire franchise's history.