No. of episodes 48 | ||
The third season of the Naruto anime series, titled "3rd Stage" in Japan, is directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo. Based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga series, the season follows Sasuke Uchiha joining up with Orochimaru after Tsunade becomes the Fifth Hokage.
The season aired from May 2004 to April 2005 on TV Tokyo. It was also released with the English version from April 2007 to January 2008. It was shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami and YTV's Bionix programming blocks. Sony Pictures Entertainment collected the episodes in a total of twelve DVD volumes, each containing four episodes, between January 1 and December 7, 2005. The English adaptation of these dub was released between twenty-first and thirty-second DVD volumes released by Viz Media, while various compilations were later released.
The theme musics for the Japanese version include three openings and five endings. The first opening is "Go!!!" by Flow which is replaced by Sambomaster's "Seishun Kyōsōkyoku" (青春狂騒曲, lit. Youth's Rhapsody) in episode 105 for the next first twenty five-episodes, and then Stance Punks' "No Boy No Cry" (ノーボーイ·ノークライ, Nō bōi - Nō kurai) in the rest. The endings are "Ima Made Nando mo" (今まで何度も, lit. Many Times Before) by The Mass Missile, Japanese singer TiA's "Ryūsei" (流星, lit. Meteor), "Mountain A Go Go Two (マウンテン·ア·ゴーゴー·ツー, Maunten-a-gōgō-tsū) by Captain Straydum, used for the first twelve episodes, GaGaGa SP's "Hajimete Kimi to Shabetta" (はじめて君としゃべった, lit. The First Time I Spoke With You) in the next thirteen episodes, No Regret Life's "Nakushita Kotoba" (失くした言葉, lit. Lost Words), utilized for the rest. The English version replaces the endings with and an instrumental version of "Rise" by Jeremy Sweet and Ian Nickus.