Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Blood Prison's individual release to be DVD only

The subject of anime on Blu-ray continues to be a hot topic, and it seems that it simply won't go away - cue this announcement via social media from distributor Manga Entertainment regarding their release of the latest Naruto Shippuden movie.

The news is simple - there will be no individual Blu-ray release of Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Blood Prison, which will only be released individually in DVD form. If you want a copy of this fifth Naruto Shippuden movie on Blu-ray, you'll have to fork out for all five films via the Naruto Shippuden Movie Pentology collection, which will contain all five films on Blu-ray (with a DVD edition also available).

Both the individual movie and movie collection will be released on Monday, December 1st.

In terms of our personal opinion of this announcement, we can't really hide the fact that this is a kick in the teeth for anyone who has been buying these films on Blu-ray and will now be forced to either miss out on the fifth film in HD or "double-dip" ("penta-dip" even?) - it also leaves us wondering whether anyone who buys the pentology will be similarly left hung out to dry when it comes for the sixth and final Naruto Shippuden movie to be released. We imagine that this decision comes under pressure from the Japanese licensor, but let's not pretend that it isn't a most disappointing state of affairs.