Masashi Kishimoto


Masashi Kishimoto is a Japanese manga artist. His best known work, Naruto, was in serialization from 1999 to 2014 and has sold over 250 million copies worldwide in 46 countries as of May 2019. The series has been adapted into three anime and multiple films, video games, and related media. Besides the Naruto manga, Kishimoto also personally supervised the two canonical anime films, ' and ', and has written several one-shot stories. In 2019, Kishimoto started writing the manga .
A reader of manga ever since a young age, Kishimoto showed a desire to write his own manga, citing authors Akira Toriyama and Katsuhiro Otomo as his main inspirations. As a result, Kishimoto spent several years working to write his own shōnen manga for Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine which he was a fan of.

Early life

Masashi Kishimoto was born in the Okayama Prefecture, Japan on November 8, 1974 as the older identical twin of Seishi Kishimoto. During his childhood, Kishimoto showed interest in drawing characters from the anime shows he watched, such as Dr. Slumps Arale and Doraemons titular protagonist. In elementary school, Kishimoto started watching the Kinnikuman and Dragon Ball anime alongside his brother. During the following years, Kishimoto started idolizing Dragon Balls original creator Akira Toriyama, enjoying not only his series Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, but also Dragon Quest, a series of role-playing video games for which Toriyama is the art designer. While he could not afford to buy Weekly Shōnen Jump where the Dragon Ball manga was published, he followed the series thanks to a friend from school who had subscribed to the magazine. By high school Kishimoto started losing interest in manga as he started playing baseball and basketball, sports he practiced at his school. However, upon seeing a poster for the animated film Akira, Kishimoto became fascinated with the way the illustration was made and wished to imitate the series' creator Katsuhiro Otomo's style. Other series he enjoyed reading are , Ninku and Ghost in the Shell.
During his last years of college at the Kyushu Sangyo University, Kishimoto spent time drawing manga and went to an art college with hopes that he would become a manga artist. Upon entering college, Kishimoto decided he should try creating a Chanbara manga since Weekly Shōnen Jump had not published a title from that genre. However, during the same year, Kishimoto started reading Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal and Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin, which used the said genre. Kishimoto recalls having never been surprised by manga ever since reading Akira and found that he still was not able to compete against them. In his second year of college, Kishimoto started drawing manga for magazine contests. However, he noted that his works were similar to seinen manga, aimed towards an adult demographic, rather than the shōnen manga read by children and teenagers. Wishing to write a manga for Shōnen Jump that targets a young demographic, Kishimoto found his style unsuitable for the magazine. When watching the anime series Hashire Melos!, Kishimoto was surprised by the character designs employed by the animators and he started researching works from animators. He later met Tetsuya Nishio, designer from the anime adaptation of the manga Ninku who he deemed a big influence. Now emulating the way of drawing from multiple character designers from anime series, Kishimoto noted that his style started resembling shōnen series.

Career

Early works

Kishimoto's first successful manga pilot was Karakuri, which he submitted to Shueisha in 1995. This earned him an honorable mention in Shueisha's monthly "Hop Step Award" in 1996, granted to promising rookie manga artists. At this point he was assigned an editor, Kosuke Yahagi, and worked on a number of rejected drafts including a slice-of-life manga, Michikusa, and an action manga, Asian Punk. In 1997, he wrote a one-shot version of Naruto which was published in Akamaru Jump Summer.
In December 1997, while redeveloping Karakuri for serialization, Kishimoto was offered a one-shot in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The new version of Karakuri debuted two weeks later in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 No. 4-5, but was hampered by the sudden deadline and performed poorly in reader surveys, being canceled immediately. Following the failure of Karakuri, Kishimoto reduced his output and began moving in a seinen direction with drafts for a baseball manga, Yakyūō, and a mafia manga, Mario, hoping to find better luck with a seinen magazine. Yahagi persuaded him to give the shōnen genre one last shot and Kishimoto began working on storyboards for a fantasy one-shot, Magic Mushroom, but stopped when Yahagi called and asked him to instead develop storyboards for serialization. The two decided to submit a version of Naruto with a reworked story and world and produced storyboards for the first three chapters, winning a spot in the magazine. With a six-month lead time, Kishimoto repeatedly revised and redrew the first several chapters of the series.

''Naruto''

In September 1999, the serialized version of Naruto premiered in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1999 No. 43 and quickly became a hit. Naruto ended on November 10, 2014 after more than 15 years of serialization, with a total of 700 chapters collected in 72 volumes. Sales have exceeded 113 million copies in Japan and over 95 million copies in the US, followed by over 93 million copies worldwide as of volume 36. Making total sales for the series approximately 301 million copies. Kishimoto was also the winner of "Rookie of the Year" for the series in the Agency for Cultural Affairs. It was adapted into two successful anime series, Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Kishimoto requested that Tetsuya Nishio oversee the character designs of Naruto when the manga was adapted into an anime series. The Naruto manga series became one of Viz Media's top properties, accounting for nearly 10% of all manga sales in the US in 2006. The seventh volume of Viz's release became the first manga to ever win a Quill Award when it claimed the award for "Best Graphic Novel" in 2006. Responding to Naruto's success, Kishimoto said in Naruto Collector Winter 2007/2008 that he was "very glad that the American audience has accepted and understood ninja. It shows that the American audience has good taste... because it means they can accept something previously unfamiliar to them." While writing the manga, Kishimoto met Eiichiro Oda, author of One Piece who he considered his rival. When Naruto ended, Oda left a message in the series' final volume acknowledging him as a rival. According to Kishimoto "That felt so gratifying." Additionally, before the anime adaptation's premiere of My Hero Academia, he praised Kōhei Horikoshi's work, believing it would be a success overseas. Additionally, Kishimoto referred to Yoshihiro Togashi as one of his favorite artists.
For the video game Tekken 6, Kishimoto redesigned its new character, Lars Alexandersson. CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama said he was attracted by this design and thus asked the Tekken staff if he could include Lars in the video game '. For ', Kishimoto was responsible for Mecha Naruto upon being suggested by the staff to include a new character. Kishimoto decided on adding a character that would bring a big impact to worldwide level which resulted in Mecha Naruto. CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama was surprised when seeing the new character.
For the ninth Naruto film, ', Kishimoto was responsible for both the story planning and characters' designs. To promote the film, Kishimoto worked in Motion Comic Naruto a DVD that shows scenes from the manga in 3D that was given to the first 1.5 million people who went to the cinema. Regarding Narutos publication Kishimoto told Tetsuya Nishio in July 2012 that the series would take over a year and a half to end. However, Kishimoto admitted that it now appears that the manga will continue beyond that timeframe.
Throughout 2014, Kishimoto supervised the film ', which would act as a bridge connecting the series' conclusion and epilogue, providing the story concept and character designs. The Naruto series finally concluded on November 10, 2014, with The Last: Naruto the Movie premiering a month later on December 6, 2014.
During the serialization of Naruto Kishimoto also worked on several other projects. In 2010, Kishimoto produced a one-shot baseball manga, Bench, as part of Jump's "Top of the Super Legend" project, a series of six one-shot manga by famed Weekly Shōnen Jump artists. In April 2012, it was announced that Kishimoto would publish a one-shot version of his long-postponed mafia manga, Mario, in Jump Square, based on the rough, 160-page manuscript he began working on before Naruto became serialized. Throughout 2013, several of Kishimoto's one-shots saw their English-language debut in issues of the Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine, including Mario, Bench, and the original Naruto pilot. In 2015, Kishimoto also illustrated the cover of violinist Chisako Takashima's album Strings on Fire.

After ''Naruto''

Following the conclusion of Naruto, Kishimoto became involved in the Start of a New Era Project commemorating the manga's conclusion and 15th anniversary. On the last page of the final chapter, Weekly Shōnen Jump announced that a spin-off miniseries, also authored by Kishimoto, would be released in 2015. The miniseries, ', ran from April to July 2015, leading up to the premiere of ' on August 7, 2015, which he supervised and co-wrote with Ukyo Kodachi. He also illustrated several light novels set during the same time period as The Last. When asked by Boruto Uzumaki's voice actress Yūko Sanpei to continue making Naruto movies, Kishimoto stated that he was taking a break and could not physically do so.
In August 2015, Kishimoto announced that he already has finalized what he wants to do for his next manga series. A sci-fi manga, the series will feature a unique protagonist, with Kishimoto having already completed the character designs. Kishimoto also plans for the work to surpass Naruto in quality, and plans to release the series monthly via the digital magazine Shonen Jump Plus due to the taxing effort required for a weekly series. Kishimoto had not yet finalized when he plans to officially announce the series, as he wants to spend time with his family. On December 19, 2015, it was announced that Kishimoto would supervise the monthly Boruto series beginning in Spring 2016. The new spinoff will be illustrated by Kishimoto's chief assistant on Naruto, Mikio Ikemoto, and written by his writing partner for Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Ukyo Kodachi. It was preceded by a Naruto: The Path Lit by the Full Moon one-shot written and illustrated by Kishimoto. In the June 10, 2019 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump it was announced that Boruto: Naruto Next Generations would transition to the magazine's sister publication, V Jump, beginning with its June 20, 2019 issue.
In December 2017 at Jump Festa 2018 it was confirmed that Kishimoto was developing a new science fiction adventure series tentatively scheduled to debut in 2018. A year later at Jump Festa 2019 the series was formally announced as . Kishimoto will be handling the script and rough storyboards, while Akira Ōkubo, a former assistant on Naruto and brother of Atsushi Ōkubo, is responsible for illustrating the final manuscript. The series debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump on May 13, 2019, as the magazine's first new series of Japan's Reiwa period, following a 4-page preview chapter on April 27, 2019, marking the end of the Heisei period. The series finished in the 17th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump on March 23, 2020.

Works

Manga

Kishimoto is the twin brother of Seishi Kishimoto, the author of 666 Satan and Blazer Drive. In 2003, Kishimoto married, but due to being busy did not take a honeymoon with his wife until 2015. In the making of The Last: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto based the idea of Hinata Hyuga wanting to make a scarf for Naruto Uzumaki on how his wife had once done for him, which brought laughs to the staff while developing the film. The couple has one son.
Two of his former assistants, Osamu Kajisa and Yuuichi Itakura, have gone on to moderate success following their work on Naruto.

Influences and style

While as a child Kishimoto enjoyed reading manga, he was inspired to write one after seeing a promotional image for the film Akira. This made him analyze the artwork of Akiras original author, Katsuhiro Otomo, as well as Akira Toriyama, another artist he admired. Realizing both had their own style regarding the designs, Kishimoto decided to draw manga while crafting his own images. While attending art school, Kishimoto was also an avid reader of Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal, and extensively studied Samura's page layouts, action sequences, and anatomical techniques. When Kishimoto was originally creating the Naruto series, he looked to other shōnen manga for influences while attempting to make his characters as unique as possible. Kishimoto cites Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series as one of his influences, noting that Goku, the protagonist, was a key factor when creating Naruto Uzumaki due to his energetic and mischievous personality. When redesigning three characters for the series, Kishimoto cites The Matrix, one of his favorite movies, as an inspiration for their outfits. He has also cited Yoshihiro Togashi as one of his favorite manga authors, while the manga Sasuke by Sanpei Shirato, a series which Kishimoto likes, inspired Kishimoto in the development of the character Sasuke Uchiha.
Kishimoto has also cited other influences such as Takeshi Kitano and Quentin Tarantino. He also mentioned Michael Bay's technique "of shooting a scene against the background light" but found it difficult to make. Another technique inspired by Jackie Chan's films he used in the Naruto manga is the "double-action"; in this action, a punch is shown in three different angles in order to give a big impact on the punch's strength. This was first shown in Naruto Uzumaki's battle against Haku. Sometimes, Kishimoto draws panels intentionally confusing during fight scenes to add a sense of speed. On the other hand, Kishimoto commented that for the fights between Naruto and Sasuke, he added action from the top of the page to the bottom in order for them to be easier to follow.
During the series' publication, Kishimoto got married and had children. The changes to his personal life affected the story as he made the protagonist Naruto Uzumaki meet his parents, something the author wanted the character to feel based on his own experience as a father.
When drawing the characters, Kishimoto consistently follows a five-step process: concept and rough sketch, drafting, inking, shading, and coloring. These steps are followed when he is drawing the manga and making the color illustrations that commonly adorn the cover of tankōbon, the cover of Weekly Shōnen Jump, or other media. The toolkit he uses occasionally changes. For instance, he used an airbrush for one illustration for a Weekly Shōnen Jump cover but decided not to use it for future drawings largely due to the cleanup required.
Masashi and his twin brother Seishi have been drawing manga together since early childhood, thus their styles are similar. As a result, each has frequently been accused of copying the other, not just artwork, but story elements as well. Seishi notes that the similarities are not intentional but are likely because they were influenced by many of the same things.
Kishimoto has admitted he made no plans in regards to the development of Narutos story developments. For example, when introducing Sasuke, the character says he wants to kill a person. By this time, Kishimoto only thought that Sasuke's brother, Itachi, had done a wrong deed in the past but was not certain of what was exactly. By volume 16 of the series which featured Itachi's actual introduction, Kishimoto decided Itachi was an agent working for Konohagakure to kill all members from the Uchiha clan except Sasuke. This is later revealed in volume 43 of the manga. Another one was the revelation that the late Minato Namikaze would be Naruto's father. When Kishimoto had the idea that Minato would be Naruto's father, he started adding hints of that to the reader such as giving the Hokage mountain from Konohagakure spiky hair similar to Naruto's.
In the making of the film Kishimoto paid tribute to several movies, the most notable being the 1996 film The Rock and the 2002 film Spider-Man. The tribute to The Rock was mostly done by using Kishōtenketsu, which is a common way of structuring stories in Japan. He also claimed he was a fan of Avi Arad, most notably his films based on the Spider-Man comic book character.