Masashi Kishimoto

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.

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.

[14] 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 (the latter of which was published in Weekly Shonen Jump), which used the said genre.

[16] Wishing to write a manga for Shōnen Jump (which targets a young demographic), Kishimoto found his style unsuitable for the magazine.

This earned him an honorable mention in Shueisha's monthly "Hop Step Award" in 1996, granted to promising rookie manga artists.

[20] 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 (道くさ, lit.

[22][24] Following the failure of Karakuri, Kishimoto reduced his output and began moving in a seinen direction with drafts for a baseball manga, Yakyūō (野球王, lit.

[22] 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.

Kishimoto requested that Tetsuya Nishio oversee the character designs of Naruto when the manga was adapted into an anime series.

"[35] Additionally, before the anime adaptation's premiere of My Hero Academia, he praised Kōhei Horikoshi's work, believing it would be a success overseas.

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 Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.

[40] To promote the film, Kishimoto worked in Motion Comic Naruto, a DVD that showed scenes from the manga in 3D that was given to the first 1.5 million people who went to the cinema.

[41] Regarding Naruto's publication, Kishimoto told Tetsuya Nishio in July 2012 that the series would take over a year and a half to end.

[42] Throughout 2014, Kishimoto supervised the film The Last: Naruto the Movie, which would act as a bridge connecting the series' conclusion and epilogue, providing the story concept and character designs.

In April 2012, it was announced that Kishimoto would publish a one-shot version of his long-postponed mafia manga, Mario, in Jump Square,[45] based on the rough, 160-page manuscript he began working on before Naruto became serialized.

[46] 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.

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.

When asked by Boruto Uzumaki's voice actress Yūko Sanpei to continue making Naruto films, Kishimoto stated that he was taking a break and could not physically do so.

[49][50] On December 19, 2015, it was announced that Kishimoto would supervise the monthly Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (BORUTO−ボルト−) manga series beginning in Spring 2016.

[52] 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.

[65] 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.

[66] 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.

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.

The changes to his personal life affected the story as he made Naruto Uzumaki meet his parents, something the author wanted the character to feel based on his own experiences as a father.

[5] When drawing the characters, Kishimoto consistently follows a five-step process: concept and rough sketch; drafting; inking; shading; and coloring.

[71] 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.