Hello, how are you? I think there are no people who watch anime and haven’t heard of the great Masashi Kishimoto, and if there is such a person, they can be one of two things: someone who doesn’t watch anime or someone who has just entered this world.
If you are one of those two types of people but want to know who Masashi Kishimoto is or already have an idea and would like to know more about him, just stick with me in the article and I’ll explain the rest. Just to give you a heads up, he is one of the most well-known mangakas in the world, and I personally only compare him to Akira Toriyama.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get to what matters: learning more about this guy who created the Naruto manga, that is, the creator of one of the most influential anime of the decade and undoubtedly one of the most profitable as well.
Table of Contents
The success of Naruto
To start talking about the master, let’s talk about his work. And since Naruto is the most well-known, I will focus especially on this one and will not detail his other works. But here we go, in September 1999, the serialized version of Naruto premiered in Weekly Shonen Jump and soon it was already a success.
Naruto was a resounding success, concluding its serialization on November 10, 2014, after more than 15 years, and has a total of 700 chapters collected in 72 volumes. Its sales surpassed 113 million copies in Japan and hundreds of millions worldwide.
A success that influenced and still influences generations today. Not only in Japan but all over the world, and not just because of its theme, but also due to its moving story and well-developed dramas, in addition to the various lessons that the work conveys. It is no wonder that it has the success and fame that precede it.
History of Masashi Kishimoto
Born in Okayama Prefecture on November 8, 1974, he is the older twin in the family, along with his younger twin brother, Seishi Kishimoto. During his childhood, Masashi Kishimoto showed interest in anime characters from the shows he watched, such as Dr. Slump and Doraemon.
While still in elementary school, he began watching the anime Kinnikuman and Dragon Ball alongside his brother. Over the following years, Kishimoto began to idolize the original creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, enjoying not only his series but also Dragon Quest, a series of RPG games for which Toriyama is the designer.
Thanks to a school friend, he was able to follow these series from Shonen Jump, as he himself could not. However, in high school, Kishimoto began to lose interest in manga when he started practicing baseball and basketball. But it only took a poster for a movie by Akira Toriyama to reignite his desire.
Success of Masashi Kishimoto
In the last years of school, Masashi Kishimoto spent some time drawing manga and went to an art college with the hope of becoming a manga artist. Upon entering college, Kishimoto decided that he should try to create a Chanbara manga (samurai manga) since Weekly Shonen Jump had not published a title of that genre.
However, during those same years, Kishimoto began 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 utilized the aforementioned genre.
In his second year of college, Kishimoto began drawing manga for magazine contests. However, he realized that his works were similar to seinen manga, aimed at an adult demographic, rather than shōnen manga read by children and teenagers.
Aiming to write a manga for Shonen Jump targeting a young demographic, Kishimoto found his style unsuitable for the magazine. While watching the anime series Hashire Melos!, Kishimoto was surprised by the character designs used by the animators and began researching the works of animators.
Later he met Tetsuya Nishio, designer of the anime adaptation of the manga Ninku, who was a great influence on him. After this influence, he was able to learn the way of drawing from various character designers of anime series, which made his style start to resemble that of shōnen series.
Projects of Masashi Kishimoto
- In 1995 he had his first successful pilot manga, Karakuri, presented at Shueisha;
- In 1996 he began working with his editor, Kousuke Yahagi, and had several rejected drafts;
- In 1997 he wrote a one-shot version of Naruto, which was published in Akamaru Jump Summer;
In December of the same year, he received a chance in Weekly Shonen Jump, which was a completely reworked Karakuri. It premiered in 1998 but performed poorly in the surveys.
After the failure, he reduced his production and moved towards the seinen genre in hopes of having better luck. But Yahagi (his editor) convinced him to try one last time with shounen. This made him not abandon the genre and continue making drafts.
Some time later, the two decided to focus on a version of Naruto with a reworked story and world and produced storyboards for the first three chapters, gaining a spot in the magazine.
The end of one for the beginning of another
After the conclusion of Naruto, Kishimoto became involved in the Start of a New Era project celebrating the conclusion of the manga and the 15th anniversary. On the last page of the final chapter, Weekly Shonen Jump announced that a spin-off miniseries, also authored by Kishimoto, would be released in 2015.
The series, Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and Scarlet Spring, was released from April to July 2015. Additionally, Kishimoto was also deeply involved with two canonical films, The Last: Naruto the Movie and Boruto: Naruto the Movie, as he personally supervised both films and illustrated several light novels.
In August 2015, Kishimoto announced that he had already completed what would be his next manga series. A science fiction manga, with a unique protagonist, and Kishimoto himself had already completed the character designs.
On December 19, 2015, it was announced that Masashi Kishimoto would supervise Boruto, starting in the spring of 2016. The new story is illustrated by Kishimoto’s chief assistant on Naruto, Mikio Ikemoto, and written by his writing partner for Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Ukyo Kodachi.
In December 2017, it was revealed that Kishimoto would write a new manga series starting in 2018.
Curiosities about Masashi Kishimoto
Well, folks, I apologize if there aren’t many peculiar pieces of information. What I can add are some curiosities and information such as:
- He is a fan of Star Wars;
- He is married and has children;
- His twin brother is also a mangaka;
- The Ichiraku from Naruto is real;
Masashi Kishimoto has received the following awards:
- Hop Step Award
- 5 Grammy Awards for the Naruto anime;
- Yakura Award for best-selling manga;
He worked in the following roles:
Mangas:
- Karakuri from April 1998 to May 1998, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump;
- Naruto () (November 1999 – November 6, 2014), published in the central manga Weekly Shonen Jump;
One-shot:
- Bench in October 2010, published by Weekly Shonen Jump;
- Mario in May 2013, published in the 6th Edition of Jump SQ;
What have we learned from Masashi Kishimoto?
Well, that’s all I can offer; unfortunately, I couldn’t find more interesting information. However, I don’t know if it’s good to do this since his privacy is also important. But I believe it doesn’t make a difference as long as he continues to produce other successes like Naruto.
I personally haven’t read any other manga by Masashi Kishimoto, but I believe it won’t be long until that happens. But anyway, I haven’t read it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth reading. However, if you have read it, leave your opinion in the comments.
But anyway, that’s all I have to offer in this article. If you have any questions, criticisms, or anything of the sort, just leave them in the comments. And don’t forget to share on social media, and leave your rating to let us know if you liked the content. Thank you for reading the article up to this point, and see you next time, goodbye.
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