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Masashi Kishimoto

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Masashi Kishimoto is a highly influential Japanese manga artist.

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He is most famous for creating the massive series Naruto. This series was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from 1999 to 2014. As of May 2019, Naruto had sold over 250 million copies in 46 different countries. His work has moved beyond paper into many other forms. It has been adapted into two anime series and several films. It has also inspired video games and other media. Kishimoto's success shows how much people around the world value his storytelling.

Developing a manga style requires intense study and practice. Kishimoto originally struggled to find his place in the industry. In college, he tried to create Chanbara manga, which are stories about sword fighting. He also realized his early drawings were more like seinen manga. Seinen is a genre aimed at adult readers. Kishimoto specifically wanted to write shōnen manga for children and teenagers. To achieve this, he studied character designers from anime series. He even met Tetsuya Nishio, a designer for the series Ninku. By emulating professional designers, Kishimoto eventually developed a style suitable for Shōnen Jump.

Kishimoto's career began with several experimental steps. In 1995, he submitted his first successful manga pilot, Karakuri, to Shueisha. This earned him an honorable mention in the Hop Step Award in 1996. This award is given to promising rookie artists. After Karakuri, he worked on several rejected drafts. These included a slice-of-life story and an action manga. He even tried writing a baseball manga and a mafia manga. His editor, Kosuke Yahagi, encouraged him to try the shōnen genre one last time. This led to the development of the Naruto storyboards we know today.

Naruto became a global phenomenon through its long and detailed run. The series lasted for more than 15 years of serialization. It consists of 700 chapters collected into 72 volumes. The sales numbers are truly massive. Over 113 million copies were sold in Japan alone. In the United States, sales exceeded 95 million copies. When adding sales from the rest of the world, the total reaches approximately 301 million copies. This success helped Naruto become one of Viz Media's top properties. In 2006, the seventh volume became the first manga to win a Quill Award for Best Graphic Novel.

Kishimoto's personal history deeply informs the themes of his work. He was born in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, on November 8, 1974. He is the older identical twin of Seishi Kishimoto. His grandfather often told him stories about war and grudges. These stories influenced Kishimoto's decision to include war as a theme in Naruto. However, he chose to approach the concept of war with a hopeful theme. He also drew inspiration from early influences like Akira Toriyama and Katsuhiro Otomo. He even followed series like Dragon Ball by using a friend's magazine subscription.

Beyond writing, Kishimoto has lent his talents to many different projects. He redesigned the character Lars Alexandersson for the video game Tekken 6. He also created the character Mecha Naruto for the game Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution. Kishimoto has also supervised several major films. These include Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie and The Last: Naruto the Movie. The latter served as a bridge between the series' conclusion and its epilogue. He also worked on the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga. He initially supervised this series before taking over as the primary writer in November 2020.

Kishimoto's impact connects him to the wider world of art and competition. He shared a friendly rivalry with Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece. Oda even left a message in his final volume acknowledging Kishimoto as a rival. Kishimoto also expressed great respect for artists like Yoshihiro Togashi and Kōhei Horikoshi. His work has helped bridge cultural gaps. He noted that the American audience's acceptance of a ninja character showed they could appreciate something unfamiliar. Today, Kishimoto continues to plan new science fiction projects for the future.

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