Masashi Kishimoto facts for kids

Masashi Kishimoto (岸本 斉史, Kishimoto Masashi, born November 8, 1974) is a famous Japanese manga artist. He is best known for creating the incredibly popular manga series Naruto. This series was published from 1999 to 2014. It has sold over 250 million copies around the world. Naruto has also been turned into two anime TV shows, movies, and video games.

Besides the Naruto manga, Kishimoto also helped create the Naruto movies. These include The Last: Naruto the Movie and Boruto: Naruto the Movie. He also wrote some short stories. In 2019, Kishimoto wrote Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. From 2016 to 2020, he oversaw the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga. In November 2020, he became the main writer for the Boruto series.

Kishimoto loved reading manga when he was young. He always wanted to create his own stories. He was greatly inspired by famous manga artists like Akira Toriyama and Katsuhiro Otomo. He spent many years working hard to create his own shōnen manga. This type of manga is for young boys and teenagers. He wanted his work to be published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine.

Early Life and Inspirations

Masashi Kishimoto was born in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, on November 8, 1974. He has an identical twin brother named Seishi Kishimoto. Growing up, Kishimoto enjoyed drawing characters from anime shows. Some of his favorites were Arale Norimaki from Dr. Slump and Doraemon.

In elementary school, he started watching Kinnikuman and Dragon Ball. He really looked up to Dragon Ball's creator, Akira Toriyama. Kishimoto loved Toriyama's manga and his work on the Dragon Quest video games. He couldn't always buy Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. So, he followed Dragon Ball by reading his friend's copies.

In high school, Kishimoto became interested in baseball and basketball. He stopped reading manga for a while. But then he saw a poster for the animated film Akira. He was amazed by the artwork. This made him want to draw like Akira's creator, Katsuhiro Otomo. He also enjoyed other series like Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and Ghost in the Shell.

Before graduating from Kyushu Sangyo University, Kishimoto spent a lot of time drawing. He went to art college to become a manga artist. He tried to create a Chanbara (sword-fighting) manga. But then he read Blade of the Immortal and Rurouni Kenshin. He realized how amazing these manga were. He felt he still had a lot to learn.

In his second year of college, Kishimoto entered manga contests. He noticed his drawings looked more like seinen manga, which is for adults. He wanted to draw for Shōnen Jump, which is for young people. He realized his style wasn't quite right for them. He then studied character designs from animators. He met Tetsuya Nishio, who designed characters for the Ninku anime. Nishio became a big influence on Kishimoto. By copying different anime drawing styles, Kishimoto's own art began to fit the shōnen style.

Career Beginnings

First Manga Works

Kishimoto's first successful manga idea was Karakuri (カラクリ, lit. "Mechanism"). He sent it to Shueisha in 1995. This work won him an honorable mention in the "Hop Step Award" in 1996. This award is for promising new manga artists. After this, he got an editor named Kosuke Yahagi. They worked on several ideas that didn't get picked up.

In 1997, a short version of Naruto (NARUTO－ナルト－) was published in Akamaru Jump Summer. Later, a new version of Karakuri was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1997. But it didn't do well with readers and was quickly stopped.

After Karakuri failed, Kishimoto tried drawing manga for adults. But his editor, Yahagi, convinced him to try the shōnen genre one more time. They decided to create a new version of Naruto. They changed the story and the world it was set in. This new Naruto idea won a spot in the magazine. Kishimoto spent six months drawing and revising the first few chapters of the series.

The Success of Naruto

In September 1999, the full Naruto series began in Weekly Shōnen Jump. It quickly became very popular. The series finished on November 10, 2014. It ran for over 15 years and had 700 chapters. These chapters were collected into 72 books. Naruto has sold over 301 million copies worldwide.

Kishimoto won the "Rookie of the Year" award for Naruto. The manga was turned into two successful anime series: Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Kishimoto asked Tetsuya Nishio to design the characters for the Naruto anime. In the US, Naruto became one of the most popular manga series. In 2006, a Naruto book even won a Quill Award for "Best Graphic Novel."

Kishimoto wanted to include the theme of war in Naruto. His grandfather told him stories about war and grudges. Kishimoto believes war has no good side. But he wrote about war in Naruto with a message of hope. He was very happy that American audiences understood and liked Naruto. He felt it showed they could appreciate something new to them. While working on Naruto, Kishimoto became friends with Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece. They saw each other as friendly rivals. When Naruto ended, Oda left a special message for Kishimoto.

Kishimoto also helped create characters for video games. He redesigned a character named Lars Alexandersson for the game Tekken 6. He also designed "Mecha Naruto" for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution. For the Naruto film Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto planned the story and designed the characters. He also oversaw The Last: Naruto the Movie, which connected the end of the manga to its future.

After Naruto Ended

After Naruto finished, Kishimoto worked on new projects. He created a short spin-off series called Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring in 2015. This led up to the movie Boruto: Naruto the Movie, which he helped write and supervise. He also drew pictures for several light novels (short books).

In 2015, Kishimoto announced he was planning his next manga series. It would be a sci-fi story with a unique main character. He wanted this new series to be even better than Naruto. He planned to release it monthly in a digital magazine.

In 2016, Kishimoto began supervising the monthly Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga series. His main assistant from Naruto, Mikio Ikemoto, drew the pictures. Ukyō Kodachi, who worked on the Boruto movie, wrote the story. In November 2020, Kishimoto took over as the main writer for Boruto.

In 2019, Kishimoto launched a new science fiction adventure series called Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. Kishimoto wrote the story and drew rough ideas. His former assistant, Akira Ōkubo, drew the final artwork. However, this series didn't become as popular as Naruto and ended in March 2020.

Works by Masashi Kishimoto

Manga Series

• Naruto (1999–2014) – Creator and writer
• Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring (2015) – Creator and writer
• Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (2016–present) – Editorial supervisor (2016–2020), writer (2020–present)
• Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru (2019–2020) – Creator, writer, and storyboard artist

Anime Films

• Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie (2012) – Story planner and character designer
• The Last: Naruto the Movie (2014) – Original story, character designer, and chief story supervisor
• Boruto: Naruto the Movie (2015) – Original story, screenwriter, character designer, and chief production supervisor

Video Games

• Tekken 6 (2009) – Guest character designer
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution (2014) – Character designer and editorial supervisor

Personal Life

Masashi Kishimoto has an identical twin brother, Seishi Kishimoto, who is also a manga artist. In 2003, Kishimoto got married. Because he was so busy with Naruto, he didn't get to go on a honeymoon with his wife until 2015! When he was working on The Last: Naruto the Movie, he got the idea for Hinata Hyuga to make a scarf for Naruto Uzumaki. This was inspired by his own wife, who once made a scarf for him. Masashi and his wife have one son.

Influences and Drawing Style

The first time Kishimoto used the "double action" technique in a fight between Naruto and Haku.

Kishimoto was inspired to draw manga after seeing a picture for the film Akira. He studied the art of Akira's creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, and also Akira Toriyama. He realized both artists had their own unique styles. This made him want to create his own special way of drawing. He also learned a lot from reading Blade of the Immortal, studying its page layouts and action scenes.

When creating Naruto, Kishimoto looked at other shōnen manga. He wanted his characters to be very unique. He says Dragon Ball was a big influence. He made Naruto Uzumaki energetic and mischievous, like Dragon Ball's main character, Goku. He also got ideas from movies like The Matrix for character outfits.

Kishimoto also mentioned Jackie Chan's films as an influence. He used a technique called "double-action" in Naruto. This means showing a punch from three different angles to make it look more powerful. He first used this in Naruto Uzumaki's fight against Haku. Sometimes, Kishimoto draws fight scenes to be a bit confusing on purpose. This helps show how fast the action is.

As Kishimoto got married and had children, his personal life influenced his stories. For example, he made Naruto Uzumaki meet his parents. This was something Kishimoto wanted the character to experience, based on his own feelings as a father.

When Kishimoto draws characters, he follows a five-step process:

• First, he creates a concept and a rough sketch.
• Then, he drafts the drawing.
• Next, he inks the lines.
• After that, he adds shading.
• Finally, he adds color.

He uses these steps for his manga and for color illustrations. His tools sometimes change, but he always aims for high quality.

Masashi and his twin brother Seishi have drawn manga together since they were young. Because of this, their drawing styles are very similar. People have sometimes accused them of copying each other. But Seishi says the similarities are not on purpose. They are likely because they were both influenced by the same things growing up.

Kishimoto has said he didn't always plan out the Naruto story far in advance. For example, when he first introduced Sasuke, the character said he wanted to kill someone named "Itachi." At that time, Kishimoto only knew that Sasuke's brother, Itachi, had done something wrong. He wasn't sure what it was. Later, he decided that Itachi was working for the Hidden Leaf Village. Itachi had to kill everyone in his clan except Sasuke. This was a big surprise for readers! Another surprise was when Minato Namikaze was revealed to be Naruto's father. Kishimoto started adding small hints about this to the readers.

For the movie Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto was inspired by films like The Rock and Spider-Man. He used a Japanese storytelling method called Kishōtenketsu to structure the movie.

Images for kids

• 

  The first time Kishimoto used the "double action" technique in a fight between Naruto and Haku.

See also

In Spanish: Masashi Kishimoto para niños