Kishimoto's first successful manga pilot was Karakuri(カラクリ,lit. "Mechanism"), 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.[28] 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. "Wandering Detour"),[29][30] and an action manga, Asian Punk(アジアンパンク,Ajian Panku).[31] In 1997, he wrote a one-shot version of Naruto(NARUTO-ナルト-) which was published in Akamaru Jump Summer.[21][30]
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.[30][32] 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. "Baseball King"),[33] and a mafia manga, Mario(マリオ),[34] hoping to find better luck with a seinen magazine.[30] Yahagi persuaded him to give the shōnen genre one last shot and Kishimoto began working on storyboards for a fantasy one-shot, Magic Mushroom(マジックマッシュルーム,Majikku Masshurūmu),[35] but stopped when Yahagi called and asked him to instead develop storyboards for serialization.[30] 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.[30]
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 Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.[46] For Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, 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.[47]
For the ninth Naruto film, Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto was responsible for both the story planning and characters' designs.[48] 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.[49] Regarding Naruto's 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.[50]
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.[51] The Naruto series finally concluded on November 10, 2014, with The Last: Naruto the Movie premiering a month later on December 6, 2014.[52]
During the serialization of Naruto Kishimoto also worked on several other projects. In 2010, Kishimoto produced a one-shot baseball manga, Bench(ベンチ,Benchi), 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,[53] based on the rough, 160-page manuscript he began working on before Naruto became serialized.[34] Throughout 2013, several of Kishimoto's one-shots saw their English-language debut in issues of the Weekly Shonen Jumpdigital 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.[54]
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 Akira's 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.[20] 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.[66] 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.[67] 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.[68] When redesigning three characters for the series, Kishimoto cites The Matrix, one of his favorite movies, as an inspiration for their outfits.[69] He has also cited Yoshihiro Togashi as one of his favorite manga authors,[10] while the manga Sasuke by Sanpei Shirato, a series which Kishimoto likes, inspired Kishimoto in the development of the character Sasuke Uchiha.[70]
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.[21] 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.[71]
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.[6]
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.[72] 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.[73]
Masashi and his twin brother Seishi have been drawing manga together since early childhood, thus their styles are similar.[74] 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.[75][76]
Kishimoto has admitted he made no plans in regards to the development of Naruto's 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.[71] 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.[77]
In the making of the film Boruto: Naruto the Movie 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.[78] He also claimed he was a fan of Avi Arad, most notably his films based on the Spider-Man comic book character.[79]
^ 6.06.16.2Kido, Misaki C. Interview with Masashi Kishimoto (Creator of Naruto). Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha (Viz Media). January 2012, (01-30-12): 118–121.
^Gan, Sheuo Hui. Auteur and Anime as Seen in the Naruto TV Series. Berndt, Jacqueline; Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina (编). Manga's Cultural Crossroads. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. 2013: 227. ISBN 978-1-134-10283-9.