People laughed at Masashi Kishimoto during his childhood when he said his dream was to become a manga artist. Now, the native of western Okayama Prefecture has created one of the most popular and successful ninja manga series ever and can boast of legions of fans around the world.
Still, Kishimoto remains humble. He says he’s surprised that he could even enter the manga business.
Kishimoto’s rise to stardom resembles the journey of Naruto, the main character in the “Naruto” manga series that ended its spectacular 15-year run in the Weekly Shonen Jump comic anthology on Nov. 10.
Naruto must overcome initial disappointments to finally fulfill his dream of becoming “Hokage,” the grand leader of his ninja village.
“(Naruto) is similar to me in some respects,” Kishimoto said in an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun. “I also love ramen.”
The artist said the Naruto character, who fell behind his peers, reflected Kishimoto’s own childhood.
“I was unable to do well in school and felt a strong sense of inferiority,” he said. “When Naruto said, ‘I will be Hokage,’ people surrounding him laughed at his dream. Since childhood, I also told others that I would be a manga artist but had no foundation.
“Unlike Naruto, I did not have the courage to declare that I will become a manga creator at any cost. So I would just say in my mind, ‘It may be possible.’”
Kishimoto said his career in the comic world was unexpected.
“It is unbelievable that I am working as one of the manga creators who have to write stories and depict many characters, because I was poor at the Japanese subject in school,” he said. “I could not answer questions requiring students to guess the feelings of characters in stories in school exams.”
Naruto is well known for his unique dialect “dattebayo,” which is sometimes translated into “believe it.” At first, he was seen as a dropout in his ninja academy.
But the young ninja grows both mentally and physically through interactions with friends and battles with enemies.
The series features hand-to-hand combat, illusion arts and battles of wits. Huge toads, a common symbol in traditional Kabuki plays, also appear in the action scenes that have gained widespread popularity both at home and abroad.
The series has sold more than 200 million copies around the world.
Naruto does not just defeat his enemies with force; he also uses words to achieve victory. Kishimoto cited Naruto’s verbal persuasion to get Pain, one of his main enemies, to stop fighting.
“Boys’ comics inevitably feature violent scenes. But I wanted to tell (readers) that enemies who resort to violence probably do so because of unavoidable reasons,” Kishimoto said. “And if (the protagonists) defeat them without understanding their motivation, it could end up leading to a repeat of the same thing.”
Ending a battle through dialogue may have been almost taboo in comics for boys, he said.
Kishimoto said “Naruto” is also distinctive in the way the hero pursues the path to his dream.
“In most boys’ manga, the protagonists typically achieve dynamic growth in the first episodes and continue to behave the way they believe to be good and affect other characters,” the manga artist said. “But Naruto faces the challenge of how he can create a world where there are no conflicts, as he battles Pain. I could have made him go his way without agony, but I thought it would be wrong in some aspects.”
Kishimoto also had to overcome many difficulties before his great success with “Naruto.”
Although he had earlier won a manga prize, Kishimoto spent two years reading books on how to write scenarios and studied dialogue in films to learn about story structure and directorial techniques. He also studied oil painting at an art collage.
Only after all that work did Kishimoto start the “Naruto” series in the magazine.
“Life is colorful,” Kishimoto said. “It is the reality of a manga protagonist to face obstacles.”
In the comment column of the Nov. 10 Jump magazine, the manga creator said farewell: “Otsukare-sama dattebayo!” (Good job and goodbye dattebayo!)
Source : The Asahi Shimbun
