Naruto Creator Hosts First-Ever Drawing Contest for Fans

Have you ever wanted your art work to be looked at by the creator of Naruto himself, Masashi Kishimoto? Well now, you may get that opportunity as part of this recently announced Shonen Jump contest titled “1st Jump’s Universal Illustration Contest”. Offering a number of prizes for those who ascend the ladder that is this art contest, the contest has also laid out a series of rules in which potential winners will need to follow to attempt to have their shot at getting their work in front of the man who brought the Hidden Leaf Village to life!

Twitter User UchihaFamille shared the first notification of the contest, breaking down what steps artist will need to take in order to have their fan art of Naruto, Boruto, or Samurai 8 be inspected by the series’ creator, Masashi Kishimoto:

This has been a banner year for Naruto, with Viz Media readying to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary with the “Year of Naruto” celebration. Though Samurai 8 may be the newest franchise that Kishimoto has put his talents toward, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations continues to run in both anime and manga formats. Whether or not we’ll be seeing a Samurai 8 anime at some point in the future is still up in the air, though considering the success of Konoha over time, we figure it’s only a matter of time before the events of that manga transition to screens across the world.

The winner of this art contest will be awarded 100,000 yen and, of course, have their artwork judged by Kishimoto himself. While second place will take home significantly less in terms of money with $30,000 yen, their fan art will still be reviewed by the creator of these popular ninja and samurai properties. Fans will have until November of this year to register so get your pens ready!

Will you be entering into this fan art contest to have your artwork judged by the creator of Naruto? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, Naruto, and Samurai 8!

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.