‘Naruto’ Creator Opens Up About Shonen’s Current State

During a recent interview, manga legend Masashi Kishimoto expressed mixed feelings about leaving serialization behind, and discussed his relationships within the industry and the current state of Shonen Jump.

The interview, translated on Twitter by Your Anime Guy, is a revealing look into a master’s current mindset, how he feels about constant comparisons to his contemporaries, and more.

You can check out the translation below, and the tweet at bottom.

“Since Oda is fellow who manages a super popular work, comparisons will be drawn to him one way or another,” Kishimoto acknowledged. “When I was receiving interview coverage, they would always ask, ‘So you and Oda-san are rivals, eh?’ But then I would say, ‘That’s right.’ On the other hand, I wasn’t really self-conscious of it, so I wasn’t embarrassed at all. If I was like Naruto, Oda-san would be similar to Sasuke. From my perspective, I thought of Oda-san like my rival.”

The rivalry was a friendly one — when Naruto ended its serialization, he was contratulated by Oda — but it was real enough, and it helped motivation Kishimoto.

“I’ve been wanting to catch-up to One Piece so I wanted to have the spirit to defeat it,” he admitted. “I thought that Naruto would get all the way up to there. If it wasn’t for One Piece, I absolutely wouldn’t have come this far. Of course…I understand both Oda-san’s joy and pain. I understand what it takes to be first place in Jump. So when the serialization of Naruto ended, I saw Oda-san still walking alone again…That was pretty heartbreaking. I know that it’s quite difficult. Everyone was casually collecting their thoughts, saying ‘Enjoy the end of your serialization.’ When I think about the weather being nice when I look outside in the morning, I suddenly even get to take a walk with my children. But when Oda-san hears something like that, he falls into a gloomy slump. But he’ll say ‘Please tell me more!’ and ‘I’ll keep on running so I can enjoy things when the time comes.’ When I heard him say that, of course, I thought that was amazing, thinking of how we’d walk together like this. When Oda-san finishes serialization, I think it would be great if we can enjoy life and things like this together. Well, as for my dream, it’s for One Piece to keep going in Jump.”

“I think for the people of this era, Jump is something of a reflection fo this generation,” Kishimoto said. “In that respect, it keeps on going, just like a stream. But things like scattered works are pulled in, and those are gathered and produce a huge stream. I’m personally happy to have been able to bein that stream. Well, I suppose you could call that stream more like rapids, or something like a river of acid [laughs].”

That said, Kishimoto acknowledged that returning to those acid-rapids might not be so farfetched.

“I’ve already forgotten about the hell fo deadlines for weekly serializations,” he joked. “Maybe I have a muddled head. Just having such amazing memories, and to be able to send such things out into the world, I want to do it again once more and surpass what’s been done, from curiosity’s standpoint.”