Masashi Kishimoto

Masashi Kishimoto is a Japanese manga artist best known for creating *Naruto*, which ran in Shueisha’s *Weekly Shonen Jump* from 1999 to 2014. Born on November 8, 1974, in Okayama Prefecture, he grew up drawing and became especially interested in manga after encountering Akira Toriyama’s *Dragon Ball*. Before *Naruto* began serialization, Kishimoto published a *Naruto* one-shot in 1997. That early version differed substantially from the later ninja story. The serialized manga reached 700 chapters and was collected in 72 volumes. Its long run allowed Kishimoto to follow his central characters from childhood through war, loss, and the transition to adulthood.

The story centers on Naruto Uzumaki, a boy in Konohagakure, or the Hidden Leaf Village, who dreams of becoming Hokage, its leader. The Nine-Tailed Fox, which attacked the village on the day of Naruto’s birth, was sealed inside him by his father, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. Ostracized because of that burden, Naruto trains under Kakashi Hatake alongside Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke’s departure from the village and Naruto’s determination to bring him back shape much of the series. Later arcs confront the Akatsuki, the legacy of the Uchiha clan, and the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Kishimoto’s manga became an anime television series in 2002, followed by *Naruto: Shippuden* in 2007. Its screen adaptations and films brought his characters to audiences beyond the manga’s original readers. He contributed character designs and story supervision to *The Last: Naruto the Movie*, released in 2014. He also worked on the story and character designs for *Boruto: Naruto the Movie* in 2015. That film introduces Naruto’s son Boruto and depicts the strained relationship between a busy Hokage and his child. Rather than retelling Naruto’s childhood, it places a new generation inside the village Kishimoto had developed over fifteen years.

After *Naruto* ended, Kishimoto wrote *Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru*, illustrated by his former assistant Akira Okubo. Serialized in *Weekly Shonen Jump* from 2019 to 2020, it combines samurai imagery with science fiction and follows Hachimaru, a frail boy who becomes a samurai. Kishimoto took over writing *Boruto: Naruto Next Generations* after its initial writer, Ukyo Kodachi, left the manga in 2020. Mikio Ikemoto, a longtime *Naruto* assistant, draws the *Boruto* manga. Kishimoto’s twin brother, Seishi Kishimoto, is also a manga artist; his works include *O-Parts Hunter*, originally titled *666 Satan* in Japan.