Masashi Kishimoto

File:Masashi Kishimoto.JPG

Masashi Kishimoto

Masashi Kishimoto (岸本斉史, Kishimoto Masashi) born November 8, 1974 in Okayama Prefecture Japan, is the creator and author of the popular manga and anime Naruto. He debuted as a mangaka (Japanese cartoonist) with his work Karakuri, which was submitted to Shueisha in 1996. Beginning in 1999, his next work Naruto was serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump manga magazine. Kishimoto had received the Hop Step Award, which is given to new artists once a month by Shonen Jump. He also says that he was heavily influenced by the Dragonball series and its creator, Akira Toriyama.

His twin brother Seishi Kishimoto is also a manga-ka and the creator of 666 Satan and Blazer Drive. Their art has been remarked on as being very similar and accusations of plagiarism were made, either that Seishi had copied his brother or vice versa. However, Seishi notes in one of his manga volumes that the similarities are not intentional and that the occurrence would have been likely because both he and Masashi have been influenced by many of the same things. Masashi Kishimoto has publicly dismissed these accusations in his own manga.

In his interviews and exclusively in the Naruto manga, he commonly mentions his deceased plant, Ukki-kun. According to Kishimoto, the first time he had an office plant, due to missing the country atmosphere, he fed it undiluted plant food. He continued purchasing several other plants afterwards, but many of them perished.

Assistants

1. Kazuhiro Takahashi (高橋一浩, Takahashi Kazuhiro)
2. Osamu Kajisa (加治佐修, Kajisa Osamu)
3. Mikio Ikemoto (池本幹雄, Ikemoto Mikio)
4. Takemi Kawahara (河原武実, Kawahara Takemi)
5. Kōichi Nishiya (西屋浩一, Nishiya Kōichi)
6. Ryō Tasaka (田坂亮, Tasaka Ryō)
7. Akira Ōkubo (大久保彰, Ōkubo Akira)
8. Yūichi Itakura (板倉雄一, Itakura Yūichi)
9. Masaki Murakami (村上正樹, Murakami Masaki)
10. Atsuhiro Satō (佐藤敦弘, Satō Atsuhiro)
11. Akio Shirasaka (白坂彰男, Shirasaka Akio)
12. Kenji Taira (平建史, Taira Kenji)