Naruto-mania: One of the Biggest Manga Ever Comes to an End

In his panel at NYCC, Kishimoto mentioned growing up during “golden age” of the classic manga magazine Shonen Jump, when it was running series like Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball and Masami Kurumada’s Saint Seiya (a.k.a. Knights of the Zodiac). Naruto begins with the basic shonen manga template of a boy with something to prove, but Kishimoto uses that as the starting point for the story of a very special hero living in a complicated, often hostile world.
Naruto Uzumaki, the title character, is an orphan and a troublemaker—when we first see him, he is defacing the massive heads of the historical leaders of his village that have been carved into a nearby mountain. He has awesome power that he doesn’t realize yet and an irreverent attitude that, at the beginning of the story, is holding him back in the local ninja training school. Although he is shunned by everyone for reasons he doesn’t understand, Naruto is determined to attain the title of Hokage, the greatest ninja in his village.
Once he does finish his training, Naruto is paired with two of his peers, Sasuke and Sakura, under an experienced ninja, Kakashi, and the adventures begin. What makes Naruto more than a battle manga is the fact that the ninjas have supernatural as well as physical skills, and they often deploy them in surprising ways, making the fights an integral part of the story—and allowing Kishimoto to throw in plenty of twists.
I had the opportunity to interview Kishimoto at NYCC, and I asked him what set Naruto apart from other shonen heroes. His answer surprised me: “I personally never thought of him as being special or really different,” he said. “In fact, Naruto is a reflection of myself, and I don’t think of myself as special.” Naruto may have a great power within him, but he’s not a remote, distant hero. You can see what he’s thinking—and that makes him a great lead character.

If you want to get started with Naruto, Viz makes it easy with their 3-in-1 editions, which bundle three volumes together for less than the price of the individual volumes. Or if you want to binge, there’s the big box set of the first 27 volumes, which comprise the first story arc. (There’s a two-and-a-half year time skip in volume 28, which gives us an older and more mature Naruto.)
Although the series ended with volume 72, Naruto isn’t over yet. The ink wasn’t even dry when Kishimoto went to work on a sequel, and there’s also an artbook and a new series of novels on the way.

Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring, by Masashi Kishimoto
This sequel is set after the end of the series, when the characters are grown and have children of their own. Naruto has (spoiler alert!) become Hokage, and now he has to deal with the antics of his son, Boruto, as well as a threat to Sasuke’s daughter, Sarada. This story is complete in one volume and is only available digitally right now; the print version will be out in January.

Uzumaki Naruto: Illustrations, by Masashi Kishimoto
A beautiful full-color art book, Uzumaki Naruto: Illustrations is just that, a collection of illustrations, mostly covers and additional color art. There is no print to distract from the art on the oversized pages; instead, the notes, including Kishimoto’s choices for his top ten illustrations, are located in the back of the book. The book also includes a set of stickers and a pull-out poster.

Naruto: Kakashi’s Story, Naruto: Shikamaru’s Story, and Naruto: Sakura’s Story, by Masashi Kishimoto and Akira Higashiyama
Naruto has a lot of supporting characters, and they are not just showing up to fight and be defeated. At the NYCC panel, Kishimoto’s Shonen Jump editor, Jo Otsuki, said that’s because Kishimoto thinks through each one before putting him or her on the page. “When each character first appears, or even before that, [Kishimoto] sensei has very carefully laid out what he wants each character to be, what his personality traits are, what has he done, what he is about to do, a complete personal history and background of each and every character, whether they be good characters or evil characters, or villains,” he said. Each of these three novels focuses on a single character, starting with Kakashi’s quest to rescue hostages from a secret airship.
As for anime, the most recent DVD release is The Last: Naruto the Movie, set between chapters 699 and 700 of the manga, which tells the story of Naruto’s fight to stop the moon from destroying the earth.
Naruto may have ended, but Narutomania will never die.