Sasuke's Story Artist Shingo Kimura Asserts "NARUTO's the Reason I've Come This Far", Speaks of Overwhelming Love and Respect for Masashi Kishimoto, and on Honing His Craft (Interview Part 2)

The final volume of Naruto: Sasuke's Story—The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust (hereafter, Sasuke's Story) has gone on sale after its serialization on Shonen Jump+ and MANGA Plus. We asked the manga's artist, Shingo Kimura, about his deep appreciation of NARUTO and Masashi Kishimoto, and the insane amount of "NARUTO research" he did. (Part 2 of 3)

—The art in Sasuke's Story strikes me as incredibly similar to Kishimoto's. In fact, I hear Kishimoto has also commented saying the series looks like he drew it himself. How were you able to so closely replicate the style of NARUTO?

While there are parts where I think I did a good job of imitating Kishimoto's work, on the whole I personally don't think I succeeded very much in that department. However, it makes me incredibly happy to hear you say that.

—What kind of research have you done on Kishimoto's art?

I've done things like enlarging reprints of Kishimoto's work to see the actual thickness of the lines. The reprints I have are size A3 two-page spreads, with each page being about a size A4. But as Kishimoto originally drew each page on a size B4, I would blow up each of my size A4 pages to size B4 so I could see about how thick the lines were when he drew them.

I referenced that while I drew, but since my reprints were two-page spreads, when I used the same lines to draw panel divisions, they were too thick. Looking back at it now, the first volume of Sasuke's Story has pretty unpolished linework.

—Did you start doing research like that after it was decided you would be the artist for Sasuke's Story?

I've compared the Shonen Jump versions of manga with the versions in the published volumes since I was in high school, noting things like "This part's a bit different" or "Oh, effect lines were added here."

For example, Kishimoto will initially draw dirt on clothes or such with short strokes of a G-pen, but in the volume version, he'll touch that up with a Posca extra-fine pen. I tried imitating minor details like that.

—Wow, you've really done a lot of research.

An edition of Jump Ryu that was released around 2016 came with an attached DVD that included footage of Kishimoto's workspace. A section called "From the Drawing Room" showed Kishimoto's desk and bookshelves in the background, and the books there weren't volumes of NARUTO, but other books.

"So these are the books that Kishimoto reads", I thought, and though I couldn't see them clearly since they were in the background, I paused the DVD and was able to make out single words from various titles, like "Storywriter" or "Roadmap". Using these as clues, I searched on the internet until I found books that matched, then I bought and read them all. I tended to do things like that.

—What other things have you looked up?

After the NARUTO manga ended, there was a gallery event in 2015, and I've brought the guidebook from it here with me today. It has a picture of a recreation of the library corner in Kishimoto's hometown where he used to work, and some of his books and DVDs are displayed.

I imagined that the works with their titles visible must be Kishimoto's favorites. Series like Hunter x Hunter and Blade of the Immortal were there, along with movies by Quentin Tarantino and other films such as Elysium, District 9, and The Usual Suspects. I bought the ones I wasn't familiar with and watched or read them.

—You're really a huge fan of Masashi Kishimoto.

Every year or so, since I was a high schooler, I've alternated my phone's wallpaper between pictures of Masashi Kishimoto and Hiroaki Samura. When friends see my phone, they're always curious and ask me who's in the photo.

—You're not talking about a picture from NARUTO but a photo of Kishimoto himself, right?

Yes, that's right. He's actually set as my wallpaper right now. This picture is from a special published in Da Vinci (Japanese magazine by Kadokawa).

—By the way, when you saw the original manga panels displayed at the NARUTO gallery event, what was your impression?

I thought, "I can't believe it's just ink on paper! It's incredible!"

Obviously that's what it is, and I understood that in my mind, but when I saw the original panels in person it was like a whole world opened up within the frames—a world with its own space, substance, and people. It was violently compelling, and really left an impact on me.

—You said it was "violently compelling", how did it feel to be struck by something like that?

I was elated. Of course, Kishimoto's work is at an incredibly high level, but it made me realize that with just ink and paper, even I can create entire worlds.

I haven't reached that point yet, but if I work hard I can get there, I have that capacity. It dawned on me that if I only learned the necessary skills, someday I could do what he did. Bits and pieces, aspects I hadn't seen before, steadily became clearer and fleshed out my understanding of things.

—This is my personal opinion, but I think the camera angles in Sasuke's Story are also very similar to Kishimoto's.

It's probably because I've been so influenced by him. However, there were times when I thought things like, "I'd do it differently if it was my own original work, but Kishimoto would probably use a wider angle here." I purposely challenged myself to match how he might have drawn the scene.

When I met Masashi Kishimoto, he told me, "The camera angles for Sasuke's fight with Meno in the hallway must have been difficult due to the narrow space, but you did a great job", and it really meant a lot to me. Kishimoto himself has drawn so many cool battles in tight passageways, and I had hoped that my own work lived up to that.

I paid special attention to things like not making strange composition choices, and intentionally drawing a flatter perspective in some places.

—So, you focused quite a bit on picturing how Sasuke's Story would have looked had Kishimoto drawn it?

I really wanted to make sure the larger panels here and there resembled Kishimoto's work. He might say I worried too much on that front, but at the time I was very uncertain about my art, and I thought imitating him might help my own style grow.

—Was there any point at which things became difficult precisely because you're such a fan of Kishimoto?

While I was drawing Sasuke's Story, there were times I thought about how much the whole world loves NARUTO, and worried that I was ruining something sacred. But I told myself "Just draw!" and kept going.

—I heard something about your storyboard composition synchronizing with Kishimoto's for the last panel of the final chapter. Can you explain what happened?

There was a panel where I had drawn Sasuke and Sakura from behind, and my editor told me, "We haven't seen Sasuke's face much in the final chapter, so why don't you show them looking toward the reader?" I thought, "Oh, I hadn't realized that!" and then quickly redrew them facing the other way.

My editor showed the new storyboard with them facing the camera to Kishimoto, and he went out of his way to draw suggested improvements for the last page. His redrawn version was almost identical to my original composition, with Sasuke and Sakura facing away.

My editor came back and apologized to me, saying this must have caused me to lose all faith in him (laughs).

Kishimoto had actually drawn a one-page storyboard suggestion for me before, which I had been very excited about, but I was shocked that he would do it a second time, and then thrilled to see we had come up with the same idea for the last panel.

—How do you think drawing Sasuke's Story has changed you?

I've fallen even more in love with NARUTO—it's like the floodgates have opened.

Before I started work on Sasuke's Story, I felt I needed to pursue my own personality and uniqueness as an artist, and I instinctively drew away from NARUTO.

I thought I should go the opposite direction and look for inspiration from styles I hadn't exposed myself to yet. But just when I decided that, I was approached and asked to draw Sasuke's Story. That led to me rereading NARUTO, and I quickly became obsessed with it all over again.

I'm not sure how to explain it, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say NARUTO's the reason I've come this far.

—What are you hoping to do now?

I'm considering working together with my editor on a story of my own and entering it into a competition. After writing Sasuke's Story, I've come to think that it's fine for me to focus on drawing whatever I want.

Before Sasuke's Story I tried various things to change my style, but now I think even if what I draw ends up resembling someone else's art, that's okay—though, of course, there are things I still want to change. I guess I can't explain it well, but that's sort of what I'm thinking now.

Read part 1 here

Read part 3 here

Shingo Kimura
Manga Creator
Born in Gunma Prefecture. Graduated from Kiryu University Junior College's Department of Art and Design. Runner-up in the 95th Tezuka Awards. His debut manga was the one-shot Kuimodoshi which appeared in the September 2018 issue of Jump SQ. Since 2022, he has been the artist for Naruto: Sasuke's Story–The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust, serialized on Shonen Jump+ and MANGA Plus (story by Masashi Kishimoto and Jun Esaka, original novel published by JUMP j BOOKS).

Interview and Article: Asami Sato