#9 Masashi Kishimoto
Kishimoto is author/artist of the globally popular ninja comic, Naruto.
Though lacking a wide breadth of work, Kishimoto makes up for it by going the distance. Naruto has been published weekley in Japan for the better part of a decade. His dedication and drive show up in every weekly installment of the manga, which is evident in its immense popularity.
Admittedly, the cartoon adaptation of Naruto was my first exposure to Kishimoto’s work. Though the earlier episodes were light and childish, I was encouraged to continue watching by friends. Even their encouragement would not have been enough had Kishimoto not devised an ingenious plot point, revealed immediately in the beginning that would shade the entirety of the series. Later, when the episodes caught up with Kishimoto’s original storyline, they entered a period of uninspired and tiresome stories that relied more on showing the characters fighting than developing. It was during these “filler arcs” that I fell out of Naruto fandom. However, a couple of years later debuted the release of a translated Kishimoto art book.
I paged through it while at work. The beauty of Kishimoto’s lines and the juxtaposition of fantastic elements within those few pages were more gorgeous and inspired than anything I had seen in the cartoon. Shortly thereafter, I returned to Naruto, but this time I would only read the comic work. After letting his work fall off my radar for so long, Kishimoto was able to trap me in a story of betrayal, friendship, and dedication, with characters I cared about and lessons I could learn from. Whereas the cartoon had lost some of its original momentum, Kishimoto never let his comic drop any of the passion or energy it began with. Instead, he was able to infuse it with even more power as the story progressed.
Lesson Learned: Character drama trumps total action in the long form narrative any day, but a balance of the two creates a masterwork.
