Masashi Kishimoto One-Shot!

Masashi Kishomoto, creator of Naruto, brings us the one-shot exclusive Mario in this week's issue!

By May 13, 2013

 

Calling all Naruto fans! You won't want to miss out on this week's issue of Weekly Shonen Jump! Why?! Because the legendary manga creator took the time to work on a separate one-shot called Mario, which is exclusively available inside the 05-13-2013 issue. We also have an incredible interview with the man himself, explaining the creation process behind this special one-shot!

A Story Created Before Naruto

Q: I heard that you created the rough draft for Mario even before Naruto was serialized. Just how long ago was that?
Kishimoto: About fifteen years ago. I think it was 1998 or so. I drew the roughs before Naruto.

Q: Mario seems so different from your other work such as Karakuri and Naruto. What made you want to create it?
K: Before I made my debut in Shonen Jump, I pitched a bunch of different ideas, but none of them really went over too well. That was a period of time when I started to think that I wasn’t cut out for shonen manga. So Mario was a draft of a manga aimed at an older seinen crowd.

Q: So Mario was never meant for Shonen Jump?
K: Right. I created it with the intention of pitching it to a magazine targeting an older seinen audience. There used to be a magazine called Super Jump, and I planned on submitting it there. That’s why I included more mature themes that might not fly in Shonen Jump. I wasn’t planning for it to run in Shonen Jump, so I didn’t even tell my editor at the time. I just worked on it in secret at my own pace. Since I was doing it for myself, I kept adding things in without worrying about the page count. Eventually it became ridiculously long. 

To read the rest of this interview, pick up the 05-13-2013 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump today!