sandman schrieb:

-First of all, thank you for all your hard work these past 15 years, Kishimoto-sensei.

Kishimoto: My pleasure. It does feel a little liberating to be done. But I'm still busy, what with the Naruto Exhibition and lots of interviews, not to mention the movie I'm working on. I really thought I'd have more free time.[laughter]

Oda: The last time I saw you, just after the final chapter of Naruto, didn't you say "The sky looks different to me now?""

Kishimoto: Yeah, it really did. It seemed brighter somehow. Blue skies you know?[laughter]

Oda: That hasn't happened for me yet. the skies are still a little brown over here.[laughter]

Kishimoto: Everything's changed. Even water tastes different to me now.[laughter] But I was working on the movie script the other day, and I thought, hey, maybe I don't have to do this in my office, so I tried going for a walk, but I just couldn't make much progress.

Oda: Yeah, outside's tough. I step out sometimes for a change of pace, but I've never had a good idea come to me outside.

Kishimoto: Whenever I go outside, it's like all these shops are vying for my attention. I see a sign for restaurant, and I think, "Hmm, maybe I should go in and check it out," you know? Or like, just the other day, I saw a movie with my kids, which was really fun. And afterwards we grabbed some food and just had fun talking.

Oda: Nice. I wish I could do that.[laughter] When you're working on a series, though, it's tough to break away, right? Like, the longer I'm away from my desk, the more anxious and fidgety I get.

Kishimoto: That was basically me, too.

-Oda-sensei, how did you feel when Naruto was finally over?

Oda: I felt pretty sad, like, So this is it, huh? I mean, I knew it was coming to an end, but deep down I didn't want it to.

Kishimoto: I sent Oda a LINE message after it finished. We'd already been in touch, so it didn't really feel like that big a deal. I'm not one for pomp and circumstance, anyway.[laughter]

-The title page of ONE PIECE caused quite a stir when it ran alongside the final installment of Naruto in Issue 50 of Weekly Shonen Jump in 2014. It featured numerous references to characters and symbols from Naruto.

Oda: Kishimoto's media coordinator at the end of the manga actually used to be my editor. So I approached him in private and I told him, "I have to do something special for the end of Naruto."" Actually, I bounced a lot of ideas off him leading up to it.

Kishimoto: Wow, really? I didn't know that.

Oda: In the end, he couldn't decide on any sort of plan.[laughter] So I thought I'd just pencil in some elements from Naruto, and I just came up with all that on the spot.

Kishimoto: That's incredible. It must have been a lot of work.

-If you read the beginning of each menu on the wall of the restaurant, it spells out "Well done, Naruto"" in Japanese, right?

Oda: Yeah, I wanted to come up with some dishes that reminded readers of Ichiraku (the ramen shop that Naruto frequents in the manga). And I decided I might as well put some kind of hidden message in it. I was hoping no one else would spot it so that it would just between us. But everyone saw it right away.[laughter]

Kishimoto: Well, everyone except for me. My brother (fellow manga artist Kishimoto Seishi) called me up and said "Look at the menus on the wall behind them. There's a hidden message."" and that's when I finally got it![laughter]

Oda: Still, I thought I'd hidden it better than that. Oh, well.

-It seems like readers caught on when they saw the sign for "Arugula Salad"

Oda: I racked my brains for something you might get at the sort of restaurant that started with the character, but it was tough.[laughter]

Kishimoto: And it's supposed to be Naruto back there chomping on some meat, right? While Luffy has ramen.

Oda: Luffy giving away neat is a rare event.[laughter]

Kishimoto: Also, the title of the chapter of ONE PIECE (chapter 766) is "Smile". That put a lump in my throat. I know a lot of people enjoyed that illustration, but I was the happiest one of all.

Oda: I haven't told anyone else, but I originally wanted to use the whole story to write you a message -not just the title page. Now, the chapter was this big flashback about Corazon, and it didn't have Luffy at all. But I was originally going to put Naruto symbols in all the backgrounds, and even draw lines on Luffy's face to make him look like Naruto. Unfortunately, the flashback sequence didn't end until Naruto was already over.

Kishimoto: Wow.[laughter] I mean, seeing that title page, I kind of wished I had done more of that myself.

-But you did draw the symbols of the Straw Hat Crew on Naruto's Hokage statue in the final chapter, didn't you?

Oda: See, Kishimoto talked to me about that beforehand. He said, "I'm gonna have Naruto's kid scrawl some graffiti - do you think I could use the Straw hat Crew's symbol?"" And of course, I had no problem with that. Though I was a little worried Naruto fans might get angry, seeing as it was the last chapter.

Kishimoto: It should be fine.[laughter] Although, I figured people would talk about it.

Oda: I couldn't believe that you'd put it on such a big page.[laughter] A lot of people seem to think that manga artists can't be friends with each other, because they're competing in the same magazine or whatever. But that's totally not how it is -a lot of time we go way back.

Kishimoto: Exactly. The truth is we all get along.[laughter]

-When did you two first meet?

Kishimoto: Let me see.. I think it was at a New Year's party at Jump, when I was first starting out.

Oda: Was it? Huh.

Kishimoto: I think so.[laughter] Even back then, he made a big impression on me. He taught me a lot.

Oda: Get out of here.[laughter]

Kishimoto: No, really. You had your first series out two years before me, and it felt like this tremendous talent had emerged. So at first I called you "Oda-sensei," but you told me to knock it off.

Oda: Yeah, well, we are the same age. Why should I be called "sensei"?

Kishimoto: Sure, we're not actors or performers or anything, but I thought anyone who got into the business before me was this big star.[laughter]

Oda: I'd been aware of Kishimoto, too, ever since he debuted. His artwork was incredible. There's something familiar, like we share the same creed.

Kishimoto: Creed?[laughter]

Oda: Yeah, like, why did you have that Turtle School uniform from Dragon Ball?[laughter] Right from the start, i felt like I needed to take my fighting stance...

Kishimoto: So you wanted a fight, huh?[laughter]

Oda: Just in terms of our manga, there was a little sense of competition, right? But when I actually met you, you turned out to be the nicest, kindest person. And it didn't matter to me anymore whose manga was more popular. I couldn't possibly fight with you.

Kishimoto: We knew each other's struggles all too well.

Oda: That made me happy. When times are tough, you need someone who can give you an encouraging word. So when Kishimoto said he knew what I was going through, you felt like he really did.

Kishimoto: Because I really did know.[laughter] But I still think I had it easier. Oda was always at the top, and I feel like that comes with its unique troubles and hardships. All that pressure and stress would have given me ulcers.

Oda: I'm really glad I had the opportunity to compete with Naruto, though. The thing I'm most thankful for is that he made it so competitive. Of all the weekly comics, and all the comics in the world, the one that made me work the hardest was Naruto, hands down, So I'm really fortunate, actually, that he made it so difficult for me. That kind of experience is rare.

Kishimoto: I had my eye on ONE PIECE, for sure -that was the one to beat. I was definitely conscious of that.

Oda: Well, the fact that Jump was home to not one, but two fantasy-based battle comics is a testament to your work.

Kishimoto: Hardly.[laughter]

Oda: Usually, when you have two manga series in the same genre, they compete for the same audience. But Kishimoto figured out how to keep Naruto and ONE PIECE from overlapping too much. Take colors, for instance. Luffy uses a lot of red, so he went with a different color scheme for Naruto. There's hardly a touch of red in Naruto, is there? He went out of his way to make sure they wouldn't encroach on each other. That said, if Kishimoto had started two years earlier than me and used red first, I probably still would have gone with red.[laughter]

Kishimoto: That's where you and I are different.[laughter] But I definitely made a conscious effort throughout the series to keep it from overlapping with ONE PIECE.

Oda: It's one thing to talk about it, but I'm sure it must have been difficult to actually do. I mean, I had a hard enough time trying to keep ONE PIECE different from Dragon Ball.

Kishimoto: Right.

Oda: Dragon Ball made such a deep impression on everyone; I think fans could still remember it five years after it ended. And it was certainly one of my favorites, too. I would never have stood a chance against it. So I had to come up with something different.

Kishimoto: I hear that.

Oda: That's why I really tried to emphasize the adventure element for readers, rather than the fight scenes. But I think Kishimoto had it harder. He had to avoid both Dragon Ball and ONE PIECE.

Kishimoto: It was a trial - and - error process, for sure. Oda was writing a story of high adventure, so I had to stay away from that. That's why I had Naruto come back to the village every time he left on a mission. Also, Luffy gradually enlists a lot of friends in ONE PIECE, so I thought Naruto should have his companions around from the beginning. That way I hoped the manga would already seem different from the moment it came out.

Oda: That reminds me of the one time I had to avoid something from Naruto. Sanji's name was originally supposed to be "Naruto". But the instant your manga came out, I knew it was going to be running a long time, so I changed his name at the last moment.

Kishimoto: What stage did that happen? Had you already come up with his crazy eyebrows?

Oda: Sure. I mean, he has those spiral eyebrows, right? That's why I wanted to call him "Naruto" (after the spiral pattern in the Japanese of the same name). He was like that ever since my first character sketches. So I'm glad that you started Naruto before I introduced Sanji. Otherwise, that would have left you in a predicament.

Kishimoto: It might have.

Oda: I mean, what would you have done if Sanji had appeared as "Naruto"?

Kishimoto: I probably would have changed it.

Oda: Even though he's the main character?[laughter]

Kishimoto: I would have called him (some other ramen-related word like) "Menma" or "Shinachiku".[laughter] But then I would have had to rethink the symbol.

Oda: "Shinachiku" would probably be a tough one for foreign readers to pronounce.[laughter] Although, I did get in touch with Kishimoto before giving his "Giant Pistol" technique, you know, the one where his gets huge? Because there was a scene in Part 2 of Naruto where Choji's hand gets really big...

Kishimoto: That's right.

Oda: It was a surprising thing to see, so when I introduced the Giant Pistol move, I let him know, like, "Hey, I'm kind of copying your style here. Sorry."

Kishimoto: Even though it was no big deal.[laughter]

Oda: But it was really thanks to Kishimoto that our two manga could both run in the same magazine.

Kishimoto: Well, the second anyone told me Naruto was like ONE PIECE, I knew I didn't stand a chance. but definitely felt Oda's influence at times.

Oda: Yeah, right.[laughter]

Kishimoto: There was one time, I can't remember when, but I asked you in private about your whole approach to writing manga. I wanted to know how you really felt about it.

Oda: Can you remember what I said?

Kishimoto: He can't remember.[laughter] You said, "It's really not about drawing well. It's about challenging yourself every time you do it - that's how you should approach it." That really impressed me.

Oda: It's like, when your back's against the wall, that's when you're drawing with emotion."

Kishimoto: Yeah, I think that's true. It's like how your characters' dialogue is never going to sound good unless you bring real feeling to it. It just won't have that spirit.

Oda: Yeah, it won't convey anything. You have to think hard about it and draw with emotion.

-Speaking of characters, what do you think about Kishimoto-sensei's drawing style?

Oda: Anything he draws, he draws well. I mean, he has a lot of respect for animators, which is why he makes his shadows so distinct.

Kishimoto: Yeah, I try to make them pop. Oda, on the other hand, he's more about color gradients.

Oda: I like to paint everything in. But Luffy's phisique is a little different from normal people, so sometimes I have no idea what kind of shadows to put in.[laughter]

Kishimoto: Oda's sense of composition and layout is great. It doesn't matter how many characters he has in a panel, he makes it all work as a picture. You feel like each and every picture is meaningful, and has this sense of furthering the story. So that makes it fun.

Oda: Kishimoto likes anime, which is why you get all these effects you've never seen before in the manga. His style of expression is just incredible. Like when it comes to the ninja moves Naruto and those characters use, it must be a real challenge to illustrate those on such a big scale, but Kishimoto never runs out of new ways to do it.

Kishimoto: I do like effects, and I get very particular about them.[laughter]

Oda: The one that surprised me the most was when one of your bad guys turned invisible and went underwater. All you saw was this silhouette, and I thought that was really well done. Was that something you came up with?

Kishimoto: That must have been in "Kakashi Gaiden." Can't quite recall the details.

Oda: Well, I used that as inspiration for my own invisible character.[laughter]

Kishimoto: Well, you've got an eye for these things. Still, it makes me happy to hear you say that.

Oda: I have to mention your colors, too. You really go with the best ones. Is that something you pay a lot of attention to?

Kishimoto: Well, not really, no.[laughter]

Oda: You use a lot of elegant, muted colors.

Kishimoto: I do.

Oda: I've always liked those colors too. But since ONE PIECE has a young male audience, I thought I should go out of my way to use a lot of primary colors. And now, well, I've really taken to those primary colors, but it was a painful transition.[laughter]

Kishimoto: Now that you mention it, your color palette really jumps out of the pages, doesn't it?

Oda: Well, that's another difference between Naruto and ONE PIECE that was probably for the best.

Kishimoto: The way you use colors in ONE PIECE is so complicated, I could never do that. That's your secret weapon, I think. I've read lots of manga, and I've never seen anyone use colors like you. I thought maybe it was just a natural talent you had, but it's something you've consciously worked toward. It's amazing.

Oda: I've started drawing a lot of rainbows now.[laughter]

-Was there anything you were striving for in your Naruto artwork, Kishimoto-sensei?

Kishimoto: Well, the effects we just talked about are kind of an example, but in Naruto I wanted it to look like everyone's feet were firmly on the ground.

Oda: It sounds obvious, but it's harder to achieve than it looks. You have to know exactly where the body's center of gravity is, like if someone raises their shoulders, how does that affect the position of their hips, and so on. That sense of balance is crucial. That's why when you look at Naruto, even just the way he stands, he seems solid.

Kishimoto: You're really good at that, too.

Oda: I tend to change the ground to match the way the characters are standing. ONE PIECE has a lot of characters who are different sizes, and I find I can't draw them the way I want if I start with the ground.

Kishimoto: I feel the same way whenever I draw those huge Tailed Beasts. You have to bring the ground up to them.

Oda: You're a fan of Godzilla, so you must really enjoy doing those big creatures.[laughter]

Kishimoto: Definitely. But whenever I do a Tailed Beast, my turnaround time slows down. There are just so many panels to do.

Oda: Yeah, whenever you draw from a big character's perspective, you get a lot of smaller characters in the frame, so you've got a lot of stuff to illustrate.

Kishimoto: I don't think anyone puts as much detail into every panel as you, though.

Oda: I don't know. I always thought your Shadow Clones looked pretty tough to do.

Kishimoto: Those were really tough.[laughter]

Oda: But that's because you're so particular about it. I mean, it's always tough when you're in the middle of drawing something, but there's nothing more satisfying than doing a really effective picture. The readers appreciate it, too. I don't care how many days it takes, I just want to put out good pages.

Kishimoto: The problem is whether you have enough energy.[laughter] But seeing your face the work head-on makes ne feel like doing my best, too.

Oda: But, you know, it's getting hard to put on shows like the Naruto Exhibition. These days everyone's moving toward computer illustration, so pretty soon there won't even be original drawings to exhibit. We might be the last generation who can even hold this kind of show.

Kishimoto: Last generation, he says...

Oda: We're practically fossils.

Kishimoto: Living fossils.[laughter]

Oda: Just my luck -I have to enter this new era already fossilized.[laughter]

-Who are your favorite characters from Naruto, Oda-sensei?

Oda: Probably Rock Lee and Might Guy. Kishimoto's really good at all that kung fu action.

Kishimoto: Well, I grew up watching Jackie Chan movies, what can I say?

Oda: Also, from a design standpoint, Zabuza was really cool. I feel like Naruto really took off in popularity about Zabuza storyline.

Kishimoto: That period was really tough. I was running a fever every week, and just had to keep drawing.[laughter]

Oda: Was that the most difficult period for you while working on Naruto?

Kishimoto: No, that was probably the very end. The final chapter was in color, so I had to start on that really early. And because they'd already decided which issue it was going to run in, I had to pace the story fit that schedule. But the closer I got to the final chapter, the more I felt like I was running out of space to wrap things up. Normally, I could just carry a story over into the next issue, but now I couldn't get away with it. Honestly, there were times I thought I was done for.[laughter]

Oda: It didn't feel rushed at all, though. The layout and panels all seemed to have plenty of margin. But I'm sure you had everything leading up to that final fight between Naruto and Sasuke planned out already. Was it hard to get the story go there?

Kishimoto: Yes, it was.[laughter]

Oda: I think it would be fun for me to end ONE PIECE on a nice, happy note, but getting there is going to be an uphill battle. I have all these ideas about how I might do it, but you're right, it's really tough.[laughter]

-What was the most difficult part leading up to the Naruto finale?

Kishimoto: It was how exactly I was going to depict Sasuke. Up till then, I'd shown a lot of Naruto's inner feelings coming to the fore, but I'd kept Sasuke's totally hidden. I knew I was going to have to show them in the end, but I wasn't quite sure how to get there. I mean, I decided in the beginning that the climax was going to be this battle between Naruto and Sasuke, so that more or less turned out how I imagined. But the stuff that happened in between, that didn't really go how I thought it would.

Oda: When you're illustrating something you've had in mind from the start, you can get tired of it pretty quickly. So if you think of anything more interesting, you should really explore that. To not use something you've come up with -that's letting the reader down, too.

Kishimoto: Exactly. When inspiration strikes, you owe it to yourself to seize it.

Oda: And then once you go there, you have to figure out how to follow it up the week after. Like, oh, no, what do I do now?[laughter]

Kishimoto: You try to find some justification for it. Something that makes it consistent with what's come before.[laughter] That's why I think manga artists who are good at excuses come up with the best work.

Oda: Yeah, you have to be good at integrating everything.

-This may be jumping the gun, but do you have any ideas for your next work, Kishimoto-sensei?

Kishimoto: Well, nothing set in stone, but I'd like to try my hand at science fiction. I like clouds, so maybe something in the sky. When Oda came out with Skypiea Saga, I was really jealous.

Oda: You've talked about that before.

Kishimoto: That one felt so great to read. I wanted to do a story like that, but ONE PIECE beat me to it... Oh, well.[laughter]

Oda: There you go again, trying not to compete with me.[laughter] Well, I hope you can take it easy for a while at least.

Kishimoto: The thing is, when you finish one series, you just want to get started on another. I can't help thinking that while I'm relaxing you're still out there working on pages.

Oda: Well, feel free to start a new series any time you want.[laughter] I usually tell author friends of mine who've just finished a long project to come see me again soon, but I won't pressure you. Fifteen years is a long time to work on anything. You should rest up for a while.

Kishimoto: Thank you very much!

Q1: Is it true that author Eiichiro Oda only reveals the ending of One Piece to his editor?

A: Yes, it’s true. [He told me] about seven hours after I became his
editor on the phone. He asked me whether there was anyone around. I told
him no, and he said, “alright, I don’t have anyone around me either, so
let’s talk,” and then he told me.

Q2: How far along is the story right now, percentage-wise?

A: He told me that the first part of the story, the part prior to the
time-skip, was around halfway through. That was about 60 volumes, so
maybe we’re at 70%? I don’t think it’s at 80% yet. Something like that.

Q3: Is it true that he’s decided not to write another long story after One Piece is finished?

A: He hasn’t decided, but he said he probably wouldn’t be able to write
one. He’s already been going on for eighteen years, so just how old will
he be by the time it’s all over? I think it’s more of a question as
to whether he’d be able to write another long serialization after that,
realistically speaking.

Q4: What are some of the rules you have to abide by as the editor for One Piece?

A: He asked me not to pitch him too many ideas. The reason behind that
is that if it’s another person’s idea, then he won’t be as inclined to
draw it. Because it’s his own story, he wants to draw his own ideas.
Also, he wants to work on the manga on the same playing-field as his
editor, so he asked me not to call him Oda-sensei, but instead Oda-san. And Oda-san also calls me, a 26-year-old newbie editor, “Sugita-san”. [He] also asks me to honestly tell him what I think.

Q5: What aspects of Eiichiro Oda do you think are “great”?

A: Of course there’s his talent, but what surprised me was just how much
effort he puts into the series. There might come a day when I’ll have a
new manga artist I’m working with who has more talent than Oda-san, but
I’m not so sure anyone will put in more effort. He is someone who only
sleeps for maybe two or three hours a night and he always
thinks about his manga. He does not compromise. When he thinks that
something isn’t funny or will not surprise the readers, then he just
looks for something else, which I think is really amazing. He’s the
quintessence of manga author-ness.

Q6: There’s also a rumor that his annual earnings
exceed ¥3,000,000,000 (around US$24,000,000), but what does he spend
his money on?

A: Hmm, well apparently he’s really gotten into grilling meat lately.
He bought a barbecue and invited friends and his [past and present]
manga editors over to his home. While barbecuing the meat he’ll say
things like “I’m letting it rest on the grill” or “I’m gonna grill it
one more time!” Oda-san also likes physical objects, so he collects
figures of American celebrities and all sorts of stuff.

Q7: So his house is amazing too?

A: Yes. Oda-san often says: “I want to be what new manga authors dream
to be.” That’s why he often jokes that he lives in a nicely built house
and buys cool things so his assistants would think, “aaah, I should work
hard and get drawing, too!”

Q8: Lastly, what kind of fun can we expect in the future for One Piece?

A: Well, now that we’re in the second half of the story, I think there
will be more and more chapters that revolve around the main plot. The
Four Emperors will also appear more in the story, so I think you’ll
really enjoy what happens next!