‘Naruto’ editor admits why they studied One Piece during publication

‘One Piece’ has been an absolute benchmark in the manga and entertainment industry for decades, but its worldwide success has been consolidated in recent years. Eiichiro Oda’s work has stood out in the Shonen Jump since its inception, and in the more than 20 years since its publication, ‘Naruto’ has been the series that has been at the height of One Piece, consistently coming close to rivaling it. How did it achieve this? The success of the work about the ninja of Konoha began, although it seems unbelievable, by studying ‘One Piece’, and this is how Yahagi Kosuke, the editor who supervised Masashi Kishimoto’s work from the beginning, explained it.

“To begin with, ‘One Piece’ started serialization before ‘Naruto’.” Masashi Kishimoto also said, ‘It can never compete with ‘One Piece’. ‘One Piece’ is too interesting.’ I also thought it was too interesting, but I said, ‘You shouldn’t say that. So when we started working on Naruto, we broke down and analyzed ‘What is so great about ‘One Piece’?’” Yahagi Kosuke told Shonen Jump readers during a roundtable discussion with other industry professionals in 2019.

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The ‘One Piece’ Phenomenon and Its Meaning in ‘Naruto

The ‘Naruto’ editor went on to say, “The more I study ‘One Piece’, the more amazing it is. I can’t compete with this. If I want to compete with the manga, I’ll have to surprise people with action. I’m conscious of that. Kishimoto himself said, ‘I can’t write a story more moving than ‘One Piece,’’ so I thought I’d try to compete somewhere else. There’s no point competing under the same magazine... Naruto went in its own direction. And its creator’s art was amazing.”

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