Naruto Creator Masashi Kishimoto Reveals New Details on Manga to Premiere in 2018

Jump Festa had a special surprise for its attendees this year: Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the world famous Naruto franchise, was on-site at the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations panel to reveal his newest manga, slated for a 2018 release.

Kishimoto ended his main Naruto manga after 15 years of serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in November 2014. He then wrote the one-volume sequel manga Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring. Kishimoto also worked on the script and character designs, and served as the chief production supervisor on the Boruto -Naruto the Movie- film sequel. A series of novels continued the story after the manga’s end.

Kishimoto attended the New York Comic Con event in October 2015. He confirmed then that he was working on plans for his next manga, a science-fiction story.

Afterward, in an interview in Shueisha’s Jump GIGA magazine in August 2016, Kishimoto reiterated that he was already planning his next project, and that he had already done research for it. He said in the interview that he thought he could announce the project in 2016, but there was no definite date. He did not specify the project’s format.

During the panel, the audience was treated to a sneak peek of several pages of drafts for the upcoming manga. No news yet on the contents or a prospective release date this year, but safe to say we’re all looking forward to the next work by this industry legend! Let us know what you think it’ll be in the comments!