Kishimoto Reveals How He Came Up With The Sharingan

Masashi Kishimoto is one of the most famous manga writers of all time, and rightly so, given the success that his Naruto series managed to achieve. This story was absolutely top-notch, and one that inspired countless souls all over the world. Along with One Piece, Naruto defined an era and to this day, is considered to be one of the very best stories to have ever been told.

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There are many things that made Naruto as successful as it was, and one of the things that Kishimoto excelled at was, quite easily, drawing a very successful power system. When it comes to all the abilities in the Naruto world, the Sharingan is quite easily the best one, and in the past, Kishimoto has revealed some extremely interesting details about this ability.

The Importance Of The Sharingan in Naruto

• The Sharingan was one of the Three Great Dojutsu
• The Sharingan debuted through Kakashi Hatake

The Sharingan is a very important power in the Naruto series, and as the story progresses, its importance rises as well. At the very beginning of Naruto, the Sharingan was introduced as a mysterious eye with the ability to copy other techniques. This in itself was quite an interesting ability, but Kishimoto ended up taking things one step further with each evolution he added to the eye. The Sharingan ended up getting unique powers, among much else, and its progression was certainly incredible to see. Fans saw mighty abilities such as Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and even the majestic Susanoo being introduced in the series, all thanks to the Sharingan. Of course, Kishimoto deviated from the original concept of the Sharingan in the story, but its powers were mesmerizing nonetheless.

Being the Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha Clan, the vast majority of whom derived their powers from it, the Sharingan gave Kishimoto the perfect stage for writing many intriguing abilities in the story. From Sasuke’s flame control, all the way to itachi’s incredible Genjutsu, fans saw it all throughout the Naruto series, and this one power certainly added a lot of depth to the story. Undoubtedly, the Sharingan remains to be one of the most exciting parts of Naruto, the importance of which is carried to this day in the Boruto era. Fans have always wondered how Kishimoto came up with the Sharingan in the first place, and the truth behind it might surprise them.

How Kishimoto Came Up With The Sharingan

The Sharingan Was Inspired By Another Piece Of Media

Kishimoto did not always have the idea of Sharingan right from the get-go. In fact, even the idea that he initially came up with changed dramatically with time. It can safely be said that Kishimoto derived the idea of the Sharingan from a story called The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant, which is actually a Kabuki. In this story, Jiraiya is the protagonist, and he has an eye called the Sharingan. It is there that Kishimoto took the idea of the Sharingan from, and he incorporated it into his story. It is highly likely that at first, Kishimoto had to think about whom to grant this power to. But, it eventually ended up becoming the special ability of the Uchiha clan, as fans found out eventually. Sasuke Uchiha was seen wielding this ability, and later down the line, his brother, Itachi had this ability as well. Many other Uchiha that fans saw in Naruto, such as Obito, and Madara, among many others, wielded powerful Sharingan as well, and their abilities were spectacular, to say the least.

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Kishimoto also comments on the fact that Kakashi having the Sharingan was there to raise intrigue among the fans. By chapter 16 of Naruto, Kishimoto had already decided upon the power of the Sharingan, as well as the fact that the Uchiha would have it as their main power. At the same time, he mentions that Kakashi having the Sharingan was supposed to raise intrigue among the fans due to him not being an Uchiha yet having the power.

By this time, Kishimoto had also decided that Kakashi would have gotten his Sharingan from Obito, who died in war and was actually a student of Minato.

Clearly, Kishimoto did not have everything planned out in the story, but he came up with some key details quite early, and the concept of the Sharingan and those who would have it was certainly drafted back then. As the Naruto journey continued, fans saw Sharingan gain more importance, superseding even the likes of the Byakugan, and of course, arguably even the Rinnegan, even though it is not as strong as the Rinnegan itself.

How The Sharingan Changed Throughout Naruto

The Sharingan’s Core Powers Were Forgotten

Kishimoto states that the initial idea of Sharingan was drastically changed in the story. At first, the Sharingan was revealed to be an eye that can copy jutsu. Be it Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Taijutsu, this eye could copy it all as long as it was not a Hiden technique or a Kekkei Genkai. This made it a very dangerous ability, and one to be feared. In the early parts of Naruto, fans saw Kakashi utilizing this aspect of the power when he copied Zabuza’s moves one-on-one. Kishimoto says that Zabuza was introduced as a very powerful villain right from the get-go to showcase Kakashi’s level of strength and set a precedent for what strong ninjas are supposed to be like, and, one can also extrapolate from that that Kishimoto’s statement that he wanted to use this moment to showcase what a powerful Sharingan can do.

As the story progressed, however, the idea of the Sharingan was morphed by the author. Its power to copy other techniques was not focused on as much. Instead, the Sharingan became an eye that had its own unique abilities, and this was especially the case once the Mangekyo Sharingan came into play. Strong ninjas were seen as having unique Mangekyo abilities, and then, of course, the Susanoo came into existence as well. It can be said that the Sharingan’s unique power of copying jutsu was stripped from it completely. This would have been an extremely cool ability for this eye to hold right until the end, but, unfortunately, the author had other plans. That is not to say that the unique abilities are bad in any way.

Undoubtedly, the Power of the Sharingan was written brilliantly into the Naruto series, and to this day, it remains an iconic eye that has gone on to inspire many other powers in modern manga, and etched itself in history as being one of the most iconic abilities to exist in anime and manga. There are still plenty of powerful Sharingan abilities that fans still haven’t seen, such as that of Madara Uchiha, and of course, the up-and-coming characters, such as Sarada Uchiha as well. Hopefully, Kishimoto will see to it that this eye gets elaborated upon even further, and fans find out more details about it.

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Naruto

Release Date

October 3, 2002

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Number of Episodes

220

Streaming Service(s)

Netflix
, Crunchyroll
, Amazon Prime Video
, Peacock
, The Roku Channel
, Amazon Freevee
, Hulu
, Hoopla
, Pluto TV
, Tubi