Kishimoto Reveals His Struggles With Sasuke’s Character 

Masashi Kishimoto has written quite a lot of inspiring characters over the years. It is safe to say that Kishimoto’s story is one of the very best in recent times, and its incredible popularity is proof of that. At the heart of Kishimoto’s stories are fascinating ninjas, with the protagonist being a yellow-head boy named Naruto Uzumaki, and his main rival being none other than Sasuke, a rather reserved but equally popular character.

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Of course, writing each character is quite a complex task for any author. However, in the case of Kishimoto, he struggled extra with Sasuke’s character for various reasons that he has gone on to reveal in an interview.

How Kishimoto Struggled To Draw Sasuke

• Sasuke Gave Kishimoto Design Headaches
• Sasuke Became Kishimoto’s Favorite

One of the biggest struggles that Kishimoto had with Sasuke’s character was to come up with a proper design in the very early parts of Naruto, due to its various complexities. Sasuke had a very complex outfit when compared to other characters, and at the same time, Kishimoto struggled with his facial expressions, simply because he wanted to convey a certain feeling with the character of Sasuke. When it comes to Sasuke Uchiha, Kishimoto tried to give him many important moments early on so fans realized how important he truly was. While he certainly did succeed with Sasuke’s design, over the years, he tried to make it simpler by reducing the number of lines utilized for drawing this character. But, as far as Sasuke’s face goes, Kishimoto still could not do much to change that. According to him, Sasuke’s face is very complex to draw and quite easily one of the hardest in the Naruto series.

Conveying certain facial expressions with Sasuke is difficult, due to him always maintaining a certain level of calmness, and rarely ever showing any emotion directly from his face. Here is what Kishimoto had to say about Sasuke:

This is the first image of Sasuke. It hasn’t changed very much up to now. The only big difference is that he lost that thing around his neck. It’s the same for all characters, the more you draw them, the more you add more and more lines. You add accessories and such. And with a main character, you get really excited and keep adding stuff. Afterwards, I wondered, “Can I really have a character with so many lines in a weekly series?”

So I reduced the amount of lines and made Sasuke’s image closer to that of Naruto.

In my opinion, Sasuke’s face and movements are the hardest to draw. And if I’m not careful, his face ends up looking too adult. I’ve never had a child character with eyes like that in any of my mangas, so it’s very hard to draw.

He’s the character I have to take the most care with, and maybe because of that, he’s my favorite character. – Kishimoto

Clearly, Kishimoto struggled quite a lot with drawing Sasuke. In fact, at one point, Kishimoto realized that he wanted to pay more attention to Sasuke’s facial expressions, and this was simply because he wanted fans to understand his point of view more. After all, Sasuke is not an irrational character who does things on a whim. But, he felt he was failing to convey the proper emotion with his facial expressions. It was at this point that Kishimoto’s editor decided to force him to redraw Sasuke’s facial expressions on many occasions, until he eventually got them right. According to Kishimoto, this was quite difficult for him to accomplish. Sasuke was certainly not the only character who gave him trouble when it comes to facial expressions. Sakura, who later went on to become Sasuke’s wife, was also very difficult to draw, especially in terms of facial expressions when it comes to the Naruto series.

Sakura appeared in a good chunk of the story and just like Sasuke, forced Kishimoto to redraw several panels. Kakashi was yet another character who gave Kishimoto quite a lot of trouble, and in his case, things were especially difficult because of his facial mask. Kakashi’s mouth being hidden essentially meant had very little to work with yet had to convey his reactions all the same.

Kishimoto Didn’t Know How To Proceed With Sasuke’s Character Arc

Sasuke’s Character Arc Gave Kishimoto Trouble

While Sasuke’s character design and facial expressions by themselves caused quite a lot of problems for Masashi Kishimoto, that certainly wasn’t all. There was more to Sasuke that gave Kishimoto quite a lot of trouble, and it was his character arc. When Sasuke was introduced, Kishimoto had a rough idea of what to do with him. To give him a proper goal and make him stronger, Kishimoto introduced a certain someone whom Sasuke wanted to kill. This person later turned out to be Itachi Uchiha. In the quest for power, Sasuke left the village and Naruto tried to bring him back. Then, the battle between Naruto and Sasuke, which happened towards the end of part one, finally took place. When Sasuke left Konoha, it was a very frustrating moment for Kishimoto.

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According to him, it was at this point that he realized that he did not know in which direction to take Sasuke further down the line. Of course, the plot would still circle around Sasuke’s eventual battle with Itachi, but as far as Sasuke’s personal growth goes, Kishimoto had no idea what steps to take next. That said, it is safe to say that one thing led to another and Kishimoto successfully managed to create a very compelling character in Sasuke. Even after Sasuke left the village, Kishimoto continued making his plotline incredibly exciting. When he accomplished his goal of killing Itachi, Sasuke still remained to be one of the most exciting characters in Naruto, all the way until the very end. In fact, Sasuke could quite easily pass for being the best character in the entire series, and that is what makes him truly special.

Sasuke’s Difficulties Made Him Kishimoto’s Favorite

Kishimoto’s Heart Is Set On Sasuke Uchiha

All the struggles eventually led to Sasuke being his favorite character. Kishimoto has never hidden the fact that he adores Sasuke and that he is one of his favorite characters to draw, if not the favorite. Along with Naruto Uzumaki, there doesn’t seem to be any character he adores as much as Sasuke. From the Akatsuki, he mentioned Hidan being his favorite, but overall, it is highly likely that Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto are his favorite characters. Kishimoto’s focus on these two characters throughout the run of the Naruto series is proof of that.

There are not many characters that Kishimoto adores as much as Sasuke, and his bias towards the character is quite clear for the fans to see as well. After all, he did spend quite a lot of time writing his complex character arc, and at the same time, drawing his incredible character design as well. Kishimoto created a phenomenal character in Sasuke Uchiha, and one that will go on to be remembered for ages to come.

Naruto is available to read on the MangaPlus and the Shonen Jump app. Fans can read the official release and support the author by doing so.

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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