If there’s no editor, maybe manga Naruto would not be as popular as it is today.
Kosuke Yahagi was the series’ first editor Naruto who provided many suggestions and changes to the manga Naruto to become as popular as it is today.
What does he provide for the series? Naruto? Here are seven of them revealed in Kosuke Yahagi’s interview!
1. Stopped Kishimoto from making the teacher and Naruto into animal shapes
crunchyroll.com/naruto-shippudenInitial concept Naruto is about a demon fox who enters the body of a boy. It’s the same, but the difference is that Naruto’s character is the fox, while the boy is a new character.
Apart from that, Kurama who destroyed the village was initially conceptualized as Naruto’s father.
Well, Kishimoto really likes animal themes like this so much that he wants to make Naruto Uzumaki’s teacher in the shape of an animal Hokage also animal shape.
Kosuke Yahagi disagreed with this concept and suggested it to create a teacher and Hokage still human.
2. Create a Zabuza storyline and change Zabuza’s name
naruto.fandom.comPreviously, Kishimoto had not thought about creating a Zabuza storyline.
So the editor suggested a storyline outside the village to introduce ninjas from other villages to the world Naruto feels spacious.
At the beginning, Kishimoto wanted to name Zabuza “Momotaro”.
So the editor disagreed and suggested that his name be Zabuza instead, the “Momo” element that was still included was his family name, Momochi.
3. Haku was originally a bear, not a human
crunchyroll.com/Naruto ShippudenNot only did he want to name Zabuza as Momotaro, Kishimoto also had a different concept for Zabuza’s partner.
The plan is that Zabuza’s partner will still be named Haku, what is different is his appearance, or even his race.
Not a human hode, Haku was originally conceptualized by Kishimoto as a bear! Well, finally he was turned into a human by the editor.
Looks like Kishimoto is an animal lover, huh?
4. Gaara’s first name is Kotaro
naruto.fandom.comApart from Momotaro becoming Zabuza, there are other names that don’t feel cool when used.
When creating a cool and calm character like Gaara, Kishimoto conceptualized it with the name Kotaro!
Of course, the editor suggested changing his name to Gaara.
5. Sasuke as rival in the storyline there is because of the editor’s suggestion
netflix.com/NarutoCharacter rival Naruto in the initial concept apparently did not appear from the beginning of the story.
Maybe because in the late 90s and 90s the characters in manga Shonen Jump it’s not common to get it rival right at the beginning of the story.
So Kosuke Yahagi advised Kishimoto to enter it straight away rival Naruto from the start so that there is another motivation for the main character.
It seems that the concept and name Sasuke are the same because in the interview he only said that he suggested entering Sasuke sooner.
This suggestion was so influential, that in the modern era it is usually manga shonen have rivals. Like Yuno and Asta and Deku and Bakugou.
6. Create a name jutsu so it’s more consistent
twitter.com/Naruto_Anime_ENKishimoto initially conceptualized the moves within the storyline Naruto including random in the sense that there are techniques that are named, but there are similar techniques that are not named.
For example, Sasuke uses a fire technique, there is a name for it. But when Sasuke uses another fire technique it has no name and becomes a normal attack.
Apart from being similar to the story Shonen Jump other things, this is also what makes the character in Naruto always shout out their moves before attacking because the editor wants to make the names of the moves consistent.
7. Create an exam concept Chunin and enter all the characters at once
naruto.fandom.comThe editor came up with the idea of including all the characters in the Trial Chunin simultaneously.
Because of this, Exam Chunin in Naruto so like battle royale. It’s possible that Kishimoto’s initial concept had his character taking a test Chuunin per team or one by one.
So it’s actually similar to a normal test. Well, because you want to include lots of characters in the exam Chuninthe editor also helped conceptualize other new characters including Rock Lee.
So, those are the seven changes made by the editor Naruto. What do you think, if there weren’t these changes? Naruto will it remain popular?
First published 2020, republished May 7, 2024.
