Narutards Despair: Naruto “Will End Soon”

Naruto mangaka Masashi Kishimoto has revealed that Naruto is swiftly headed to its conclusion, much to the despair of fans and publishers alike.

In a recent interview with Asahi, he said that Naruto is “building towards a climax,” that its ending is already determined, and that “all that is left is a dash up to the ending.”

Just how long this “dash” to the ending will take is of course of crucial importance given the notoriously glacial pace of shonen battle manga, but on that point he is silent.

Naruto fans have misgivings, although unlike Bleach there is not much doubt that an end is in sight:

“I’m glad he is going to conclude it cleanly, but I’ll be sad to see it end.”

“I’m curious as to how it will end.”

“What’ll we do without Naruto?”

“Wait for Kishimoto’s next work please. I’d like another Naruto type battle manga, but it’ll probably be something different.”

“He can always put out the odd Naruto gaiden if he feels like making some cash.”

“He says he started off with Naruto, an orphan character people could feel sorry for… what about Sasuke, Iruka, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Sai, Orocihmaru, Kabuto, Sasori, […], do something for them too! There are mountains of orphans in this work…”

“What about poor Yamato, a human experiment, do something for him!”

“I guess his thinking really changed after he became a father.”

“He talks about how he wanted to depict ‘bonds’ after he got married and became a father.

That would have been just before the skip, at around volume 20?

So for the next ten years he was showing Pain’s invasion and the many trials of Kyuubi training, how interesting…”