When Masashi Kishimoto first created Naruto , the character was far removed from the orange-clad young ninja who would eventually become one of the most recognisable figures in manga and anime. The origins of the franchise can be traced to a one-shot Kishimoto created in 1997, several years before the serialized manga appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump . That early version was centred on a fox-spirit character and differed substantially from the ninja villages, rival shinobi and battles that would later define the series. Over time, Kishimoto continued to revise the character, his surroundings and the central premise, eventually turning an early experimental idea into a long-running manga that would grow into a global entertainment franchise.
