Goku & Naruto Are More Alike Than You Think

Growing irritation over the fact that Goku can easily defeat Naruto and would have some trouble with weaker Naruto characters, has long pitted the two protagonists as rivals in what-if scenarios, but never as allies or best of friends.

Firstly, Naruto’s character development is based off of Goku’s lighthearted, nonchalant character. As stated by the Los Angeles Times, Naruto’s creator, Masashi Kishimoto was interviewed concerning the character’s conception.

Masashi explicitly states the following.

“When Naruto was born, it was more like he somehow came out, rather than my creating him from some inspiration,” he affirmed. “The only image I had in mind was a character who was a naughty boy. I was a poor student, but unlike Naruto, I was the type of poor student who gave up easily and pondered things that weren’t worth pondering. I wanted Naruto to be different. He was created based on my self-image of my own childhood, but different from how I really was.” – Kishimoto

The idea started off with himself, which is the usual way artists create characters; from their own life experiences. From there, he gave Naruto context using successful media fantasies he admired.

“I watch a lot of movies, and I tend to be influenced by scenes that intrigue me, that make me want to use the same effects or technique,” Kishimoto explains. “I once adopted [actor-director] Takeshi Kitano’s technique of shooting objects from a great distance to stifle the emotion in the scene. I like the way Quentin Tarantino creates a scene using a series of close-ups or showing very cool images of a person or people walking on some ordinary street in slow motion.”

“I wish I could achieve that kind of slow-motion effect in manga, but it’s rather difficult to draw; the only things we can play with are tones of black and white. I also like Michael Bay’s technique of shooting a scene against the background light. I’d like to try this in manga, but again it would be rather difficult.” – Kishimoto