Blade of the Immortal
While as a child Kishimoto enjoyed reading manga, he was inspired to write one after seeing a promotional image for the film "Akira". This made him analyze the artwork of "Akira"s original author, Katsuhiro Otomo, as well as Akira Toriyama, another artist he admired. Realizing both had their own style regarding the designs, Kishimoto decided to draw manga while crafting his own images. While attending art school, Kishimoto was also an avid reader of Hiroaki Samura's "Blade of the Immortal", and extensively studied Samura's page layouts, action sequences, and anatomical techniques.