Naruto creator says Marvel's Spider-Man 'left a huge impression on me'

Manga creator Masashi Kishimoto says one Spider-Man movie 'left a huge impression on me'

In the lead-up to Spider-Man: Brand New Day's debut in movie theaters, Disney and Marvel Studios are looking back at the franchise's history. In a new promotional documentary about Spider-Man and the wall-crawler's live-action film franchise, interviews with the cast, crew, and creative team offer new insight into the development and impact of Marvel's movies.

One famous creator interviewed for the Disney Plus documentary, Generations: The Evolution of Spider-Man, is Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the beloved manga series Naruto. Kishimoto is apparently a die-hard Spidey fan, saying that Peter Parker and Spider-Man have had a major influence on his own comics work.

"Back when my wife and I were dating, when she was still my girlfriend, the very first movie we saw on a date was Spider-Man," Kishimoto revealed in the interview. "It left a huge impression on me." According to the creator of Naruto, "the anguish of [Peter Parker's double life as a superhero] is something I find really appealing about Spider-Man."

That appeal extends to "the duality of the villains," Kishimoto added. "And so in Naruto, in my own work too, the enemies aren’t just evil from the start, they are carrying something that makes them that way. It’s something I consciously try to portray as well."

To illustrate Kishimoto's Spider-fandom, the writer and artist behind Naruto wears an Amazing Fantasy #15 T-shirt and a Spider-Man logo pin on his lapel. The pin comes from a limited-edition Japanese DVD box set called the Spider-Man "Amazing Box" released for Sam Raimi's 2002 film, Spider-Man.

But Kishimoto appears to favor a different Spider-Man movie, which is certainly an unexpected (and potentially controversial) choice. "I absolutely love The Amazing Spider-Man 2," he said. "I feel like this Peter Parker is the one who bears the heaviest burden of 'great responsibility.'" Kudos, then, to Andrew Garfield for dazzling the creator of Naruto with his Peter Parker prowess.

Kishimoto appears in Generations: The Evolution of Spider-Man alongside two other Japanese figures who admire Spider-Man: Junya Enoki, the Japanese voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Takemi Okumura, the "Ginza Spider-Man" who dresses up as the web-slinger in Tokyo's swish Ginza district. Kishimoto's appearance in the documentary is notable for another reason: Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton is also directing, co-writing, and co-producing a live-action Naruto movie for Lionsgate. Thus, Kishimoto heaps praise on the director's work.

"I’ve seen several of Director Destin's previous works, and it’s rare to find someone who can handle the dramatic parts, directing human emotions, while also shooting action, really cool action, doing both," Kishimoto said.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in movie theaters on July 31. Generations: The Evolution of Spider-Man is now streaming on Disney Plus. Cretton's Naruto movie doesn't have a release date, but the director has started a global casting search for the movie's key roles.