Masashi Kishimoto (岸本斉史, Kishimoto Masashi?, born November 8, 1974) is the Japanese manga artist, most well known for creating the manga series Naruto. His twin brother Seishi Kishimoto is also a manga artist and creator of the manga 666 Satan (also known as O-Parts Hunter).

Masashi Kishimoto is the creator of the Naruto manga series and so in
turn the anime as well. Born in the Okayama Prefecture on November 8,
1974 Kishimoto spent his younger days admiring the great manga artists
of his time such as Akira Toriyama the creator of the Dragon Ball and
Dr Slump series and Katsuhiro Ootomo for his work on "Akira". He would
spend his time imitating these great artists drawing characters such as
Son Goku and even entering a crayon drawing of Arale into a contest. It
was through this that Kishimoto made the decision to follow his idols
and become a professional manga artist.


As well as drawing Kishimoto had a love for the sport Baseball though
this love for playing the game would die out as he would draw more and
more. Not the smartest of people Kishimoto only ranked 38th out of 39
in his class at the end of High School which was a blow for Kishimoto
and ended his chances of going to college. Not to be down for too long
he continued to practice his drawing.


At first Kishimoto would imitate other people's art styles but came the
conclusion that these styles are too individual to be copied and
attempted to create his own. However his style still some what
reflected that of Ootomo. He continued to practice his manga drawings
until he started his professional career started when he submitted a
manga to Shueisha entitled "Karakuri". This manga proved to be a hit
and won him the Hop Step Award as well as giving him the chance to have
his manga published in Shonen Jump.


With this newfound success the Kishimoto at last gained confidence in
his work and it wasn’t long before he created the pilot manga for his
new series Naruto. The pilot manga contained many elements that would
later make their way into the final version. In 1999 Naruto made its
first appearance in Weekly Shonen Jump. From then on its popularity has
continued to soar allowing Kishimoto to be recognized as one of the
elites of the manga world. With Naruto still going today time can only
tell what more Kishimoto has in store for us.

Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明, Toriyama Akira?) born on April 5, 1955, in Kiyosu, Aichi, Japan,[2] is a widely known and acclaimed Japanese manga artist known mostly for his work in the Dragon Ball metaseries, as well as the media franchise of the same name which he began in 1984. Toriyama's artwork is influenced by Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians.[2]

He debuted in 1979 with the story Wonder Island, published in Weekly Shonen Jump, and first gained popularity for the manga and anime series Dr. Slump, originally serialized weekly in Shonen Jump from 1980 to 1984. In 1982, he won the Shogakukan Manga Award for Dr. Slump per best shōnen title of the year.

In 1984, Toriyama was responsible for developing Dragon Ball which was initially serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. It became an instant accomplishment—primarily selling over 35,000,000 copies in Japan, Dragon Ball eventually became a record-breaking best seller with over 120,000,000 copies sold.[3] Aside from the Japanese fame, the series was equally successful internationally as well, including in the United States and Latin America.

Toriyama is mostly acknowledged for his major hit Dragon Ball. This work was one of the linchpins for what is accepted as the Golden Age of Jump. Its success "forced" Toriyama to continue working on Dragon Ball
from 1984 to 1995. During that eleven-year period, he produced 519
chapters, collected into 42 volumes. Each volume has an average of 200
pages. Moreover, the benefit of the manga led to an animated television program; it brought forth the famed Dragon Ball Z, numerous feature-length animated movies, several video games, and mega-merchandising. Though Toriyama had been planning to end Dragon Ball for a long time, his editors agreed to let him end the manga so he could "take some new steps in life," as he put it.[4] Due to the series popularity, the anime still continued with Dragon Ball GT. Toriyama was still involved in the project by supervising it's production, although in a limited way.[5] The Dragon Ball anime, including installments that followed, spawned over 500 episodes made in Japan, and are produced and licensed for North America and Australia by FUNimation.

TITEKUBO

Born Noriaki Kubo (久保 宣章, Kubo Noriaki?) in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan,[1] he is a Japanese manga artist who writes under the pen name Tite Kubo (久保 帯人, Kubo Taito?). He is perhaps best known for his manga series Bleach.

Following the cancellation of his prior creation, Zombie Powder, Kubo submitted Bleach to Weekly Shonen Jump hoping that it would be published; the story was rejected, however, as the editors claimed it was too similar to Yoshihiro Togashi's hit manga YuYu Hakusho.[1] Akira Toriyama, creator of the Dragon Ball series, sent a letter of encouragement to Kubo which inspired him to continue working on Bleach and, as of 2002, the manga has since been printed and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, becoming an instant success.[1]

Bleach (2001—present, Weekly Shonen Jump, Shueisha. Collected in 30+ volumes).

[edit] Artbooks
Bleach All Colour But The BlackBleach Official Bootleg