Hey there! So I gotta say, I’m honoured and more than a little humbled to have been asked by VIZ Media to interview Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto live in front of an audience for two of his biggest events at New York Comic Con this year. So, I’ll be in New York (with Andrew, YAY!) next week for the Comic Con, which is always an interesting affair. I don’t think Andrew has ever actually been to a real Convention before? This will be a whole thing.
Anyway! The big news. First up, I’ll be interviewing Kishimoto-sensei at the Apple Store in SoHo, Wednesday, October 7th, at 7pm. Tickets to this event are free, but you need to register ahead of time with your Apple account at https://s.apple.com/dE4R6Z9o6N. This interview is going to focus mainly on creative process. I’m excited to see how it goes. I’m told that this interview will be filmed too, so I’ll live on forever in infamy (and people not in New York might be able to see it).
The second event I’ll be hosting is the big one, where 2000 members of the general public will see me ask Kishimoto-sensei about everything under the sun, including what it’s like to end a massive international entertainment franchise. I will seriously be hosting an event with 2000 Naruto fans in the audience, it’s crazy to me. This event is Thursday, October 8th, from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, on the Main Stage at the Javits Center. Honestly the process to get in sounds a little complicated, so if you really wanna see it, you can figure out how at http://nycc15.mapyourshow.com/6_0/sessions/session-details.cfm?ScheduleID=164. You need an NYCC badge to get into this one.
There’s a bunch more of Kishimoto-sensei in New York, I think, you can check it at http://nycc15.mapyourshow.com/6_0/sessions/index.cfm?srch-type=sessionkeyword&srch-query=Masashi%20Kishimoto&srch-showresults=true&CFID=153080176&CFTOKEN=4329b13f7318b79d-42BB2173-D3F9-64D7-082DB629744DD110.
So, yeah. This is an incredible opportunity, and I’ve already written up all my questions for him and what not, and I’m just hoping we get to ask all of them. I mean, this guy created something like 14,000 pages of manga on one series, not to mention the global media empire and Naruto effectively leading the charge in the This really is an unprecedented opportunity for me and I’m grateful to have been asked. I believe it’s his first time in the U.S., and he’s one of the bestselling and most popular comics creators in the world, and yeah, it’s gonna be a whole thing.
See you in New York!
– Christopher