In the May issue of the Japanese magazine “Da Vinci,” the author of the manga series Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto, sat down for an interview with My Hero Academia author Kôhei Horikoshi to talk about their respective series and their work as manga artists.

During the interview, both authors discuss the series One Piece and its author Eiichiro Oda on a few occasions while talking about the stress and fatigue that comes with drawing manga while doing a series in Weekly Shonen Jump.

KISHIMOTO: If I’m being honest, every manga author is mentally on edge while they’re serialized. I was talking about this the other day with Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece, as well and… well, everyone’s always on pins and needles, I mean, they’re always scared. They’re afraid of not being able to draw anything good, which means they won’t gain any popularity, and the series may be dropped. I believe everyone’s working to the point of breaking mentally, including me. During my serialization I was breaking out in cold sweats to the point that if I’d wring my T-shirt out there’d be sweat pouring out. I probably shouldn’t be talking about this too much.

Horikoshi was relieved to hear that he wasn’t the only for whom his serialization was mentally taking a toll, but that it’s more of a general thing for all Jump authors alike.

They went on to talk about the character Naruto, their editors at Jump, and the influence of people around them, such as Kishimoto’s first editor of 9 years and the current Editor-In-Chief of Jump Square: Kôsuke Yahagi. The interview finally ended with the mindset needed to be able to sustain a serialization in Jump. Horikoshi mentioned that his goal was to get himself published, and this time to be able to stand his ground against One Piece or Naruto, to which Kishimoto agreed, commenting that:

KISHIMOTO: Definitely, that feeling is really important. I believe it’s not thinking “I want to draw a manga like One Piece” or ” I want to draw a manga like Naruto,” but thinking “I want to beat them” that’s important. And even more than just draw manga, you have to draw while trying to clear the wall that is One Piece, which is a pretty big wall to clear. I was also drawing along while thinking that, but the size of that wall… it was quite something (laughs). When I think about how you’ll be challenging that wall yourself from now on, I get excited. Next time I meet Oda, I’ll tell him that “I want you to continue on, trying to defeat Horikoshi!”

HORIKOSHI: Scary!

You can read the rest of the interview, as well as an conversation between Naruto’s three manga editors and an interview with Naruto Voice Actress Junko Takeuchi and more in the May issue of Da Vinci (Japanese only).

Be sure to check out our upcoming translation of the Kishimoto x Oda interview, to be released in the upcoming Naruto Exhibition official Guidebook.