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It is hard to find anyone in the manga and anime industry who hasn’t been directly influenced by Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. For over 25 years, One Piece has been showing the rest of the world how to deliver big stories and iconic villains on a weekly basis. Turns out, Naruto’s creator was paying attention and taking notes – and decided that he wanted to do the opposite of One Piece’s approach to creating villains.

With some exceptions, most One Piece villains have been classic bad guys. They do bad things because they are bad, selfish, or both. That approach works well with a protagonist like Luffy, who himself represents the concept of freedom and liberation, but it wasn’t what Mashashi Kishimoto, Naruto’s creator, wanted for his series.

“It’s true that I wanted to tell human stories,” he told an event in France last year in a quote that has been translated by Twitter/X user @HowlXThree. “From the start, I had opportunities to introduce characters as super villains. But since One Piece was already doing that, I wanted to do something different with Naruto. My villain characters also had a story.”

The comparison to One Piece is apt here, as it highlights how Kishimoto and Oda had different approaches to villains. The fact is, though, that neither is inherently wrong. Having a fleshed-out, human character who does bad things like in Naruto can highlight the darkness in all of humanity, while One Piece’s big and proud villains are perfect for the grand epic that Oda has spent more than 25 years creating.

To add a small wrinkle to this comparison – and to show that time is, in fact, a circle – Mikio Ikemoto, the former assistant to Kishimoto and current artist of the Boruto manga, responded to the same question by saying how he didn’t want to copy the approach from Naruto. “I try not to duplicate what was done in Naruto. That’s why there are more purely evil villains in Boruto. Real villains.” 

"In the ninja world, those who don't follow rules are trash." as Obita Uchiha once said. And while we can't say these are rules, they are the king things you'll want to read next about Naruto: 

• How to watch Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden in order
• Want to visit the Ninja World? You can in 2026, as Naruto is getting the theme park treatment
• The 10 best Naruto arcs, ranked best to worst 
• 25 years later, Naruto's portrayal of a world tackling the sins of its past remains frustratingly relevant