'Naruto' creator Kishimoto reveals details of new series

The creator of the highly successful manga "Naruto," Masashi Kishimoto, recently revealed that he is working on a brand-new series to be released sometime in 2018.

The still to be named manga has been announced on site during the "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" panel, where Kishimoto was also discussing details regarding the latest installment of the Naruto project's Original Video Animation (OVA) series.

During the panel, he allowed the audience to see some scans of the images he had been drafting for the new series. Based on the sketches, the character designs are vaguely seen but can still be made out. The spread on the far left shows two different characters: a muscular, middle-aged man on the top panel and a younger character who seems to be wearing glasses at the bottom. With Kishimoto's preference for making young underdogs his protagonists, it can be assumed that this character might be the main hero for the series.

The middle panel, while it is hard to make anything of clearly, suggests that the anime will indeed be using sword-fighting and martial arts elements Kishimoto projects had been known for. This same style has been a key element in the action scenes for "Naruto" and "Boruto."

The panel to the right reveals another element present in the Mangaka's works: non-human characters. The page depicts what seems to be a talking animal, possibly a cat sporting a samurai-like appearance while also holding a sword.

It is no surprise that the author would include anthropomorphic characters in his story. His previous work already includes talking dogs and other animals such as snakes and frogs. In fact, his initial character designs for "Naruto" had the third hokage depicted as a dog, although he later decided against this.

This will be Kishimoto's first work after the completion of "Naruto " in 2014. The author took a break for a short time to get his creative juices flowing and is now ready to launch his next big hit.