Hunter Exam Inspired the Chunin Exam Arc in Naruto
The Chunin Exam is still one of the most memorable arcs among Naruto fans, and recently, Kousuke Yahagi, who worked as an editor on the Naruto manga, revealed details about how the arc was created and explained that Hunter x Hunter had an influence on Naruto.
According to Yahagi, during a meeting to discuss what would happen in Naruto after the first few arcs, Masashi Kishimoto revealed that he had absolutely NOTHING planned! It was then that the two started brainstorming ideas together.
Hunter Exam Inspired the Chunin Exam Arc in Naruto
At the time, Yahagi was also working as an editor for Hunter x Hunter, created by Yoshihiro Togashi. It had been a little over a year since the Hunter Exam arc had ended in Hunter x Hunter.
Because of this, Yahagi had a simple idea: suggest that Naruto should also have an exam involving several characters.
“It hadn’t been long since the Hunter Exam,” the editor explained in an interview with YouTuber Mugen. Since Kishimoto still didn’t know what to do after the Land of Waves arc, Yahagi suggested creating the Chunin Exams.
The Hunter Exam arc was the first arc of the Hunter x Hunter manga, running from 1998 to 1999, while the Chunin Exam arc began in 2000.
The arc eventually became one of the most popular moments in Naruto, introducing important characters, memorable battles, and putting Sasuke, Naruto, Neji, Gaara and the others in situations that would completely change the story.
But interestingly, Yahagi revealed that not everyone liked his decisions.
The editor was even called an “idiot”
During the manga’s serialization, Yahagi received criticism from fans online. At the time, the internet was still far from what we know today, but the complaints reached him through Kishimoto himself.
The editor revealed that some readers even called him an “idiot.”
The criticism led Yahagi and Kishimoto to change some of the events planned for the end of the arc. The two realized they couldn’t simply continue in the same direction, so they changed some details and decided to take the story in a new direction.
This may have contributed to important events such as Orochimaru’s appearance during the Chunin Exams and the beginning of the attack on Konoha.
Interestingly, Kishimoto had previously told a slightly different version of the story in an old interview. The author said that his editors practically pressured him into creating a tournament arc to introduce several characters at once.
Kishimoto wanted to continue with slower-paced missions and even said that creating a tournament of that size would have been extremely difficult for him.
If the story had followed the original plans, however, the winner of the Chunin Exams would probably have been another character: Shikamaru.
In the end, the arc became one of the major reasons behind Naruto’s success. And to think it all started because Kishimoto basically looked at his editor and had no idea what to do after the Land of Waves arc.
via Mugen