Masashi Kishimoto
Following the conclusion of "Naruto", Kishimoto became involved in the "Start of a New Era Project" commemorating the manga's conclusion and 15th anniversary. On the last page of the final chapter, "Weekly Shonen Jump" announced that a spin-off miniseries, also authored by Kishimoto, would be released in 2015. The series, "", ran from April to July 2015. Beyond this, Kishimoto was also heavily involved with two canonical movies, "" and "", as he personally supervised both movies, and illustrated several light novels. When asked by Boruto Uzumaki's voice actress Yūko Sanpei to continue making "Naruto" movies, Kishimoto stated that he was taking a break and could not physically do so.
Nina Matsumoto
Matsumoto first came to the attention of the comic industry through her widely distributed artwork "Simpsonzu", a manga stylized parody artwork of "The Simpsons" cast. After the image was picked up by digg, it became one of the most popular deviations ever submitted to DeviantArt and caught the attention of Bongo Comics as well as editor Dallas Middaugh of Del Rey Manga and even that of "The Simpsons" creator, Matt Groening. Middaugh read Matsumoto's long-running webcomic "Saturnalia" and then invited her to submit a proposal which became the graphic novel "Yōkaiden".