Masashi Kishimoto
For the ninth "Naruto" film, "", Kishimoto was responsible for both the story planning and characters' designs. To promote the film, Kishimoto worked in "Motion Comic Naruto" a DVD that shows scenes from the manga in 3D that was given to the first 1.5 million people who went to the cinema. Regarding "Naruto"s publication Kishimoto told Tetsuya Nishio in July 2012 that the series would take over a year and a half to end. However, Kishimoto admitted that it now appears that the manga will continue beyond that timeframe. In April 2012, it was announced that Kishimoto would publish a one-shot version of his long-postponed mafia manga, "Mario", in "Jump Square", based on the rough, 160-page manuscript he began working on before "Naruto" became serialized.
Jiraiya (Naruto)
Several manga, anime, and video game reviewers have praised the character of Jiraiya. Davey Jones of "ActiveAnime" regarded Jiraiya’s training with Naruto as good comic relief and stated that the two characters are similar. "AnimeonDVD"s Justin Rich praised Jiraiya’s introduction in the series, describing him as a funny character. Jason Van Horn of "IGN" commented on Jiraiya's relationship with Naruto, writing that "they share so much in common". Matt Shingleton of "DVDTimes" viewed Jiraiya as "the greatest character Masashi Kishimoto [had] ever created in this series" and further said that "besides the fact he fills the comical pervert archetype [he is] one of the strongest characters in the series and just about everything about him is rough and unpredictable". Jason Thompson praised the character's Sage Mode, commenting that it would make a good cosplay. He also expressed shock at the character's death while fighting Pain, considering him a sympathetic person. Luke Carroll of "Anime News Network" enjoyed David Lodge's role as Jiraiya's English voice actor.