While as a child Kishimoto enjoyed reading manga, he was inspired to write one after seeing a promotional image for the film "Akira". This made him analyze the artwork of "Akira"s original author, Katsuhiro Otomo, as well as Akira Toriyama, another artist he admired. Realizing both had their own style regarding the designs, Kishimoto decided to draw manga while crafting his own images. While attending art school, Kishimoto was also an avid reader of Hiroaki Samura's "Blade of the Immortal", and extensively studied Samura's page layouts, action sequences, and anatomical techniques. When Kishimoto was originally creating the "Naruto" series, he looked to other "shōnen" manga for influences while attempting to make his characters as unique as possible. Kishimoto cites Akira Toriyama's "Dragon Ball" series as one of his influences, noting that Goku, the protagonist, was a key factor when creating Naruto Uzumaki due to his energetic and mischievous personality. When redesigning three characters for the series, Kishimoto cites "The Matrix", one of his favorite movies, as an inspiration for their outfits. He has also cited Yoshihiro Togashi as one of his favorite manga authors, while the manga "Sasuke" by Sanpei Shirato, a series which Kishimoto likes, inspired Kishimoto in the development of the character Sasuke Uchiha.