The results of the “Narutop 99” global character popularity poll, which was held in honour of the 20th anniversary of the Naruto franchise, were streamed on Thursday on Shueisha’s Jump Comics’ official YouTube channel. The winner of the poll, Minato Namikaze the Fourth Hokage, will be followed by an original short manga by the franchise’s original illustrator, Masashi Kishimoto.
Kishimoto created a picture with the top 22 characters in it. He said he wanted to include Kurama, who finished 22nd, so he added the numbers #21 and #22 to the illustration.
https://youtu.be/gaGvJeB1gd8
The poll’s top 99 characters are pictured below:
Kishimoto also shared comments regarding the poll:
Between December 21 and January 31, there were approximately 4,600,000 votes cast in the poll. With 792,257 votes, Minato was declared the winner. At a later time, details about the upcoming one-shot starring Minato will be made public.
One vote per fan per day could be cast for the character of their choice on the “Narutop 99” website. This was the first time a franchise-wide character poll was conducted.
After 15 years of publication in Weekly Shonen Jump, Kishimoto ceased serialising his primary Naruto manga in November 2014. The one-volume Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring manga was the next work he produced. In addition to overseeing the production of the Boruto-Naruto the Movie sequel, Kishimoto worked on the narrative and character designs.
Many anime for television, animated features, and original video anime are all part of the Naruto franchise. From 2002 until 2007, the Naruto television animation was broadcast. The 2007 debut of the Naruto Shippden anime sequel series marked its 2017 conclusion.
Starting in September, four “all-new” episodes of the Naruto television anime will be released to commemorate its 20th birthday. In October, Studio Pierrot started streaming a movie called “Road of Naruto” that condenses 20 years of Naruto anime history into 10 minutes. New animation footage may be seen in the video.
The Boruto sequel manga was first published in Weekly Shonen Jump in May 2016 by Mikie Ikemoto and Uky Kodachi. In July 2019, the manga was transferred to Shueisha’s V Jump publication. Beginning with the manga’s 52nd instalment in November 2020, Masashi Kishimoto succeeded Kodachi as its author.
The television anime based on the manga, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, debuted in April 2017. The anime was streamed on Crunchyroll and Viz Media simulcast it on Hulu as it aired in Japan. In September 2018, the anime’s Toonami block on Adult Swim premiered. The anime is being released on home video by Viz Media. On March 26, the anime’s Part I came to a close, and production on Part II was approved.