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The results of “Naruto Top 99,” the first worldwide character popularity poll for “Naruto,” have been announced. In conjunction with this announcement, Kishimoto Masashi, the author of the original manga, has released newly drawn illustrations of the top 22 characters. In addition, a new manga focusing on Namikaze Minato, who won the first place, will also be drawn.

“NARUTO” is a ninja action manga series by Kishimoto Masashi that was serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump” from 1999 to 2014 and completed in 72 volumes.
The story follows the main character, the ninja Uzumaki Naruto, as he overcomes deadly battles with rivals and past fates in his quest to become the Hokage, the chief of the village of Konohagakure.

The series is highly popular not only in Japan but also overseas, with a total of more than 250 million copies of the comics sold worldwide, including digital editions.
Currently, the sequel “BORUTO -NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS-” is in development, as are “Naruto: Sasuke Retsuden Uchiha no Matsuei to Tenkyu no Hoshikuzu” and “Naruto: Kinoha Shinden Yusake Ninpocho”, which are comic adaptations of the original novel.

The anime started on TV Tokyo affiliated channels from 2002, and it was broadcast as “Naruto: Shippuden” deom 2007 to March 2017. In October 2022, the 20th anniversary of the TV broadcast will be celebrated. In addition, a total of 11 animated feature films have been released.
In addition to numerous apps, games, and goods, exhibitions, 2.5D musicals, music festivals, and kabuki performances have also been held.

This was the first time in 11 years that a character popularity contest had been held for a work since the 7th Popularity Poll in 2011. For the first time, the poll was conducted online for the entire world, with approximately 4.6 million votes cast.
“Namikaze Minato,” which became overwhelmingly popular in all regions of the world and among all ages, took the prestigious first place, followed by “Uchiha Itachi” in second place. “Haruno Sakura” came in third place, who made an amazing catch-up in the final stages of the competition. For the final results of the top 100 and below, of those who narrowly missed making the “NARUTOP99” list, as well as other special data such as rankings by generation, please check the special webpage.

In addition, the short manga of the top-ranked character by the original author, Kishimoto Masashi, will be drawn in the volume of a “reading manga” with more pages due to the high expectations from fans all over the world.

As well as that, to commemorate the announcement of the “NARUTOP99” results, LINE stamps of the top 22 characters featured in Kishimoto’s illustrations are now on sale. We will keep an eye on the “NARUTOP99” related developments, including the continuation of the reading manga.

(c) Kishimoto Masashi, Scott/Shueisha