'Narutop 99' Global Character Popularity Survey Results Announced

Shueisha's Jump Comics recently announced the results of the global character popularity poll "Narutop 99" on their official YouTube channel. The poll, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Naruto franchise, revealed that the winner, Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, will appear in an original short manga by franchise creator Masashi Kishimoto.



The voting, which took place between December 21 and January 31, saw approximately 4,600,000 participants, with Minato receiving 792,257 votes. Kishimoto drew an illustration featuring the top 22 characters, including Kurama in 22nd place, as he wanted to include the popular character in the artwork. Further details about the upcoming one-shot manga featuring Minato will be announced at a later date.

This global poll marked the first time fans worldwide could vote for their favorite Naruto character, with each participant allowed one vote per day on the "Narutop 99" website.

Masashi Kishimoto concluded the main Naruto manga in November 2014 after a 15-year serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump. He later worked on the one-volume sequel manga Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring and contributed to the script, character designs, and production supervision for the Boruto movie sequel.

The Naruto franchise includes multiple TV anime series, anime films, and original video anime. The original Naruto TV anime aired from 2002 to 2007, followed by the sequel series Naruto Shippūden, which ran from 2007 to 2017.