Tokyo: The recently concluded Jump Festa 2023 announced Narutop99, a global popularity poll being held in celebration of Naruto’s 20th anniversary.
Under this poll, the character with the maximum number of votes will receive their own manga series drawn by Naruto’s manga, Masashi Kishimoto himself.
The voting process is currently ongoing and will conclude on January 31, 2023. Kishimoto will announce the new manga series after the voting ends.
An all-new ninja war is being waged right now, but rather than executing shinobi techniques from tree branch to tree branch, the field of battle is online in the Naruto global character popularity poll called NARUTOP99. And after a week of collecting votes from fans all over the world, totaling up to a whopping one million and counting, the current ranking has been revealed:
1. Minato Namikaze (Fourth Hokage)
2. Itachi Uchiha
3. Shisui Uchiha
4. Naruto Uzumaki
5. Kakashi Hatake
6. Madara Uchiha
7. Jiraiya
8. Sasuke Uchiha
9. Sakura Haruno
10. Obita Uchiha
#NARUTOP99 速報発表！
投票総数は早くも100万票突破！
栄えある速報1位を獲得したのは・・・？最終結果はまだまだ分からない！
引き続き投票をお待ちしています↓https://t.co/KpGO3QIp7U pic.twitter.com/pIuJWQyAE9
— NARUTO・BORUTO【原作公式】 (@NARUTO_kousiki) December 23, 2022
Narutop99 is the first voting poll for the series that is being conducted on a global scale. The poll, which is being held in celebration of Naruto’s 20th anniversary, allows fans to vote for their favorite character in the Narutoverse. There are over 450 characters for people to choose from.
Fans will be allowed to cast one vote per day up to January 31, 2023, and the results of the polls will be revealed in April 2023. The top 20 characters in the popularity pole will be illustrated personally by Masashi Kishimoto himself. They will also be made into special figurines by Bandai.
Kishimoto shared the following message:
“NARUTO has done many character popularity surveys in Japan’s Shōnen Jump magazine, but this is our first time doing a vote on a global scale, so I’m excited to see which characters will make it to the top ranks! I’m eagerly awaiting lots of votes from fans around the world!!”
Fans can visit the official Japanese website to participate in Narutop99. Once on the website, they need to click on the Vote Now Link to access the selection page. After that, they can choose from one of the 488 Naruto characters and pick the one they want to vote for.
There is no need to log in or create an account. Fans can vote by going on the website, choosing which character they want to vote for, and mentioning their own gender and age. After completing these three steps, the vote will automatically be submitted.
