New Naruto Manga’s Protagonist Will Be Chosen By Fans

In a recent announcement on the official Naruto anime website, the “Narutop99” popularity poll was introduced. The character who comes out on top will be granted a special one-shot manga adaptation by Masashi Kishimoto. And it looks like we may already have a good idea of who will come out on top, according to early poll results.

It’s been almost five years since “Naruto Shippuden” ended, and fans have been feeling its absence. The sequel series, “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations,” has not been able to fully satisfy their cravings. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Naruto,” the franchise released a commemorative video on YouTube featuring a remake of memorable scenes from the series.

The commemorative video also sparked excitement among fans, who began calling for a “Naruto” anime remake after seeing the improved animation in the video. While a full anime remake may not be in the works, the original author of “Naruto,” Masashi Kishimoto, will create a manga adaptation for a character from the original series. The character who wins the poll will be given this special treatment, with the manga adaptation being drawn by Kishimoto himself.

Masashi Kishimoto added his thoughts with the poll, alongside an illustration:

The text roughly translates to:

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!!

Masashi Kishimoto in his iillustration

You can vote for your favourite character in the survey by going to the link of the official Narutop99 website.

Who is winning the poll right now?

With over 1 million votes already been submitted, the “Naruto Franchise” took it to Twitter and decided to update fans on the person who is currently winning. The top 3 characters on the poll right now are:

• Minato Namikaze
• Itachi Uchiha
• Shisui Uchiha

The other top characters are in the picture below:

The official Twitter account will announce the popularity poll winner on 13 January 2022.

Original Character Stories of Naruto

Besides this poll winner, many original character stories have been published in the past. Sasuke and Kakashi have their light novel, “Naruto Retsuden Series”, written by Esaka Jun. Out of this, Sasuke’s story is already getting a manga adaptation by Kimura Shingo. Sasuke’s story will also appear in the Boruto anime as an anime adaptation.

Who did you cast your vote for in the “Narutop99” popularity poll? Do you have a favourite character from the “Naruto” series who you think deserves a one-shot manga with their story fully developed? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below! We’re all ears at Anime Senpai.

Source: Official Twitter