The official twitter account of Naruto and Boruto revealed the preliminary results of Naruto‘s worldwide character popularity poll, titled NARUTOP99, on Dec 23, 2022. And surprisingly, the protagonists of the series, Naruto, Sasuke and even Sakura, have missed out on the top three spots of the poll.

According to the tweet, over a million votes have already been cast since the poll officially began. The top characters in the preliminary results are as follows:

1. Minato Namikaze
2. Itachi Uchiha
3. Shisui Uchiha
4. Naruto Uzumaki
5. Kakashi Hatake
6. Madara Uchiha
7. Jiraiya
8. Sasuke Uchiha
9. Sakura Haruno
10. Obito Uchiha

The polls began on Dec 17, 2022 and voting will continue till Jan 31, 2022. Every fan can vote once a day online till the period ends. The results of NARUTOP99 will be announced on April 2023.

A total of 488 characters from Naruto manga are part of the popularity poll, with top 99 characters chosen based on the votes of fans from all over the world.

The character who comes first in the popularity poll will star in an original short manga, whereas the top 20 characters in the poll will receive special illustrations by author Masashi Kishimoto.

The voting process is online and can be done on the official website of NARUTOP99.

An official trailer and special illustration along with a message from Kishimoto was revealed at Jump Festa 2023.

Based on the manga series of the same name by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto anime began airing on Oct 3, 2002. Produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex, the first part of Naruto anime aired from 2002 to 2007 with 220 episodes. A sequel titled Naruto: Shippuden began airing the same year, and continued till 2017 before ending.

Naruto: Shippuden aired for a total of 500 episodes.

The main story then continued, focusing on the younger generation, with Naruto’s son Boruto, playing the titular character in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

Source: Twitter