At Shueisha’s Jump Festa 2023 event, a worldwide Naruto character popularity poll called NARUTOP99 was launched to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. The anime production team released a promotional video announcing the start of voting for the poll, which will run from December 17, 2022 until January 31, 2023.
Fans can put in one vote for their favorite character every day on the official NARUTOP99 website, which will update itself every midnight so fans can vote again. The final results will be announced in April 2023 and posted on the website and other social media channels.
Original manga creator Masashi Kishimoto will draw an original short manga featuring the top character with the most votes in the poll. In addition, the top 20 characters will be made into figures by Bandai and Kishimoto will draw special illustrations for each of them.
The NARUTOP99 character poll marks the first time a character poll for the series is open worldwide. To commemorate the launch of the poll, Kishimoto shared a short message along with a newly illustrated visual featuring Naruto. In the visual, he expressed his excitement that the character popularity surveys from Weekly Shonen Jump magazine are now open to fans worldwide. He tells fans that he is eagerly awaiting votes from everyone around the world and can’t wait to see which characters make the top ranks.
Meanwhile, the cover for the second issue of Saikyou Jump features a redesigned Naruto cover that pays homage to its first cover illustration in 1999.
The Naruto franchise has received numerous announcements at Jump Festa 2023 this past weekend, including an adaptation of Naruto: Sasuke’s Story — The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust and a new entry for the Live Spectacle Naruto stage play.
Kishimoto ran his Naruto manga in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from September 21, 1999 to November 10, 2014 under the Jump Comics imprint. A total of 72 tankoubon volumes have been released in total. The manga has inspired a long-running television anime, films, novels, music, artbooks, a collectible trading card game, and many more.
Source: NaruTop 99 Official Website
