Naruto fans crown most popular character – and he's getting a spin-off
The huge fan poll received around 4.6 million votes.
After a massive poll saw around 4.6 million Naruto fans vote for their favourite ever character from the manga series, a winner has been crowned – and Naruto Uzumaki's father, Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage, has taken the top spot.
Minato beat out every other character from the hit manga series, including Sakura Haruno who came in third with 489,619 votes, and Itachi Uchiha who came in second with 505,014 votes. Minato trounced both of those with 792,257 votes.
Now that the manga's most popular character ever has been found, creator Masashi Kishimoto has revealed that he's working on a spin-off manga for Minato, even though he was actually rooting for a different winner.
Kishimoto said in a post on the official Naruto website: "Thank you for the incredible amount of votes! It was fun seeing how results varied from region to region. I was shocked to see Minato at the top for all regions, and the fact that Sakura is so beloved by many people around the world made me proud as a writer."
He continued: "To tell you the truth, I was actually rooting for Kurama. I was planning on drawing only the top 20 characters, but I really wanted to add Kurama, who was close at 22nd... So I ended up including him and Guy, who was in 21st place!"
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Kishimoto added: "Sorry for completely ignoring the original plan to have the top 20 characters for the 20th anniversary because of my personal attachment.
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"Right now I'm working on the short manga for Minato who placed 1st. While trying to make a story that would match the expectations of his fans, I ended up with more pages than I had originally anticipated. Please look forward to the secret story behind Minato's jutsu! I want to thank you all very much again for voting!"
The poll was first announced in December 2022, with fans having until 31st January 2023 to cast their vote. The rest of the top 10 in the final results included Shisui Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakumo Hatake, Sasuke Uchiha, Madara Uchiha and Hinata Hyuga.
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