Naruto, A shonen manga, is celebrating their 25th year anniversary of publication; this anniversary occurred on 9/21/2024, Masasih Kishimoto, the creator of the series gained serialization for his manga on 9/21/1999.
“25 years since serialization began on September 21st, 1999! The Naruto series still has plenty of announcements and developments to come, and we’re here with the latest!” stated the Naruto Official Website.
Since publication, the Naruto franchise has made over 11 billion dollars including its manga, anime and merchandise. This makes it one of the highest grossing series in the manga industry.
“The term ‘Big 3’ in anime refers to the immensely popular trio of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. It is a prestigious title that was coined in the early 2000s,” informed the website Sportskeeda “The influence of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece remains undeniable. It goes without saying that these three series paved the way for the world wide popularity of anime, all inspiring countless other creators.”
Naruto is considered one of the Big 3 of manga/anime which are responsible for reviving Shonen jump magazine after the end of the golden age (mid 1980s to mid 1990s). There was a void left by the end of heavyweight titles like Dragonball, Slam Dunk and Yu Yu Hakusho. The magazine was in danger of coming to an end due to their plummet in manga sales, so with the publication of the Big Three in the late 90’s and early 2000s, renewed interest came to the magazine and they were saved.
“Concerning Boruto, I have no worries because I wrote the major points of the story draft, which acts as a template to the end of the story,” …”I wouldn’t have done Boruto if Ikemoto-san hadn’t agreed to take over,” stated Kishimoto in an interview
Boruto Naruto Next Generation (part 1) and Boruto: Two Blue Vortex (part 2) are the sequel series to their original, Naruto. Boruto: Two Blue Vortex is still in serialization. The series has also done quite well in sales, with the first volume of Boruto Naruto Next Generations selling over 400,000 copies in the first 7 days of release. Boruto: Two blue Vortex has also gained quite the notoriety where it was reported on Sheisha’s Manga Plus App (an app where one can read manga online) that Boruto Two Blue Vortex had amassed 1.5 million views making it more popular than fan favorites like Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece. This goes to show how the legacy of Naruto lives on.
“There’s no telling what kind of pain I may face down the road, but if I stopped believing just because things get difficult, if the hero in this book were to change who he is then it would become a completely different story”… “No matter how much pain my own path brings, I’ll keep walking, cause that’s who Naruto is!” -Naruto Uzumaki.