The recent Naruto anniversary character poll has finally ended, and in a surprise turn of events, Naruto and Sasuke did not make it to the top of the Naruto anniversary character poll.
This new poll is part of the iconic franchise’s 20th-anniversary celebration, and it was open to votes from fans all over the world.
Thus, this new poll is the latest definitive list of the most popular characters of the series.
While the final results didn’t differ from the initial results, there was an interesting development at the end.
Naruto’s Two Iconic Characters Fail to Reach the Top 5
If you ask fans of the series, chances are that Naruto and Sasuke are probably the most well-known characters in the anime.
In fact, when the manga was ongoing, the previous popularity polls had Naruto and Sasuke in the top three or the top five.
But now, in the anniversary poll, these two main characters did not rank as highly as many expected.
They only reached the top six and eighth places, respectively.
While Sasuke did not get into the top 5, two Uchiha members reached the top 5.
Meanwhile, Sakura and Kakashi of Team 7 also cracked the higher spots.
This might come as a surprise to some, especially Sakura as she ended up at the third post.
This is quite unexpected given that Sakura hasn’t ranked as highly in the previous polls.
Finally, the top spot is still occupied by Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage.
While he is a popular figure, his position at the top is impressive given he didn’t really appear much in the anime.
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Naruto 20th Anniversary Character Poll Complete Results
Here’s the complete list of the top 20 characters in the anniversary poll results:
- Minato Namikaze
- Itachi Uchiha
- Sakura Haruno
- Shisui Uchiha
- Kakashi Hatake
- Naruto Uzumaki
- Sakumo Hatake
- Sasuke Uchiha
- Madara Uchiha
- Hinata Hyuga
- Obito Uchiha
- Jiraiya
- Shikamaru Nara
- Tobirama Senji
- Gaara
- Hashirama Senju
- Deidara
- Neji Hyuga
- Sasori
- Rock Lee
Following the results, series creator Masashi Kishimoto shared a message about how shocked he was that Minato and Sakura were first and third in the rankings.
What’s also funny is that Kishimoto revealed that he drew the top 21st and 22nd characters as he wanted to draw Guy and Kurama.
Following these results, Kishimoto confirmed that he is now working on a short manga for Minato, the first-place winner.
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