Results of 'NARUTOP99' Global Character Popularity Poll unveiled, winner to get their own manga by author Masashi Kishimoto

[Chiharu]

Yaaas, Minato #1 as he should be

37 minutes ago, Bu2tyful4nia said:

huh interesting how sakura is number 3, if I'm not wrong a lot of naruto fans hate her as a character they always used to say shit about her. Also TENTEN at number 35 is nice to see.

Sakura's popularity has definitely shot up in recent years, which I think is a combination of multiple things. Like, you have Boruto, which, despite being fairly divisive, seems to do a better job at writing her character than Naruto did. You also have all the fanfics from the past few years that focus on her and turn her into a stronger character and give her the development Kishimoto never did. Also, in general, I think a lot of anime fans have developed a more feminist mindset in recent times? At least, gen z has. Like, you don't see people openly hating on female characters now as much as they did back in the early to mid 2000s.

So basically, all those factors combined have resulted in Sakura becoming a much more popular character in recent years.