‘Naruto’ #7 on Yahoo Top Search List for 2008
VIZ Media has announced that Naruto has been named by Yahoo! as the Number 7 most-searched term in 2008, as reported by the Yahoo! 2008 Year In Review Top 10 Search list. The list, which is available at YearInReview.yahoo.com, provides insights about popular culture and what Yahoo! searchers cared about most throughout 2008. The spunky ninja-in-training Naruto appears on the list which begins with Britney Spears, WWE, Barack Obama, Miley Cyrus, Runescape, Jessica Alba, Naruto, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, and American Idol.
Naruto has become an international phenomenon and is one of VIZ Media’s most successful manga (graphic novel) and animated properties in terms of sales. Created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto was first introduced in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan in 1999 and quickly became that country’s most popular ninja manga targeting tweens and teens – more than 85 million copies to-date have been printed. The manga series and animated counterpart about a young ninja in training captivate millions of fans across North America, Europe and South America. The series depicts the adventures of a young boy named Uzumaki Naruto who trains to become a ninja. Through amazing adventures, the young ninja and his friends learn the importance of friendship, teamwork, loyalty, hard work, creativity, ingenuity, and right vs. wrong. The global popularity of Naruto has also spawned a wide array of video games, collectable toys, apparel and more.
New volumes of the Naruto manga have also appeared regularly throughout 2008 on notable literary best-seller lists such as the USA Today Top 150, BookScan’s list of Top Graphic Novels and others. Naruto was also recently named the top manga property on ICV2’s recent list of the Top 50 Manga Titles for Summer 2008 and the animation was named the Number 3 anime property on the retail industry watchdog’s roster of the Top 25 Anime Titles for Summer 2008.
The online Naruto world includes a variety of interactive websites and gaming portals as well as the availability of animated episodes available for streaming and download on innovative outlets like such as Amazon Unbox™, Hulu, iTunes™, Joost™, and X-Box.com.