The Top 30 Best Anime Of The Decade, Ranked - Kotaku
The top 30 best anime of the decade, ranked. Anime like Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan left big impacts on pop culture and the anime community.
big three
Why It Rocks: When the wave of the “<anchor>big three</anchor>” started to die down, My Hero Academia made a big splash in the shonen genre. MHA is as much a celebration of superhero pop culture as it is a critique of it. At the center of it all is its hero, Izuku Midoriya, a boy who inherits the powers of the world’s greatest hero, All Might. The show makes true on its promise made at the start of the series by showing the audience how Midoriya became the world’s strongest hero.
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# Big Three

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## Big Three

[![](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/otaku_encyclopedia/images/7/7b/Big_Three_Image.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20200614204016)](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/otaku_encyclopedia/images/7/7b/Big_Three_Image.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200614204016 "") The Big Three [anime](/wiki/Anime "Anime") posters.

### Description

The Big Three refers to three very long and very popular anime, [Naruto](https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:naruto"), [Bleach](https://bleach.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:Bleach") and [One Piece](https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:onepiece").

The **Big Three** is a term used to describe the three most popular running series during their golden age in [Jump](/wiki/Jump "Jump")'s mid 2000s period - _[One Piece](https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:onepiece")_, _[Naruto](https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:naruto")_ and _[Bleach](https://bleach.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:bleach")._

## Origin

The nickname "The Big Three" came about due to their immense worldwide popularity and length. With that, they were always featured in front of the shared Shonen Jump covers and always had bigger images for their main protagonists: Luffy, Naruto and Ichigo. All three series ran for at least 15 years and 70 volumes, and all three overlapped in publication from 2001-2014.

While the three series weren't the biggest sellers in the magazine, _[Hunter x Hunter](https://hunterxhunter.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:hunterxhunter")_ sold more per volume than _Bleach_ for example, they kept their position on the covers due to their overall popularity.

These three manga have each received long running anime series, _Bleach_ (2004-2012) has 366 episodes, _Naruto_ (including _Shippuden_) has 720 episodes, and _One Piece_ has 1074 episodes as of September 2023, with _One Piece_, _Naruto Shippuden_'s sequel _Boruto_, and the _Bleach_ sequel series _Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War_ still being produced. These statistics do not include the spin-offs, sequels, movies, or _One Piece_'s live-action show, so the full numbers for entire franchises are higher.

All three are [shonen](/wiki/Shonen "Shonen") series, which usually focus on topics such as adventure, growth, and action. This genre normally has a lot of subplots and one main, overarching plot. Fighting is also a main part of most shonen series: the protagonists almost always have a superpower and are very muscle headed in nature.

## Usage before and after the mid 2000s

The term is commonly used in various [otaku](/wiki/Otaku "Otaku") discussions, and The Big Three tend to attract similar audience so it's likely that fans of one series will at least try to check out the rest.

Sometimes fans discuss what the Big Three of other genres could be, or try to find a New Big Three for shonen. During _Bleach_'s decline in sales and popularity, _[Toriko](https://toriko.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:toriko")_ rose to popularity and started to become featured in front of _Bleach_ on the shared Jump covers, effectively taking its place in the big three. Soon after _Toriko_ and _Bleach_ started to lose popularity and eventually end alongside _Naruto_, other series became featured more often in front with _One Piece_, including - _[My Hero Academia](https://myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:myheroacademia")_, _[Haikyuu](https://haikyuu.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:haikyuu")_, _[Assassination Classroom](https://ansatsukyoshitsu.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:assassinationclassroom")_, _[Black Clover](https://blackclover.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Clover_Wiki)_, and _[Kimetsu no Yaiba](https://kimetsu-no-yaiba.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:kimetsu-no-yaiba")_, but it is unlikely that there will ever be other three simultaneously running series that would be able to challenge the original big three in popularity.

During the Golden Age of Weekly Shonen Jump, when its circulation was at its peak, according to fans a "Big 3" equivalent for early 90s would be _[Dragon Ball](https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:dragonball"), [Slam Dunk](https://slamdunk.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:slamdunk") and_ [Yu Yu Hakusho](https://yuyuhakusho.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:yuyuhakusho") _. While late 90s equivalent would be_ One Piece _,_ [Rurouni Kenshin](https://kenshin.fandom.com/wiki/ "w:c:kenshin") _and_ Hunter x Hunter _._

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