If you are a part of the anime community, there’s almost no chance that you haven’t heard of what is referred to as the “Big Three of Anime/Manga.” This term refers to three separate series that hold a lot of weight in the anime world. Those titles are “Naruto/Naruto Shippuden,” “Bleach,” and “One Piece.” With two out of three of the shows ongoing, and two out of three of the manga ongoing, one can only wonder what will be next for the “Big Three.”
The reason I ask this is because in due time, two out of the three shows will have finished their run. With “Bleach” having reached its conclusion about four years ago and “Naruto” reaching its conclusion within the next year or two, depending on how well the producers stick to the source material, we will only have one of the Big Three left.
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Before we can even begin to think about what could be next for the Big Three, we should first think about what these titles have offered to community. One thing we can say for sure is that certain character types have become rather popular in recent years.
In both “Naruto” and “One Piece,” I’ve noticed a trend of what’s referred to as “tsundere” characters. This term refers to a character who has a tough outer shell while being soft on the inside. While this character type has definitely been around before these shows came to be, because of the popularity that these shows have had, it was introduced to a wider variety of audiences than would have been targeted by more obscure shows like “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” a show that has one of the most tsundere of tsundere characters of all time.
Another trend in anime that we can thank the Big Three for is the usage of a “time skip” to advance the plot. As you can probably guess, a time skip refers to a literal skip in time, usually going about a year or two in the future. This could be used for a variety of reasons, whether it's that the shows went on break for any amount of time, or just because it was the best way to advance the plot. For those who are really interested in the anime that have time skips, it draws them in because it’s always interesting to see how your favorite characters have grown over a certain amount of time. It will usually show characters having gotten stronger after training intensely.
Now while the Big Three are renowned as great anime for a reason, they of course have their faults. The biggest one that I’m sure most people can agree with lies in what we call “filler” in both “Naruto” and “Bleach.” Filler refers to an episode, or many episodes, that have nothing to do with the actual story. Whether it's “canon” or not — whether these events happened in the source material (i.e. the manga) — is something that audiences often confuse this with.
Those who have been watching “Naruto” within the past year know that they just recently got back to the story after producing filler after filler, most likely in an attempt to draw in money at the expense of the viewers. Then we have “Bleach,” which had whole arcs — a number of episodes that create a cohesive story — that were fillers.
But even with all the fillers in the three series — “One Piece” having the least by far — we still think of them as “The Big Three” and there’s no getting past that. With all this in mind, can we even begin to think about what the next Big Three is? Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible. There’s nothing in production that seems like it will be as long-lasting as any of the series. The only series that comes to mind is “Fairy Tail,” which will most likely reach its conclusion within the next couple of years.
So, what do you think about The Big Three? Should we keep these three titles holding their place among it, or should we move on to something new?
