The "Big Three" & Similar Definitions

[Yoshi]

The "big three" obviously refers to Naruto, Bleach, & One Piece, but Anime fans tend to argue over other definitions as well.

Some of these include the Big Four (Naruto, Bleach, OP, DBZ/Naruto, Bleach, OP, FT/etc) or Big Five (Naruto, Bleach, OP, DBZ, MHA/etc), or just separate titles for the Big Three (Naruto, OP, Toriko/etc).

What are your definitions for the Big Three?

Personally, I believe in a Big Five, which includes Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail, and InuYasha.

My reasoning for this is because three of them are in Shonen Jump, one of them is in Shonen Magazine, and the other is in Shonen Sunday. The big three Shonen Magazines.

Secondly, all five are around the same era, with InuYasha coming out in 1996, One Piece in 1997, Naruto in 1999, Bleach in 2001, and Fairy Tail in 2006. Furthermore, the time when InuYasha ended in comparison to Naruto and Bleach is a similar gap in time to where Fairy Tail began in comparison to One Piece, Naruto, & Bleach, that being 2008.

Thirdly, InuYasha is a similar length in volume to Fairy Tail, Naruto, and Bleach.

Finally, InuYasha was actually a cultural phenomenon all on its own in the 2000s before the Big Three took over, as well as Detective Conan taking over, which is still ongoing and in the same magazine. Watch this video to find out for yourself:

 

[Papasmurf]

Inuyasha barely sold more copies than Rurouni Kenshin did. The only time it enjoyed big 3 level popularity was during the band of seven arc, which wasn't even 6 volumes

 

[Yoshi]

I remember you specifically comparing the Big Three or Bleach to InuYasha and later Fairy Tail on two separate times with CatouttaHell on Original Shinden and later with Captain Cadaver on New Generation Forums. The context was One Piece > Naruto > Bleach/InuYasha, and One Piece > Naruto > Bleach/Fairy Tail.

 

[Papasmurf]

I was probably only speaking of the series' impact on the west. Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, Hunter x Hunter (not sure about YYH as it has under 20 volumes), JJBA, and various other series have sold way more volumes than Inuyasha. Inuyasha lost so much popularity with its repetition after Naraku's revival in the middle of the series that a lot of fans didn't even watch the Final Act or read the rest of the manga. I'd also say various shorter series like Ashita no Joe, Devilman, Golgo 13 have made far more of a cultural impact than Inuyasha did.

Even in the confines of Shonen Sunday Detective Conan and arguably Ranma 1/2 overshadowed Inuyasha's impact. The best Takahashi series were her works in the 80s like Maison Ikkoku and that Gospel manga.

From what I hear Hanyou no Yashahime's manga seemed promising but it made some highly questionable moves as of late.

 

[Yoshi]

Yu Yu Hakusho has reached 78 Volumes sold worldwide, as referenced on the Best Selling Manga Of All Time Wikipedia Page, so it has sold more Volumes worldwide than InuYasha has, which has sold 50 Volumes worldwide.

But the Big Three seems to be more of a Western term anyway. Naruto and Bleach were consistently in second and third respectively behind One Piece in the late 2000s worldwide, but they were still miles below it in sales. The Manga sales of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece were way closer in the West than they were Worldwide.

 

[Papasmurf]

Yu Yu Hakusho has reached 78 Volumes sold worldwide, as referenced on the Best Selling Manga Of All Time Wikipedia Page, so it has sold more Volumes worldwide than InuYasha has, which has sold 50 Volumes worldwide.

But the Big Three seems to be more of a Western term anyway. Naruto and Bleach were consistently in second and third respectively behind One Piece in the late 2000s worldwide, but they were still miles below it in sales. The Manga sales of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece were way closer in the West than they were Worldwide.

In Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan OP is bigger than literally any series except maybe the DB and Gundam franchises (not manga but franchises) as well as Kimetsu no Yaiba when the hype train was insane. It's in western countries that OP and Slam Dunk are relatively unpopular, since the story of pirates hunting for treasure is literally done to death in the West and so is basketball, which America is the undisputed #1 at.

Meanwhile, Oriental themed martial arts/samurai and ninja series like DB and Naruto, Kenshin, Bleach are going to be highly popular since those are stories western cartoons and movies don't that often venture into, plus DB has a far simpler appeal than OP by virtue of its plot being so linear while OP has such a ridiculously expansive universe that you need to know about 20 times as many islands and characters as DB required you to learn about to immerse yourself in the series. Oda himself has admitted to trying to create a more multinational identity for OP with Spanish/Portuguese-themed islands like Dressrosa and the obviously Japanese Wano arc, and encourages readers to pick up the series in its latest arc rather than read all 110 volumes before it.

 

[Papasmurf]

There's also Pokemon which is arguably bigger than OP but that's less a series and more a franchise like Gundam, Mario and Zelda since it spans 9 generations of games, spinoffs, multiple animes (Ash/Pikachu-centered anime, Origins, Generations, etc.) and countless manga

Just Pokemon Adventures by itself could be considered bigger than some franchises like Duel Masters. Yu-Gi-Oh is relatively big too but I feel like it became rather niche after GX and it has just retained a devoted fanbase who'll keep up with the anime because they play the card game. I know hardly anyone who still plays the game after Synchros though.

 

[sei'taer]

There's never been anything like the big 3 before or since.

People try to say other kinds of groupings, but there's never been three shows so far above the others in popularity and sales at the same time.

 

[Papasmurf]

There's never been anything like the big 3 before or since.

People try to say other kinds of groupings, but there's never been three shows so far above the others in popularity and sales at the same time.

DB, YYH and Slam Dunk were the big 3 before the big 3. The difference is that Jump's editorial staff weren't willing to let any of the big 3 of the late 90s/2000s/2010s end in under 45 volumes as DB and SD ending marked the end of Jump's Golden Age