The History of the Big Three
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
What are the Big Three of anime? If you’re an avid anime watcher, you’ve probably encountered that term before and may even know what it means, but for those who don’t, the Big Three are three popular shows and consist of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach. All three of these shows are known for starting around the same time and are much loved by their respective fans. But how did they get there? What led to their rise?
To find all that, we have to go back to the 1980s and 90s, to the manga that started it all, to the Golden Age of Shonen Jump.
Shonen Jump is a famous weekly magazine that focuses on releasing manga. You would get a magazine every week with chapters from several different series, and read them for leisure. And it was during this time that major classic manga like Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Slam Dunk became very popular. There were other manga too that were very popular, like Fist of the North Star, but these three manga were among the most popular. Dragon Ball was first released in 1984, with both Yu Yu Hakusho and Slam Dunk releasing in 1990. These manga skyrocketed Shonen Jump’s profit, and they rose to become one of the largest weekly magazines in Japan. In fact, they managed to reach a record 6.53 million copies of Issue #34 in 1995.
But like all Golden Ages, this too eventually came to an end.
The classic manga that were the foundation of Shonen Jump’s success were wrapping up their stories. Yu Yu Hakusho finished in 1994, Dragon Ball in 1995, and Slam Dunk in 1996. With the end of these series, especially so close together, Shonen Jump lost its money-makers. So it’s no wonder that Shonen Jump’s circulation dropped to around 4 million—a 2.5-million decrease— just a few years later in 1997. They were bleeding money from their pockets and needed to do something. And it was just around that time that a certain trio began releasing: the Big Three.
One Piece began in 1997, Naruto in 1999, and Bleach in 2001. These three manga managed to spark renewed interest in Shonen Jump, revitalizing the magazine. But more than that, these manga lined up with the rise of the internet and became global successes. When the anime for these shows was being created, it was able to expand its impact beyond Japan’s borders and become popular in the West as well. These shows are what made anime/manga culture popular in the West and led to them being called the Big Three. And that name just stuck around.
All three of these shows took inspiration from the battle-shonen manga of the past, like Dragon Ball, and put their own twist on it. The Big Three quickly became the new money-makers of Shonen Jump and achieved a worldwide status. And new parts are still coming out in one way or another to this day.
