Naruto

Masashi Kishimoto's manga serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump starting September 21, 1999, following Naruto Uzumaki, a ninja with a demon inside him who nobody believes in. The story moves through training arcs, tournaments, and battles with the rhythmic inevitability of shonen manga — a new power-up, a new ally, a new enemy. Over 15 years, Kishimoto wrote 700 chapters collected in 72 volumes. The manga became one of the best-selling series of all time, with over 250 million copies sold in 46 countries.

The anime adaptation premiered in Japan in October 2002, running 220 episodes, but the American moment came September 10, 2005, when the English dub premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami block. Suddenly there were kids in headbands doing the hands-behind-back ninja run on playgrounds, debating which hand signs were which, and strategizing chakra attacks. The American broadcast ran on Toonami until January 31, 2009, airing 209 episodes. A sequel series, Naruto: Shippuden, ran from 2007 to 2017, extending the story far past the original run.

For American children of the 2000s, Naruto was the gateway drug to anime — the after-school appointment that proved cartoons could tell stories with depth and stakes. The franchise proved that shonen manga, with all its running and shouting, could carry a cultural moment.