These Surprising Anime Are The New Big Three

American anime fans who started watching in the late ‘90s to early 2000s still look back at that early period of anime fondly, especially toward the Big Three shows that helped introduce them to anime. With the shonen anime landscape recently changing, here’s what should be considered the new Big Three anime series.

What Are the Big Three Anime?

The Big Three widely refers to Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece, three anime series that made their respective debuts in the late ‘90s to mid-2000s and were dubbed in English for American television broadcasts. Running for hundreds of episodes each, these anime properties continued to build the momentum that the wave of late ‘90s anime like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Cowboy Bebop started, introducing millions of American viewers to the anime medium. Most of this trio would eventually conclude, with the original Naruto ending in 2007 and Bleach ending its initial run in 2012.

The New Big Three Anime

Some series that were considered for inclusion as the new Big Three included Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia which, for an extended period, seemed like the heirs apparent to Naruto and Bleach. However, with the My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen manga series either having concluded or in the process of wrapping up, the anime adaptations are sure to finish soon too. With that in mind, here are the new Big Three shonen anime series with long runs that serve as a great gateway into the wider anime medium.

Chainsaw Man

The horror/action manga series Chainsaw Man, created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, was adapted into a popular anime series in 2022, which will be followed up by an anime movie, Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc. With additional Chainsaw Man episodes widely expected beyond the movie, Chainsaw Man has one key advantage many of its contemporaries like Demon Slayer don’t: The manga source material is still running. This gives Chainsaw Man the potential to run for a long time as opposed to shorter anime series that end after three to four seasons.

Chainsaw Man follows a team of Devil Hunters who take on fearsome Devils that often revolve around a single major gimmick. Among the newest recruits on the team is Denji, a young man who is bonded to the Chainsaw Devil, giving him incredible abilities to take on even the most overwhelming Devils. It is currently unknown how long Fujimoto intends to keep Chainsaw Man running, but with so much of the manga series still left to adapt, the anime has the potential for a healthy run.

Boruto

It may seem like a bit of a copout, but each of the Big Three have reinvented themselves in major ways since their initial debut, though none have quite gotten a second wind as effectively as Naruto. After Naruto Shippuden concluded in March 2017, the sequel series, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, began the following month, continuing the ninja warrior saga created by Masashi Kishimoto. Set years after the events of Naruto Shippuden, Boruto follows the teenage son of Naruto as he embarks on his own ninja training, facing both new and familiar friends and foes.

While many modern shonen anime are coming to an end, ceding their likelihood of being considered to take a spot in the Big Three, Boruto is still going strong, both in manga and anime. Though Naruto Next Generations ended in 2023, the franchise is set to return with Boruto: Two Blue Vortex, which follows an older and more experienced Boruto. In relaunching itself and changing its focus, Naruto found a way to keep its core narrative going and solidify its place in the anime Big Three with its successful sequel that distinguished itself enough from its predecessor.

One Piece

Bleach was dormant for years before returning for the revival limited series Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. Naruto reinvented itself as a generational story with the sequel series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. But of the old Big Three, One Piece is the show that remains eternal and relatively unchanged from a production standpoint. Toei Animation continues to produce new episodes based on Eiichiro Oda’s best-selling manga series, which is still ongoing to this day.

The basic premise for One Piece is simple: Young pirate Monkey D. Luffy leads his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, across the high seas to locate the One Piece, a mythical treasure that grants the one who holds it the distinction of King of the Pirates. Along the way, Luffy has to contend with rival pirate crews and the World Government’s Navy while enhancing his abilities through the magical Devil Fruit. If there’s one anime series that deserves to be included with the Big Three always and forever (and has the sheer number of episodes to back up that claim), it’s One Piece.

The Big Three anime (both new and old) are all available to stream on Crunchyroll.