I'm in a series of nostalgia mode now and there is a question that had been hitting my mind like crazy..

I know 2000s big three is One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. If that is the case, what about Hunter x Hunter, Fairy Tail, Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Bakuman?

Please let me know also the big three or big five for 1990s and present time..

If this topic had been discussed before.. Do let me know.

Rokkon Shojo
TeppenMezashiteTondeAruYo
Let justice be done, though the heavens fall

Maybe Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Sailor Moon for the 1990s? Assuming that by Big 3 you mean most popular rather than best.

In terms of how long the series is? And well known among general earth populations

Also I forgot Gintama..

We need a conclusion to this or I would get crazy.. Please help!

Rokkon Shojo
TeppenMezashiteTondeAruYo
Let justice be done, though the heavens fall

There wasn't really a "big 3" before or after Bleach, Naruto and One Piece. Not in the sense it carried or was coined for.

They're called the big 3 because they helped make anime/manga a normal hobby in the west, and were the three that contributed the most towards that.

Sure, people fantasized about what the next big 3 would be, but that never came to be because the hobby was already normal. Furthermore, no one really wants to work as much as those big 3 authors did. So many authors were their own artists at the time and they constantly worked themselves into illness.

Thus, I conclude (feel free to disagree) there only was one big 3 and the title won't mean what it meant if it ever gets used again. Not unless the anime/manga industry dies and gets revived years later like the video game industry back in the 70s.

I'm a jack of all trades but master of none. Too many jars and not enough hands.

few people had access to more than what Blockbuster carried in the 90's
and Blockbuster would only carry 20-30 cassettes, if that
I had 2000 tapes at a store in Toronto, so other people's 90's experiences may vary.

the big 3 of oversaturation were DBZ, Sailor Moon dub and probably some terrible one shot series, where they won't stop playing Ninja Scroll 7 days a week on Teletoon.

if people had a choice of what they could watch
Ranma 1/2
Neon Genesis Evangelion were 1 & 2

I probably couldn't picked a big 3rd without trying to sneak in a 1998-1999 series that wasn't widely accessible
maybe some forgettable proto-harem like Tenchi Muyo

the only series that mattered for milestone/significance was Akira
Miyazaki's works weren't widely distributed until after 2002? Mononoke did play in theatres in 99' I suppose that's something; I bet there were parents who didn't see PG-13 and got mad their widdle kiddies were treated to blood fountains.

manga collecting didn't really exist then either because of the cost of translation was so much higher than just throwing subtitles on a Jpn released video. Companies tried; and they went under because of unprofitability.
my local comic stores never carried anything.

anime conventions were very different; I think several years in a row I remember the gender skew of attendees being startlingly female. 3:1 at most events/screenings (or more 😐 )